Decision-makers need information and data that they can trust. A modern business intelligence system provides the essential basis for this. In Part one of the interview with Dr. Jörn Döring focused on the extensive opportunities that arise for companies in this regard. In the following part two and conclusion of the interview, the TCI partner explains why SAP migration is definitely worthwhile - and what companies should bear in mind if they want to exploit the full potential.

"It's the people who ultimately shape the business processes" - Interview with Dr. Jörn Döring

Dr. Döring, the possibilities offered by migrating to an SAP environment create enormous potential in the design of business processes. What would you say is the greatest benefit?

The beauty of such a BI landscape is that you can benefit from wherever in this world can control your company with Internet access.

In this BI environment, you can also connect data from Google AdWords, for example, or machine data that your production machines permanently supply. These so-called Internet of Things-data with the help of connected Predictive analytics libraries Insights that you were not able to realize until recently. As a keyword, I would like to mention the Predictive maintenance where you determine with targeted predictions when your machines really need to be serviced and can therefore be maintained in a time and cost-optimized manner. This leads to an increase in turnover with a reduction in maintenance costs - in other words: profits increase. The scenario can also be applied to the Predictive production be expanded: Only produce what is most likely to be needed. This allows you to increase sales in a targeted manner and save unnecessary storage capacity.

You are mainly talking about foreseeable processes that every company faces. Do you also have an example of incidents that companies don't necessarily expect?

Of course: A good example of this is the prevention of potential fraud incidents. These can be massively reduced on the basis of historical data, data and behavior patterns and current transaction incidents. For this purpose Machine Learning-algorithms "train" data and integrate it into transaction processing. This reduces the risk of lost sales as well as the costs of legal proceedings.

Exploiting BI potential: the decisive factor is how people handle the data

In your experience, what are the biggest stumbling blocks on the way to modern business intelligence?

Good question. First of all, your data must be correct. If you can't trust your data, you don't need to start any evaluations at all. What do you want to base your business decision on? There is a joking phrase that describes this very aptly: "Garbage in - garbage out". And nothing has changed. If your master data is only maintained correctly 60 percent of the time, you don't need to worry about whether your AI algorithm is now 92 percent or 95 percent accurate. Your statement will never be better than 60 percent. Therefore, a Data governance-concept in the company is necessary. Who has sovereignty over data and interpretation? On the one hand, the master data maintenance processes must be uniformly defined and introduced (master data governance). On the other hand, the definition and rollout of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) This is necessary throughout the company (meta data governance). At the end of the day, apples must not be compared with pears. That's easy to say, but it still happens too often today.

What impact do such far-reaching changes have on business processes and the working atmosphere?

In short: an enormous impact! Since a BI project sooner or later always uncovers gaps in the business processes, a BI project also quickly becomes political. Now the decision as to whether the project will be successful or not depends on a fundamental question: How does a company deal with these inconsistencies and is it willing to close these gaps? It is a question of Corporate culture! Instead of looking for the culprits, those affected should receive support in closing these gaps. The same approach should be taken when dealing with key figures and KPIs. A red light does not mean that someone has done a poor job, but that someone needs help. And they should get it. Then the company will be successful. In my experience, 50 percent of all BI projects fail not for technological but for political reasons.

In order to gain new insights from the key figures, the specialist departments must be able to work with the key figures and create their own ad hoc reports. This so-called Self Service together with the right data (transparency!) will make your BI solution a success in your company. Only with transparency and Self Service - both are mutually dependent - your BI solution will be accepted in the company!

Using modern business intelligence correctly: The success criteria for resounding business success

What must the procedure look like for this to succeed?

Now, in order for the department to be able to build its own ad hoc reports, a Know-how transfer from IT to the specialist departments. I like to carry this out during the prototype phase together with both camps - IT and the specialist departments. In this way, I ensure that both camps don't talk past each other and that the specialist departments can also determine for themselves how far they want and/or need to familiarize themselves technically. This is the only way to draw up a comprehensible service catalog with IT and prepare the business department. The roles for governance can also be defined and rolled out in this way (Data Owner, Key Useret cetera).

When a cultural change is necessary for the acceptance of key figures and business processes in the company, a good Change management take place. People are always affected! They are the ones who ultimately shape the business processes. You have to realize that your work is important and accepted. I always wish that the colleagues who are currently engaged in the tedious collection of data would rather focus on the content of the data. Because that way you can derive the information that serves as a basis for decision-making.

And last but not least: If you want to successfully implement a BI project, it only works in the so-called Top-Down-approach! Ideally, you should have support directly from the Management Board. If you don't have this support, you don't even need to start. You need support to ensure that a project is not canceled for political reasons. You need support to ensure that data governance is successfully introduced. And you need support so that the cultural change can succeed.

Thank you very much, Dr. Döring, for the interesting We would like to take this opportunity to explain and provide helpful tips on the successful introduction of a business intelligence solution, the added value it can deliver and what success depends on! We wish you all the best for your future projects and look forward to further contributions on this topic!

The interview with Dr. Jörn Döring was conducted by the TCI editorial team.

Read also part one of the interview with Dr. Jörn Döring: Business intelligence in times of real-time and cloud - take advantage of the SAP migration to S/4!

(Cover image: © SFIO CRACHO | stock.adobe.com)