Golf is like Business Intelligence!!

I was at the golf course this past weekend. As I was having a "heart to heart" conversation with the course (ok, it was more like me pleading to the course), I realized how much the game of golf is like investing in BI.

Let's take a look. Golf is unlike other games we play. For example, if you want to play soccer, you'll go get a ball, get 22 of your friends together , find an open space and take four sticks and stick them at the opposite ends for goal posts and you are ready to go. Not with GOLF!

Even before you set foot on the course, you have to buy a set of clubs. ($2000 for a decent set). Balls - $15.00 a dozen, unless you want the soft core max distance "I can fly like a bird" kind.
Tees - $1.50
Gloves - $16.00
Shoes - $150.00
Attire ; $100.00
Lessons (unless of course you want to invest in more balls and be the laughing stock of your buddies) - $500
Round of Golf - $50.00
Your game? - Sketchy at best for the first few rounds.

Now let's look at your BI initiative:
Hardware - Depending on how many you buy, could go upto $150K.
ETL Software (Server licences) - $750K
ETL Software (Developer licenses) - $150K
Database Server license - $100K ( Again, depending on how many you buy, this could go upto $500K)
BI Server License - $60K
BI Developer Licenses - $2K

Now, you have the equipment. Next step? Hire a Golf Pro (Usually known as Big Six consulting firm) to do a gap analysis and come up with a roadmap for implementation - $200K

You can't go golfing without your buddies now, can you? (Well, if you are like me and obsessed with the game of golf, you might just do that.) But I am not talking about us corner case scenarios then, am I? Let's call your buddies your implementation team. Total cost over a period of 8 months of implementation? $1.9 M

So, like the game of Golf, even before you set foot on the course, you have spent about $2M. Then, after the round of golf (implementation period), about $4M. Get the picture? ROI??

What can you do to avoid costly mistakes?
Step1: The first thing to do is to go through the "Measure Everything That Really Impacts Customers (METRIC)" process . Once you have the repository of metrics and have decided how you want to see your data and how often, then you can go to step 2.
Step 2: Prioritize your measures according to business need. Apply the 80/20 rule. Basically, 20% of your metrics should give you 80% of the value.
Step 3: Evaluate technology solutions that fit your need
Step 4: Purchase
Step 5: Implement
Step 6: Test and Deploy

Maximum value can be achieved with a little careful planning upfront. Now, you can go play a good round (and if you are in Jacksonville, call me for that round) of golf knowing that your BI initiative is better than 60% (according to Gartner) of the initiatives out there!