Your business intelligence strategy is a roadmap for your business’s success — and so is your corporate budget. Therefore, it makes good sense for the two to be connected.

But further than that, your business intelligence strategy and budget shouldn’t exist as separate entities. They should co-exist and inform one another. Your business intelligence strategy needs a budget to make sure it is realistic, and your budget needs a BI strategy to make sure it is relevant.

Here are some of the top ways that building your BI strategy and corporate budget process together can help you harness the best results.

1. Determine What You Need to Measure

Part of a good BI strategy is determining what key performance indicators (KPIs) should be measured for your business. Trying to measure everything is a recipe for disaster. But once you determine what KPIs you do need to track, then you need to know how much you can spend to do so.

Business intelligence tools will help automate the data collection process, but you still need to know how much you can spend on that software, the price of implementing your BI tool, how much you can spend on staff training time, etc. Plus, there is the cost of actually collecting the necessary data. Some of it will be easy to collect, like sales figures from your own business, but if you wanted to benchmark against a competitor, you might need to spend more to get the information you need.

The only way you can determine what approach to take is with a plan.

2. Ensure Your Business Intelligence Strategy is Realistic

It is very easy to start planning out a BI strategy and then get caught up in all of the amazing metrics and changes your business could take on. But is it in your best interest?

As we mentioned above, you cannot track everything, nor should you have to. You also cannot invest in every piece of BI software out there or adopt every single BI best practice all at once.

The best BI strategies are, well, strategic. They understand that it is a process-driven approach that isn’t done all at once, but rather over the long-term. Your budget can help you plan out what timeframe is realistic for your company.

3. Plan for Long-Term Investments

Speaking of timeframe, you will likely find in your BI planning that there are certain expenses that would significantly create more efficiencies in your business and save time, money, and frustration. However, many of these tools require an up-front payment that must be budgeted for.

And it is possible that you may want to invest in multiple BI tools, so you need a plan for what you can afford to buy and when.

4. Make Your Strategy Revenue-Generating

One of the major downsides of many BI strategies is that they can seem like a cost centre. But the overall goal for building better business intelligence is to grow your organization through data-driven insights and innovations — why not start that sooner?

By incorporating your budget into the process, you can look for priorities and plans that allow you to safely start generating revenue that much sooner.

Building an ROI timeline, for instance, on new BI tools or data measuring can help you see exactly when you will start bringing in revenue — or adjust course if the strategy is not working.

5. Create a More Relevant Budget

Just as your BI strategy needs a budget to stay on track, your corporate budget also needs a strategic plan. It is easy to fall into the pattern of budgeting for your operating costs without questioning whether they are helping your business move forward.

When you establish a BI strategy, you lay out several goals your business wants to achieve. If your goal is to increase your revenue by 20% in the next year, you will need to reflect that priority in your budget.

If your goal is to cut back on administrative expenses by 15%, that will also need to be reflected in your budget.

Your corporate budget and your business intelligence strategy are both vital parts of a successful organization — but they should not be disjointed. Combining the two will help you drive results and growth, without spending more than you can afford.

True Sky’s corporate performance management software lets you pair business intelligence methods, like dashboards and KPI tracking, with your budgeting software — allowing you to do more with one tool.

Contact us to find out more. Visit www.truesky.com or call 1 855 878 3759.