How to Accelerate Analytics Adoption When

Business Intelligence Maturity Is Low

Published: 7 April 2017 ID: G00322677

Analyst(s): Melody Chien

Organizations with low levels of BI maturity often struggle to maximize value

from their data assets. Data and analytics leaders can evolve their
organizations' BI capabilities for digital business transformation by taking
simple steps in the areas of people, strategy, governance and technology.

Key Challenges
■ Organizations with low business intelligence (BI) maturity typically lack the budgeting, staffing,
planning and collaboration with stakeholders that are needed to apply analytics to dynamic
business changes.
■ Data and analytics leaders sometimes find it difficult to do organizationwide strategic planning,
which helps them consolidate all resources and business requirements and design holistic
solutions.
■ Due to a lack of central guidance for data and analytics management, organizations with low
maturity struggle to deal with poor data quality, disengagement of business users, and
integration of various data sources.
■ Traditional reporting-based BI platforms are slowing BI deployment because they cannot handle
data discovery from exponential growth in data volume, a wide variety of data sources and
complexity of data.

Recommendations
Data and analytics leaders responsible for analytics and BI modernization should:

■ Build business-driven "virtual BI teams" that include business unit leaders and users ("people").
■ Develop a short-term but holistic BI strategy that aligns business units with IT/BI teams
("strategy").
■ Establish a basic data governance framework that can be expanded as BI maturity increases
("governance").

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 ■ Choose packaged analytics applications for a quick start ("technology").

Table of Contents

Strategic Planning Assumption............................................................................................................... 3

Introduction............................................................................................................................................ 3
Analysis.................................................................................................................................................. 5
Build Business-Driven "Virtual BI Teams" That Include Business Unit Leaders and Users ("People")
.........................................................................................................................................................5
Involve Business Stakeholders in Analytics Decision Making....................................................... 6
Leverage Business Users' Domain Knowledge as an Extension of BI Analytics Capabilities........ 6
Develop a Short-Term but Holistic BI Strategy That Aligns Business Units With IT/BI Teams
("Strategy")....................................................................................................................................... 6
Create a BI Roadmap With Achievable Goals, Clear Timetables, Milestones and Performance
Measurement............................................................................................................................. 7
Start With a Small Project With Simple or Well-Defined Business Processes for a Quick Win...... 7
Establish a Basic Data Governance Framework That Can Be Expanded as BI Maturity Increases
("Governance")................................................................................................................................. 7
Find Out What Information You Have in the Organization............................................................ 8
Start With Critical Data That Is Commonly Shared Within the Organization, but Is Problematic
...................................................................................................................................................8
Treat Governance as Influence and Agreement, Not Restriction.................................................. 8
Choose Packaged Analytics Applications for a Quick Start ("Technology")........................................ 9
Choose Analytics Applications That Best Fit Requirements and Company Culture...................... 9
Use Free or Low-Cost Proofs of Concept Before Purchase.........................................................9
Gartner Recommended Reading.......................................................................................................... 10

List of Tables

Table 1. Characteristics of Low BI Maturity............................................................................................. 4

List of Figures

Figure 1. BI Maturity Components.......................................................................................................... 5

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 Strategic Planning Assumption
By 2020, smart, governed, Apache Hadoop/Spark-, search- and visual-based data discovery
capabilities will converge into a single set of next-generation data discovery capabilities, as
components of modern BI and analytics platforms.

Introduction
A big obstacle to maximize value from data assets is low BI and analytics maturity. According to
Gartner surveys over the last seven years, 71% of respondents are classed as "low maturity." They
fall into Level 1 (unaware) or Level 2 (opportunistic) of Gartner's five-level maturity model (see
"ITScore for BI and Analytics"). In Level 1 organizations, BI capabilities are largely spreadsheet-
based analyses and personal data extracts. In Level 2 organizations, individual business units
pursue their own BI and analytics initiatives. Low maturity is especially evident in government
agencies and education institutions. (See Note 1 for a diagram of the Gartner Maturity Model for
analytics.)

Organizations with low BI maturity exhibit specific characteristics that slow down the spread of BI
capabilities. For example:

■ IT infrastructure is primitive.
■ There is little collaboration between IT and business users.
■ BI function is mainly report-centric with spreadsheets, canned reports, ad hoc query and some
dashboards as delivery models.
■ The central IT team generally handles the content authoring and data model preparation.

