Business intelligence (BI) projects can be some of the most rewarding work you’ve ever done, or they can be some of the most nerve-wracking. It all depends on how you prepare and execute things, especially during the planning stage. Eliminate these 7 common mistakes companies make when launching a BI project to avoid this misery and make your BI project a joyful experience.
1) Lack of a defined objective
This may sound simple, but it’s all too easy to start collecting data and lose sight of your end goal. Before you invest any time or money into developing your platform, make sure you know what you want to achieve. Get buy-in from key stakeholders at every stage of the process – the project is much more likely to be successful if everyone understands how it will add value to their lives.
2) There are many competing goals
Trying to achieve too many goals at once is one of the most common mistakes businesses make. If you’re new to business intelligence, focus on one specific goal before moving on to the next. For example, if you’re tasked with increasing your company’s sales, you’ll first need to figure out how to retrieve sales reports from your database, then figure out how to use those reports, and so on.
3) Being overly aggressive in your approach
Too often, companies are so eager to start business intelligence (BI) projects that they fail to plan how these job function email list new initiatives will be sustained. Unfortunately, it’s common for companies to abandon projects halfway through due to lack of funding or administrative support. Be careful – if you’re going to launch your own BI project, make sure you can keep it going from start to finish.
4) Using the wrong tool
When you’re first starting out in business intelligence, it’s easy to get carried away. There are countless tools smart investment cost management available, and it’s tempting to try them all. To avoid having too many different tools to manage, start your project planning with a clear idea of what tool you want—and why. Also, don’t hesitate to try out a variety of options before settling on one.
5) Lack of interpersonal skills
It’s tempting to do everything yourself – after all, you really want to see your business flourish and you don’t have a lot clean emai of time. However, if you try to handle everything yourself, your results will likely be subpar. Many startups fail because they try to do everything themselves; it’s okay to hire experts when necessary. Look for organizations that offer management, finance, IT, marketing and sales services.
6) Trying to do everything alone
This is usually a disaster waiting to happen. You don’t have to be an expert in everything all at once – it takes time and practice to become an expert in everything. Even then, you will almost certainly need expertise on your team to help drive specific initiatives forward. Accepting that you don’t know everything and are still learning is preferable to trying to do it all yourself.
7) They don’t seek help when they need it.
Business intelligence (BI) is one of those technologies that is both exciting because it can have such a positive impact on your business and disconcerting because it is such a vast and complicated task. Many new data analytics projects fail because they don’t seek help from someone with more experience in analytics. If you know what you want to do but don’t know how to go about it, seek professional help. It could be just what you need to make your idea a success!
Before you begin
Don’t make the same mistakes when starting a business intelligence project. Identify what others did wrong and ensure the success of your venture. When starting any business intelligence project, every company makes at least seven major mistakes.