A Strategic Approach to Intelligence

Move your organization to the next level with a BICC

By Steven Ing

Clearly, the market is waking up. In the Asia Pacific region, for example, I have recently noticed an increasing demand from senior executives for a better understanding of how to deliver intelligence in their organizations. Indeed, I have received a growing number of invitations to speak about this topic at regional executive conferences.

Many recent surveys are showing the reasons for this need. The fact is that organizations are still struggling with the management of their information assets and how to maximize information used to drive decisions. A recent BetterManagement.com survey indicates that 60 percent of respondents never, rarely or only sometimes get the information they need to make effective business decisions. And that is the problem. The information they get is different from the information they need to support the strategic decision-making process.

The underlying causes start with the understanding of enterprise intelligence delivery and inconsistent business intelligence (BI) deployments that have created silos of information. In addition, organizations are having difficulties in managing, implementing and standardizing BI initiatives that span multiple departments. But more importantly, few organizations are doing what is necessary to get their data in shape to create the information they need. Here we are dealing with a cultural issue. Organizations must learn to treat their information as a strategic asset and as one of their key business differentiators. The days are gone when companies could base their decisions on gut feelings or an instinctual understanding of the marketplace.

Make a difference with a BICC
As a senior executive today, your first critical success factor is to make a strategic decision that intelligence and the delivery thereof is a key differentiator for your business. The second, but equally important, is to surface and understand the internal and external intelligence that can enable effective fact-based decision making.

In fact, I believe that only two aspects of an organization really can make a difference in distinguishing you from your competitors – the quality of the intelligence you are able to deliver, and the quality of the people who use and interpret this intelligence to drive strategic direction.

SAS has a very simple definition. Business intelligence is about getting the right information to the right people at the right time to support better decision making to gain competitive advantage. Based on 31 years of experience in the intelligence space, SAS understands that companies need four types of intelligence in order to get a comprehensive and holistic view of their business: customer, financial, operational and risk intelligence.

Once this commitment is made, your enterprisewide business intelligence initiative needs an owner who has a mandate to drive intelligence into every aspect of the company. This is where the Business Intelligence Competency Center (BICC) comes into play. This unit within the organization is responsible for the development and deployment of intelligence across the enterprise. Organizations are increasingly aware that there is more to business intelligence than simply deploying technology. Similar to its definition of intelligence, SAS' conception of a BICC is multidimensional. A holistic, strategic approach is required to address people, processes, infrastructure and organizational culture.

Evaluate and take action
The very first step I advise you to take when setting up a BICC is to understand what intelligence you need. Start by identifying what business decisions need to be made on a daily, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis at different levels of management. Then you need to look at how to deliver the intelligence that is needed. Not all organizations will deliver intelligence in the same ways. There are many company-specific factors that will affect your way of delivering intelligence, such as the size of the company, the organizational structure, the information architecture, etc.

However, probably the most important factor to take into consideration is an understanding of the level of maturity of your organization in the ability to deliver intelligence. SAS' Information Evolution Model (IEM) provides the methodology for assessing what level you are at as well as planning a strategy to help your company move up and reach the level it should eventually strive toward, namely a proactive state of continuous innovation and top- and bottom-line expansion. The SAS IEM consists of five levels, building on top of each other:

• Operate – Focus is on the individual; information is personal power. 
• Consolidate – Information is kept at departmental level. 
• Integrate – Enterprise standards are in place. 
• Optimize – Information is available to measure, align and improve. 
• Innovate – Continuous innovation in process and culture takes place. 

Understanding these levels from a people, process, infrastructure and cultural point of view is vital. This sets the foundation for the BICC to deliver value to the business. The ability to set up a BICC will not depend on your level of maturity if a decision has been made to deliver intelligence. However, it may determine the structure of your BICC.

Some rudimentary BICC deployments will start with basic support functions only, but SAS recommends expanding the BICC to include all aspects of BI initiatives, such as:

• Business intelligence programs: What BI programs should be run in line with the business strategy? 
• Data stewardship: Data quality, governance and policies are owned by the BICC. 
• Data acquisition: Data integration, storage, etc. 
• Advanced analytics. 
• Support: First-line support for business users. 
• Training: Change management, project management and process integration training to enable the delivery of intelligence. 
• Vendor contract management.

BICC basics
Because of its strategic mission, the BICC should bring together both the technical and the business functions of the organization and should report directly to a top management executive, whether that is the CFO, the CIO or even the CEO. Most importantly, the BICC should become part of the organizational structure.

Roles within the BICC should also be a combination of business and IT people. Typical business roles include business analysts, industry domain experts and project managers. Examples of technical roles are the technical lead, data miners, warehouse architects, warehouse consultants and application developers. In addition to these roles we also need expertise in driving change and communication of the change to ensure that the culture is one that can receive maximum value from the delivery of enterprise intelligence. The BICC should be staffed with people who have been identified as future managers. Indeed, the BICC can serve as a springboard for them as they will get a total view of the organization.

The size of a BICC can vary from a dozen to a few hundred in terms of head-count, but usually it is relative to the size of the company. Mutual and Federal, for example, a leading insurance company in South Africa, has set up a BICC of 10 to 20 people. In its intelligence delivery endeavor, it has restructured the organization to support its new information management effort. In Japan, NTT DoCoMo, a top telecommunications company, has put in place a BICC in excess of 100 people. It is important to note that both organizations made a strategic decision that the delivery of intelligence is core and then built an organization to enable this.

No matter what industry you are in, if you understand the foundation of your business intelligence requirements and your current level of ability to serve your business with the intelligence it needs, it will become crystal clear what you need to do to move your business up the ladder of strategic decision making. With a BICC in place, you will be leading your organization to a higher grade of maturity of the processes, culture, people and infrastructure in all your BI efforts, resulting in improved financial results.

Bio: Steven Ing is Director of Professional Services for SAS Asia Pacific.