Facilitating the Implementation and Use of Self Service Business Intelligence

Abstract: In traditional Business Intelligence (BI), there is a request-response scenario between technical power users serving non-technical casual users. Today, when data volumes and the frequency of use of a traditional BI system increase, power users are unable to serve all requests from casual users. Self-service Business Intelligence (SSBI) is an upcoming trend that addresses this problem since it enables all users to use BI in a self-reliant manner without support from power users.The aim of SSBI is to simplify the usage of traditional BI by letting all users conduct their own analysis. Users are allowed to access and use data as desired for their analysis when making decisions, which speeds up the process to use BI. At the same time the pressure on the IT department is relieved, since no power user is needed to support the process. SSBI enables organisations to make time critical decisions without waiting for reports that normally take weeks or months to be delivered. This saves organisational resources since all users can work more effectively and in a self-reliant manner compared to traditional BI. Although SSBI offers many benefits compared to traditional BI, many organisations are still struggling and failing to implement SSBI. The process to implement and use SSBI is not an easy task. There is no clear roadmap for how to achieve the SSBI benefits. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to facilitate the implementation and use of SSBI. Two objectives have been formulated to address this aim. First, it is important to identify what challenges organisations are facing when implementing and using SSBI. The second objective aims to identify success factors for managing the associated SSBI challenges. Case study research has been chosen as an appropriate research method to fulfil the research aim and objectives. The case study involves one BI consultancy firm and two of their main customers. The customers are medium-sized organisations which are considered to be the most experienced with implementing SSBI in the consultancy firm’s client base. With regard to research objective 1, 37 SSBI challenges have been identified and organized in in five categories of the AQUIRE framework: Access and use of data; Data Quality; User Independence; creating Reports; and Education. For research objective 2, nine success factors for SSBI implementation and use have been revealed as well as how they can be applied over time.  Initially, pilot groups and champions can increase interest in SSBI. Next, user groups and their data needs should be identified, and these user groups should get responsibility to change faulty data. Later, common data definitions and standard reports can simplify the use of data sources. Only then, top management support is needed to accomplish that business governs SSBI data content and that business employees and IT department employees work together in integrated settings. Finally, ongoing SSBI education should target non-technical and technical users differently and change its content over time.