Three steps to eliminate shadow BI within your organization

Three Steps to Eliminate Shadow BI Within Your Organization

Data is absolutely fundamental to the success of your business. Good data enables you to answer questions about what’s happening in your business today, avoid potential problems, predict future trends, and identify opportunities. However, not all data is good data. If you find yourself sifting through multiple spreadsheets with conflicting information, digging through separate data sets, poring over 10 different versions of the same report, you’re likely dealing with shadow BI. But what exactly does that mean, and how can you avoid it?

What is Shadow BI, and Where Does It Come From?

Business intelligence refers to the strategies, tools, and technologies an organization uses to collect, manage, and analyze data that is then used to help inform decisions. The term “shadow BI” refers to different business intelligence tools and reporting systems that are used outside a company’s central or typical data infrastructure. Shadow BI solutions are not created, implemented, or documented by governed, clean, or accessible data, and therefore they often fail to provide the correct information or align with the organization’s security and compliance requirements.

There are some fantastic business intelligence tools out there that help teams collect and aggregate the data they need to do their jobs. From time-proven tools like Excel to newer platforms like Tableau, employees now have a never-ending variety of BI tools at their fingertips to collect, report on, and analyze key data points. Yet, despite the substantial capabilities these tools offer, using them incongruently can also overwhelm the larger organization’s ability to manage data, and subvert its attempts to establish and maintain a single source of truth. When different departments rely on different information sources to gather that data and different BI tools to report on that data, the result is often shadow business intelligence. This presents real and complex risks to the larger business in the long term.

Typically, this situation arises when an organization’s underlying system isn’t adequately meeting employees’ needs. When users become frustrated with the existing BI tools at their disposal, they naturally look for solutions elsewhere, leading to decentralized and disjointed systems – shadow BI.

Risks Associated with Shadow BI

The impulses to use shadow BI tools often come from a logical place: solving a need a specific user or department has that isn’t being met by the organization’s BI tools. And while it may seem like a positive thing – employees taking initiative to address challenges they are experiencing - we find the risks of shadow BI far outweigh the benefits. Here are just a few of those risks:

• Proliferation of data silos

• Inconsistent and poor reporting quality
• High risk of data loss or leaks
• Increased manual effort and errors in reporting  
• Wasted time and investment to fix faulty data sets  
• Compliance issues and security breaches

• Organizational confusion  

As you can see, the shadow BI not only wastes resources and obscures data, it can even put your organization at serious risk.

How to Eliminate Shadow BI

Ultimately, shadow BI is the result of limited data management. While it may seem simple enough to put a data management infrastructure in place and insist employees adhere to it, without considering what your users need and accommodating them, your system is bound to be unsuccessful. To confront and eliminate this problem head-on, your organization must tackle three critical priorities:

1. Define a strategy for data management

A sensible data management strategy exists to ensure the data your business collects and uses is clean, consistent, accurate, and actionable to the organization’s broader goals. The key to creating this strategy is not to build it around a single technology. Rather, opt for platforms that serve specific departments and meet their specific needs in addition to the broader organizational strategy, and build your data management program around those preferences.

2. Promote data literacy across your organization

Data is only as valuable as your employees’ ability to understand and leverage it. Remember, being data literate does not mean being a data expert, but the general ability to navigate the correct information will empower team members to make better decisions and preclude their urge to create or rely on shadow BI tools.

3. Create a single source of truth for your business

A healthy business intelligence infrastructure must hinge on a single source of truth. A single source of truth will bring data out of siloes and ensure the business operates off of standardized, relevant, and accurate information. This allows operators to collect data from across the business and aggregate it into a central location, giving them a more comprehensive view of their organization’s activities.

Partner with a Data Integrator to Eliminate Shadow BI

Identifying and eliminating shadow BI can seem like a monumental task, but you don’t have to do it alone. Wherever your organization is on its data journey, a modern data foundation is critical to unlocking the power of your data, and at Fastloop, we can help you build that foundation.

Our team has deep knowledge and expertise in both the technical and business side of data, making them uniquely qualified to help you design and deploy a data strategy, integrate your BI tools, and create a single source of truth that your business can depend on. If you’re ready to bring your shadow BI into the light and make more of your data, reach out to us today.

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By Suzanne Carrier, Director of Business Development

Suzanne leads Fastloop’s business development efforts, including Sales, Marketing and Technology Alliances. Suzanne’s experience spans 15+ years of marketing, digital, technology, and analytics projects supporting regional and global organizations like Ford, Honda, McDonald’s and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC). Suzanne’s previous experience spans a number of industry verticals including Media, Telecommunications, Agency, and Startups.