Table 1 below offers more details on what low BI maturity looks like.

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 Table 1. Characteristics of Low BI Maturity

Analytics Workflow Component Characteristics of Low BI Maturity

IT infrastructure Primitive and disparate data silos

BI functions/platform Reporting-centric, embedded in ERP systems, or simple disparate reporting tools

BI skills Mainly in spreadsheet; no or little experience in modern BI technology, tools and

platforms

Dedicated BI resources No dedicated BI team; IT team plays BI roles; isolated business users with
specific business analytic knowledge

Deliverables Spreadsheets, canned reports, ad hoc query, and some dashboards

Analytics processes Predefined analytics data model; processes handled by IT team

Data source Mainly internal and very few external data sources

Content authoring IT and some business power users

Data governance No or little/basic data governance

Analytics types Descriptive analysis and diagnosis analysis on what happened

Data ingestion and preparation IT-produced and controlled

Performance measurement No or little/basic performance measurement

Common data analytics issues Poor data quality in consistency and integrity; error-prone manual tasks

BI = business intelligence; ERP = enterprise resource planning

Source: Gartner (April 2017)

There are many causes for these characteristics — for example, limited budgets, lack of expertise,
inexperience in strategic planning, and primitive or aging infrastructure. The internal business
culture may be unaware of the need to improve analytics skills and some users may resist new
technology.

Organizations with low BI maturity usually lack a dedicated BI team. There may be no one in the
company who has overall responsibility for analytics. Low BI maturity severely constrains analytics
leaders in charge of modernizing BI. It negatively affects every part of the analytics workflow. As a
result, analytics leaders struggle to accelerate and expand the use of modern BI capabilities.

But organizations with low BI maturity can learn from the success of more mature organizations.
Without "reinventing the wheel" and making the same mistakes, analytics leaders in low BI maturity
organizations can make the most of their current resources to speed up modern BI deployment and
start the journey toward higher BI maturity.

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 The four different BI maturity components — people, strategy, governance and technology —
illustrated in Figure 1 are expanded on in the next section. Data and analytics leaders can use the
recommendations applicable to these four areas to move forward to the next level of maturity.

Figure 1. BI Maturity Components

Source: Gartner (April 2017)

Analysis
Build Business-Driven "Virtual BI Teams" That Include Business Unit Leaders and
Users ("People")
Organizations with low BI maturity often address problems tactically and individually within each
business unit, instead of looking at the whole picture. Information silos, data duplication and
inconsistency, and overlapping resources are common in these organizations.

Data and analytics leaders should actively reach out to their partners across the organization with
business and IT users, and bridge the gap between business units. They should bring all
stakeholders into the discussion and form a virtual BI team. Any investment in tools, technology and

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 process changes from IT and BI teams should be aligned with strategic business objectives.
Extending the virtual BI team to business units across the organization will ensure closer alignment
of IT, BI and business unit teams.

Involve Business Stakeholders in Analytics Decision Making

To accelerate the adoption of analytics across the entire organization, data and analytics leaders
need simply to change their approach to decision making. Traditionally, analytics leaders have made
critical BI decisions at the top and then communicated them downward. They have also tended to
focus more on technology than on business initiatives.

Business unit leaders in low maturity organizations do not get timely support from IT/BI teams,
meaning they gradually disengage from them and start doing their own analytics. IT and BI leaders
should involve business stakeholders in the analytics discussion and let them speak from different
perspectives.

Aligning business with analytics is meant to have the effect of identifying key business drivers and
critical business objectives, and how analytics can support these. This conversation is especially
critical throughout the whole BI project cycle to ensure that BI initiatives align with business
problems. Many projects are canceled or fail because the business justification is no longer valid, or
because IT/BI teams lack awareness of the latest changes in business.

Leverage Business Users' Domain Knowledge as an Extension of BI Analytics Capabilities

Organizations with low BI maturity typically lack business analytics resources in their central IT
team. One overlooked and valuable resource is business users' own specific knowledge in their
domain. For example, a sales manager in the sales department will have a thorough understanding
of how orders are populated and processed. Without hiring external resources, BI leaders can
extend the analytics capabilities to this role when analyzing sales performance.

