Selecting the Right Business Analytics Partner

IBA GroupMark HillaryIDC is one of the leading global industry analysts, so it’s always interesting to see their own guidance on choosing a supplier. Their recent report ‘IDC MarketScape Excerpt: Worldwide Business Analytics Consulting and Systems Integration Services 2014 Vendor Assessment’ focused exclusively on the questions you need to ask when searching for a Business Analytics partner.1. Pay attention to domain knowledge. Over the years, some service providers have built deep industry expertise across certain business needs.2. Create a culture of analytics. It is not enough for you to have access to the right data, you need to create the processes that can make use of this data across your entire organization.3. Don’t neglect the basics. Companies often find they have data issues once the migration has commenced, which will then delay the entire migration project. Stop and avoid all these roadblocks by taking the data cleansing stage seriously so the migration can run smoothly.4. Align the strength of your supplier with project success. If you find a good match then ensure that your partner gets stronger as the project succeeds.Of course, point 5 from IDC was to utilize their own research when selecting a supplier. Most of these points are what any manager with a good experience of outsourcing would be planning anyway, but it cannot be stressed enough that good planning for the migration and creating a culture of data analytics are essential for success.