White Paper Business Intelligence

Empowering Business
Logica is a leading IT and business services company, employing 39,000 people across 36 countries. It
provides business consulting, systems integration, and IT and business process outsourcing services. Logica
works closely with its customers to release their potential – enabling change that increases their efficiency,
accelerates growth and manages risk. It applies its deep industry knowledge, technical excellence and global
delivery expertise to help its customers build leadership positions in their markets. Logica is listed on both the
London Stock Exchange and Euronext (Amsterdam) (LSE: LOG; Euronext: LOG). More information is
available at www.logica.com.

Copyright statement:

This document contains information which is confidential and of value to Logica. It may be used only for the
agreed purpose for which it has been provided. Logica’s prior written consent is required before any part is
reproduced. Except where indicated otherwise, all names, trade marks, and service marks referred to in this
document are the property of a company in the Logica group or its licensors.
 Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 2

Contents Introduction 3

Definition of Business Intelligence 4

BI Business Drivers 5

Business Intelligence Foundation 7

Business Intelligence Development 9

BI Organization 11

BI Maturity Model 13

Wrap up 15
Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 3

Introduction

This paper gives an introduction of Business Intelligence from a business

perspective. Too often we find Business Intelligence initiatives at customer sites
that are very much IT oriented. These initiatives started with all good intentions
and for very good reasons. Somewhere down the road however, business focus
is lost and technology pushes the initiative forward.

With this paper we give you some guidelines to keep your Business Intelligence
initiative business driven and be more successful in utilizing Business Intelligence
to improve your Business. We start with a clear definition of what Business
Intelligence is about and why Business Intelligence is important to you. Then we
go in to more detail on the necessary foundations for a successful Business
Intelligence program, our business oriented development methodology and the
important organizational aspects of Business Intelligence.

Based on these BI basics we explain the BI maturity model which supports you in
assessing the current maturity of your BI imitative and supports you in achieving
the next required level of maturity. We wrap up with a summary of our services to
support your Business Intelligence initiative.
 Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 4

Definition of Business Intelligence

The strength of a good Business Intelligence solution is delivering the right

information at the right time and place to the right person. The value of the
delivered information is measured by the improvement of your business
decisions, by having the information available to you. A more formal definition is:

Delivering and managing information for monitoring and management of an

Definition of BI
organization and business processes. Key components in this information
delivery process are:

• Using structured data from multiple sources.

• Transformation from transactional data tot management information.

• Creating a historical view.

The IT marketplace has acknowledged the value of Business Intelligence for your
organization for some time now. Many products, services and solutions are
offered to you. Nearly all of them claim to have the tailor-made solution to support
your specific business issues. In our opinion these are all valuable products and
propositions, but only when utilized for the right reasons and as part of a business
driven methodology.

In general Business Intelligence supports you in reporting, analyzing and

BI Functions modelling your business aligned with the strategic objectives of your organization.
Reporting capabilities enable you to measure the past and current performance.
Analyzing capabilities enable you to analyze past and current performance to
improve your business on a tactical level. Modelling capabilities enable you to act
on a strategic level on the results of analysis by re-modelling your business
processes.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it

(Added value of BI according to the CEO General Electrics)
 Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 5
“Best Product”

Product
Leadership

BI Business Drivers Business

Strategy
Operational Customer
Excellence Intimacy

“Best Total Cost” “Best Service”

Your business case for Business Intelligence should always somehow be related
to the business strategy and business objectives of your organization. To get an
understanding of the business strategy of an organization we use the value
Value Disciplines
discipline model of Treacy and Wiersema. In this model three different strategies
Treacy & Wiersema
for an organization are identified:

1. Operational Excellence.
Superb operations and execution. Often by providing a reasonable quality at
a very low price. Task-oriented vision towards personnel. The focus is on
efficiency, streamlined operations, Supply Chain Management, no-frills.
Volume is important. Most large international corporations are operating out
of this discipline. Measuring systems are very important. Extremely limited
variation in product assortment.

