Your Challenge BI stakeholders are dissatisfied regarding the overall performance of the BI operation. The BI operation is unable to return requests to the business in a timely fashion. The BI operation is unable to produce quality BI deliverables that meet business requirements. The BI operation is experiencing rising operational costs. Our Advice: Critical Insight Your organization doesn’t need to spend a lot of money or resources on BI. The BI operation should be right-sized to fit your organization’s needs. To optimize the BI operation, ensure you: Determine an initial target state BI operating model. Assess your current BI organization structure, processes, people, application functionality, and performance. Refine the initial target state BI operating model. Rank and select gaps to plan for improvement. Develop an improvement plan, obtain official sign-off, and execute the optimization project. Track improvements and measure BI performance and value. Communicate and sell the benefits to stakeholders. Impact and Result Improve information delivery time by utilizing effective reporting structures and improving staff competency and capacity. Improve the quality of information by ensuring ownership and accountability is given to BI management practices. Improve maintenance and support costs by enabling the appropriate and necessary applications and functions.

1. Assess and Optimize BI Operations. Focus on delivering timely, quality, and affordable information to enable fast and effective business decisions. BI operations that are run without the required operating
model components (organization structure, process, people, and application functionality) are prone to failure. Your organization doesn’t need to spend lots of money or resources on BI. The BI operation
should be right-sized to fit your organization’s needs. A BI operating model is different than an overarching BI program
The BI operating model focuses on the aspects of BI that can be altered in the short term to improve operational performance.
Info-Tech will take the operation model concept and apply it to the BI environment. Info-Tech defines the components of the BI operating model as:
Organization structure
Process
People
Application Functionality
While technology is fixed in the near term, the components listed above are all capable of changing in the near term to meet the needs of the business. The BI team has a responsibility to the business to ensure
opportunities are not lost due to slow time to information. By considering speed of delivery as one of the three components of BI operational excellence, the organization ensures that value is not destroyed
due to slow processes within the BI department. The blueprint and its deliverables follow a logical, low-effort process to ensure realistic, actionable improvement initiatives to reach the target model.
Logical: By simplifying the operating model into three distinct models, BI managers have a comparison tool that makes the gap analysis tangible and within their control.
Low effort: By identifying the initial target state BI operating model first, the current operating model can be assessed to the extent desired, saving the time performing a full current state assessment.
Facilitated with deliverables: Throughout the blueprint, deliverables such as tools and templates will be introduced to walk you through each step and compare your findings to those of the example
organization (ABC Retail Inc.).
Realistic: Everything is operational-based within the responsibilities of the Head of BI (BI Manager).

10. http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/assess-and-
optimize-bi-operations