Decision-support solutions:
asking the right questions
Computerized decision-support solutions may be deployed for a variety of reasons,
such as to professionalize an in-house (Excel-based) analytics tool or to expand the
scope of BI to new fields of business or regions. Whatever the situation, the questions
to be asked in order to make the right choices remain the same.
Users’ expectations
Who will use the indicators and visualizations produced? In what situations? To make what types of decision?
Technical and software architecture
Where does the data to be analyzed come from? Where is it hosted? What are the volumes involved? In what format or DBMS?
Resource evaluation
What is the budget allocated to the project? What skills are available, and which ones must be acquired?
Deploying a decision-support solution: alone, or with assistance?
Deploying a business intelligence solution is a multi-faceted undertaking involving tasks such as choosing a publisher and a cloud or on-premise architecture and procuring project management support and consultancy, supervision, specific development and training services. These are all excellent reasons to call on a specialist analytics service provider who is well-versed in the best practices.
In addition to guiding these technical choices, customized support can open up new options for rationalizing the project budget, such as calling on outsourced centers of excellence in project mode as needed, considering pre-packaged solutions, and transferring the BI analytics architecture to the cloud.