by: Peter Keers
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said about obscenity, "I know it when I see it". This often seems to be the case with many credit union decision makers when asked to define Business Intelligence (BI) requirements.
Consider this common scenario: an innovative credit union executive champions the BI concept. The executive points out all the flaws in organization’s current reporting and analytics. Then, showing examples of how BI is revolutionizing performance in other industries, secures budget dollars for a BI initiative.
The BI project is kicked off with great expectations. The first step is to define requirements for improved reporting and analytics. Analysts fan out into the business units to gather requirements only to find that the producers and users of current reporting and analytics are hard-pressed to define solid requirements. The project stalls because the expected “demand” does not materialize. The “wins” resulting from the project are fewer than predicted and the entire effort is judged to be a disappointment.
Was the promise of BI false? Not really. The problem was the way the project was managed.
Credit unions undertaking such projects need to understand a unique characteristic of Business Intelligence: users know they need improved reporting and analytics but often have adifficult time defining what they want.