Through close cooperation and coordination between business units and central BI/IT teams, the
virtual BI team can reduce the upfront investment in analytics resources. In the case of new
analytics initiatives, if no suitable internal skills and competencies exist in the organization, these
can be built within the virtual BI team over time.

Develop a Short-Term but Holistic BI Strategy That Aligns Business Units With IT/BI
Teams ("Strategy")
Data and analytics leaders in low BI maturity organizations sometimes try to accelerate results to
get the biggest ROI by rushing into big projects with new tools without careful consideration and
comprehensive planning. Instead, they should coordinate with IT and business leaders to develop a
holistic BI strategy. They should also view the strategy as a continuous and dynamic process, so
that any future business or environmental change can be taken into account.

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 Create a BI Roadmap With Achievable Goals, Clear Timetables, Milestones and
Performance Measurement
The majority of low BI maturity organizations do not have BI strategies. They live task by task (or
project by project), instead of looking at strategy as a whole. As with an IT project roadmap, a BI
roadmap should clearly define timetables, milestones, priorities, resources, business initiatives and
objectives, KPIs and performance measurement.

The roadmap can be project-based (one roadmap for one project) or it can encompass all BI-related
projects. If it's project based, the roadmap process should be iterative, allowing for changes. On
first use, analytics leaders should work on a short-term roadmap of up to 12 months. This will give
their team enough time to apply best practices and react to any change in business or technology.
The analytics team should keep the roadmap up to date. The roadmap enables executive teams
and stakeholders to evaluate the pace, direction and milestones of the analytics initiative.

Performance measurement should be a standard feature of the roadmap to measure progress and
results. Success is not determined by implementation of new technology or tools, but by
achievement of business outcomes. Acquiring new technology will not by itself improve the
organization's maturity. Only when the technology brings specific business outcomes will its
maturity levels in the BI capability improve. Therefore, the analytics performance measurement
needs to be tightly aligned with business problems or specific business outcomes. In terms of
common problems that exist within low maturity organizations, examples of performance
measurement might include the number of spreadsheets being reduced, critical data inconsistency
problems being solved, or the number of data sources being integrated.

Start With a Small Project With Simple or Well-Defined Business Processes for a Quick Win
When deciding what BI project to start with, data and analytics leaders should work with business
leaders to determine the requirements and priorities. It's easier to begin a project with one single
requirement that has simple or well-defined business processes, such as automating sales forecast
tasks done manually in spreadsheets. Low maturity organizations have lots of spreadsheets, which
tend to be error-prone, time-consuming and isolated. Implementing automatic sales forecast
processes improves data quality and the efficiency of business processes.

Do not start with the organization's biggest pain point unless it can be solved through better
analysis alone, which it normally cannot. Pick the project with the highest probability of success,
which normally has the fewest nonanalytic contingencies upon success.

Also, do not start more than three projects at the same time, because fewer projects allows for
greater focus on each. Build on successes by applying the lessons and experience to larger or more
complex initiatives.

Establish a Basic Data Governance Framework That Can Be Expanded as BI

Maturity Increases ("Governance")
Most organizations with low BI maturity do not have a formal data governance program in place.
They may have thought about it and understand the importance of it, but do not know what to do

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 and where to begin. Analytics leaders can consider governance as the "rules of the game" that can
support business objectives and also enable the organization to balance out the opportunities and
risks in the digital environment.

Find Out What Information You Have in the Organization

Start by creating a data inventory of information assets — such as tables, spreadsheets, reports,
dashboards, tools and applications — and their locations in IT-managed systems, in business units
or in external locations. Creating the data inventory identifies what assets exist and where they are.
Analytics leaders can then plan how these assets can be accessed and managed.

Next, identify who is using the data, any reports generated, the access controls in place, security
concerns and regulatory compliance requirements. Getting this information can be challenging, so
analytics leaders need to bring business teams into the discussion.

Start With Critical Data That Is Commonly Shared Within the Organization, but Is
Problematic
Having established a complete picture of existing data assets, the analytics team can set priorities
on what should be governed. The rule of thumb is to begin with critical data that is commonly
shared within the organization and has caused problems. One example of critical data, and a good
place to begin the governance program, is customer information. In low maturity organizations, data
quality is generally poor. Analytics leaders can set up proper guidance for managing the customer
data during its life cycle so that the data governance principles are being set across the entire
organization. By doing this, analytics leaders can ensure data consistency and integrity.

