Friday, February 05, 2010

Better tools are no match for a bad strategy

Let me tell you a short story: Mr. Smith wants to build a treehouse for his son. However, he has never built much of anything before and isn’t very handy. So, he runs out to the hardware store and buys all the best tools. He visits the lumber yard and buys the best wood. He then brings everything back home to build a treehouse. What are the chances Mr. Smith will successfully build a (safe) treehouse?  What are the chances that he just wasted a bunch of money on expensive tools?

Of course, this example sounds ridiculous. Who in their right mind would buy all the tools without mapping out a plan first?

Many business leaders, that’s who.

I’ve seen it happen far too often: An executive decides their company needs--for example--a business intelligence solution. Rather than mapping out a strategy, they instruct the IT department to quickly find some software to fix the problem. This usually leads to a hasty purchase and poor implementation. In the end, it's a giant waste of time and money and everyone wonders what went wrong.

This article on CIO.com ("BI's Dirty Secret: Better Tools Are No Match for Bad Strategy") really hits the nail on the head.  Software without a plan is destined to fail, but a good strategy will save your company both time and money.

If you need help developing a business intelligence strategy, talk to one of our consultants. They’ve helped many companies of all sizes successfully implement customized business intelligence solutions.

2 comments:

Anonymous 10:47 PM  

Seeing these kind of posts reminds me of just how technology truly is ubiquitous in this day and age, and I am fairly confident when I say that we have passed the point of no return in our relationship with technology.


I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Ethical concerns aside... I just hope that as technology further develops, the possibility of downloading our memories onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's one of the things I really wish I could encounter in my lifetime.


(Posted on Nintendo DS running [url=http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978023679]R4i Card[/url] DS Qezv2)

Anonymous 11:14 AM  

After watching my grandmother, and now my mother suffer with dementia, I have also wished that I could download my memories, while they are still accessible. In the meantime, it makes sense to journal. Did anyone see the movie "The Notebook"? The less is use the tools you have available to you now.

  © Blogger template 'Isolation' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP