Along with a passion for data, I also have a passion for teaching and training leveraging my experiences in data, technology, analytics and team development. I have experienced building business intelligence programs from the ground up, reinventing existing programs and resurrecting previously failed programs, so I can certainly understand the various options, questions and unknowns faced when attempting to start this process. In this series, How to Start Your Business Intelligence Program, I will lay out some fundamentals I’ve learned throughout the years to help you build your program effectively the first time or avoid (or at least mitigate) some potentially costly mistakes.

During the course of this series we’ll review:

• Developing your corporate strategy and aligning stakeholder objectives
• Defining the scope of the program & measurement planning (Vision Document, KPIs, Metrics, Targets,etc)
• Selecting the internal team (Executive Sponsors, Business Users and Technical/Data Specialist)
• Analyzing the Current State of Infrastructure, Data Sources, Data Management, Data Storage, Data Integration, Analytics and Reporting
• Selecting Technology & Infrastructure for a Proof of Concept (POC)
• POC Implementation (Including Data Dictionaries, Data Access, Data Cleansing, Data Warehousing, Visualization, etc.)
• Onboarding & Creating value through valuable, repeatable focused wins, scaling throughout the organization and continuously reviewing & improving

This is a very high level overview and the actual steps required, order, time requirements, etc. will vary by organization, but the series is intended to start the dialogue on what is required to initiate digital and data transformation within your organization.

Those who have seen me speak before know that I’m a huge fan of dialogue - so I invite you to comment, question and contribute to this conversation over the course of the series. Next post - Developing Your Business Intelligence Strategy and Aligning Stakeholder Objectives.