Hi Kalman,
I would merely call a 'BI Consultant' anyone putting themselves forward to
the business as being able to 'deliver business value' (sustained profitable growth) through the kind of technologies we are discussing.....whether they are an employee or external I would not consider important....
My point is only that lots and lots of people put themselves forward to companies (including their own) as some sort of EDW/BI 'Consultant' yet they are also of the opinion that it is the 'problem of the business to actually produce the value'...
I prefer to work with clients where producing value is everyones problem.
.
Interestingly, not only are consultants like this rare, companies who are able to have everyone committed to profitable growth are also rare...
..the
IT shops so frequently consider their problem ends at the screen and not a t money in the bank. IT shops typically understand so little of what it actually takes to deliver sustained profit growth through BO technologies they are often the single biggest cause of project failure themselves!! Al l the while protesting how hard they are 'trying to help'.....it w ould be funnier if companies were not being so poorly served by their IT shops.
I have tried to start conversations on dwlist and even a yahoo group for 'BI Consultants' to discuss the issues of actually delivering business value, alas, our indsutry seems to more interested in 'feeds and speeds'
and 'database A is better than database B', and 'ETL tool A is better than
ETL tool B'...
A sad state of affairs....we deserve all the criticism we get we a s we have delivered such poor results....and 'BI Consultants' who cannot act ually deliver sustained profitable growth and do not think it is their problem t o do so have contributed to the poor reputation of the BI industry, in my opinion.
Let them call themselves....DataStage Programmer....Cognos Report Writer.....Business Objects Report Writer.......Da tabase Designer.....and let's have the guys who deliver value call themselves something different......a friend of mine calls himself a 'Profit Archit ect'....and that sounds like a good idea to me...
If builders built buildings the way IT people build systems the buildings would fall down.
Best Regards
Peter
Original Message:
-----------------
From: SQLUSA via dw-select dw-select@Groups.ITtoolbox.com
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 22:59:09 -0400
To: peter@peternolan.com
Subject: Re: [dw-select] Business Value of BI
>And you don't get that kind of value if there is a disconnect between
the BI consultant and the business....
Pete - a little clarification. BI consultant is an external consultant?
Could that be an employee?
Kalman Toth, Database, Data Warehouse & BI Architect
URL:
05
Training in the World
----- Original Message -----
From: " pete... via dw-select" <dw-select@Groups.ITtoolbox.com>
To: "SQLUSA" <technicalsqlusa@earthlink.net>
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 3:43 PM
Subject: [dw-select] Business Value of BI
>
> Hi All,
> I thought I would rename the thread....
> :soapbox on.
> I am always intrigued that so many BI practitioners believe their
> responsibility and value to the business seems to end at the
> presentation of something on a screen or a piece of paper.
> And I am very grateful that so many BI consultants believe that it is up
> to 'someone else' to 'show me the money'.
> Personally I believe my role in a client is to deliver a sustainable
> competitive advantage which delivers superior business performance and
> sustained profitable growth over a long period of time. That's my
> favourite job to do.
> Even more interestingly, I have found that BI/DW groups like this almost
> never generate discussion on the business value of BI.
> Personally I am very proud of the profit improvements I have been able
> to contribute to my clients......and I am very proud that my
fastest
> payback project paid back before we even went live beating one I heard
> of that took 14 days....
> The largest percentage terms of gross revenue I have been a part of is a
> company that managed to increase revenue around 15% on a flat cost base
> over 2 years.
> With business payback measured in months, BI is one of the most
> compelling business investments that a company might choose to make..
..
> And you don't get that kind of value if there is a disconnect between
> the BI consultant and the business....
> The most valuable BI consultants can add percentage points of gross
> profit.
> :soapbox off.
> Best Regards
> Peter
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Susan via dw-select [
> Sent: 04 August 2006 18:17
> To: pete...
> Subject: RE: [dw-select] Re: RE:Re: RE: RE: DTS - is it viable?
> Better Yet:
> Why not: The Business Drives the Product.
> As it's the needs of the business that indicates the structure of the
> data warehouse and the queries performed upon it.
> Cheers.
> From: richard.bailey via dw-select
> [
> Sent: August 4, 2006 11:04 AM
> To: Petrie, Susan
> Subject: RE:[dw-select] Re: RE:Re: RE: RE: DTS - is it viable?
> I agree with SQLUSA I think your poster should read "remember your
> customer is the business"
> ---------------Original Message---------------
> >> Every dw/bi practitioner should have a poster in their office with
> the
> >following inscribed:
> >> Where's the business value?
> >
> >I disagree.
> >DW/BI practitioner's job is to deliver the end results.
> >Business managers jobs to decide about the business value.
> >Kalman Toth, Database, Data Warehouse & BI Architect
> >URL:
> Training
> >in the World
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "stobias via dw-select" <dw-select@Groups.ITtoolbox.com>
> >To: "SQLUSA" <technicalsqlusa@earthlink.net>
> >Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 8:25 AM
> >Subject: RE:[dw-select] Re: RE: RE: DTS - is it viable?
> >>
> >> Alastair and Martyn.Richard.Jones: good posts!