Three factors that keep your BI out of a rut

How you select your BI system has a lot to do with the benefits you derive from it. My observations in my 17 years of advising mid-sized organizations - plus observations of one other expert in the field - show three critical elements that decide whether new systems will lift you into new, valuable insights or leave you plowing the same old rut.

At the organizations that do it well, business users have taken an instant liking to the new tools, and executives embraced fact-based decision making. It seemed like every day, some business user found a new and more valuable use for data. Then year after year, the platform grew with the business's evolving needs.

At less fortunate organizations, business users shrugged at the new tools or resisted them. They still couldn't find the data they knew was there, and executives continued relying on "gut feeling." The organization's data, still inaccessible, moldered.

There are three basic factors that help companies steer clear of a BI rut: executive involvement, management of data flows from the backend to the users, and the close fit of platform and organization.

Executive commitment

"Too many C-level people get their tech information from their kids," integration consultant Lamont Lockwood told me. He says that most execs use information that a few hard-working tech workers created for them. "To them, technology is a result, not a process."

That's a major mistake. To get results, decision makers must have at least a basic understanding of the process. Lack of executive involvement forces IT to make assumptions about executives' priorities, milestones, and budgets. Budgets ...