In his box office hit, Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner plays a struggling Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsalla. One day while walking about his cornfield Ray hears a voice whisper, “If you build it, he will come.”
At first, Ray ignores the voice. However, the voice continues repeating the phrase until slowly Ray comes to believe that the voice is instructing him to build a baseball diamond smack in the middle of his cornfield.
Instead of driving over to Cedar Rapids and checking himself into the local psych ward, Ray spends the next couple of weeks plowing up his valuable cornfield and turning it into a baseball field complete with lights and bleachers. Ray then waits to see what happens while his stalwart wife frets about paying the mortgage and feeding the family.
At first, nothing happens. But one night, Ray awakens to find some famous major leaguers (all long deceased) playing a pick up game on his homemade field. Over the course of the movie, more and more ballplayers turn up, one of whom is Ray’s dead father – estranged from Ray at the time of the old man’s death.
Ray’s father is the “he” that the voice is talking about, of course. Turning the cornfield into a ballpark is the movie’s device to allow Ray, along with a mixed lineup of other characters, to reconcile their presents with their pasts. Ray, his family, and friends have various adventures (both natural and supernatural) on their way to a happy, inspiring, and very tearful conclusion.
Along with such memorable movie lines as “Make my day”, “Greed is good!”, and “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse”, “If you build it, he will come” is one of those movie catch phrases you sometimes hear in business situations. Over the years, I have heard the phrase used in reference to literally dozens of business/technology projects – although “we” and “they” are usually substituted for “you” and “he” when used in business.
In particular, the phrase is used to describe business intelligence projects – especially, when the people describing the project come out of the information technology (IT) group.
Business Intelligence, BI for short, refers to the merging of technology, organization, and process to provide historical, current, and predictive views of business operations using data gathered into a database repository. Reporting software (built or purchased), when combined with this data, provides the business with interactive “slice-and-dice” analyses, information visualization, and statistical data mining.
When used effectively, BI systems enhance critical business functions such as sales, production, and finance, including, notably, business performance management.
Many leading Wisconsin companies have found significant value using well-designed and implemented business intelligence systems. The BI system at ShopKo Stores in Green Bay, for example, captures and analyzes millions of daily sales transactions allowing the company’s merchants to quickly adjust inventories, validate marketing plans, and exploit sales opportunities based on buying patterns.
The health management BI system at Appleton’s ThedaCare allows this leading health care provider to monitor multiple patient populations in support of its wellness programs.
Thedacare’s BI solution also helps ensure that children receive timely vaccinations and provides information so physicians can better manage the treatment of patients with chronic diseases as diabetes and high blood pressure.
Since the early 1990s, when BI systems became all the rage, Wisconsin companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the development and support of BI systems.
Unfortunately, not all of the money spent has led to the positive results found at ShopKo and ThedaCare. Far too frequently, information technology teams build BI systems with little or no involvement or buy-in from the various business units who would gain real value by having visibility to accurate, timely, and critical business information.
In fact, IT led business intelligence projects often go out of their way to avoid involving the end-users out of a belief that their participation slows down the project and that IT already knows what information the business needs to do their jobs.
This causes some in IT to view business intelligence projects as essentially a technical effort involving the collection of disparate operational data into a database along with the installation of reporting and analytics tools and software. When these tasks are completed, IT turns the system over to the business with the expectation that they will enthusiastically embrace something they were not involved in building.
There is always great surprise and sometimes resentment when the BI system does not meet with overwhelming approval by the business! As a result, many BI systems are little used, provide minimal, if any, value for the investment made, and end up being criticized as yet another “IT- says” project that tarnishes the reputation of the IT department, if not the entire company.
Without business involvement, “If we build it, they will come” never works as a project catch phrase for a successful business intelligence system. I know of a multi-million dollar BI project currently underway at a large Wisconsin financial services company that is on the road to failure due to a lack of active participation and buy-in from the business people.
Unfortunately, this is not the only such BI effort in this condition.
One thing every successful business intelligence project has in common is significant business involvement right from the start. I would go so far as to say that any company of any size is wasting its time and money on BI without this active business involvement and support.
Here are three simple ways to get the business involved in your BI project:
Obtain senior management support (“a Project Champion”) from the business, in addition to any IT leadership support, before beginning a BI project. If possible, the person in this role should be from an area of the business that drives revenue for the company. For example, a VP of merchandising for a retailer, the head of sales in a manufacturing company, or the senior VP of customer service in a telemarketing firm.
This senior person must be actively involved in “selling” the project to the rest of the business. He/she will also help set the strategy, determine the project’s goals and time lines, resolve disputes, breakdown organizational barriers, and assist with funding and staffing decisions.
Involve the business at all levels in the project early and often. In addition to senior management involvement, a successful project must reach out to the line managers and staffs who will use the BI system when completed.
Getting the business involved gives everyone a sense of ownership in the project and allows for solid requirements. It also keeps interest high and provides you with feedback and suggestions on how to improve the BI system during and after development is complete.
Perform “BI missionary work” as the system is being built and after it is up and running. Obtaining initial acceptance and use of a BI system often takes effort. You must take the time to explain what the project is and how it will help the business people improve their jobs.
Very few people understand what business intelligence is about and how it will help them in their daily activities until they have experienced it first hand. Involving the business should take the form of informational meetings on BI concepts and terms (“brown bag lunches” are a good way to do this) in addition to ad hoc meetings.
Informal one-on-one meetings with business unit leaders and their teams along with statuses to key business leaders on the progress of the project are also things to include in business outreach efforts.
Obtaining active and long-term business involvement in your business intelligence project helps to ensure that, “if you build it, they will come.”
