Business Intelligence Competency Center - BICC

BICC is a cross-functional team, with specific tasks, roles responsibilities and processes
for supporting and promoting the effective use of BI across the organization.
BICC act as a center of expertise of BI and drive and support it use throughout the
organization.
It has employees from the organization itself, although some roles can be outsourced.
Based on this, makes it available to business users at different levels and providing advice and
support for all BI-related questions, including assistance with the interpretation of information.
A BICC enables the organization to coordinate and complement existing efforts in the area of BI,
while reducing redundancy and increasing effectiveness. The centralization of these efforts
ensures that information and best practices are communicated and shared through the entire
organization so that everyone can benefit from successes.
BICC can be defined as a team of dedicated Business and IT specialists accountable for
defining, owning and managing the execution of the companys BI strategy and agenda.
While many leaders, stakeholders, contributors, managers, analysts, developers and user
communities participate in BI efforts in one way or another, a BICC serves as the catalyst and
glue that creates, promotes ,and holds together the overall BI operating model (Hitachi).
The CC develops the overall strategic plan and priorities for BI, defines the requirements
and helps the organization to interpret and apply the insight to business decisions (Hostmann).
The BICC should be a cross-organizational group that encompasses of people skilled in
Business, IT and Analytics.
Figure 1. Essential BI competencies and skills with a BICC

Examples of Business skills include understanding of line-of-business (LOB) needs, and

ability to help business managers set and balance priorities by analyzing consequences of choices
and creating business cases.
Examples of IT skills include ability to understand the business intelligence infrastructure
implications of business and analytic requirements, and deep understanding of how to access and
manage data required to support business and analysis requirements.
Examples of Analytical skills include fluency with key analytic applications and
researching business problems and creating models that help analyze these business problems.
What do BICC need to do? (Kalakota 2011)
BI and analytics has come of age, but all the technological advances havent minimized
the pain of trying to manage a tangle of platforms, tools, data silos and implementations.
Best practice organizations attempt to focus on the data and use cases in addition to the
platforms/tools and technology. A structural way of getting the people, process and technology
aligned is the BICC structure (also called BI Shared Services or BI CoE - BI Center of
Excellence).
At the highest level, the five pillars of successful BI and Analytics CC (Competency Center)
include:
executive team sponsorship;
expertise in information technology, business domain, BI reporting, and analytics;
a well-defined charter, responsibilities and support processes;
collaboration with all appropriate stakeholders; and
a focus on making BI projects repeatable.
A BICC does the following:
Establishment of overall governance framework
Ensuring the provision of appropriate infrastructure
Project planning and progress reporting
Establishment of key milestones and deliverables
Rigorous project management methodology
Proactive risk and issues management
Change management, communications and training
Quality assurance
An analytics CC builds on the BI platform and provides an integrated environment for predictive
and descriptive modeling, data mining, text analytics, model management, forecasting,
optimization, simulation, experimental design and more.
Functional areas in the BICC
BICC needs to be supported by an infrastructure that helps it to manage and prioritize the
workload while keeping the work transparent and predictable for its internal customer. Must be
defined both services levels and support infrastructure for the relationships that the BICC has
with internal units and with software vendors.
The general schema of functional areas inside the BICC is shown in figure xx. It is the decision
of management what areas should be included in the BICC.

Figure 2. Functional areas in the BICC

FUNCTIONAL AREAS INSIDE THE BICC

Business Intelligence Program
The Business Intelligence Program function is the cornerstone of the BICC. It oversees
and coordinates all of the activities of the BICC and is the interface to the business units.
Specifically, the Business Intelligence Program function is involved in defining the Business
Intelligence (BI) objectives and strategy and tracks the success of that strategy over time. It
ensures that the BI strategy is executed, enables the business needs and that it supports the
organization's overall strategy.
Here, business users can get advice and coaching on how to use BI analyses and interpret
the results. The BI Program function also acts as the project office for all BI-related projects. It
keeps the organization abreast of new BI trends and technologies and explains how the
organization could benefit from them.
Furthermore, it is responsible for sharing BI knowledge throughout the organization.
Data Stewardship
The data stewardship function takes care of administering technical metadata and ensures its
alignment with business metadata. It is responsible for data standards, data quality, and data
governance
Support
The support function acts as the second-level support for BI problems. The assumption is that
first-level support would be handled by the general service desk in the organization. The BICC
support function clarifies the BI problem messages, analyses the problem in detail, and gets back
to the user with the solution. In case the problem cannot be solved in-house, it will be passed to
the software vendor.

