BIRMINGHAM, England, February 19 /PRNewswire/ --     Business intelligence now sits at the top of most IT budgets, yet most
deployments are still far from complete. This is costing companies thousands
of pounds everyday, and some are considering abandoning projects altogether.

Senior Business Intelligence consultant Paul Harris 
(http://www.saphere.co.uk) says: "Too often it seems such a daunting task but 
following simple guidelines will help deploy a business intelligence solution 
to budget and time."

Here are Paul's top five ways for successful deployment.

step 1 - design for users

One of the major risks with any BI deployment surrounds user requirements
not being met. It is imperative that all users have access, at the bare
minimum, to the same information as before to prevent disruption.

The collation of these requirements is certainly time consuming and a
difficult process to manage. To gather this information we suggest calling in
a project manager who has experience of setting-up teams of business
intelligence experts within your organisation to do this effectively.

step 2 - build in stages

On establishing the user requirements, the size of the task can prove
daunting. With 10's to 1,000's of users potentially being affected, it is
imperative that control of the project is maintained.

To maintain control we suggest building a solution, initially, for just
one department. We suggest resourcing experienced BI consultants on the
technical side, to ensure the foundations of a robust system is being
implemented. Our choice at Saphere would be to start building the first
solution within the finance department.

step 3 - test the system works

Without running too far ahead we suggest testing and trailing a sample of
reports or analyses (10-20%) with users of the system. This is important as
you will quickly test two important facets of the project:

1) The reports provided are producing sensible results

2) The BI team on board has the correct skill required to implement the
solution

On the users' acceptance of the reports, should the project be rolled out
to further departments. This acceptance process will save costly mistakes in
the future stages of the project.

step 4 - deploy

If you have completed steps 1-3 successfully, your BI team will have
demonstrated their skill and capability of deploying the solution throughout
your organisation. Providing you with a clear idea of the deployment's likely
time and cost. This avoids the classic issue where projects are abandoned
because of inaccurate projections.

We now suggest rolling out the solution to other departments, ideally in
stages, rather than in concert. We suggest the team of experts take a more
pivotal role in the organisation, to create engagement throughout the
organisation as the project is rolled out to more users. Saphere's project
managers are experienced in this area of engagement and have seen this
methodology work extremely well.

step 5 - support the users

The success or failure of any system will clearly depend on the system 
being available on a 24-7 basis. To ensure this we suggest using support 
services from your BI vendor. However, if you use an accredited partner we 
suggest going via them to buy training and support from your BI vendor, due 
to the volume discounts they are able to pass on.

If you stick to these five easy to follow steps we are confident that the
deployment of your business intelligence will be handled in a more timely,
and financially beneficial, way.

About Saphere

Saphere UK is a highly accredited Cognos Silver Consulting partner. They
offer business intelligence, corporate performance management, data
integration, OLAP reporting and balanced score carding for the enterprise.

About Web Efforts

Web Efforts (http://www.webefforts.co.uk) is an accomplished company 
offering internet marketing services to clients throughout the UK. The 
company has over 10 years experience in the Search Engine Optimization & 
Online PR.

For more information contact:
    Paul Harris
    Saphere Limited
    +44-(0)1562-517-102
    paul.harris@saphere.co.uk