Business Intelligence,now what ? 2

[Recce]

Good day,

This may be a funny question or situation but, to me its a real problem and I am not sure where or in which forum to discuss this. I was hoping someone could make a suggestion.

I am working in a BI team for a company with approximately 1000 people. We do the usual Business Intelligence work which include building Cubes, building reports and building and maintaining a few Data Warehouses. All of this in the Microsoft suite of products like SSAS,SSIS and SQL server along with Office 2007 and SharePoint.

The problem that we face is that we have reached a point in the company where, what we do is very monotonous and even boring. It’s like as if we never roll out anything else except for maybe a new Cube or a report. We, ourselves and even some business units are now beginning to ask the question,” What products do we bring to the business" or even "what value do we add to the business".

So, my question is. What can I do to change this. What can I do from a BI point of view, that will be something new for the business or is there a cool idea or two out there of what I can do to make people think different about our BI team. Is there something new out there which I can implement or do which is still BI related.

If anyone has any ideas then please will you let me know. Even if it is just a link of some sort that I can go and look at to see what other BI teams are doing which is different from the usual.

Thanks for your time.

Regards


"We know nothing but, that what we know is not the truth..." - Me

 

[RiverGuy]

Has your company integrated Data Mining? SSAS supports some data mining algorithms. It would be something to look into if you're simply looking for new technology. However, I think the best value comes from the overall project as pertains to the business and of which the BI projects are a part. So I wouldn't think creating a new data mart and cube would be "boring" if the business showed it to produce tangible results.

 

[SQLSister]

Odd here nobody has ever questioned what value those of us in BI bring to the business. We have a huge backlog of development work paid for by our clients, so we are a profit center.

Perhaps they need to be educated on what the data and reporting you provide gives them that wouldn't have without you? Perhaps you need to be more proactive in suggesting what they could get out of the datbase if someone took the time to build it. Or maybe you just need to be more visible to management (Not usually a problem for BI as managment tends to be our customer). Or maybe you just need to toot your own horn more and pay more attention to office politics. I'll bet somebody else, not you, is getting credit for the work you did.

Who organizationally is questioning your value? Are they the same people you are providing rpoducts to? If so then you have to wonder if you are not giving them what they actually need. Ask them what they think you should be doing or where there are unmet needs. If it isn't the people you provide the products to, then enlist their help in getting the word out about how great your team is at providing value to the organization.

As far as it being boring to keep doing cubes and reports, exactly what did you think BI would do that was more interesting? I find data fascinating, so I'm not bored doing this work, each project is different in it's own ways with it's own challenges. If you find it boring, then this attitude probaly shows up to your customers and helps give the impression that what you think what you do isn't important. If you are truly bored, maybe BI is not the profession for you. Or maybe just a change of company would do it, if they aren't keeping you too busy to be bored, maybe you just need to move on to somewhere that will.

"NOTHING is more important in a database than integrity." ESquared

 

[Recce]

Thanks for the input people...I must say I realy appreciate the reply's. Its's always good to just hear an objective view or two or just to hear what other think.

There is some very valuble input from you. Thanks for this.

I want to comment on the some of the points that you highlighted which makes sence to me and also on which I will concentrate in order to change some things in our team and for the business.

RiverGuy,you mentioned DataMining and I must admit we do not spend the time on the DataMining that we should. I will make an effort to form DataMining part of our output in order to try and give business better insight.

SQLSister,your point of being more visisble to management is definitely a problem on our side. It is something that we spoke about the other day as well.We also need to get more involved with management and there needs in order to deliver the right package for the right people.

Thanks again.



"We know nothing but, that what we know is not the truth..." - Me