The ITWeb 2009 Business Intelligence (BI) Conference, scheduled for 25 and 26 February, at The Forum, in Bryanston, has almost tripled the amount of case studies on offer to assist delegates in finding a suitable way of implementing a BI strategy within their own organisations.
Throughout the two-day event, 'BI gets user friendly', delegates will hear and learn from presenters from major South African organisations on how they implemented BI strategies, what the pitfalls and challenges are and how the effective use of BI has changed their respective companies' approach to business.
Telkom SA's executive for BI, DQM and BPM, Cavin Griffiths, and Cell C's senior manager MIS, Colleen James, will explore the considerations companies need to take when creating a BI competency centre (BICC). The cost of a BICC will be compared with the strategic value to the business, and an examination of possible funding models. Griffiths says: “How you select your BICC staff is the most critical in making a success of your BICC. When selecting staff, one should look at what we call the five 'Is': information, intelligence, intuition, innovative thinking, and interpersonal relations.”
Mike Voudouris, senior consultant for BI at Eskom, will discuss: “Meeting the challenges of implementing operational BI”. He will explore the integration of BI into a multifaceted, multi-disciplinary environment, and its conversion into a continuous improvement cycle. “How to maintain faith and ensure objectives are successfully met during a prolonged BI roll-out in a large organisation is a main focus that will add a lot of benefit to organisations," Voudouris says.
Nisha Bhana, manager for customer strategy at Standard Bank, will present a case study on the aspect of organisational change when implementing a BI solution. “It's not rocket science... The success to any BI project is determined by how well the business is understood and stakeholder satisfaction. The trick is to get stakeholder buy-in.” Bhana will also expand on the issue of the cultural shift companies need to take into account, as well as the implementation of a BI training programme.
Apart from the presentations in the telecoms, utilities and financial sectors, further case studies and presentations on offer will pertain to a variety of business sectors, including mining, health insurance, risk management and FMCG.
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