In my previous job as an external auditor, I remember being assigned as a trainer to promote a new business intelligence tool internally developed by a new venture team in one Ernst and Young (EY) office in the United Kingdom. Our office here in the Philippines, being a local affiliate of EY needed to stay attuned to the latest trends in the global scene. The tool aimed to simplify the audit process by providing quick links and dashboards to users to assess engagement status at a glance. It also enabled the uploading of data from spreadsheets and the performance of financial analysis within the tool itself, allowing users to easily view year-to-year comparison of balances, as well as streamline the organization of audit evidences with the audit procedures within every milestone in the audit roadmap. It provided a systematic approach to gathering, sorting, and filing the soft copies of audit working papers as well as handle the tedious task of monitoring their preparation and reviews. At a glance, teams can say how far they have gone with their audits.
Business intelligence (BI) as a tool is relatively new and many business users still do not know how to actually take advantage of this technological innovation. To inject this abruptly in an organization would prove detrimental due to resistance of people to change. So, what now? After your organization has spent a big chunk of this year’s budget to these BI tools, how can the business users be influenced to utilize these? How can organizations encourage a more effective use of business intelligence tools?
The tool developed by EY was a very helpful tool, and of course at a very expensive cost. It was a giant move for EY to introduce this tool worldwide. The promotion lasted for over a year before pilot testing was done on selected teams which included the team I was in during that time. Based on my experience, in order to effectively implement this modern concept, a marketing approach needs to be considered during its introduction. Here are some steps on how to do about this approach and why this has actually worked.
- Start with the “big fish”
A sudden full blown implementation is destined to fail. Whether the tool is directed for use of customers or employees, it is always advisable to start with your organization’s big players since they are the ones with the most significant impact on the use of BI tools. Begin the implementation roll-out with the top management, the biggest project teams, the higher-profit customers — their voice is the voice of the majority and is loud enough to cause revisions on the tool or on its implementation before a 100% roll-out is achieved. Doing a pilot testing of the tool and focusing first on the few important players will help you fine-tune the tool before exploding to the repulse of the big crowd.
- Encourage co-creation
Once you have tapped the “big fish” in the organization, the next thing to do is gain their support. You sold them the BI concept which they willingly bought. Now is the time to make them partners in promoting the tool. This is best achieved by making them feel part of the implementation process. Gather their feedback and see which are valuable enough to be considered to give more value to the tool. Doing this gives the big players a sense of ownership over the tool.
In my previous job, the big teams were selected for our tool’s pilot testing. We had to meet weekly to attend webinars with other participants from all over the globe. Webinar topics include the basic guidance on the proper usage of the tool and the required equipment. We were also tasked to submit reports at certain points during the testing where we document our own team’s implementation plan and feedbacks on how effective the tool is for its purpose. In the process, the pilot teams were assigned to cascade the webinars to the other teams, thereby providing a venue for co-creation and collaboration.
- Implement a rewards program
To give credit to the teams that contributed valuable knowledge in the further development of the tool, a rewards system would prove enticing. An organization may do this by compensating the efforts of the pilot teams through bonuses. Another fun way is by letting everyone join a slogan-making contest or a propaganda video making for the new tool in exchange for prizes.
These will encourage more participation and support from the business users.
- Go big on ads and promos
Inform your business users of the upcoming improvements. Release regular advisories or teasers to give everyone a heads-up that something big is about to land on your organization. Create infographics and promotional videos to get people to start talking about this and also to lay out what these users may expect out of this new tool. This will also help you gather initial reactions from the rest of your business users that will also facilitate the proper fine tuning to suit specific needs of the smaller players in the organization.
Aside from the pilot testing done for the big teams in EY, we also had a second wave of pilot testing for the small teams using the EY Canvas version applicable for smaller engagements. Based on the pilot testing done for the big teams, small teams already had an idea of the common functionalities of the tool also through the help of email blasts, posters, banners, roadshows, and of course, knowledge sharing.
- Provide support and proper training
After the introductory phase, comes the trainings conducted to properly guide users on how to use the BI tools. Organizations should dedicate a significant time to better condition their business users before laying their hands on these new applications. Trainings should include keywords familiarization, lectures, and simulations, among others. It will also help to send manuals and infographics to the emails of these users or maintain a portal specifically for the purpose of hosting all materials related to this new BI tool.
For the EY Canvas, we conducted weeklong trainings for the new users before the use of the tool was formally fully rolled out to the whole organization. At the end of the trainings, timelines were defined for every audit team to follow so as to gather feedback from the users based on their initial use of the tool and relay these insights in the Global office.
- Incorporate its use in users’ KPIs
The most effective way that users will be encouraged to make use of the tool is through enforcing it as part of the users’ key performance indicators (KPIs). Find an aspect of the tool which can be translated into performance indicators and set the applicable measures. Also, find an area in your business process which can become measure of individual or team’s performance and is dependent on the use of the BI tool.
EY Canvas being a project management tool, provides statistics on how far the engagement team has gone. Managers can easily pick up information from the dashboard and reflect the same to the team members’ collective and individual performance assessment forms. Further, an archiving period of 60 days has been established after the final engagement sign-off. Late archiving would mean a big blow to the engagement team’s performance evaluation. This way, users will dedicate more time in understanding the tool and thinking of ways on how to use it more effectively and efficiently.
In implementing business intelligence tools, a marketing approach is the best way to go, coupled with rewards system and corresponding sanctions once KPIs are not met. It involves studying human behaviour and applying the concept of rewards and punishments. Make them interested, entice them to participate. In the end, it is the users’ insights that are always more valuable. It is up to the organization how to add flavor to this approach. The ultimate goal is complete diffusion of the tool to the intended business users and making them advocates for these BI tools in the process. Let us not take for granted the organization’s efforts in trying to maintain quality of work and making tasks more operatively effective and efficient. It always pays to be intelligent when handling business intelligence tools.★
References:
http://www.docurated.com/all-things-productivity/50-best-business-intelligence-tools
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/05/internal-marketing-efforts-promoting-your-bi/
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