1. Select and Implement a Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution
Find the diamond in your data-rough using the right BI and analytics solution.

2. Executive summary
Statistics show that the top priority of 85% of CIOs is insight and intelligence (IBM Global C-Suite Study 2016). Yet an appetite for intelligence does not mean that business intelligence initiatives will be an automatic success. It is imperative that organizations take the time to select and implement a BI suite that aligns with business goals and fosters end-user adoption.
Business intelligence starts with data management. Without data management, your BI users will not be able to get the insights they need due to inaccurate and unavailable data.
When selecting a BI tool, it is crucial to ensure that the tool is fit for the purpose of the organization. Ensure alignment between the business and tool capabilities.
Self-serve BI requires a measured approach. Self-serve BI is meant to empower users for informed and faster decisions, but uncontrolled self-serve BI will lead to “report chaos.” Govern self- serve before it gets out of hand.
The multitude of BI offerings creates an overwhelming vendor landscape. When selecting a solution, you have to make sense of the many offerings and bridge the gap between what is out there and what your organization needs.
Another dimension of the success of BI is the quality and validity of the reports and insights. The overall success of the BI solution is only as good as the quality of the data fueling them.
Info-Tech’s methodology helps you to define business intelligence requirements comprehensively through the lenses of business, data, architecture, and user groups. Evaluate requirements to ensure they align with the strategic goals of the business. You must be cognizant of the multitude of offerings and be able to bridge the gap between what is out there and what your organization needs.
BI solutions need to keep pace with evolving data consumption patterns and the increasing demand for faster turnaround or delivery of insights. Rapid, on-the-go data is the new demand from data consumers.
Evaluate your organization and land yourself into one of our three BI use cases. Find a BI suite that best suits the use case and therefore your organization, then get to know the established vendors as well as the emerging players.
This blueprint will help you to ensure you have data governance and data quality practices in place to get the most accurate reports and analytics. The success of BI is heavily dependant on data in terms of quality, organization, and integration. Make sure data issues are addressed before proceeding with a solution.

3. Turn data into usable information using business intelligence
Raw data by itself does not provide direct value. Like any other raw resource, you must refine and process it in order to extract the value – in this case, information and then insights.
RAW
REFINED
Uncut diamonds hold great potential value but are of little use on their own. It is only when you process and refine them that they become beautiful and useful in a variety of industries.
Similarly, raw data holds immense amounts of potential, but provides little direct value to the business on its own. It must be managed, governed, organized, and processed into information so that decision makers can utilize the value and turn it into actionable insights. Business intelligence enables this transformation.
Uncut Diamonds
Cut Diamonds
Raw Data
Business Information
Actionable Insights

4. The excitement surrounding BI is well warranted – unlock significant value across the entire organization
The evidence is stacking up: if planned well, BI contributes to the bottom line. It isn’t an expensive money pit. The data present in an organization represents a treasure trove of information, which when leveraged effectively provides valuable insight into operations and performance and makes for faster and more informed decision making. Data is therefore considered to be one of the most valuable assets for organizations as in recent years there has been an explosion in the variety, volume, and complexity of data being ingested and accumulated by them.
70%
95%
of respondents report that data and analytics keep their organization on par with or ahead of their local or global competitors.*
10%
2014
2015
80%
Percentage of organizations using analytics in three or more functional areas of their business.*
of organizations cited a positive impact after implementing analytics services.*
Most organizations who push forward recoup analytics investments within 18 months. Only 5% of all implementations have not yielded a positive return.
Call to Action
*Source: IBM Institute for Business Value, 2014