BI Delivery
The BI delivery function takes care of the applications for delivery and distribution of
information throughout the entire life cycle of the applications, including their design,
development, testing, and maintenance. These applications comprise reporting, business logic,
and portals-that is, all applications that transform the data residing in data warehouses or other BI
storage areas into BI.
Data Acquisition
The data acquisition function handles the back-end-related BI activities. It takes care of data
integration and data store development, testing, and maintenance as well as the overall
warehouse design and integration projects.
Advanced Analytics
The advanced analytics function specializes in statistical analysis, modeling optimization
techniques, forecasting, and data mining. It handles complex analytical requests coming from the
business units.
Training
The training function trains business users in BI concepts and BI applications. It coaches them by
providing answers to their BI questions. It also takes care of any BI product-specific training and
certifications for project teams or business users.

Vendor Contracts Management

The vendor contracts management function handles all the license- and contract-related issues,
such as user licenses, software distribution, and service-level agreements with BI vendors and
product evaluations.
This function also acts as an interface to the organization's purchasing and legal departments.
A fundamental decision you will have to make is which functional areas you would like your
BICC to cover. Consider these questions:
What are the goals and objectives of your BI strategy?
Based on that strategy, which deliverables, services, and support to the business and to IT
will need to be provided?
As a consequence, which of the suggested functional areas should be covered and how?
Who is going to deliver the services?
o BICC
o IT department
o Business units
o External provider (e.g., software vendor)
What individuals in the organization will be asking for the services (e.g., executives,
business users, IT), and what is their user profile?
What will be the nature, complexity, frequency, importance, and timing of the services?
Based on the answers to the previous questions, what are the goals and objectives for the
BICC? How, as a consequence, should the BICC be staffed?

What are the processes and internal service-level agreements for making, working on,
and responding to service requests?
What organizational changes will occur as a result of the answers to the previous
questions, and how should they be addressed?

Sometimes service requests cannot be taken care of by only one specific function in the BICC; in
such cases, several functions must cooperate in order to address the service request. It is also
possible that the same person might take over several roles (e.g., working as an application
developer in projects, but also providing second-level support). Therefore, it is important to
understand that the functions described in the next section do not necessarily correspond to realworld teams or departments. The functions constitute a purely theoretical bundling of tasks and
do not necessarily correspond to how the BICC should be structured organizationally.
Besides, you could choose to outsource one or several of these functions to an external provider.
However, our recommendation is that any function that requires profound business
understanding (e.g., the BI Program function) should not be outsourced. For competitive and
intellectual ownership reasons, it is important that functions critical to realizing a business
strategy be owned and driven from within the organization.
We believe the BI Program, data stewardship, and support functions to be the most
essential, and therefore the minimum, functions necessary in a BICC. Data standards, quality,
and governance are absolute musts for getting value out of Bl. Supporting and enabling the
business users is one of the main motivations for establishing a BICC. However, the BI Program
function is what makes a competency center a true Business Intelligence Competency Center
because
it
is
the
BI
Program
that
maintains
the
business
alignment and carries the BICC's strategic focus and mandate.
One function can be covered by the organization in some form in the BICC itself, in the
IT department, in other business units or outsourced to an eternal provider.
Figure 3. Organizational model for BICC or BI CoE (Business Intelligence Center of Excellence)

