I spotted this goodie Top 10 tips to make better use of business intelligence. How to make sure your data packs a punch...
Good overall advice, which is:
1. Know what you want to get out of it
2. Make it relevant
3. Share the knowledge you have
4. Start small
5. Work out what you're already doing
6. Don't baffle the users
7. Keep it clean
8. Share your knowledge
9. Open up to others
10. Keep your eye on use
I have a few more to suggest, however. :-)
11. Make sure that your data is comprehensive.
We typically look at BI as only accessing "enterprise data." However, the larger value is the ability to mashup "enterprise data" with external data, which should make business intelligence much more powerful and meaningful to the business. For instance, how does our YTD sales compare with others in our industry, or wider economic trends?
12. Make sure that you focus on user experience.
To point 6 above, you need to make sure that the BI system is meaningful and usable by the end user, typically somebody who is not technical. We have a tendency to over-complicate our BI systems, and thus end users can't understand them, and thus they have no value.
13. Move to real-time.
Most BI systems serve up old data. They do this because of the latency in aggregating the data for use within a BI system. Going forward, BI systems need to approach real-time, providing data close to as-it-happens as it can be, thus allowing the BI user to react.
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