Versão em português aqui.
The phrase that serves as title to this article was told in its original already in English like this: "only because you have the tool does not mean you have to use it" by Kelli Such, at SAPPHIRE NOW this year and then freely translated by me (in the Portuguese version on this article).
Kelli Such is Director of Business Intelligence at Kraft Foods in Chicago, United States. And until I watch the SAPPHIRE NOW session entitled: Building Tomorrow's Enterprise Solutions from SAP with BI, I did not know her.
Actually, to see the entire session, simply visit the event website (http://www.sapphirenow.com), register for free and search by the title: Building Tomorrow's Enterprise Solutions from SAP with BI.
Since then, what changed was simple: I became Kellii's fan. Of course, not only for this sentence. But by the context, by her courage and force behind this phrase. In the midst of the biggest event organized by SAP worldwide, Kelli - under the watchful eyes of the biggest giants in the business world of "tools", shared with us this "pearl".
The beauty of the concept is the indisputable truth of the statement together with the obviousness of it. As a rough analogy, I could say one has a hammer at home and does not need to use it. I'm pretty sure that in my colleagues circle that statement would cause, without a doubt, a hiatus in the conversation.
The unfolding of the assertion in the field of Business Intelligence and IT in general is enormous. We have been seem that BI solutions market clearly go for the plurality of tools, it is normal and natural: planning tools, reports, dashboards, consolidation, etc.. And in general, all these tools come entagleded together in a "suite" or in a package.
The idea of packing tools is in principle great. It gives to the customer the possibility to do things that he/she did not foresee or did not know that could be made. But we must avoid the dictatorship of the technology. Decisions about whether to use a tool should ALWAYS be connected directly to a business need or opportunity.
It is clear that IT, and especially BI professionals, can and should suggest uses not yet considered by our colleagues in other areas (whatever they are: finance, human resources, marketing, production, etc.). But these suggestions MUST be related to a business need or opportunity, otherwise they are pointless.
If someone disagrees, I have a suggestion: just go home and use the hammer.
The beauty of the concept is the indisputable truth of the statement together with the obviousness of it. As a rough analogy, I could say one has a hammer at home and does not need to use it. I'm pretty sure that in my colleagues circle that statement would cause, without a doubt, a hiatus in the conversation.
The unfolding of the assertion in the field of Business Intelligence and IT in general is enormous. We have been seem that BI solutions market clearly go for the plurality of tools, it is normal and natural: planning tools, reports, dashboards, consolidation, etc.. And in general, all these tools come entagleded together in a "suite" or in a package.
The idea of packing tools is in principle great. It gives to the customer the possibility to do things that he/she did not foresee or did not know that could be made. But we must avoid the dictatorship of the technology. Decisions about whether to use a tool should ALWAYS be connected directly to a business need or opportunity.
It is clear that IT, and especially BI professionals, can and should suggest uses not yet considered by our colleagues in other areas (whatever they are: finance, human resources, marketing, production, etc.). But these suggestions MUST be related to a business need or opportunity, otherwise they are pointless.
If someone disagrees, I have a suggestion: just go home and use the hammer.
Huges,
