Most businesses want to be a category leader and they dream of being the next unicorn. Needless to say, they require intensive business growth to reach these goals. A key piece to this development is a reliable, optimized Business Intelligence (BI) platform.
As more organizations turn toward data-driven decision making, it is important to stay on top of their game. This comes with the acknowledgement that it is not only about gathering data, but also about formulating strategies to identify the right KPIs and act upon this information.
Strong business analysis skill is essential at this stage in order to deliver the right analytics to accurately represent your business condition.
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What is a KPI and why is it crucial to choose the right KPIs to drive business?
A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a quantifiable metric that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving its key business objectives.
Furthermore, KPIs have to be much more than figures you report on a regular basis. They must empower you to better understand the performance (or nonperformance) of your business so you can adjust as required.
Choosing the right KPIs will assist you to stay in control. At a glance you should be able to quickly assess relevant information, and not be overwhelmed with too many overlapping measurements.
Why do you need strong Business Analysis skills while implementing a BI platform?
Business Analysts are often tasked to define solutions and supervise a smooth implementation. This often includes the following:
- requirement gathering & elicitation
- solution design
- development supervision
- transition
- enable change within the organization
If we put generic skills needed aside (ex: project management, change management, etc…), and focus more on why bringing a senior Business Analyst during a BI platform implementation is critical:
Industry Knowledge
Veteran business analysts will usually have prior experiences in the same or similar industries. This will typically speed up the process of defining KPIs as they can advise you on industry best practices and which indicators should be monitored.
Killer Report / Dashboard design
Experienced business analysts will help design efficient reports to quickly assess the condition of your business. They can quickly understand the root cause of your pain points and make educated business decisions.
In addition, analysts extensive expertise can leverage the BI tool features and provide you with a simple and intuitive report navigation for an optimal user experience.
Strong Data and Reporting governance
In medium and large organizations, understanding data, outlining KPIs and reporting across departments becomes more complex.
As the company grows over time, the need for additional KPIs and resorts becomes more and more important. Ensuring there is reporting governance will become important as to maintain consistency across the business.
Discrepancies in what KPIs to monitor, and repeating reports will lead to unnecessary complexity during communication within the organization about the company performance.
Senior Business analysts will help you implement a Data stewardship process that defines who is accountable for the quality of data, as well as the people in charge of defining the crucial KPIs, visuals and reports built on the data.
Data and reporting governance is an undervalued aspect of most BI projects, but it will determine the long term sustainability of your BI platform.
Take away
Strong business analysis skill will help you formulate strategies for a successful, long lasting BI implementation and gather actionable intelligence that can help you drive revenues, increase profit margins and enhance your business well above the competition.
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