Research005
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Chapter5.pptxLuck, Opportunity, Frustration, Threats and Interest in BI
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A Context for BI Evaluation
Effective BI practices enhance success, whether or not the LOFT effect is present
LOFT, combined with SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) provide a context for assessing the current situation, devising a strategy and communicating with leadership
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Source: Howson
A Case of Luck: A Reinsurer’s Local BI
Situation
At a major reinsurer, luck led to two local BI initiatives
The Local Data Warehouse
The Global Reporting Team
And diminished the impact of the enterprise Business Intelligence Center of Excellence (BI COE)
Actions
Became one Group
Founded “Group IT”
Initiated a major ERP initiative, SICs/nt and BI COE as shared organizational resources
The U.S. and everyone else became “U.S.” and “Global”
The U.S. hired a leader who brought a ready made data mart with him
Global didn’t want to work with a U.S. based reporting team
What do you think happened?
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A Case of Luck: A Reinsurer’s Local BI (Cont’d)
Result
Where there had been one enterprise entity, now there were redundant systems. A weak CIO and strong local management led to opportunity for the U.S. and Global business units while diminishing the enterprise BI COE
Motto
Luck is in the eye of the beholder
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A Case of Opportunity: Monetizing BI Data
Situation
For years, a leading IT service’s company was a leader in capturing data and analysis about industry verticals
The company’s IT team was tasked with converting this data onto a new technical platform
Meanwhile, senior leadership noticed a high volume of client requests for consolidating the industry information they provided on the old platform across multiple verticals
They realized the provision of an “uber cube” with drill down and slice-and-dice on their website accessible for a subscription fee was a great market opportunity
Action
Since the DQDMS program was engaging with the data required as they converted it to the new platform, management asked this project to provide that uber cube as well
What do you think happened?
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A Case of Opportunity: Monetizing BI Data (Cont’d)
Result
Your Prof implemented the first monetization of this data on the gartner.com website
Motto
Look for emerging opportunities to leverage your company’s data for growth
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BI Must be Responsive!
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Source: Howson
“Pushing Product” For Field Management BI
Situation
The business insurance division of a leading property and casualty (P&C) insurer approved a 1.5 year batch database load reengineering effort where benefits would not become visible until after the effort finished
Concern: the business’ interest and support would wane over time
Actions
The BI team delivered multiple reports, dashboards and data to maintain a perception of positive progress with the business community
What do you think happened?
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“Pushing Product” For Field Management BI (Cont’d)
Result
The business community confirmed they never saw such high output and support
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For BI Success Don’t “Big Bang,” “Pilot” Instead
Situation
Its smart to pilot solutions instead of waiting and implement with a “big bang!”
Pilots minimize risk and provide a good “test” before “going wide”
Actions
Most of the large initiatives we discuss here started small
When projects encounter trouble, “pulling back” on a full implementation and calling what you’re releasing a “pilot” or “soft launch” may be reasonable
Caution
Prof saw multiple management teams use the term “pilot” or “piloting” to avoid sufficient planning for adoption. Plan for pilots within the context of a complete user adoption plan
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A Case of Local Innovation: The Underwriter’s Cockpit
Situation
At a major reinsurer, a veteran underwriter with 30+ years of experience “dabbled” with reports and designed a “cockpit” for underwriters located outside the U.S.
This underwriter gained local management support to develop a prototype, implemented it as an “ad hoc” and rolled it out to the Global (non U.S.) underwriters in Europe and Asia
Actions
This underwriter engaged your Prof by happenstance when he was in Europe. He asked your Prof and his team to take ownership
Your Prof listened respectfully and confirmed since this “cockpit” was developed as an ad hoc, it wasn’t in scope and so not his team’s first priority to respond to. He promised his team would consider it later
This underwriter also the cockpit with U.S. leadership without including your Prof. The U.S. leadership did not accept his “report” because the tool was focused on markets outside the U.S.
What do you think happened?