Source: kalakota 2011

Depending on the type of organization, the BICC will report to a high-level business executive,
such as the CFO, COO, CIO or chief strategy officer. Some potential BICC (or Center of
Excellence) organization charts are below. Actual organization charts can vary significantly from
the simplified options presented.
Figure 4. Organizational model for BICC or BI CoE (Business Intelligence Center of Excellence)

Source: How to Define and Run a Successful Business Intelligence Competency Center, Gartner,
August 2007
Insourcing or Outsourcing BICC What is the right structure? (Kalakota 2011)
Insourcing is all about control. It is used for following reasons:
Greater control over resources
Greater ability to control intellectual property
Increased visibility of accountability within the organization
Have confidence in your team to do meticulous planning and flawless execution.
Outsourcing to a vendor or a cloud platform is all about leverage; it is used for the following
reasons:
Access to resources and expertise quickly without a long recruiting cycle
Different cost structure and quicker startup
Vendor brings a broad-based perspective that if leveraged properly can be quite invaluable
The best option is usually a hybrid model a mix of insourced and outsourced. The metrics
you typically want to optimize in any structure are Cost, Quality, Productivity, Innovation and
Speed-to-market.
In a hybrid model think through which resources are in-house and which resources can be
outsourced - Executive Sponsors, BI Leadership, Program and Project managers, Business

Analysts, Architects, Administrators, Developers, Data Stewards, Data Modelers, and Data
warehouse analysts.
Also with data being governed by various Data Privacy laws (ex. International and U.S Data
Privacy Legislation) think about which enterprise-wide data integration initiatives can be inhouse vs. outsourced data warehousing, data migration, data consolidation, data
synchronization, and data quality, as well as the establishment of data hubs, data services, crossenterprise data exchange, and integration competency centers.
Think through different types of data and which laws impact each by geography personal
privacy data, client data, internal process data, and B2B data.
The BI program is not simply the sum of the various projects and independent efforts, but
instead reflects a comprehensive network of people, processes, and technology working as one
integrated operating model supporting and enabling those projects and efforts.

Figure 5: BICC as Enabling Program

RELATED FUNCTIONAL AREAS

The next functions are generally not part of a BICC. They exist in the organization for other
purposes, but it is important that these functions work closely with the BICC.
Service desk/support
System administration
Technical change management
Database administration

Setting up and ensuring ongoing support

Business intelligence competency center setup
Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11

BICC in Operation
Figure 12

BICC Implementation Checklist

List and prioritize the business drivers for establishing BICC as a shared services model
List and analyze the benefits expected to be derived out of the BICC set-up
Determine a budget for the setting up BICC
Set a time frame for realizing benefits out of BICC
Assign a person and establish a team to drive the BICC initiative
Assign the designation of the person heading the BICC initiative
Determine if the setting up of BICC operations will require the involvement of an
external consultant
List and prioritize activities that can transferred to BICC
Select activities that logically fit together
Analyze if the activities are strategic or transactional in nature
Analyze the level of customization the activity will require
Analyze and determine if the organization will need to procure technology to deliver
services through BICC

Insource vs. Outsource Checklist

Analyze the cost of maintaining the technology in-house

Evaluate the benefits of outsourcing versus maintaining in-house BICC Estimate the cost
savings that would result from setting up of BICC
Estimate the improvement in service-delivery time that would result from BICC Evaluate
the changes in organizational structure that would result due to the setting up BICC
Evaluate if the establishing BICC would lead to any reductions or changes in existing
jobs

Change Management Checklist

Secure senior management commitment to act as a sponsor of the BICC initiative

Identify all stakeholders that will be affected by BICC implementation and assess the
degree of impact
Align the setting up of shared services with the current organizational culture
Assess if the existing HR policies, practices and processes (e.g., compensation, benefits,
performance) support BICC implementation
Assess if the organization has the infrastructure to support and enable employees, i.e.,
provide them with the appropriate tools and training
Establish a process for managing conflicts in case they arise

Establish a framework and process for measuring the success of the BICC initiative

