Why are my team not as engaged with BI as expected?

You might have read different analysts views on this topic, if so, you may find a common theme over the last 10 years. Most companies have the right intent - "I want my teams to have all the tools they need to succeed" or it could be "we are losing ground and need to make sure we halt this now". Great examples of what BI should provide. Have you been in the situation where you and your Board get excited by the compelling ROI that BI can deliver? seen your own organisations data in a BI tool and thought "we need this yesterday". Did you see a whizzy presentation from your BI provider and show the Sales Team some of their slides detailing the value of what they'll be getting? You probably mentioned how fantastic the new software would be and how it will really help them every day. After all, it's great that the company want to invest in helping it's people right? well yes, of course it is and nobody would argue that point. So why do so many BI projects NOT actually deliver the huge ROI and the massive amount of extra business that you have seen proven to you?

One thing I hear more and more is that people don't really use the software in quite the way it had been anticipated. Initially everything looks really simple for the people in the meetings and various demo's but to the people that it's pushed down to it might seem complicated, it might appear clunky or it might just be a case that sales execs, for example, don't want to become analysts; they want to be in front of customers and selling. Hard to argue their thinking.

Another reported concern is that users had little to no involvement in the purchasing decision, so they feel their opinions weren't asked, their needs not considered and the choice of software was not really about them, it was about management.

If you are in the Industries that I have worked within - Automotive, Electrical, Building or Medical, then you are possibly still seeing around 48% of your existing customers actually spending less with you than they did last year. You might also notice (if you look hard enough) that a huge percentage of your ACTIVE customers are not buying any of your flagship products.

Are the issues that BI highlights still not being fully addressed?

In essence, does your team feel like they have been given a flat pack 3 door wardrobe without instructions? I can help them build a solid and value adding structure that doesn't need replacing in a couple of years because it started to go wonky and wasn't used.

If you would like to build a strategy for your business that centres on engagement with your users and delivery of a robust ROI then let's have a chat - regardless of which BI tools are in place.