Self-Service BI in Banks' Competitive Race

Decision automation systems without IT involvement are moving from the frontiers of innovative thinking to a mainstream necessity. This manifests the current “innovate or stagnate” approach in the financial services industry. This article describes potential drawbacks and shows what to keep in mind during technological changes.

The most common challenge of self-service business intelligence systems in banks is accessing insights in a matter of seconds. Over one-third of implementation efforts of commercial banks are spent on customizing technology, according to the recent Price Waterhouse Coopers’ study “Time for an Upgrade: Five Things You Need to Know to Make Your Commercial Lending Transformation a Success.” Yet, there’s still a lot of struggle with making sense of analytics. 59% of organizations using business intelligence tools say accessing relevant, timely or reliable data is their biggest impediment, according to the 2012 BI and Information Management report by InformationWeek.

Below are recommendations on preventing these hazards:

1. Different types of business users will need to understand what is happening in the business right now within a context that is relevant to them. Develop a scope of the information that will address the needs of all individual users.
2. Discuss with the potential vendor how relevant information can be delivered to a broader audience. The management of a wireless services provider featured in a recent telecom case study could interact with analytics results on any device without costly and time-consuming redesign. Certain segments of information could be disclosed to partners, which also can allow for additional revenue streams.
3. Explore performance factors and all costs associated with up-scaling the system. As the system will grow, will the deployed solution keep all the data interconnected?

These are the three most important steps to deploy the most efficient and user friendly self-service business intelligence system. CIOs need to develop a precise understanding of information management to ensure focus on the right areas before they even start looking for software vendors.