5. Invest in business intelligence to avoid poor decision making and identify new business opportunities
Business intelligence is no longer a luxury or for niche markets. Organizations of every size and across all industries are taking advantage of the benefits of BI.
PAIN POINTS
Signs That Your Organization May Need to Enhance Its Business Intelligence
81%
Of executives need to improve their decision-making speed and level of insight (Ernst & Young LLP, 2013).
Multiple versions of the truth in reporting
Inability to perform in-depth analysis
Unable to locate important information
Need for simple-to-use reporting technology
Existing BI technology is too difficult to use
Historical data is not being retained
Weak BI technology limits operational flexibility
Operations not aligned with strategic goals
Unable to comply with government reporting requirements
46%
of organizations made inaccurate decisions as a result of inaccurate or outdated data((Avanade).
77%
of organizations believe their bottom line is negatively affected by inaccurate and incomplete contact data (Experian).
BI is more than just the software package – it is a program jointly owned by both the business and IT that enables data mining, analytics, querying, and reporting. Organizations must develop a comprehensive BI strategy that fosters collaboration, user adoption, communication, knowledge, and insight to be successful.

6. Don’t miss the boat on business intelligence
Business intelligence interest and adoption is growing. Don’t find yourself left behind your competitors; get started now to stay ahead of the market.
Projected Market in 2018
52%
$114B
Business Intelligence
$3.4B
Advanced Analytics
of survey respondents have implemented a BI application.
Source: iCharts BI

7. Implementation Pitfalls
Despite increased investment in BI, over half of all BI projects fail to meet the organization’s needs
Avoid falling victim to common pitfalls by recognizing and anticipating them, and by being prepared.
46%
Data Pitfalls
Poor data quality erodes trust, resulting in a decline in usage.
Business units are overwhelmed with the amount and type of data presented.
Analysis is performed for the sake of analysis and doesn’t focus on obtaining relevant business-driven insights.
Selection Pitfalls
Inadequate requirements gathering.
No business involvement in selection process.
User experience not considered.
Implementation Pitfalls
Lack of change management to facilitate adoption of the new platform.
No quick wins that establish the value of the project early on.
Inadequate initial or ongoing training.
Strategic Pitfalls
Poor alignment of BI goals with organization goals.
Absence of CSFs/KPIs that can measure the qualitative and quantitative success of the project.
No executive support during or after project.
Percentage of companies that have realized the full potential of their BI technology.
Source: Wikibon, 2014
BI pitfalls are lurking around every corner, but a comprehensive strategy drafted upfront can ensure your organization overcomes these obstacles. Info-Tech’s approach to BI has involvement from the business units built right into the process from the start and equips IT to interact with key stakeholders early and often.

8. To avoid pitfalls, leverage Info-Tech’s methodology for selecting and implementing a BI solution
Backed by research and best practices, Info-Tech has created a standardized and practical approach to selecting and implementing a BI solution that is fit for purpose and scalable in three steps: 1 2 3
Follow this blueprint to understand the key requirements of the business so that you choose a solution that fulfills the organization’s needs and can scale with the organization.
After knowing what the organization needs from the solution, use our Vendor Landscape to assess the best choice according to the feature and use-case assessment.
Once you have chosen a solution, walk through Info-Tech’s guide to implementing the BI solution to avoid common and not-so-common pitfalls.
By identifying the complete set of requirements for your BI solution, you will be ready to assess vendors according to your organization’s needs and make an informed choice about your solution.
Using Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape, choosing a BI tool has never been easier. By assessing vendors according to the most important features of BI tools and common use cases, determining the right tool for you will be a breeze.
Having a strategy for implementing and testing your new BI solution is important for realizing the full potential of the product. Model BI data and transition into production to get your BI product up and running.

9. Business intelligence is not an island; rather, it is held up by the many dimensions of data and information management
The interactions between the information dimensions and overlying data management enablers such as data governance, data architecture, and data quality underscore the importance of building a robust process surrounding the other data practices in order to fully leverage your BI platform.
Info-Tech’s Data Management Framework
Info-Tech’s Approach
Our framework is designed to show how an organization’s business model sits as the foundation of its data management practice. Drawing from the requirements of the underpinning model, a practice is designed and maintained through the creation and application of the enablers and dimensions of data management.
Within this framework, BI and analytics are grouped as one lens through which data assets at the business- information level can be viewed.

