2010 NKU Business Intelligence Summit for Higher Education

This week, I was privileged to speak at the Northern Kentucky University Business Intelligence Summit for Higher Education, which was held September 22-23, 2010 at the METS Center for Corporate Learning.  This was the first year for the event, so I was expecting institutions from nearby Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, but the influence of this conference was much larger.

On Wednesday, I presented KPIs for Business Intelligence, which is one of my breakouts for the upcoming ASUG Fall Focus/SAP BusinessObjects User Conference in two weeks.  Many organizations use BI tools to develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure and improve organizational effectiveness. But fewer organizations apply BI to the business intelligence organization itself.  This can be challenging because our BI infrastructure is often just as heterogeneous as the rest of the enterprise, even if our central BI platform is from a single vendor.  It’s also challenging because most organizations, even those outside of higher education, have the time to focus on their own systems.  However, we won’t gain any insights into the effectiveness of our BI efforts if we aren’t measuring key activities and compiling them into performance metrics.

On Thursday, I presented Increasing User Adoption for Business Intelligence, which was my breakout from last spring’s ASUG 2010/SAP SAPPHIRE NOW conference.  In this presentation, I present six different methods that can be utilized to increase adoption.  Business Intelligence is different than an ERP, CRM or other enterprise application because our BI platforms are much more dynamic.  Therefore, to increase user adoption, we need a set of on-going processes and procedures that insure that users are equipped to get the maximum value from your organization’s BI infrastructure, not just a single method or one-time event.

Thanks to SAP, LSI Consulting, and Decision First Technologies for sponsoring the event, which was well-planned, executed, and attended.  Not to mention tweeted.  I learned a lot from the multiple breakout sessions and networking opportunities.