Business Development Metrics

The Business Intelligence Customer. Identifying the customers for operational business intelligence within the organization is an important first step in any Six Sigma initiative. Who are they? The direct customer for the business intelligence product is the end user. These are the people within the organization who operate and manage the business to meet the needs of their external customers (i.e., those who buy the organization’s products and/or services). If we focus only on this end user, though, the organization does not get the full value of business intelligence. Special umbrella requirements, such as the alignment of business intelligence to business goals, may be neglected.

So, there are two categories of customer for business intelligence:
1. The End Users of Operational Business Intelligence

The people and systems that use operational business intelligence are most often called the ”end users.” These customers may be internal to the organization. They use the business intelligence in the operations and management of the business. These are the people (and, sometimes, systems) who are responsible for managing the organization to meet the needs of the external customers. There may also be direct users of business intelligence who are external to the organization. These customers use the business intelligence in ways that have been designated by the organization. For example, they may check their account information, pay bills, etc.

2. The Organization

There are many factors that are critical to quality for the organization, which will not be addressed at the parochial level of the individual business intelligence end user. The organization must also be recognized and treated as a customer for business intelligence. Only at this level can we begin to envision, define and achieve those overall organization goals that will translate into success in a competitive, global marketplace.

Critical to Quality Goals. For each category of customer, we need to identify and describe business intelligence goals and objectives that can be monitored. These should be specific, measurable, and critical to quality (CTQ) for the business intelligence product for that customer. These CTQ factors should be documented, and there should be a signed, formal agreement between the information technology (IT) department and the business intelligence customer. In most cases, there are already some clear best practices and industry standards that support a service level agreement (SLA) for individual business intelligence applications between IT and customers. In the Six Sigma business intelligence initiative, the CTQ factors within these SLAs will be rigorously monitored.

The critical to quality goals (along with specific measurements) for these customers should include, for example, topics such as:

• Performance (e.g., response time)
• Quality of the information, (e.g., accuracy, timeliness, clarity)
• Availability and comprehension of the data
• Satisfaction of business requirements

Aiming for Six Sigma business intelligence means redefining and expanding these service level agreements to include the organization customer. The organization-level customer will have to be transformed into a tangible entity by creating a management team with Six Sigma business intelligence responsibilities.
Relevant CTQ factors should be identified with the help and agreement of the customers.

Service level agreements should be written. There are two major criteria for the CTQ factors:

1. They must, in fact, be critical to a quality product, and
2. Each must be measurable, and the measurement data to be used must be clearly described.

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