Failing To Identify Who Needs Access To Data

Don’t adopt BI for BI’s sake. Instead, identify the processes and teams that can benefit the most from a BI tool.

Millions of dollars are being invested by different companies around the country in Business Intelligence tools. However, not everyone knows how to use the data they have or identify who needs to use what. Not knowing how the people in your company should access your data can lead to disastrous results. You should know who has access to data in the first place, whatever data type it is.

Many vendors tell companies that every employee needs access to BI tools. In some cases, this may be true, but those cases are rare. Executives are consistently purchasing the wrong BI tools because they approach BI with the wrong frame of mind.

An enterprise solution is not the right solution for every business.

To become more productive and profitable, executives must key in on specific business processes, areas, teams, and groups where access to data will move the needle on efficiency and effectiveness.

What would it do for your business if your salespeople could customize their presentations based on data gathered from current clients? Suppose they could access comparative data with just a few clicks of a mouse. In that case, it could improve closing ratios and positively impact contract sizes without bogging down other departments in research and reports.

What would it mean for your help desk if the supervisor could see beyond the top ten ticket escalation issues each month and dive into why some issues are growing faster than the rest? What if an effective BI solution could proactively address those issues before they reach top-ten status?

Information is powerful but only if access to those who need it, such as the researchers. Decision-makers must look at every department in the organization and ask how they could improve their processes and make better business decisions if they had access to critical data. Still, it is also important not to adopt BI just for BI’s sake.

Decision-makers must know:

• What information needs to be accessed
• Who should have access to specific data sets
• How that data will impact and improve business processes

Our Takeaway

Many businesses give access to everyone who is involved in the company. While it is not a bad idea, it can make you more prone to data privacy concerns, such as handling sensitive data from the data set, or the mere concept of data sharing, at the risk of losing business secrets that can lead to their downfall. If you are also doing a research project, shared data should only be seen by those who need it.

They must have an organized system on who can access what kinds of data sets to lessen the negative impacts of data theft in the business, especially the sensitive personal data of your customers or the restricted data that only authorized people should see. Public data, research data, and institutional data should only be made available to those who need to see it.

Remember that data access control is very important, as you might be exposing your whole database to the wrong people. Remember that data security should be regarded as an important aspect in running your business to protect your intellectual property, among other types of data.

In the next chapter, you will learn how important matching your BI solutions to your business requirements can be.