John Boyer - Business Intelligence Strategy: A Practical Guide for Achieving BI Excellence

Business Intelligence Strategy

A Practical Guide for Achieving BI Excellence

John Boyer, Bill Frank, Brian Green, Tracy Harris, Kay Van De Vanter

First Edition

First PrintingSeptember 2010

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ISBN: 978-158347-362-7

We would all like to thank the IBM team and their extensive list of subject-matter experts who contributed content, joined our discussions, and helped to provide expertise that was critical to making this book possible: Thank you to Michael Dziekan and Forrest Palmer, who spent many hours with our team providing their deep expertise and guidance and contributing significant content and graphics, particularly on organizational structures and competency centers. And to Meg Dussault, who helped enlighten our team to the sweet spots of information. Thank you to Kevin Cohen and Derek Lacks for their assistance with and debates on the many levels of value within an organization. And to Andreas Coucopoulos, for his many hours delving into the technology strategy that is so critical to a strategic initiative. We would also like to thank Rob Ashe, Eric Yau, Harriet Fryman, and Mychelle Mollot for their support in making this book possible.

We also want to thank the MC Press teamMerrikay Lee, Victoria Mack, Thomas Stockwell, and Katie Tiptonfor their patience and expertise, as well as Susan Visser from the IBM Information Management team at IBM.

From John Boyer

I would like to thank my chain of managementOussama Warwar, Jeff Henry, and Dirk Izzowho contributed to the content and helped me understand how the corporate vision is translated to strategy. I am also deeply indebted to the BICoE TeamMangai, Robert, Ram, Venkat, Guru, and KTwho make my job easy. You put the E in the BICoE. Thank you, too, to Lynn Moore; best of luck on your book, my friend.

From Bill Frank

I would like to thank all of the IBM Cognos team who made themselves available in our BI journey over the years, the Cognos Innovation Center, Tracy Harris, and the cheese kids. There are so many individuals from J&J that have been my sounding board, taken initiative to turn ideas into reality, shaped my thinking, collaborated with me, and put up with my endless evangelizing about standards, practices, and the need for a BICC. Im sure Id miss someone in the short space I have here if I started listing names. I would like to thank the SSB BI Domain, the BITS team, the BICC leads, and the entire J&J BI COP for their efforts that have led to successes in transforming, improving, and creating innovation with BI solutions across the enterprise. Thanks also to the members of my immediate management as well as senior executives who have encouraged, mentored, and supported me.

From Brian Green

On behalf of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, I would like to acknowledge the dedication and contributions of the entire Data Management and Information Delivery team. I would also like to acknowledge Frank Brooks for his tremendous leadership, vision, and support. Thanks also to the members of my immediate management as well as senior executives who have encouraged, mentored, and supported me.

From Tracy Harris

A big thanks to Leah MacMillan, Meg Dussault, and Harriet Fryman for their guidance, insight, and vision and for recognizing the critical need for this endeavor. I would also like to thank Debbie Ng and Jacqueline Coolidge for helping to initially bring this excellent group together to make this book possible. Thank you also to Jennifer Schmitz, Becky Smith, Jennifer Hanniman, Rebecca Wormleighton, Brent Winsor, Catherine Frye, and Nina Sandy for their significant contributions to this endeavor.

From Kay Van De Vanter

I would like to thank my fellow Boeing Business Intelligence Competency Center team members and management for their insightful comments and discussions. Special thanks to our BICC executive manager for his careful reviews and attention to detail and to our communications focal for working closely with me to obtain the permissions and approvals needed to participate in this endeavor.

Finally, we would like to thank the various thought leaders and analysts in the industry who continue to provide critical research in this area that allows organizations to better understand how they can achieve success. In particular, we would like to acknowledge the teams at BIScorecard, Nucleus Research, Business Applications Research Center, Gartner, Forrester, and TDWI. And we would like to thank Roland Mosimann, Patrick Mosimann, and Jack Musgrove at BII, PMSI, and Aline for their research, support, vision, and foundational contributions to this effort.

The content for this book was prepared by the IBM Cognos BI Excellence Advisory Board, a team of representatives from leading enterprise organizations who research, advise, and share best practices for achieving excellence in Business Intelligence and Performance Management initiatives.

John Boyer

John Boyer is manager of the BI Advisory Team at The Nielsen Company. There, he oversees adoption, enablement, and internal consulting for all things BI. Before joining Nielsen, John spent several years as a BI architect and trusted advisor at IBM. After graduating from medical school, his aptitude, passion, and bedside manner took him first to a healthcare clinic, where he rose to Director of Finance and Information Systems. John has spent the past 15 years consulting in software development, business intelligence, and data warehousing.

John is chair of the Illinois Cognos User Group. As a conference speaker, he has been invited to speak at a number of national events, including Information on Demand, Cognos Forum, and the Composite Software User Group.