The ROI of Business Intelligence

The ROI OF Business Intelligence
Contents
03 | Why Its Best To Invest In BI
05 | Barriers to BI
07 | BI Wins
08 | Making Your ROI Case
10 | 11 BI Goals To Consider
14 | 11 Investment Costs Not To Miss Out
15 | Where Do We Come In?
17 | Trust In Us
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
info@christiansteven.com
Why Its Best To Invest In BI
Your business has systems producing data.

You need to get and analyse that data and
report it to the right people at the right time
You know your company needs to invest in the right

Business Intelligence (BI) in order to comply, react and
thrive in this ever-changing world.
so they can act on it. Maybe you also need
One thing is certain BI is now essential to company
to scale up your current BI, reduce costs and
decision-making it drives every business.
eliminate system bottlenecks.
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
Need help choosing a solution?

8 Steps to BI Success walks you through.
Which BI Solution?
Your ROI Assessment
If youre trying to decide on the ideal provider for your
The BI wisdom and proof is right here a framework for
BI then check out 8 Steps To BI Success - guiding you
your ROI assessment. It covers the barriers you could face
through whilst avoiding common pitfalls its your best
and the wins you might expect. Theres 11 BI goals to aim
path for an informed choice.
for, along with 11 costs often overlooked, plus BI success

stories dotted around to inspire you.
Getting Your Team On Board

So how do you make the case for BI? Youll need to justify
the expense and assess the actual benefits BI should
You know the time for BI is now, lets start letting your
team know too.
give your business. When making this case to your team,

what should feature in your Return-on-Investment (ROI)
assessment?
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
Barriers to BI
Our experience tells us that many companies suffer from 3 fundamental issues in delivering
cost-effective BI. Before you start making the case for your chosen solution, ensure youve
considered these potentials barriers...
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
Will It Handle Volume & Complexity?

Ensure your solution is scalable - to manage and automate
to any number of recipients in a huge variety of formats,
UK Telecomms
Provider
protocols and schedules.
BI paid for itself several times over
possibly thousands of different reports being delivered
Is It Responsive & Always Learning?

Does it support self-service, ad-hoc and event-driven
reports and will it flag up any failures (such as data errors,
delivery failures, processing glitches)?
Challenges
Needs
Inefficient supply chain

with manual processes
Unforeseen benefits &

new ideas now BI is
available to all
Benefits
Savings
Manual staff hours eliminated
Paid for itself several

times over
Will It Be Compliant?
Confirm it will comply with all relevant regulations and
business standards.
Drastic reduction in stock

shortages through event
triggers / alerts
Better customer satisfaction,
less complaints
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
BI Wins
We see dramatic changes at companies
Top Results We See From Great BI
that choose an enterprise-wide reporting
01 Increased sales
framework.
02 Better and faster decision-making
What happens when people get the information they
03 No more manual processing or distribution
need, when they need it, in the format they want?
04 Staff cost reduction

05 Better internal communications, site & company-wide
06 Detect inefficiencies or new opportunities that had
been invisible
07 Enable new and better processes
08 Quality improvement information
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
Making Your ROI Case
Whos Your Audience?

As you compile your case for investing in BI, always
What Drives Decision-making

In Your Company?
keep in mind what your team will care most about. The
Do you have a show me the numbers management
requirements of your ROI analysis will vary depending on
team who make quick decisions based on quantifiable
your company size, sophistication and culture.
net gains within a fixed and sometimes arbitrary time

period (e.g., one year). Or will you be expected to present
specialized rates of return, multiple payback periods,
opportunity costs and the time value of money?
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
Assessing Value Over Money

Its not always about money. Sometimes ROI involves
US Metropolitan
Public Hospital
factors that are less tangible and harder to measure.

