With times a little tight these days, BI projects need to be more focused. While there are a number of ways to do this, starting with very specific briefing books targeted at a management process or a departmental data mart, think about using relevance and context. Don’t just recreate the hundreds and thousands of reports that have been created before, use new money to rethink old ways.
For example, compare a Google search versus the WolframAlpha search engine. Reporting environments can often look like a Google search list – while there is some relationship, there may not be much relevance. I may have to search around quite a bit to find what I need. Enter the WolframAlpha search, it requires the user to provide appropriate context. With the right context, Walfram works wonderfully, without it, not so much. It only does what it was designed to do.
Like BI tools, each search engine is designed to do different things. By training the users to use the right tool with the right context you have a greater chance to provide people with the information they need to make decisions. You would not ask the same business questions to cubes, reports, dashboards, scorecards, etc.
And yes, perhaps I did force the argument so I could say “WolframAlpha.” And with that said I should probably give a shout out to the folks at Cuil.
PureStone Partners LLC 