Here is an all too common scenario in today’s credit union: It’s month end and the IT department is scrambling to meet the demand from business units for scheduled reports and ad hoc information requests. All long-term project work is put on hold as the staff works overtime providing information to support the organization’s critical strategic and tactical decision making.

What is the solution to ending this madness? Why not give these very same business users the capability to create their own reports and mine the corporate databases for innovative insights. In other words, provide “self-service” information capabilities to the people who are in the best position to leverage information to achieve strategic goals.

This brilliant solution is a classic “easier said than done” situation. There are lots of pesky details to consider in implementing a self-service analytics and reporting initiative. Luckily, there are a significant number of organizations experimenting with self-service. Aberdeen Research was able to survey over 500 organizations in various stages of self-service maturity to understand the crucial elements to consider.

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