What are the challenges in rolling out a business intelligence tool?

At a high level, companies will face challenges in a few areas when deploying business intelligence: Change (process) - Many companies have formed over time as islands of information with many "versions of the truth". Business intelligence or "BI" seeks to find authoritative sources of data that define limited, concrete dimensional definitions of the business and use those to perform reporting. Getting multiple departments "on the same page" when defining what needs to be reported (i.e. what is a "customer", what is a "product", etc.) can be a daunting task. Strong change management, either controlled from the technical and/or business side (preferred) is necessary. Technological - The typical tools for developing analytical reporting can be fairly expensive and require a fairly good depth of knowledge to use effectively. Individuals needed are data architects/data modelers/OLAP developers/report writers. These tools are not learned in the same way as, say, an ERP module like purchasing, A/R, etc. is learned...it is more difficult because of the creative nature of the process. People - Parts of this are in the top areas, however, it is worth mentioning that getting the right people involved in a project, particularly in strong leadership from the top, is key to success. Luckily, many BI projects are sponsored from the executive office. Another "spin" on this point is the importance of setting the right expectations and communicating well to avoid disappointment by the customer. The top three areas obviously indicate challenges like higher cost, long term roll-out schedules, need for political finesse, and ability to stick out a potentially long term project. enoack@hitachiconsulting.com