Gartner BI & Analytics Conference – Modern Architecture

In an excellent session this afternoon, we were taken on the journey towards best practice implementation of BI/Analytics architecture. For the last 2 years Gartner have recommended that the 3 key areas are represented by the Information Portal, Analytics Workbench and Data Science Laboratory. Highlighted in the rather shaky picture below:

Each tier will offer different benefits to the business that can be summarised by the key roles and processes that a modern architecture need to accommodate. These are summarised in the images  below:

Finally by following this you could end up with the holy grail, if this is your businesses holy grail:

It was interesting in this session how they talked around vendors and again reiterated that no one single tool OR vendor can deliver this whole picture. However, they also pointed out that the magic quadrants should not be looked at in isolation as niche and smaller vendors that are in the lower left or not even quite on the board may well suit your businesses needs really well. Understanding your business needs, values and potential outcomes AGAIN seems the ultimate place to “bet your house” when it comes to delivering a successful BI/Analytics program. I would also quote Neil Chandler for businesses just venturing out into BI in that this will be a core competency of your business going forward and require “indefinite investment”. Don’t let this scare the financiers but do make sure people realise that the delivery of the information portal or a specific tool to do data discovery is not the end of the BI/Analytics journey. I much prefer Bibby’s Lead Architect, Richard Smith’s comments around this which has our internal program focussed on creating “an enduring BI capability” to be enduring you must react to change, within the business and within the marketplace.