How do you measure BI performance?

1 Define your BI goals

The first step to measure BI performance is to define your BI goals and how they relate to your overall business strategy and vision. What are the specific outcomes and benefits that you expect from your BI solutions? How do they support your key performance indicators (KPIs) and critical success factors (CSFs)? How do they align with your organizational culture and values? By clarifying your BI goals, you can establish a clear direction and purpose for your BI initiatives and communicate them to your stakeholders.

2 Choose your BI metrics

When it comes to choosing the appropriate BI metrics to track and evaluate your progress towards your BI goals, there are several categories to consider. Business metrics measure the impact of your BI solutions on business outcomes, such as revenue and market share. User metrics assess the adoption, usage, and satisfaction of your BI solutions by end users. Data metrics monitor the quality, accuracy, and timeliness of data sources and processes. And technical metrics measure the performance, availability, and reliability of your BI infrastructure and systems. It's important to select BI metrics that are relevant, meaningful, and actionable for your goals and stakeholders. Additionally, you should define baseline, target, and threshold values for each metric, as well as how they will be collected, analyzed, and reported.

3 Implement your BI measurement plan

Implementing your BI measurement plan and executing it regularly and consistently is the third step. This requires setting up the tools, processes, and roles for collecting, storing, processing, and presenting your BI metrics. You should use an array of automated and manual methods to capture and validate your BI metrics from various sources, like BI tools and applications, surveys and interviews, and business systems and databases. Additionally, a clear and transparent reporting and communication framework should be established for your BI metrics. This includes frequency and format of reporting, intended audience, best channels for communication, as well as context and interpretation of the metrics.

4 Evaluate and improve your BI performance

The final step is to evaluate and improve your BI performance based on your BI metrics and feedback, which means comparing actual results with expected results and identifying the gaps, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your BI solutions. You should validate and refine your BI goals and metrics, recognizing and rewarding successes, as well as identifying and addressing challenges. This is an ongoing process that requires monitoring, evaluation, and improvement. By following these steps, you can ensure that your BI solutions are delivering value and meeting business objectives.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?