A robust business process forms the very foundation of a successful IT project.  A common misconception is that the latest and greatest technology from any given vendor can make up for weak, illogical and inadequate business processes.

In discussions with clients, I have discovered that companies tend to keep the same report (canned) for 10+ years when their industry and their competition has undergone a sea of change.  If one cannot adapt to the changing environment, obsolescence is inevitable.  The whole purpose of an effective BI reporting platform is to take the guesswork out of the equation and allow management to make robust decisions that are backed by solid business facts and numbers.  But in order to get there, one needs a common sense approach to simplified business processes that are embraced by the whole organization.

A well thought out business process not only makes it easy to conduct business, but allows for critical data points to be captured and harnessed as a part of the day to day business.  This can then be put through an effective ETL process and captured into a data warehouse.  This sets the foundation to doing effective business analysis based on:

• Historical data
• Current data
• Future anticipated trends/predictive analysis

Lack of proper business process means having to go back to square one and redoing it until you get it right.  While this is the frustrating reality, it amazes me how many people overlook its earth shattering importance.