2. Product Leadership.

Very strong in innovation and brand marketing. Company operates in

dynamic markets. The focus is on development, innovation, design, time to
market, high margins in a short time frame. Flexible company cultures.

3. Customer Intimacy.

Company excels in customer attention and customer service. Tailors its

products and services to individual or almost individual customers. Large
variation in product assortment. Focus is on: CRM, deliver products and
services on time and above customer expectations, lifetime value concepts,
reliability, being close to the customer. Give decision authority to employees
that are close to the customer.
 Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 6

Analyzing your business strategy based on the value discipline model enables
you to identify the areas where the organization will gain the most value from
Business Intelligence. This supports you in focusing your BI initiative. Usually an
organization will need to excel on one of the defined value disciplines to be
successful. However the other two cannot be neglected of course, but should
score at least on average. In large organizations often separate divisions or
business units own one of the defined value disciplines.

One additional important business driver for Business Intelligence is corporate

Risk & Compliance governance. Organization are more and more confronted with obligations to
inform regulators, share-holders and the public of their performance.
Organizations, and sometimes high level management themselves, are held
accountable for their performance and must comply to several regulations and
legislations. Some examples of current legislations and regulations that
companies are confronted with, are Basel II, Solvency II, Sarbanes Oxley (SOX)
and MIFID. Business Intelligence supports your organization in achieving the
right information flow from your operational business processes to comply with
regulatory reporting requirements.
 Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 7

Business Intelligence Foundation

Regardless of the specific business case, there are two factors that in almost any
Critical Success BI initiative are critical for success. The first is consistency of information. The
Factors for BI second is traceability. A BI solution usually brings together data from different
source systems and passes multiple levels of enrichment and aggregation. The
figure below shows this schematically.

CXO

Traceability and Audit ability

Reporting
Dimensions

Service
Finance Operations Marketing HR
Centers

Source
Systems
Consistency

Integration of information from multiple sources often reveals inconsistencies.

Consistent, Traceable When enriching and aggregating information to support the different control levels
& Auditable Information within an organization also traceability of information becomes a serious
challenge. The degree in which the developed BI solution resolves these issues is
key to the success of the overall BI initiative.

Key in achieving accountable, consistent and traceable information in a Business

Intelligence solution is the presence of data management processes in your
organization. Business data definitions, data quality measurements, data
ownership and data governance processes should already be part of any
organization. In many cases the first iterations of a Business Intelligence initiative
still fail due to lack of these capabilities in an organization.
 Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 8

To support organizations in getting the foundations for a successful Business

Enterprise Information Intelligence initiative right, we formed a Enterprise Information Management
Management Practice hosting and developing extensive knowledge and experience in data,
information and content management. We use the following basic model for
Enterprise Information Management.

Foundation for Business Intelligence

Data Data Business Business
Management Integration Intelligence Drivers
Operational
Excellence
Data Data Ware Business
Modeling Housing Reporting
Enterprise Corporate
Data & Governance
Data Data Business
Content Quality Migration Analytics
Customer
Intimacy
Data Content Business
Governance Management Modeling
Product
Leadership

Process your data Measure and

Understand and Use actionable
to actionable improve your
value your data Inf ormation to…
information Business

In the model you will find all data, information and content related subjects placed
in relation to each other. Some important characteristics of the model are:

- Business Intelligence is not only based on the information out off

Data & Content traditional databases, but more and more incorporates other valuable
Management content in your organization. We therefore integrated content
management in the model.

- Data Management is a very important and often under estimated phase

in achieving a good Business Intelligence solution. Data Management
includes definition of your data (Data Modelling), classification and
valuing your data (Data Quality), manage your data and content as an
asset (Data Governance).

Before starting a Business Intelligence development process we suggest you

start with an assessment of your Business Intelligence foundation first, based on
the model we provide.
 Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 9

Business Intelligence Development

Any Business Intelligence development methodology should take into account at

least the following very important aspects:

• Business Intelligence development should be business driven at all times.

