Setting Up and Ensuring Ongoing Support

This chapter introduces a suggested process for setting up a Business Intelligence Competency Center (BICC). The BICC setup includes orientation, Business Intelligence (BI) strategy assessment, planning, organizational change management, implementation; and operation phases. The orientation phase is about understanding the BICC concept and determining how it could move the organization forward. The aim of the orientation phase is to introduce the stakeholders and other involved parties in the organization to the BICC concept and explore whether it has value for the organization. During Business Intelligence strategy assessment, initialization continues. One should assess how information is currently used in the organization and how it should be used in the future. The process of bridging the gap between the current and the desired state needs to become part of a Business Intelligence road map. This road map outlines the strategy that the BICC should drive and support. All current and future BI projects should fit with this strategy. Apart from the road map, which outlines the mid‐ to long‐term strategy, one should put together an action plan specifying the immediate actions to be taken. During the planning phase, the mandate and objectives of the BICC should be agreed on and how the BICC fits into the organizational structure and how it is to be funded need to be decided. The performance metrics for the BICC need to be agreed on in this phase.