We've all seen start-up companies with a brilliant idea, advanced technology but low exit prospects. According to many studies, BI systems operating in organizations suffer from the same fate. Gal Rimon of Gilon BI explains the ways to improve this reality.

Business Intelligence systems contribute the organization in various levels. At the tactic level BI is assisting the organization to perform optimization of business processes by identifying trends, anomalies and behaviors which require managerial response. At the strategic level the BI allows to direct many business processes according to a pre-defined strategy and business objectives, through an integrative performance management system with analysis capabilities.

However, According to Gartner's research a majority of organizations suffers from a "BI Gap" which is a gap between the quantity of available information and the quantity of information which is used for decision making. In the past, the main challenge was in building and integrating databases, but with methodology and technology progress and vast investments in this subject, led many organizations to build comprehensive and qualified databases. As a result information availability no longer represents the major problem.

In many organizations we see magnificent BI systems, which cover most of the activity areas of the organization and include smart analytical models; customer profitability analysis, churn, fraud detection, campaign affectivity analysis, stock analysis etc. these focused models are usually successful, since they enable the organization's operative levels to make decisions in their respective area of responsibility.
As to the organization's management, from HQ and down to branches managers the usage of BI systems is not high. They usually rely on the various functions leaders, and for them these systems are estranged. Do you remember the ancient term ג€“ Executive Information System ג€“ EIS?

If we want to summarize this phenomenon in one word ג€“ we are dealing with an implementation problem.
So, what do we do? We invest in training, we make the systems friendlier, we try to increase management involvement ג€“ all this is true, but we are doing it for many years, and it is not enough.

The solution lies in showing the value. Much like in start-up companies, the problem is not in the idea or the technology, but in how to show the value of its assets. A large number of Israeli technology companies have learned that jeans, sandals and completing the airplane system development are all excellent for the R&D and for the technological advantage, but without a good, experienced American marketing manager who is capable of presenting their offering to the right people, the prospects for the longed-for exit are slim.

So who is the "American marketing manager" for our BI systems? I will divide my answer into 3 parts: 1. BI Portals 2. Focused BI systems 3. Usage measurement

BI Portals
I asked Mr. Yossi Shoham, Manager of DWH and BI in Cellcom, about this issue and he said: "In view of our investments in this area, there is plenty of available information in the organization. However, the important question is what is being done with it and which managerial decisions are improved as a result of its usage. In order to allow managers accessibility to the information, we balance between the investment in collecting and arranging the information, and the investment in presenting and distributing it to management. Thus, we have developed a BI Portal system, which enables high accessibility and easy implementation".

BI Portal components include:

• Opening screen ג€“ presents an overview of the relevant information for the user, exceptional reports, data validity information, messages to users, external information (Forex rates etc.)
• Simple and clear user navigation, sometimes in Wizard style, for further drilldown of information.
• Topics trees ג€“ enable integration of various information items with no dependency of the reporting tool's technology, according to logical groups, on an organizational level or user level and integration options between the various information components on the screen. For example: ingathering of budget analysis report with a word document which explains the working assumptions and a PPT presentation for the board of directors.
• Information on the information ג€“ parameters and descriptions on the reports, business terms dictionary, terms and reports search etc.
• User notification mechanism, new reports subscriptions etc.
• Assisting tools ג€“ printing, favorites, transfer to office file, delivery, request for response etc.
• Incorporating training and implementation ג€“ learning tools, tips and tricks, surveys and contacts.
• Authorization and personalization mechanisms.

The BI Portal enables the busy manager to use the system regularly or periodically by using a personalized and summarized display and without any training!!! Moreover, we have created a "honey trap" for users who can start revealing the hidden values of the BI system due to the various drilldown options (given to IT people consideration).

Mr. Gadi Gilon, of the KETER group said: "BI systems are no longer merely an information tool. They are an operational tool for the manager. Meaning, the manager's desk-top and BI-portal are combined and are in fact a single system. Thus, BI values are in the Portal which will include complex links for decision making processes, from the BI set-up and additional internal and external sources. The BI Portal does not replace the organizational portal, but is an integral part of it". Setting up a BI Portal is not expensive, and the return on investment is extremely fast. However, this setup has to be built by using a proven methodology and components which were developed and tried in the past. System users are not tolerant to planning and technological faults, and the process of building their confidence has to be clear of mistakes.

Focused BI Systems
These systems are focused on the unique needs of managers with similar characteristic, such as: bank branch managers, HMO clinic managers. These systems gather all the required information for these users, by using a unified interface, easy and accessible, sometimes on the expense of the flexibility of analyses capabilities. As a result the implementation is not as complex as in classic BI systems, which try to address the entire organization's requirements. For example, at the "Clalit Health Services" HMO we built a system for managerial knowledge decentralization, of which the main user is the clinic manager (hundreds of managers). The information that the managers receive on the activity of the clinic, the doctors, the insurers is arranged in a way that assists them in their day-to-day decision making. This system supported the process of managerial knowledge decentralization, which contributed a great deal to the improvement of organization's performance in clinical treatment, service and profitability.

Usage Measurement
As we build BI systems to improve our business understanding and upgrade the managers decision level, we should build an information structure above the BI usage data in order to improve our capabilities as BI managers. Thus we can locate managers who do not use the system, especially active system components and redundant ones, optimize usage of software licenses, hardware upgrades forecasts etc. By using this information we can upgrade the implementation plan and even our entire work plan. Nevertheless, we have to remember that the usage is not an objective on its own, but a means to an end. Thus we have to analyze the quantity of usage, but pay attention to the quality aspect as well, which expresses the essence of the system's usage ג€“ a good decision is better than a thousand reports.

Conclusion
In view of Gilon's extensive experience in building and implementing BI Portals in more than 20 organizations, starting with banks and telecommunication companies with large BI budgets and through SMB companies with more humble BI budgets, the return on (low) investment is one of the fastest. This is due to the fact that we use the organization's existing assets and perform value enhancement by increasing their usage. Thus the BI set-up becomes more affective for the decision makers in the organization.