Treat Governance as Influence and Agreement, Not Restriction

Often, people see data governance as a restriction of certain things or regulations to follow. The
essence of a data governance program is to establish an agreeable framework for working on the
data. Data governance should not be treated as restriction but more as agreement and influence. It
should be a positive force that defines the rules for the business based on agreement by the
relevant parties. It should not be defined by, or the responsibility of, IT/BI teams alone. Instead, it
should be a cooperative program among IT, BI, business units, legal, accounting or HR as
stakeholders.

Low maturity organizations have been operating loosely because of missing governance practices,
so initial resistance from users may appear. The close communication among users and analytics
leaders can help relieve some of the concerns from business users. At the same time, sponsorship
from executive members, especially the CIO, is critical to make governance programs work. The
success of data governance programs requires a mindset change from top executives right down to
individual users.

In the beginning, this governance program may be very basic and limited in scope. The goal at this
stage for low BI maturity organizations is to lay a good foundation. The governance framework can
be gradually built with broader initiatives as the organization gains experience and maturity,

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 eventually aiming toward the formal enterprise information management (EIM) or master data
management (MDM) programs.

Choose Packaged Analytics Applications for a Quick Start ("Technology")

Low maturity organizations often struggle with limited resources in budgets, infrastructure and
analytics skills. Packaged analytics applications are a way to quickly deploy analytic capabilities.
They are designed to address specific line-of-business requirements with built-in domain expertise
and best practices. They provide faster time to results, especially if they are delivered as SaaS. In
addition, they require fewer resources from IT for deployment and management. These advantages
can compensate for limited resources.

Choose Analytics Applications That Best Fit Requirements and Company Culture
When evaluating analytics applications, data and analytics leaders should consider more than just
their cost. Other important considerations include:

■ Embedded analytics functions

■ Ease of use and integration
■ Training and customer support

Especially for organizations with limited BI resources and a scarcity of analytics talent, applications
should provide easy ramp-up and self-guidance capability for quick adoption. The priority for
analytics leaders in low maturity organizations is to have a quick start at this stage. They may also
consider the innovation capabilities of applications for future analytics initiatives. Service providers
can be another alternative because they offer implementation services in addition to the application.

Each of these approaches is a quick and easy way to increase speed to solution and to reduce
upfront costs in acquiring BI talent, infrastructure and technology. Data and analytics leaders should
leverage the technology, skills and experiences already available in the market, rather than
"reinventing the wheel," to build their respective organization's analytics competence and success.

Use Free or Low-Cost Proofs of Concept Before Purchase

There is really no "one-stop shop" approach for modern BI capabilities. No single vendor can offer
all the analytics functions or technology. Data and analytics leaders may have to choose different
tools for different capabilities in various business cases. The good news is that many new analytics
software purchases will begin as free or low-cost proofs of concept (POCs), enabling buyers to try
the software before they make a decision on purchase.

Data and analytics leaders should evaluate the ease of use, degree of integration with existing
systems and actual business benefits during the POC period.

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 Gartner Recommended Reading
Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.

"ITScore for BI and Analytics"

"Use the Gartner Business Analytics Compass to Drive Strategy"

"Select the Right Business Intelligence and Analytics Tool for the Right User"

"Overcoming Obstacles That Prevent the Deployment and Use of a Modern BI and Analytics
Platform"

"Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms"

"Best Practices for Driving Successful Analytics Governance"

"Establish a Framework for Analytics Governance"

Note 1 The Gartner BI and Analytics Maturity Model

Gartner's maturity model gives data and analytics leaders a way to identify the level of
sophistication that their BI and analytics initiatives must reach to support enterprise goals. The
model also helps chart a roadmap for improvements. For full details, see "ITScore for BI and
Analytics."

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 Figure 2. BI and Analytics Maturity Model

ACE = analytics center of excellence; BI = business intelligence; BICC = business intelligence competency center; CAO = chief analytics
officer; CDO = chief data officer

Source: Gartner (April 2017)

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