Alignment between business and IT is crucial and should be established at
the early beginning of the program and managed continuously during the
whole program.

• Business Intelligence development is a continuous improvement process.

Architecture and infrastructure should be selected and implemented with the
future in mind. Development on the other hand must be carried out in short
iterations delivering business value rapidly. A BI life cycle management
process is required to support continuous improvement.

With our Business Intelligence Framework we have a proven methodology

Business Intelligence available for you. This framework is used by Logica in many Business Intelligence
Framework projects and is also adopted by several of our existing customers as their own BI
development methodology. In BI Framework the development of Business
Intelligence is divided in four quadrants, linked together via BI Life Cycle
Management.
 Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 10

Below a short description of the four phases in the Business Intelligence

development process:

• BI Business Plan
Definition or adjustment of the BI strategy based on business drivers and
strategic goals of your organization. The BI strategy is based not only on the
business needs, but also on the results of a feasibility study to manage
business expectations.

• BI Program Plan
The BI Program plan defines or adjusts the roadmap for your BI initiative.
Based on the result of the previous phase a business information analysis is
conducted to gather and prioritize business requirements. The BI architecture
and infrastructure will be designed or adjusted in this phase.The architecture
definition defines an appropriate architecture and infrastructure.

• BI Increments
Incremental design and development of the Data Integration processes and
the Data Warehouse model. Iterative design and development of reporting
and analytical applications.

• BI Exploitation
Ensuring availability, continuity and stability of the BI solution. Monitoring
data delivery by implementing Data Resource Management. Support
business users by implementing Information Delivery Management.

The majority of activities in the upper two quadrants, BI Business Plan and BI
Business & IT
Program plan, are the responsibility of the Business side of your organization and
Alignment
should therefore be driven by the Business. The majority of activities in the lower
two quadrants, BI Increments en BI Exploitation, need strong commitment and
involvement from your IT organization.

Change & Service The right-side quadrants, BI Program Plan and BI Increments, are change-driven
Alignment and should be managed as a program or project. The left-side quadrants, BI
Business Plan and BI Exploitation, should be implemented as part of your day-to-
day operation of Business Intelligence.

More information on our Business Intelligence Framework is available in our

recent publication “Business Intelligence Framework, ISBN/EAN 978-90-
9021764-2”.
 Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 11

BI Organization

The exploitation of BI solutions is not fundamentally different, process-wise, from

the exploitation of other IT systems. Specific in the exploitation of a Business
Intelligence solutions however is the number of dependencies to manage. As
mentioned before a Business Intelligence solution usually integrates information
from multiple sources. Management of these interfaces is critical in order to
sustain the required level of information quality. Also specific for BI is the frequent
interaction with the information users in supporting and optimization of their
reporting and analytic applications.

A Business Intelligence Competence Centre should therefore have at least

incorporate three functions, being Information Delivery Management, Data
Resource Management and Operations/Maintenance.

Business Intelligence Data Resource Management Information Delivery Management

• Data modelling and
Competence Centre management.
• Data Integration process
modelling and management
• Data stewardship
• Monitoring of Data Quality
• Developing reporting and
analytical applications.
• Supporting Business Users
• Information brokership
BI • Account management
Competence
Center

Operation & Maintenance

• Infrastructure providing
• Tooling providing
• System Integration
 Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 12

Below a short definition of the three required functions in the exploitation of a

Business Intelligence solution is given.

- Information Delivery Management

Within the Information Delivery Management function, functional and
business knowledge is available to develop information products for the
organization. Client contact with end-users from various parts business is
maintained. End-users are supported in the use of their reporting and
analytical applications and in defining business requirements for new
development.

- Data Resource Management

Within the Data Resource Management function, technical and functional
knowledge and experience is available to perform the translations for source
data into the central information model. Data delivery is evaluated on quality
and timeliness.

