THE END CUSTOMER IS LEFT OUT OF THE EQUATION

External products target specific customer groups and are designed to meet their particular needs. The product creates a direct link between the company and its customers. This is rarely the case with internal analytics solutions. In fact, in a situation where a development team is building a solution based on an internal request, it’s not always apparent who the ultimate consumers of the solution will be. For example, take a performance management dashboard for a manufacturing company. Are you building it for executives so they can track productivity across facilities for revenue planning and reporting, or for the facilities managers so they can monitor and maintain equipment more efficiently? Without knowing which individuals or groups are making decisions based on what you are building, it’s difficult to ensure you are truly creating value. As a result, the solution may need to be re-engineered or abandoned altogether.

Another issue internal data solutions run up against is that in the absence of a customerdefined problem: The data often defines the solution versus the problem defining the solution. For example, a common request is for a dashboard that displays specific data rather than for a solution that uses data to help someone make a particular decision better or faster. The upshot? A completed project: check. Value delivered? Not so much.