Segmenting various aspects of the return in ROI is a
useful exercise for separating the important factors from
Reduction of risk is biggest

benefit by far, life-saving
that which is valued less. Some organizations (or leaders)

value all quadrants of this matrix. Others dont. You
should allocate your effort proportionally.
Efficiency
Opportunity
Objective
Subjective
Expense reduction
Customer satistfaction
Cost avoidance
User convenience
Sales funnel metrics
Sales process gaps
More channel contacts
Operational backlogs
Challenges
Needs
Fixing data errors across

isolated systems
Reliable system, lives

depend on accuracy
Corrective work to synchronise

data costing $412K
Benefits
Savings
Risk reduction critical

to patients lives
Costs dropped by 2/3,

saving $274K annually
Automate data synchronisation

More & better notifications
Trigger event-driven updates
without human intervention
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
11 BI Goals To Consider
Your company probably wants to automate
01
more to do more, grow more and spend less
How many people are working on centralized report
- without any of it costing too much. Be clear
distribution admin? How much time are end-users
about the goals of your BI investment, and
spending making and sending out reports? How many
how progress will be measured.
REDUCE / AVOID Labor Costs
more people or labor hours would be required to

scale the existing report management and distribution
processes to required levels? Translate these answers
into actual costs and then estimate the savings from
automation.
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
02
ADOPTION Success
US Healthcare
Information Provider
How do you ensure successful BI implementation, with
Vast improvements
in customer care
out of the investment?
quick and easy adoption by business users, and built in

encouragement to use to persuade users to get the most
03
NEW Capabilities
Does your company need event- or threshold-driven

reporting automation? If so, what actual benefits do you
want to see across the enterprise, either in costs or other
Challenges
Needs
Inefficient manual
custom reporting
Automated custom
reporting
benefits? Will you be able to extend reporting services to

people and organizations that wanted them, but couldnt
have them previously? How would they benefit?
04
RELIABLE Delivery
The right reports to the right people in the right format

at the right time. Do you have tangible costs associated
with delayed or incorrect reports as a result of manual
Benefits
Savings
More variety in the

reports provided
ROI within 3 months plus $5.5K

annual savings since
processes? What happens to decision-making without
Leading to a bigger audience

& more interest
Leading to far more business!
timely and accurate reports? What would the quantifiable

benefit(s) be if these problems disappeared?
05
Customer service far more

responsive & efficient
PROCESS Enablement
Does report distribution need to be automatic to support

new or evolving processes? If so, what would be the cost
to the company of not implementing those processes?
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
06
CUSTOMER / PARTNER Satisfaction
08
OPPORTUNITIES Revealed
What would additional or better reporting capabilities
More and better reporting underpins better business
mean for customers, partners and other external entities?
intelligence. Visibility into the efficiency of enterprise
More trust, loyalty, confidence? Personal or corporate
operations may reveal opportunities to close gaps or to
satisfaction is clearly harder to measure in monetary
increase revenue. This is difficult to quantify in advance
terms but is still critical for maintaining and increasing
because you dont know what you dont know. Making
revenue.
the invisible visible could well be the innovation that

future-boosts your business.
07
LEGAL Compliance
In certain business functions and in some industries,
09
SECURITY Protection
proper reporting is required to avoid penalties or
Have you addressed the cost of dealing with any hacking
sanctions. The cost of meeting those requirements
fallout? This could quickly outweigh any other benefits, so
may be prohibitive without a robust report distribution
it needs some serious thought.
architecture.
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
10
EXTEND Functionality
The cost of decommissioning existing software and re-
US Aircraft
Manufacturer
training users should be considered. Ideally, your new

software should build on (re-use) some, if not all, of your
existing infrastructure.
11
Dramatic improvements
across the board
RISKY Business
Who will be your BI supplier? Smaller, newer companies

in the market tend to be more innovating and flexible,
but its a risky choice after all, no-one ever lost their job
Challenges
Needs
Inefficient & expensive

time-based maintenance
procedures, need to save
time & money
Automatic monitoring,
reporting & work orders
based on usage instead of time,
part of a drastic change to all
manufacturing operations
Benefits
Savings
Automated work reports saves

