Business Intelligence Competency Centers: A Team Approach to Maximizing Competitive Advantage

Chapter 3. Primary Functions of the Business Intelligence Competency Center

Overview

The Business Intelligence Competency Center operates as a support and service center for the business units in the organization, potentially spanning multiple divisions and geographical boundaries. A clear definition of the BICC's responsibilities and agreement about its functions are vital. You need that clarity in order to manage the expectations for the BICC and to keep it working efficiently, given various service requests and support queries.

The BICC needs to be supported by an infrastructure that helps it to manage and prioritize the workload while keeping the work transparent and predictable for its internal customers. You will need to define both service levels and support infrastructure for the relationships that the BICC has with the internal business units and with software vendors. Which functional areas should the BICC consist of? (See Exhibit 3.1.)

Figure 3.1. Functional Areas in the BICC

Functional Areas Inside the BICC

The functional areas shown in Exhibit 3.1 are important to cover in a BICC. Your organization might decide that only some of those areas should be included in your BICC. For example, your current organizational structure might require you to centralize only some of those functions in your BICC, while others would remain in other functional units. However, we believe that ...