User Adoption Can Make or Break a Project

Business intelligence (BI) projects can fail for a variety of reasons, but generally not because of the BI tool itself. User adoption, for example, continues to be a struggle for many companies as they introduce new BI solutions to their SAP environments. If queries do not run at a “Google-like” speed, users can become frustrated and find workarounds that are often manual and prone to error. To ensure a smooth adoption process, users must be able to effortlessly access useful and relevant information exactly when and how they need it.

To help SAP customers successfully navigate new BI implementations, Protiviti has developed the FRA²ME methodology — a six-step process that enables organizations to proactively address the needs of the user community and solve the puzzle of user adoption.

The Key to BI Project Success: Agility

Organizations looking to adopt new BI technology must focus on being agile throughout the implementation. Being agile means that the BI team must be flexible with its approach and align operations with the end-user community to provide a technological framework at the speed needed to support the business. To achieve these goals, organizations can use FRA²ME to provide systematic and repeatable best practices for increasing end-user adoption (see Figure 1). Its components include:

1. Foundation: Provide the security, performance, and stability users need while adhering to data governance practices.
2. Relevancy: Understand the personas, data models, and workflows that affect users to deliver relevant and useful information.
3. Agility: Be responsive to user requests and address items quickly to keep up with the pace of business.
4. Advocacy: Develop advocates within the user community who understand the value of the BI tool and can help support current and future projects.
5. Monitor & Measure: Track performance, downtime, and usage of the BI tool to identify strengths or weaknesses, and adapt accordingly.
6. Education: Train users on appropriate uses of the BI tool in their day-to-day tasks and continue to provide relevant use cases down the line.

Figure 1 — FRA²ME is a six-step methodology that provides best practices for increasing end-user adoption

FRA²ME allows organizations to incrementally deliver continuous improvement to support end-user engagement, keeping in mind that the underlying technology must also be agile. Modern tools that leverage in-memory computing, such as SAP HANA, can significantly improve a BI team’s ability to deliver rapid solutions that still adhere to foundational concepts such as governance and security.

Be Proactive in User Adoption

Business today does not reward the hesitant. User adoption can make or break a project, and BI teams must be proactive in engaging the user community throughout the process. In the end, users will only use a new BI tool if it serves their needs. To learn more about increasing user adoption with Protiviti’s FRA²ME methodology, visit www.protiviti.com/fra2me.