Pat Hennel

While it may be tempting to get your BI software from your ERP vendor, choosing a best-of-breed BI software solution that's ERP-agnostic might be better.

Phased deployment is an implementation strategy in which a company incrementally rolls out a business intelligence software solution for best results.

Like other operational processes, a data management policy is not static, and must be reviewed and updated on a periodic basis. Consistency is key.

If your dashboard tells you that sales are down, but not why they’re down, do you really have a dashboard? Simply stated, the answer is NO. A dashboard that shows key performance indicators or a list of metrics – but doesn't provide the details to help you determine why those metrics are up or down – is not a dashboard (or at least, not an effective dashboard).

Embarking on a business intelligence (BI) project can be intimidating. For many organizations, it’s new territory – a major step beyond simple reporting. A BI project shares many of the same characteristics as more traditional IT projects. However, there's aspects of a BI project that can help make the deployment a success.