A Competency Centre provides an enterprise with a framework, roadmap and the capabilities to develop, sustain and utilise shared information assets.
A Business Intelligence Competency Centre (BICC) is the most commonly used term, however other terms are sometimes used. For example, 'Performance Management Competency Centre' (PMCC) is sometimes used when the BICC incorporates the Planning function. Many BICCs also include the Data Governance function, quality assuring the information assets for the organisation.
As a trusted advisor to some of the most mature and capable BI and IM sites in Australia, Focus have observed the spread of Business Intelligence from a local solution for a specific department, business unit or function - Finance, Sales, HR - to an enterprise-wide capability.
Most BICCs include governance models which formalise roles and provide templates for the means of effective collaboration across the stakeholders (IT and Business Units, Sponsors, SMEs). However, the cross-domain and multidisciplinary nature of enterprise-wide Business Intelligence can present a number of challenges:
- balancing the needs of the users and standards of the organisation
- setting priorities for shared resources
- maintaining focus and relevance to management and executive users
- definition of how the facility will grow and be funded
- planning and executing local needs simultaneously with enterprise needs
- variations in business language - where different terms can mean the same or the same term can means different things for different people
- maintaining and building relevant knowledge, locally and centrally
As the demand for information assets grows, and the above challenges are confronted, our clients increasingly use Focus to assist when implementing, reviewing or enhancing their BICC.