1000 work hours every year
ROI within 3 months

plus $200K reduction for
maintaining 5 paint bays
buying from IBM. Do you risk going cheap for a lower

price or are you trusted to select an evidently higher
quality product with vastly more experienced service thats
much easier to deal with?
Able to expand business without

needing more staff
Faster & better management
decisions, based on superior and
timely operational reporting
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
11 Investment Costs
Not To Miss Out
The investment side of the ROI equation goes beyond the software cost, dont forget about...
01 Software licensing & support
07 Information security policies and processes
02 Supporting infrastructure local or cloud-based
08 Labor for initial implementation
03 Consulting & training (and possible travel)
09 Labor for ongoing maintenance
04 Implementation plan
10 Measuring and reporting of the project itself
05 Testing
11 Change management
06 Definition of reporting maintenance processes
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
Where Do We Come In?
ChristianSteven Software doesnt reinvent the wheel, as theres a plethora of good business
intelligence and reporting tools out there, such as Crystal Reports and Microsoft SQL Server
Reporting Services and we want our customers to preserve their existing investments in those.
But they tend not to provide the full report distribution and process automation platform that
enterprises need today.
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
We provide whats missing and what your

company needs for truly effective reporting
and distribution, such as:
US Printing &
Distribution Service
Scaling the volume and reach of enterprise

reporting with a sophisticated architecture that
Improvements on top
of cost savings
automates manual processes

Linking to any data source, regardless of the
location, to drive triggers and threshold notifications
requiring human or automatic responses
Offering limitless format, delivery platform and
scheduling options
And...
Challenges
Needs
Manual processing of all

orders, inventory, shipping
& customer management,
costing $60K annually
Automate almost all

manual processes
Benefits
Savings
A huge leap in
customer satisfaction
$56K every year
We have helped hundreds of companies create

their own reporting success stories
We understand how to provide what you need
efficiently and quickly
We are experts who have seen it all
Let us assist you in preparing a strong ROI
Accurate inventory
justification for your management.
All data available company-wide

Human error eliminated
christiansteven.com
(888) 781-8966
Trust In Us
We will target
Quick set-up and simple use
Less or no repetitive tasks or manual processes
Cost and labor reduction by automating business
processes and reports from one application
Happier customers via mass personalized distribution
Reliable data provision and SOX Compliance, through
automated report generation
Browser-based interfaces for access anytime and place
Making the most from your existing hardware and
software investments
Keeping training and implementation costs low
A low total cost of ownership
Contact us today for a complimentary

BI Strategy Assessment:
ChristianSteven Software LLC
11020 David Taylor Dr, Suite 317
Charlotte NC 28262, USA
(888) 781-8966
www.christiansteven.com

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The ROI OF Business Intelligence

Why Its Best To Invest In BI

Your business has systems producing data.

You know your company needs to invest in the right

so they can act on it. Maybe you also need

One thing is certain BI is now essential to company

to scale up your current BI, reduce costs and

decision-making it drives every business.

eliminate system bottlenecks.

Need help choosing a solution?

Your ROI Assessment

If youre trying to decide on the ideal provider for your

The BI wisdom and proof is right here a framework for

BI then check out 8 Steps To BI Success - guiding you

your ROI assessment. It covers the barriers you could face

through whilst avoiding common pitfalls its your best

and the wins you might expect. Theres 11 BI goals to aim

path for an informed choice.

for, along with 11 costs often overlooked, plus BI success

Getting Your Team On Board

give your business. When making this case to your team,

Will It Handle Volume & Complexity?

protocols and schedules.

BI paid for itself several times over

possibly thousands of different reports being delivered

Is It Responsive & Always Learning?

Inefficient supply chain

Unforeseen benefits &

Manual staff hours eliminated

Paid for itself several

Drastic reduction in stock

We see dramatic changes at companies

Top Results We See From Great BI

that choose an enterprise-wide reporting

02 Better and faster decision-making

What happens when people get the information they

03 No more manual processing or distribution

need, when they need it, in the format they want?

04 Staff cost reduction

Making Your ROI Case

Whos Your Audience?

What Drives Decision-making

Do you have a show me the numbers management

requirements of your ROI analysis will vary depending on

team who make quick decisions based on quantifiable

your company size, sophistication and culture.

net gains within a fixed and sometimes arbitrary time

Assessing Value Over Money

factors that are less tangible and harder to measure.

Reduction of risk is biggest

that which is valued less. Some organizations (or leaders)

Sales funnel metrics

Sales process gaps

More channel contacts

Fixing data errors across

Reliable system, lives

Corrective work to synchronise

Risk reduction critical

Costs dropped by 2/3,

Automate data synchronisation

Your company probably wants to automate

more to do more, grow more and spend less

How many people are working on centralized report

- without any of it costing too much. Be clear