BEST PRACTICES FOR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (SAP)

1. Find a high level Executive sponsor
An executive sponsor is someone who can understand the value of business intelligence,
champion and promote the project across the organization. BI case studies report that a high level
executive support is one of the key reasons for success.
The role of an executive sponsor includes:

Championing the program

Influence and gain trust of other c-level executives
Approve the budget required for the project

2. Business Intelligence Competency Centre (BICC)

In many ways the critical competency for success with BI is having the right people and program
management practices in place. Having a broad-based Business Intelligence Competency Centre
(BICC) is a crucial factor.
The role of BICC is to

Develop the overall strategic plan and priorities

Define and implement the requirements (including data quality and governance)
Help the organization to interpret and apply the insight to make business decisions

Depending on the type of organization, the BICC will report to a high-level business executive,
such as the CFO, COO, CIO or chief strategy officer. Some potential BICC (or Center of
Excellence) organization charts are below. Actual organization charts can vary significantly from
the simplified options presented.
3. Alignment between IT and Business
One of the critical factors for BI success is the alignment between IT and Business. It is
important to identify the intent and expectation from the BI initiative. The BI objectives should
be closely aligned with the business objectives and business strategy. Understanding the
information needs across the organization as well as by stakeholder groups is a key to success.
Ideally, this will include prioritization of needs both within and across stakeholder groups. The
activity of selecting priorities must be transparent and agreed on by Business Intelligence leaders
and its stakeholders and where possible, tied to the impact on corporate objectives.
4. Define Architecture and Standards
Define architecture for different components of BI infrastructure. Develop and maintain
standards regarding methodologies, definitions, processes, tools and technologies required to
implement BI.
5. Develop roadmap, measure progress and success
It is important to develop a roadmap, measure progress and manage key decision points within
the program timeline. Develop metrics that will measure both the implementation and ongoing
success of BI.

CONCLUSIONS
A BICC can address a lot of issues better use of BI across the organization, greater alignment
and collaboration between units; a strategy that supports the corporate strategy; standardized BI
processes and initiatives; consistency of definitions, processes, and methodologies; and higher
ROI from BI.
In order to set up properly a BICC one has to follow some steps:
1. The BICC needs a clear mandate and strategy. It is not enough to say that the BICC is
supposed to drive the BI strategy in the organization if there is no clarity in strategy.
Some time and effort needs to be invested in understanding the BI requirements of the
organization in support of the corporate strategy.
2. The BICC needs support from the executive sponsorship. Otherwise it will not be visible
and influential enough to play the crucial role that it should assume. The aim has to be
the alignment of BI goals across various functional areas, in support of the organizations
strategy.
3. it is important to staff the BICC with representatives from both IT and the business.
This combination ensures that both business understanding and IT know-how work
together for answering the businesss BI requirements.
A BICC is an excellent forum for addressing tactical issues efficiently and effectively, but it is
important to consider also the strategic value of a BICC. The BICC is the initial contact point in
the organization for any questions or problems that relate to BI strategy or software.

References
Hitachi Consulting Corporation, Establishing a Business Intelligence Competency Center
(BICC), A Knowledge-Driven Consulting White Paper, 2009
Hostmann, B., How to organize for success in BI, Gartner business intelligence summit, London,
2005
Kalakota, R., Organizing for BI, Analytics and Big Data: CoE, Federated or Departmental,
available at: https://practicalanalytics.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/organizing-for-bi-analyticsand-big-data/
Kalakota,
R.,
Executing
a
BI
and
Analytics CoE,
available
at:
https://practicalanalytics.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/executing-a-bi-coe-bi-shared-services-or-bicompetency-center/
Miller, G., Brautigam, D., Gerlach, S., Business intelligence competency centers, John Wiley &
Sons, 2006
SAP, Business Intelligence Best Practices 1, 2011, available at: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC18678
www.wikipedia.com
www.sas.com
www.hbsp.harvard.edu Harvard Business School Press
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community of Practice