By Kimberly Nevala, Senior Consultant
Given today’s economy, companies and individuals alike are reevaluating their investments. Like many, I did the research when establishing my own investment portfolio. And things ran pretty smoothly for a while. And then we all know what came next. Market volatility aside, I realized something vital: Truth be told, I wasn’t actively managing all aspects of my portfolio. My bottom line paid the price.
And so it is with many BI programs. After an initial concerted effort, many clients find their BI investments faltering. Some start with basic enterprise or financial reporting solutions that fail to evolve. Some find initial data warehousing investments deliver a mountain of data, but a dearth of actionable information. Often, the BI team falters in the face of an increasing avalanche of requests. Worst case, they never get off the ground. Too many needs. And no method to vet and prioritize them.
The answer: Manage your BI program like a portfolio. Wikipedia defines portfolio management as the process of “organizing both projects and programs into a single portfolio to ensure they are kept aligned with corporate strategy”. Underscore “kept.” To be successful, you must first define strategic and tactical business objectives, identify associated BI opportunities or needs, and lay out a roadmap for execution. Equally important is an ongoing process to both evaluate the effectiveness and relevancy of existing BI investments (a.k.a. reports and/or analytic applications) and proactively identify and prioritize new opportunities against evolving business strategies. The formation of a BI Portfolio, when done right, ultimately informs your BI development pipeline.
Today my investment portfolio looks vastly different from six months ago, let alone a year. It is more dynamic, requiring active management.
Your company’s BI portfolio is no less strategic or dynamic. Are you managing it accordingly?
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