Business Intelligence Competency Centres (BICCs) & Better Business Information: Breaking the Silos

Say it Together

It’s no secret. Let’s say it together “My name is ______ and I suffer from silos of information.” Doesn’t it feel better to say it out loud? The information in the form of data, processes and people is locked up in different parts of your company just waiting to be discovered. Sometimes it is simply unused, it may be used dangerously (since it probably contains unreliable information), and at times it is part of a report that IT create to highlight just how bad the problem actually has become. I can’t count the number of times that I sat down with someone in IT or a business systems role who would desperately proclaim “We have a couple hundred information systems and DB’s, and we might know how half of them are being used by the business!”


We have to realise that there was probably a good reason to invest so much time into this legacy system, and at one time it was used fervently by the business. What your concern should be is that it has been thrown into the corner of the closet like that high school Rugby shirt. While I’m not proposing that the shirt should be binned (which is probably what your partner advised), there should be an assessment as part of larger strategy to determine its longevity and use in future games. Leave the nostalgia behind!


How can a BICC Help?

Creating a Centre for Business Intelligence, or as it is commonly referred Business Intelligence Competency Centres (BICC) should be part of your strategy to unlock hidden information, centralise BI control , processes & systems, and extract value from the entire framework of information. The truth is that this is no easy task, and this approach has only recently caught on in the Australia. It requires a strong team led by “C”-levels (especially the CFO/CIO), IT Managers and Business Managers across the company. Recognition of the silo problem is the first step, but it needs to be followed by an analysis of the skills required to run a BICC, how to get funding to effectively run a BICC, and the limits of control and governance of the BICC need to drawn. If we pretended the BICC were a person, s/he would have the strongest leadership skills in the business, be able to talk business & IT, have extreme credibility, and be able to manage and communicate analytical needs.

The challenge of setting up will allow your organisation to reap the rewards of better business information, data integrity, cost savings and reliable enterprise business intelligence.

To learn more about how a BICC can break the silos of information and deliver enterprise business intelligence, contact me for a workshop.

Top 5 Reasons: Sustainability Reporting

Sustainability and how it should be reported is constantly changing, but the need for it certainly is not going away any time soon. The role that corporates play in communities, countries, regions and globally has never been more important and scrutinized as it is today. Similarly the expectations on the corporate citizen to present that impact has never been in such demanded as it is from internal and external stakeholders.

Given that this is an emerging area, it is generally accepted that there isn't one definition of what sustainability reporting actually encompasses. Probably the best starting point is with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) who describes sustainability reporting guidelines as "...the practice of measuring, disclosing, and being accountable to internal and external stakeholders for organisational performance towards the goal of sustainable development."

Whilst countries like Germany, Japan and the UK seem to be leading the pack when it comes to sustainability reporting, Australia is considered to be lagging. So why would your company initiate sustainability reporting? Here are my top 5, although there are many more.

Top 5 Reasons to Start Sustainability Reporting Today:

1. Reputation.

The reputation of your company is weighted on the alignment to global trends and how your company's activities affect stakeholders. The perception of participation in programs that distinctly demonstrate a proactive role in the community and the environment show a measurable concern that works towards enhancing the corporate reputation.

2. Financial Returns

Deploying a sustainability initiative involves gathering data across the organisation and often times the supply chain. Resource usage, waste and analysis of business processes is typically aggregated in a way that allows companies to understand inefficiencies and cost savings opportunities.

3. Compliance

The areas of compliance are always changing and seem to becoming more demanding, but it is almost certain that there will be more requirements relating to reporting carbon credits and green house gas emissions. By becoming savvy in sustainability reporting now, you can be ahead in the race to provide this information.

4. Competitive Advantage

What better way to differentiate your company's brand, products and services from the others in your industry than to establish a centre of excellence relating to sustainability? Customers have been making purchasing decisions based upon the environmental and social footprint for years. This trend continues to differentiate those that are conscious from the companies that are oblivious to the effect on global stakeholders. Trading partners and the supply chain that are effectively "going green" will demand the same transparency relating to sustainability.

5. Attract Financing

Sustainability reporting will provide a view for investors that insist on understanding the company's position on sustainability. Investment portfolios that are labeled "green" will require a mechanism to report back to investment analysts and the investment community.

These are a few examples of how sustainability can benefit your company. To learn more about sustainability you can download a white paper here or if you are an Australian-based company you can contact me jason.gates@oracle.com to learn more.

Event Alert: Monday, August 31st, Sydney

If you are a CFO, Finance Director, Financial Controller or Financial Modeller and would like to learn more about how OLAP can help you manage your costs and contribute to your profit then this event is for you. Not only will you be able to meet with your peers in an interactive environment with one of the most seasoned professionals passing on his knowledge, but there is also a bottle of Grange to be given out at the end of the session.

A synopsis of the event is below. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Dare to OLAP With Oracle Essbase

Understand Your Costs and What is Contributing to Your Profit

Organisations prosper or fail according to the sophistication and speed of their information systems, and their ability to analyse and synthesise information using those systems.



Oracle’s Essbase is a business analysis server technology that provides an environment for rapidly developing custom analytical applications that deliver strategic, high return on investment solutions to business challenges such as “Which customers are most profitable?”, “What if demand falls short of supply?” or “How will an increase in costs affect my revenue and growth plans?”

In many organisation this is performed in spreadsheet based technologies with all the shortcomings and opportunities for potential errors that desktop based environments provide.

Oracle Essbase is an easily deployed and highly adaptable solution. Prototype OLAP applications can be deployed in days, and the average time to deploy production OLAP applications is measured in weeks.

Oracle Essbase was named as one of the 10 most influential technology innovations of the last 10 years by Information Age magazine in its August 2005 issue. Editor Kenny MacIver said: “Essbase was the multi-dimensional database technology that put online analytical processing on the business intelligence map. It has spurred the creation of scores of rival OLAP products – and billions of OLAP cubes.“

Please join us at this executive seminar to hear from our guest speaker, Dave Collins, Director Analytics, Oracle Performance Management and BI Business Unit, who will discuss in detail real world case studies and provide a live demonstration of the software. Dave has been involved in numerous global deployments of Essbase applications in organisations that are household names.

If you would like to attend this event, please contact me on +61-2-9491-1251 or send me an email: jason.gates@oracle.com Don't miss out!