The technical challenges of a successful BI project, from maintaining adequate data quality to integrating data from multiple transactional sources, are well documented. But cultural barriers are as important, if not more important, to the outcome of any BI project, according to Howard Dresner.
Dresner, an independent consultant considered the "father" of business intelligence (he coined the term while working as a Gartner analyst back in the late 1980's), says companies need to develop a performance-directed culture, one in which business and IT work together, to ensure the success of any BI or performance management project.
SearchDataManagement.com recently spoke with Dresner, whose new book on the topic of BI and culture, Profiles in Performance: Business Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change, debuts in October 2009.
In this 15-minute podcast, appropriate for both business and IT professionals, listeners will:
- Gain an understanding of the role of culture in BI projects (1:15).
- Learn why it is important to develop a performance-directed culture (2:25).
- Find out how to avoid common barriers to creating and maintaining a performance-directed culture (4:25).
- Get advice on how to develop a performance-directed culture, including Dresner's newly created performance culture maturity model (6:45).
- Find out how the Cleveland Clinic was able to create and sustain its successful BI project and culture (12:20).
About the speaker: Howard Dresner is founder and president of Dresner Advisory Services LLC and author of Profiles in Performance: Business Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change (John Wiley & Sons). He is well known for coining the term "business intelligence" in 1989 and spent 13 years at Gartner, where he was a research fellow and lead analyst for business intelligence. In 2005, he left Gartner and joined Hyperion Solutions as chief strategy officer, helping to establish it as the leader in performance management. When Oracle acquired Hyperion in early 2007, Dresner opted to start his own consultancy.
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