Business intelligence (BI) transforms business in any industry, makes it more efficient and faster. Business Intelligence implementation takes place taking into account business goals and objectives to achieve maximum efficiency. Among other things, it helps to increase customer engagement, profits, gain a competitive advantage, make more informed and accurate decisions based on data, etc. However, everything has a second side. There are some business intelligence implementation practices that negatively affect business processes and their effectiveness that can lead to large losses. Let’s look at the worst BI implementation practices that should be avoided.

1. Poor quality data collection

The most important and valuable component of business intelligence is the data that is integrated into the artificial intelligence model. Collection of poor quality data can hinder the entire data management process, including real-time tracking, harmonization, etc. Therefore, it is important to understand what data is needed and organize the right data gathering;

2. Key data sources ignoring

Every company needs to know their key data sources. In addition to the main sources such as data warehouse, CRM, database, etc., it is worth paying attention to data from social networks, web monitoring data, etc. Data from these sources can be very useful, the analysis of which can help to make a better decision;

3. Complexity of BI application

The purpose of business intelligence is to simplify and speed up business processes, decision making, data analysis. The introduction of artificial intelligence, in turn, simplifies the practice of business intelligence;

4. Ignoring business intelligence training

A quality training process for all employees should be organized. Ignoring training can lead to difficulties in work, confusion and problems due to lack of necessary knowledge;

5. Organizational structure and culture

To implement BI it’s necessary to understand company culture and structure. It is important that teams are free to choose their own BI methods based on their needs. Otherwise, an inaccurate data understanding can slow down implementation process and efficiency achievement;

6. Poor understanding of BI projects

The task of business intelligence integration is to transform business goals into more achievable ones in a short period of time. Lack of BI projects understanding will interfere with the process of achieving goals and, accordingly, obtaining benefits from BI implementation;

7. Excel is the default platform for BI

Making Excel the default platform for all BI methods is not the right solution. This can lead to certain problems in the process of managing AI in business (errors in processes, errors in data, etc.). It is worth preventing important data accumulation in Excel tables;

8. Ignoring KPIs

BI implementation involves key performance indicators definition. Strategic BI methods include defining KPIs in various categories (project management metrics, marketing data, financial metrics, customer metrics, HR metrics, etc.). All of these indicators should be defined and understood;

9. Lack of a competent software vendor

The implementation of business intelligence requires the presence of specialists such as BI infrastructure architect, database administrator, data analyst, ETL developer, project manager, etc. It is important to find a competent software provider to work effectively with BI projects;

10. Inaccurate estimate

Inaccurate estimates lead to delays in BI projects and, as a result, slow down profits in the long run.