10. Use Info-Tech’s Five-Tier Data Architecture Model to understand your data and unlock true business insight
The framework below is a reference of a typical corporate data architecture, adapted from the DAMA Data Management Body of Knowledge (DMBOK), highlighting the role of business intelligence.
Use this as a guide moving forward.
Data Sources
Integration
Data Warehouse Environment
Reporting and Analytics
Derived and Contrived Heuristics/Algorithms
Data Lakes & Warehouse(s) (Raw Data)
EIM
ECM
DAM
Derived Data
Data Marts
Data Cube
BI Tools
Thought Models
Formulas
Derived Data (from analytics activities)
Apps
Excel and other documents
Access database(s)
External data feeds, IoT, &
social media
Flat Files
Reports
Dashboards
Presentations
Solutions
Manual Loading
ETL
Point-to-point
Data Hub
SOA
ESB
Functions
Scrambling
Masking
Encryption
Tokenizing
Aggregation
Transformation
Migration
Modeling
𝑥= −𝑏± 𝑏 2 −4𝑎𝑐 2𝑎
Data sources are any data structures that support the line of business applications. They can reside on many different platforms and can contain structured as well as unstructured data.
Data from siloed sources needs to come together in one place. Every database shares its information into a centralized location called a data warehouse. This is where different information from different departments get linked together.
Tiers 4 and 5 are where the true magic happens. This is where BI tools are essential for analyzing, visualizing, and making sense of your data. Without BI tools, the knowledge and insight locked in your data would remain hidden.
Movement and transformation of data

11. The battles between self-serve BI and governance are becoming less frequent, but the war is far from over
Uncontrolled report creation can lead to “report chaos.”
With the increasing emphasis on self-serve BI, organizations are finding it difficult to reign in report chaos. Info-Tech’s methodology will help you choose and implement a BI and analytics solution that will unlock your data’s value while ensuring that report chaos doesn’t creep in.
The Goal of BI: To empower the business to generate relevant reports and analytics to make crucial business decisions. This requires an appropriate amount of governance.
Too much governance
Self Serve BI
Governance
The need to engage IT for every customization delays time to business insight, making real- time knowledge impossible.
Not enough governance
Unrestricted access to data and reporting can lead to report chaos; for example, too many reports without knowing which ones are relevant.
One of the biggest problems organizations have is that too many people think they know too much. They didn’t know the data at that intimate level.
– David Richardson, Director of Sales Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

12. These vendors were included due to consideration of their market share, mind share, and platform coverage
For this Vendor Landscape, Info-Tech focused on those vendors that offer broad capabilities across multiple platforms and that have a strong market presence and/or reputational presence among mid- and large-sized enterprises.
Included in this Vendor Landscape:
Alteryx
Self-proclaimed leader in self-service analytics, Alteryx is strong when it comes to handling large datasets.
BOARD
BOARD is a European company that offers a cloud-based, all-in-one BI, analytics, and performance management solution.
Domo
Domo is a rapidly growing company that offers over 1,000 customizable apps through its app store interface.
Dundas
The browser-based Dundas BI platform offers data preparation, dashboarding, and analytics.
GoodData
GoodData is a vendor that specializes in PaaS and the cloud, offering robust integration of internal and external data along with strong data visualization and discovery.
IBM
Being around for over 100 years has earned IBM a reputation for trust and reliability in the enterprise software space.
Microsoft
Leveraging licenses already owned by organizations, such as for Excel, Microsoft offers a BI product at no additional cost, making it a very affordable solution.
MicroStrategy
MicroStrategy is an enterprise software company that focuses on BI and offers a full portfolio of solution options.
Oracle
Oracle’s BI suite combines legacy Oracle technology with valuable matured acquisitions.
Qlik
While specializing in data discovery and visualization, Qlik has made some recent acquisitions that promise exciting developments in the cloud and data-as-a-service environments.
SAP
SAP is well suited to large IT-managed organizations, as well as smaller more emerging organizations.
SAS
SAS continues to promote its product’s analytical strength, along with the vendor’s sophisticated professional services.
Tableau
While being a pioneer is often short lived, Tableau has remained at the top of the data visualization and modern BI food chain.
TIBCO
TIBCO is bravely looking into the future and betting that organizations will be in need of more real-time end-to-end analytics.
Yellowfin
Yellowfin’s extreme user-friendliness and extensive collaboration capabilities make it a strong contender in the mid-sized and small enterprise space.