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A Case of Local Innovation: The Underwriter’s Cockpit (Cont’d)
Result
Your Prof’s hesitancy offended this underwriter, who escalated to the CIO. This partly led to the creation of a “Global Reporting Team” located in Europe that assumed ownership of this ad hoc “cockpit”
Prof’s shared support function for the Global Reporting team and no longer met with non U.S. clients
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A Case of Local Innovation: Field Underwriting Reporting
Situation
In the business insurance division of a major P&C insurer, an underwriter built his own “ad hoc” underwriting reports using Access.
He shared his ad hoc reports with other underwriters at a sales meeting, where they loved and adopted it
Over time the software this underwriter used to build this tool were no longer supported
He came to the business intelligence team to assume ownership of and upgrade it
Neither the BI team nor IT knew this tools existed until the underwriter asked them to help
Actions
Since the BI team’s leadership had a good relationship with the business team, they successfully persuaded them to incorporate it into BI strategic planning and tools
The BI team met with this person, assessed the situation and successfully transitioned the functionality into supported production tools within the accepted business strategy
What do you think happened?
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A Case of Local Innovation: Field Underwriting Reporting (Cont’d)
Result
The underwriter went back to his “day job” and the features and knowledge captured in his “ad hoc” report suite were retained on a more robust, strategic, supported platform
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Observations
In each of these situations a practitioner with deep business knowledge took initiative and built solutions that worked for them
Two obvious approaches are viable in such situations. Either
Engage, embrace and facilitate or
Act like it is not occurring
The first option is best. “If you can’t beat them, join them”
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Be Ready to “Play”
BI presents an interesting challenge:
The database must be fairly static
The front end (reports, dashboards, other visualizations) must be dynamic
So…
Co-locate with the business for the front end
Set 80 – 90% of the scope on the “back end”
Change management becomes critical
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Source: Howson
A Case of Frustration: The Pillar of Strength
Situation
Unfortunately, a major P&C insurer had a large corporate data warehouse that was not fully integrated with its other BI applications.
Management was disillusioned
Actions
A new management team assumed ownership of this corporate data warehouse and concluded it was imperative to revitalize the data warehouse to recoup their investment
They created “The Pillar of Strength” program where the corporate data warehouse was integrated with Data Mart A and the Account Executive Dashboard, both discussed previously
The corporate data warehouse’s name was changed to reposition it
What happened? Let’s go to the polls…
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A Case of Frustration: The Pillar of Strength (Cont’d)
Result
Despite challenges, this effort was successful
Management began to see the benefit of their investment in their now “mainlined” data warehouse
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A Case of Frustration: Client Information 2.0
Situation
When a leading health insurer’s first client information BI application was implemented clients were angered by its lack of flexibility and late data availability
Unfortunately, the health insurer had contracted with Truven, a division of Thompson Reuters, to develop and host this solution and manage its data
Since the underlying data structure was proprietary and not owned by the health insurer, change was difficult and costly
Action
Almost immediately the company embarked on version 2.0, a $22 million rebuild from “scratch”
What happened? Let’s go to the polls…
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A Case of Frustration: Client Information 2.0 (Cont’d)
Result
The second version of this client information application was more flexible and available
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A Case of a Threat: OACIS
Situation
A leasing divisions of a major industrial company discovered it was losing deals but did not know why
The General Manager became tired of discussing “wins” and challenged the marketing department to understand why they were losing deals
Actions
Since we had implemented contact management software in the field, we now had a platform with which to capture lost deal information
A senior marketing manager partnered with IT to develop The Online Analytical Competitive Intelligence System (OACIS), an additional screen where sales reps could easily enter lost deal information
How do you think the sales reps felt about OACIS?
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A Case of a Threat: OACIS (Cont’d)
Results
After initial hesitation, the sales force became avid supporters of entering this data when senior sales people won deals using the information captured in OACIS
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BI Effectiveness Over Time
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Source: Howson
Reference List
Howson, C. (2014). Successful business intelligence: Unlock the value of BI and big data. New York. McGraw Hill Education.
ISBN: 9780071809184
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