The ideal candidate for a business intelligence (BI) program is a firm that is seeking greater operational efficiency, increased flexibility and interoperability, better management reporting, mitigation of regulatory or other risks, enhanced transparency, access and support, and the ability to make informed business decisions.
It is a firm that believes the investment in operational efficiency, enhanced analytics, and regulatory compliance is equally as important as revenue-generating activities.
On the flip side, a poor candidate for BI is a firm at which the impetus comes from a technology or operations group, with no executive buy in. In addition, if a firm’s management team is knowingly unable to instill the discipline within the organization for data stewards to take ownership of, maintain, and improve the quality of critical enterprise data, it is unlikely to build a thriving BI program.
Ultimately, what differentiates a good candidate from a poor one is vision and, more importantly, a willingness and urge to leverage analytics to improve the way the firm is working today. Moreover, the probability of a BI program succeeding is much greater if the right foundation – along with some basic principles – can be agreed upon from the very beginning.
For example:
- Executives agree that accurate and timely analytics are a priority and are critical to the future of the business.
- Data stewards (data owners) for critical enterprise data can and will be assigned.
- A data dictionary, which resolves inconsistent definitions and identifies the authoritative sources of enterprise data, will be developed.
- Tools to identify and resolve data anomalies that affect the integrity of the data will be leveraged.
In our newest financial services guide, we discuss many aspects of BI, particularly in wealth management:
- Benefits of BI
- Challenges of BI user adoption
- Getting started with BI
- Key considerations for the development and operation of a BI program
- Client success story
To learn more, download the guide here.
