Business Analytics for Managers: Taking Business Intelligence beyond Reporting

Chapter 7. Structuring of a Business Intelligence Competency Center

In Chapter 6, we looked at the business's creation of source data and thus completed our presentation of the business analytics (BA) model from Chapter 1. In this chapter, we discuss how the activities of the BA model can be carried out via a business intelligence competency center (BICC).

WHAT IS A BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE COMPETENCY CENTER?

A BICC is a forum that includes analytical and business competencies as well as IT competencies. This combination of competencies ensures that BA has the necessary impact on the organization. The establishment of a BICC is based on experiences that show barriers in relation to competencies and organizational structure to be the most limiting factor when it comes to the successful creation and execution of BA.

The creation of a BICC is the establishment of an organizational entity, which includes different competencies across the organization and which becomes a problem-solving forum. Its purpose is to maximize the revenue flow from business analytics initiatives and to make BA a business process, rather than an IT process. In other words, a BICC works to ensure that the business's needs drive all technical initiatives, thereby making sure that the business does not get a data warehouse with a life of its own, independent of the needs of the business. Similarly, a BICC works to ensure that the business realizes the potential benefits of BA, and to ensure that the necessary analytical ...