13. When choosing what your organization needs, it is important to understand the difference between BI and analytics
In its infancy, business intelligence (BI) referred to the broad range of tools and techniques that could be used to extract operational or strategic insights from organizational data. Since maturing and rapidly expanding as a practice in the last ten years, the term “BI” has retained its broad colloquial meaning while sprouting multiple sub-practices. Business analytics (BA) on the other hand is a much newer discipline with a more specific definition. While BA is often referred to as being under the BI umbrella, we will use the two to describe what we see as being a key differentiator in the use of enterprise data, as described below.
Business Intelligence
Business Analytics
Both
Time
Past
Present
Future
Business intelligence is concerned with looking at present and historical data.
Use this data to create reports and dashboards to inform a wide variety of information consumers and decision makers of the past and current state of affairs.
Almost all organizations regardless of size and maturity use some level of BI even if it’s just very basic reporting.
Business analytics on the other hand is a forward-facing use of data, concerned with the present to the future.
Analytics uses data to both describe the present and, more importantly, predict the future, enabling real-time and strategic business decisions.
Although adoption is rapidly increasing, many organizations still do not utilize any advanced analytics in their workflow.

14. Use Info-Tech’s vendor research and use-case scenarios to support your own organization’s vendor analysis
This view of vendor and product performance provides multiple opportunities for vendors to place depending on their product and market performance. Use cases selected are based on market research and client demand.
Use Case
Description
Enterprise Business Intelligence
This is for organizations with 250 or more unique BI users. These BI implementations need to support multiple lines of business or business units, as well different levels of hierarchy. Enterprises typically use BI for reporting, dashboarding, and some self-service capabilities to make sense of the ongoing and historical business processes.
Mid-Market Business Intelligence
Mid-market business intelligence organizations are firms with less than 250 BI users, a small IT department with IT professionals covering multiple roles, and a strong interest in low initial investment, scalability, and rapid implementation. This use case typically covers BI usage, such as reporting, dashboarding, and some self-service capabilities to make sense of the activities, and the ongoing and historical business processes.
Business Analytics
Enterprises and mid-market business intelligence organizations in this use case typically use business analytics for traditional BI purposes, as well as to perform data discovery, big data analytics, predictive analytics, social network analytics, or text analytics to proactively leverage data to predict and plan for the future.

15. A large food and beverage company increased profits by improving its predictive analytics capabilities
CASE STUDY
Industry
Source
Food & Beverage
Deloitte
Challenge
Solution
Results
A multi-national food and beverage company was a “price-follower” (acting reactively to commodity prices, competitors, etc.), leading to a chaotic pricing architecture across the company’s portfolio.
Although the company did have a mature data warehousing and analytics program, it lacked a holistic pricing strategy to leverage these assets. Many of the problems came from a segmented operational structure as different lines of business were making decisions independently.
The company decided to analyze its current pricing strategies, develop an overarching pricing framework, and integrate technology and process across the organization.
It did this by first developing a demand model by doing a regression analysis of all the price fluctuations in the market from the company and its competitors. These were subsequently fed into an optimization model to determine the right pricing actions for the company going forward.
It found that millions of dollars of potential revenue were being lost and that using predictive analytics could help it enable proactive pricing decisions to help capture this value.
This new approach gave benefits to the retailers too, growing the overall prize for the value chain and the product category.
The food and beverage company now expects annual incremental revenue growth of 1.5% and annual profit of 3%.
Source: Deloitte, 2014

16. Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
Guided Implementation
“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”
DIY Toolkit
“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”
Workshop
“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”
Consulting
“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

