A Comprehensive Guide to Establishing and Optimizing Business Intelligence Competency Centers

The objectives of a business intelligence competency center (BICC) are to provide the organization with better control over operational and financial reporting, reduce reporting costs, improve consistency, and provide the organization with more complete information for management decisions. BICCs are often business-led cross-functional teams that provide organizational support and guidance for implementation and usage of business intelligence processes and technology. They can live within the IT organization, but more often are business driven.

BICC Implementation Goals

Goals for BICC implementations include the following:

1. Help organizations improve performance and align executions with strategies by connecting objectives, goals, initiatives and metrics.
2. Provide a clear design, definition, documentation and division of the roles and responsibilities of the business, IT organization and governance function.
3. Enable the organization to manage business information as a corporate asset.
4. Provide representation and act as an intermediary between IT roles and functional roles when presenting information to management.
5. Create standardized policies and procedures for reporting across the organization, enabling end users to better understand and utilize reporting outputs.
6. Provide a centralized point of contact, control and coordination for business intelligence and performance management across the organization.
7. Assist in the overall governance process for business intelligence and reporting by guiding organizations as they focus on the strategic use of data and ensuring that the stated strategy is being properly executed.
8. Reduce organizational risk caused by incomplete or inaccurate data.
9. Provide cost savings and increased efficiency to organizations by creating a “one-stop-shop” for reporting and information needs.
10. Create a centralized knowledge resource for organizations that can provide guidance and thought leadership for business intelligence and performance management.

BICCs come in many different shapes and sizes, based on the individual needs of different organizations. They can be formalized organizations within either the business or IT function, or they can be virtualized teams that offer support. The unifying element of BICCs is that they are designed to help foster business intelligence concepts, applications, and their usage within organizations.

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