One thing is certain, it is now fundamental to rely on digital technology to increase its competitiveness and optimize its quality of service. In this context, digital transformation projects operated by companies are experiencing strong growth and mobilizing significant resources. But to succeed in your project, beyond changing your IT infrastructure, it is essential to master many stages. In this sense, the management and use of data is now an imperative.
So how do you deal with this data?
Data is the “raw material” that feeds the information system and provides relevant insights to employees so that they can carry out their daily operations. It is therefore necessary to give meaning to the data and to be able to process them by relying on tools with high added value.
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The notion of BI (Business Intelligence) then becomes essential. However, if BI is now well known, it is still underexploited by many players. Indeed, deploying a BI project according to the rules of the art cannot be improvised and cannot be carried out in a “copy and paste” logic. Each project is specific and requires an individualized approach. In addition, with the rapid evolution of software, we can miss new very practical features. The standard Power BI developer is familiar with Row Level Security (RLS), which allows you to restrict row level access. But does he know OLS (Object Level Security) which allows you to hide dimensions, such as sales, profits? Could he set up an incremental update, rather than a vulgar refresh on an entire data store? Does he understand the challenges of Import mode and Direct Query? Can he set up alerts, subscriptions, and export 17-page paginated reports with one click?
Carry out your project in an industrial logic
The first thing to take into account is to properly map your project, define your needs and ask yourself the question of the tools to put in place. The consulting dimension is therefore fundamental to take the right directions and not waste time launching your project. This structuring approach is the essential prerequisite for everything. For example, selecting a Dropbox or SharePoint server instead of a real database is a common error seen in BI projects. It will then be possible to move on to the implementation, integration and configuration of solutions. On this point, it should be noted that various applications are today benchmarks and widely used on an international scale. Choosing a trendy solution, like Tableau or Power BI, is probably an idea that will bring more benefits than disadvantages.
Once the architecture and the solution have been customized, the question then arises of its use by functional staff and end users. Here again, this cannot be improvised. It is precisely on this point that particular attention must be paid to the subject of team training so that they can quickly be operational. This a priori obvious point is often underestimated and can impact the quality of the projects delivered. So be careful to go to the end of things: from need to use by employees.
Controlling your data is therefore a strategic subject that allows companies to develop their processes. It is therefore essential to prepare your project according to the rules of the art in order to increase its performance and develop its competitive advantage in an always tense market.
An article by Augustin DE LA FOUCHARDIERE, CEO of MYPE.