17. Select and Implement BI – Project Overview
Launch a BI Selection Project
Select a BI Solution
Implement the BI Solution
Best-Practice Toolkit
Make the case for BI
2. Structure the select and implement BI project
BI Project Charter
3. Gather and analyze your BI requirements
BI Use-Case Fit Assessment Tool
BI Planning and Scoring Tool
4. Produce your shortlist
BI Vendor Landscape Analysis
BI Vendor Shortlist & Detailed Feature Analysis Tool
5. Select your BI solution
BI Vendor Demo Script
BI Request for Proposal Template
6. Implement your BI Solution
BI Implementation Planning Tool
BI Test Plan Template
7. Measure the value of your BI solution
Guided Implementations
Socialize the idea of BI and educate the executives on BI.
Identify staffing needs.
Create project plan.
Plan requirements gathering steps.
Discuss use-case fit assessment results.
Discuss Vendor Landscape.
Discuss evaluation results.
Conduct a contract review.
Plan for implementation.
Onsite Workshop
Module 1:
Establish organizational BI understanding and launch your BI selection project.
Module 2:
Analyze and evaluate BI requirements; shortlist and select vendors.
Module 3:
Architect a system for your BI platform and launch a pilot project.
Phase 1 Outcome:
BI selection project launched
Phase 2 Outcome:
Vendor selected
Phase 3 Outcome:
BI solution implemented

18. Business intelligence solution selection workshop overview
Contact your account representative or for more information.
Workshop Day 1
Workshop Day 2
Workshop Day 3
Workshop Day 4
Workshop Day 5
Activities
Workshop Objectives and Scope Planning
Confirm workshop objectives and scope.
Identify up to three business areas that will contribute in the workshop.
Set workshop agenda and secure participants’ commitment.
Information gathering (offsite).
Morning Itinerary (everyone)
The case for BI and Analytics.
Industry Outlook for BI and Analytics.
Afternoon Itinerary
Enterprise Level: Business Requirements.
Identify business goals, objectives, and stakeholders.
Identify high-level data and analytics requirements.
Map business needs to key features of BI and analytics tools.
Morning Itinerary
Business Areas #1 and #2
Discuss BI and analytics challenges and opportunities.
Identify needs.
Repeat for area #3
Data assessment
Discuss authoritative data environment.
Identify challenges, opportunities, and environmental constraints.
Solution architecture.
Consolidate workshop’s outcome and rationalize requirements.
Develop high-level solution architecture.
Review Vendor Landscape.
Discuss requirements in the context of vendors’ offerings.
Refine requirements.
Shortlist vendors that meet business and architectural needs.
Develop vendor selection tactics and approach.
Define the select and implement project.
Create use-case scenarios for vendor demos.
Develop vendor demo script.
Define high-level implementation strategy.
Define high-level implementation roadmap.
Closing activities.
Deliverables
Outcomes
Customized workshop guide
BI and analytics value proposition internalized
Enterprise level: key BI requirements defined
Key BI requirements defined
Vendor selection criteria defined
Potential vendors identified
Pilot project definition
High-level implementation strategy and roadmap

19. Get Ready to Implement Solution
Info-Tech walks you through the following steps to help you select your business intelligence and analytics solution
Gather Requirements
Select Your Environment
Understand Business Intelligence
Shortlist Your Vendors
Build Your System Architecture
Assess Organizational Readiness
Model BI Data
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Develop BI Deliverables
Get Stakeholder Buy-In
Select Your Vendor
Structure Your Project
Conduct a Proof of Concept
Evaluate Project Metrics
Locate your starting point in the research based on the current stage of your project.
Milestones
Effort
Importance
Phase
Low
Average
Launch Your Project
Select Solution
Get Ready to Implement Solution
Greater
Major Milestone
High

20. Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research
Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.
This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.
This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.
This icon denotes a slide that pertains directly to the Info-Tech Vendor Landscape on business intelligence technology. Use these slides to support and guide your evaluation of the business intelligence vendors included in the research.