How can one include BI in their budget?

#1

Businesses are getting better and better at collecting data. However, reports have said that the data utilization is still in early single-digits - barely scratching the surface!

One of their primary challenges is building business intelligence into their company’s existing budget. Considering that BI is no longer optional - there’s just too much data being generated, captured and stored - getting value out of it is the key to surviving and thriving.

As Dundas BI Champions who are embedding BI into your business processes, what are your recommendations for businesses looking to start their BI journey? How can they fit BI into their existing budgets?

#2

Budgeting is a fine art and I won’t pretend that I have the answers on how to do that.

However, I did have a thought - if a company is early in its BI journey, and budgeting is hard either because management is unsure of its value or because revenue isn’t good enough to make more room in the budget, then that should be the focus - revenue.

There are SO many things you can visualize and analyze with BI. It’s easy to trail off and suddenly end up with an animated world map of how many cheeseburgers are consumed each hour…

So, if we want to get more budget, then we need to earn it. Focus on revenue-boosting metrics. Assess the revenue impacts from BI work. Look for others in the company who could use better data metrics and viz and help them improve revenue.

This, of course, isn’t optimal for customer service or other metrics, but if the money is the constraint… address it first.

#3

Keeping in line with Ken’s thoughts - albeit from a different perspective - BI can also be an efficient way to reduce costs. Using BI to not only identify inefficiencies but to also come up with a solution can be a great way to show value.

1 Like
#4

really consider the ROI of the tool you choose. It’s great to have the biggest and best but if you aren’t using 75% of the features and abilities of a product, you can probably find something less expensive that will give you what you need.

1 Like