- Operations and maintenance

Within the Operations and maintenance function, daily operations of the BI
solution are supported. This consists of the continuous monitoring of the
aspects of continuity, stability and availability of the BI environment.

BICC Business Driven From the description of the functions we can also determine that a Business
Intelligence Competence Centre is preferable not an IT department only. In a
BICC you have to bring together knowledge workers, data specialists and IT staff.
 Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 13

BI Maturity Model

The diagram below illustrates evolution through many stages of BI maturity, from
infancy (traditional management reporting and spreadsheets) to adulthood
(enterprise data warehousing and analytic services). This model provides useful
context to BI maturity assessments in your organization because it aligns closely
with many of the BI success factors.

Prenatal Infant Child Teenager Adult Sage

Executive Cost Inform Empower Monitor Drive the Drive the

BI Maturity Model Perception Center Executives Workers Processes Business Market

Information IT Self Customized The BI

Culture Backlog Service Delivery Utility

Analytics Under- Actionable Decision

Awareness standing Information Automation
Culture
Adoption
Curve

Cost

Value Enterprise
Architecture Management Data Data Analytical
Reporting Spreadmart Data Marts Warehouses Warehousing Services

Adapted from the BI Maturity Model, Wayne Eckerson, TDWI Director of Research

The important aspects to consider when assessing the BI maturity of your

organization are:

- Executive Perception
How does your executive management perceive Business Intelligence. Is BI
just another cost center in your organization or does BI drive your business
or even the market in which your organization operates.

- Information Culture
How is Business Intelligence used within your organization. Are decision
makers always waiting for reports to be delivered by IT or is the right
information delivered to right person, on the right time and place.
Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 14

- Analytics Culture
How well is Business Intelligence adopted by the knowledge workers in your
organization. Are they aware of the existence of Business Intelligence or is it
part of their day-to-day decision preparation processes.

- Cost and Value (ROI)

Does your investment in Business Intelligence pay-off. Very important in
answering this question is to also include the time knowledge workers spend
on analyzing the information delivered by BI. Is this time spend on improving
business with the received information or is this time spend on checking
consistency and quality of the delivered data,

- Architecture
Is Business Intelligence supported with a traditional management reporting
platform and spreadmarts or is an Enterprise Data Warehouse with Analytical
Services available.

This Maturity model enables you to measure the current maturity of Business
Intelligence of your organization. In the outcome often a unbalance occurs on the
different aspects of maturity. It is very important to start balancing all the aspects
to one level of maturity first and then start growing to the next level of maturity.
Business Intelligence
Empowering Business 15

Wrap up

In this paper we have given you an introduction of our vision on Business

Intelligence. Of course we can offer you our experienced consultants to support
your Business Intelligence initiative. We also used our capabilities and knowledge
to develop standardized service packages for our customers. Some examples
are:

• BI Framework methodology
Our knowledge and experience of many years has now been combined in a
practical framework. Our BI Framework is a guideline in the complex world of
Business Intelligence to make the right choices and trade-offs between the
many possibilities offered by the market.

• BI Review Packages
With our Business Intelligence review package we enable our customers to
measure the performance on Business Intelligence initiatives within their
organization. Based on your particular needs we can select the most relevant
parts of this review package and apply them on your BI initiative.

Information requests

This paper is a product of the Enterprise Information Management Practice of Logica. If you
require more information about our capabilities to support you please contact us.
Henk van Roekel Theo Meinsma
Principal Consultant Associate Director
T: +31 020 503 3164 T: +31 070 375 6711
E: henk.van.roekel@logica.com E: theo.meinsma@logica.com

About the author

This paper is written by our Principal Consultant of Enterprise Information Management,

Henk van Roekel. Henk performs high level consultancy for our customers to support their
Business Intelligence, Data Integration and Data Management initiatives. Henk is a Certified
Business Intelligence Professional (mastery level) accredited by The Data Warehouse
Institute (TDWI) and a teacher of Business Intelligence courses at DNV-CIBIT.
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