| | JUNE 20238CIOReviewBy Steve Sermarini, Sr. Director of Data and Advanced Analytics, RadialSteven Sermarini is a Senior Director of Data and Advanced Analytics at Radial. He provides thought leadership on Big Data Analytics, Data Science, Cloud Architecture, Business Intelligence, Reporting and Microservices. With over 25+ years of industry experience including tech start-ups and fortune 50 companies, he has helped several organizations transition to cloud-native architectures and has worked on patents related to Big Data Analytics projects. Steven holds a Master of Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, CPM-Project Manager from Boston University, and a B.S. from Wester Chester University of Pennsylvania.As we see the mass proliferation of Power BI across organizations, the tug-of-war has intensified between BI platforms and portals run by IT vs. localized BI tools run by business groups. In general, the recent popularity of this tool has greatly accelerated the drive towards de-centralized BI development, down to the team level. There are philosophical battle lines that typically get drawn between centralized IT organizations and other business units regarding control of BI development. What the business wants: · Vision and control ­ They want to have control at the departmental or team level over the BI product, to align it with their subject matter experts' vision of the target state and solve their most important business problems.· Velocity ­ They want it now. IT delivery times can be long, as most IT organizations are chronically understaffed in relation to project workloads, tech roadmaps, and tech debt work.· Agility ­ The business wants to be able to try something and pivot quickly when it's not quite what they need or when the business environment is changing.What you get from a centralized, IT managed solution:· Single version of truth - Master data is always changing (i.e. ­ codes, flags, filter fields and conditions) continually evolve within the source data ecosystem, leading to data built on a specific logic becoming stale quickly. Creating many copies of data proliferates mis-alignments of the data.· Data quality - Continuously compiling data and cross-checking localized BI and reports with colleagues takes a lot of time and can lead to distortions, and incorrect aggregation logic. When IT centrally manages BI, they have governance and controls in place to ensure the calculations are being done correctly by keeping the logic updates when changes happen. Nothing is worse than sharing an incorrect report with an important client, customer, or partner. · Standard working best practices ­ If each department builds their own BI, how do you share data between departments when there are no standards?· Support ­ Who is responsible for answering questions, fixing Steve SermariniIN MY OPINIONBI EVOLUTION: CIVIL WAR (AND THE RIPPLE EFFECTS OF POWER BI)
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