Collaboration gets BI Tools for BIG PICTURE view...
BI players tout user simplicity
By Heather Harreld
November 4, 2002 1:01 am PT
BI (BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE) vendors are maneuvering to inject BI solutions with reporting tools that make analytics accessible to a broader set of users and that enable collaboration that offers a big-picture view of corporate performance.
Well really - I mis-state: The BI Tools are getting ready to support Collaboration it seems from this article.
It also seems that the strategy these days is still to use the collaborate word loosely - not in a well defined architecture.
It is assumed by all these vendors that magically they integrate reporting tools with their BI solutions that allow more users to have access & collaboration will magically appear - that they integrate into a Portal framework - and voila - Collaboration Nirvana appears.
While this is great for Marketing folks to exploit the "Collaborate" word - it gives us bad tastes as we remember the KM word - how it was used so much before & now we don't use it any more (that much that is) - because the Promise of KM was not delivered many times - we have talked about that before.
Well this article hits on two of my favorite, passionate topics, "Effective Collaboration" and the BIG PICTURE thing.
In this context, Effective Collaboration applies to how robust is this integration, what features of a reporting tool are to be used to allow what levels of users to make decisions better. There is always the assumption that broadening the user base for a tool makes it more appealing to the organizations who might want to use it - but that old tradeoff - are these broader set of users contributing to the analysis or just delivering reports to their managers who make the decisions?
As we all know – those of us who collaborate in decision-making mode – new questions materialize in a collaborative discussion that is driving decision-making. That session may call for new “report”. “Report” has such a “batch”, or implied “later” connotation. Later is NOT good when you’re making decisions that affect real-time performance or a project’s immediate need for a decision.
So - what IS the best way to give a Collaborative set of users the right integration - the use that TRULY supports their needs?
The question remains - how do users REALLY want to USE these tools - how should they integrate into the Collaboration Platform - for real-time benefit to the decision-making process?
And then, the BIG PICTURE thing - how truthful is the report - how many disparate data sources that are not in sync are used to generate these reports? Is this REALLY supporting a SINGLE VERSION of the TRUTH? How many times today do we still deal with different managers coming to the SAME meetings with their reports - all from the SAME data - showing DIFFERENT results - are we just exploding THIS problem to a more real-time environment?
There is NO substitution for good database design - for good systems integration - for real-time interfaces - that make these problems go away. But do we just assume that these are not issues today? We better NOT assume - we all know what that means, assuming that is...
The REAL issue here is – [with so many tools to integrate - no one vendor has all the pieces - we need to worry about solidarity of vision] - are these vendors loosely on the tails of each other? Or are we really benefiting from a level of integration between them that allows us to get a full-blown Collaboration-enabling "SOLUTION" that meets all of our needs?
This is another reason to participate in the CoP on Effective Collaboration !!!
Here you can make your views known - you can help define the requirements for a platform or solution to support real-time BI tools use - as real-time as it is effectively possible to deliver that is...
BI tools are just one component of an "Effective Collaborative" solution. Let's get the vendors to realize the big picture - see which ones can step up to the plate & make it happen for us - or are we going to take the lead & drive the process?
So - GO SIGN UP NOW (on the Yahoo! Group too maybe) - participate - contribute - MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Google It!