CPO Blog

Applications
The shift has been happening over the past couple of years from custom BI to application based BI. (see my DM Review article here ). The marketplace is mature enough to start to look at BI as an application similar to how ERP made that shift 10 years ago. So, instead of hearing about a custom data mart, the terminology is changing for functions such as “procure to pay”, “hire to retire”, etc.
An application based approach is much more understandable by business owners and should be more easily funded in the economic environment of 2009. I want to be clear that we are talking about “application based” not “application only” approach. Most organizations will still extend the out-of-the-box applications.
Bottom Line
BI will see a more focused approach to the bottom line of an organization. Areas such as spend management, hr optimization and financial planning will be some of the hottest areas of 2009. This does not preclude traditional top-line approaches for BI, but the bottom line focused projects will get to the front of the line for the funding.

This combination of will make 2009 the year of Bottom Line BI Applications.

My prediction is that a bunch of people will make a bunch of predictions for 2009.
Maybe I’ll do mine during the Holiday weeks coming up.

In the new economic times the need for a BI CoE has gotten new traction. Organizations are looking to do more with less in both development and maintenance. The CoE allows organizations to have the flexibility to deploy the resources to the area with the projects (aka funding). As getting projects funded has become more difficult, the smart organizations are standing up their CoE concurrently with a BI project that has funding. This multi-workstream allows organizations to do what they need to stand up the CoE without it being a stand alone project subject to cancellation.
The CoE as a tack-on to a large project lets everyone win.

For years I have been on a soapbox about the need for data governance. There have been some great adopters on this that have been a pleasure to work with, but it just never seemed to get the mainstream acceptance it deserved.
This past year has really shown the mainstreaming of data governance, and many of us have MDM to thank for it. Seems that MDM scares enough people about the lack of governance and what can happen, that they are taking it seriously. A week does not go by when I am not actively engaged in conversations and/or consulting data governance discussions.
Sometimes mainstreaming is good!

Remember the Seinfeld where George does the opposite? At TDWI, I was talking with a few folks about the state of BI in their company, and it reminds me of the opposite episode.
When some organizations are bunkering down on technology spend, these folks were doing just the opposite for their BI projects. Their management had recognized that BI can be an integral tool in staying ahead of the competition. One of the attendees said that cutting out BI was like cutting back on medical supplies during an epidemic because they cost too much.
This got me thinking about the trends of the last year and how BI has become the ‘have to have’ for business leaders, while many other technologies have become ‘nice to have’.