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!

Failures!

So what are some of the reasons that cause an Informatics initiative to fail? Over 50% of them fail or fail to meet expectations! If you have read all of my previous posts, you know some of them already, but let's summarize and re-examine some of those.

1. Lack of well defined measurements
For an informatics initiative to be successful, this, folks is number one. Talk with your internal and external customers. What do they need to see on a daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly basis? Understand how each measure is contributing to the well being of the organization.

2. Data Quality
When you bring data in, ensure quality. There are several industry standards that allow you to ensure this. A little extra time spent up front will help you make better decisions.

3. Lack of Sponsorship
You can build the coolest platform in the world, but no one will use it if there is no sponsorship from key executives in your organization. Even before you start, get the lines of business executives involved and "SELL" them the idea of informatics and how their organizations can benefit from efficient use of this technology.

4. Running parallel
You may think that breaking your informatics initiative into two tracks (ETL track and BI track) will save you time and money, but in reality, what comes into your warehouse might not be what the customer wants to see.

5. Tool/Vendor selection
Tools are tools. They don't produce information unless you tell them to! Without a well defined plan of execution, the coolest tools will sit there and collect dust. Get your IT folks involved early on. They have done the research and can guide you through the process.

Tools & Technologies for Informatics

Now that you have defined your measures and know exactly what data you need (if you haven't done this already, read my previous posts), how do you go about a "tool/technology" selection. I am putting those words in parantheses, because it might just end up being a new IT department that you just bought! Be careful!

1. Define your SLA (Service Level Agreements)
You know your measurements. You know what data you need. Now do you know how "fast" you need it? This is a common mistake people make. Everyone wants their data now. But does it really make sense to have all of it "now"? For example, if your measure is "quarterly revenue" or "physician performance", do you really need your data now? If you are only making decisions based on that data once every quarter, why do you need it now? So, define your service level agreement for each of your measures. For some measures, you will need your data faster than others. Understanding your SLAs early on will help you spend your money wisely without spending too much money on esoteric technologies that you may never use.


2. Evaluate your technology as it pertains to your business need
In 1998, I had a business that did staffing services and built custom applications for customers. Whenever a customer approached me with a problem, looking to build a new solution, the first thing I would do is search for a product that is already in the market that fit his/her need. If there was one that satisfied his/her need, I would simply point them to the product. The point being, if you can utilize existing technology and resources to satisfy your need, why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new technology? So if all you need is to have one data file loaded every month, SQL Loader or other existing technology might do the job. You don't need AbInitio or Informatica for that. Again, understanding your need, SLAs etc will help you make better decisions.

3. Cheaper options are here!!
You wouldn't go buy a Ferrari to take your three kids to school, now would you? First of all, there won't be any room to fit everyone in, second, it would cost you a small fortune and by the time your kids are done with it, your heart, wallet and pride all will be broken. While some technology vendors have reigned supreme in the DW/BI market, there are cheaper options out there who perform just as well as the big boys. Expressor is a promising newcomer in the ETL market. So are Talend and Jitterbit. Pentaho, BIRT, Jaspersoft etc. are all viable BI options. And if your argument is that open source has no support, think again! They don't cost you a fortune and do their jobs well. Some even outperform the big ones, as rumor has it.