In January 2018, the interim manager took on a mandate with a medium-sized automotive supplier with around 6,000 employees. The company has an annual turnover of around EUR 1.3 billion. It is headquartered in Germany and has additional plants in Poland, India, China, the USA and Mexico.
After a business intelligence maturity assessment, the management decided to set up a Business Intelligence Competence Center (BICC) as an organizational unit. The department was located in the CFO division, which also includes IT. As an expert in business intelligence and agile project management, the interim manager took on the role of BICC manager for a limited period of time.
The target image of the business intelligence organization sharpened and coordinated
The new organizational unit was to ensure that future projects in the area of business intelligence were designed and implemented effectively. In particular, the BICC needed to be able to identify, structure and bundle the specific requirements, for example from the areas of finance, sales or plant controlling.
The interim manager was initially tasked with sharpening the target image of the business intelligence organization and coordinating it within the company. The results of the previous maturity assessment served as the basis for his planning. The planning included the services to be provided by the BICC as well as the staffing.
Developing a standard process for transferring requirements into BI projects
Another important task for the interim manager was to develop a standard process for transferring management requirements into BI projects. An interdisciplinary steering committee had to be formed and established for this purpose. This committee was responsible for controlling the demand management process and for approving and prioritizing projects. The interim manager was also responsible for clarifying organizational and procedural issues and coordination requirements with other steering committees and management.
BI steering board and BI self-service community successfully staffed and introduced
During the 11-month mandate, the interim manager was able to complete the assignment in full. The demand & delivery management process for business intelligence projects was developed and introduced. The "BI steering board" is staffed with decision-makers from specialist departments and IT and has started its work, as has a "BI self-service community" with experts from specialist departments and IT. The organizational responsibilities for data areas and key figure definitions are designed in the form of BI governance with data ownership.
Building an enterprise data warehouse based on SAP BW on HANA
In the next sub-project, the interim manager and his team built a new enterprise data warehouse on the technological basis of "SAP BW on HANA" in two stages with a focus on Finance & Sales. He developed an extended data warehouse for the Plant Controlling division on the same platform. He also introduced a new tool for self-service business intelligence in a structured selection process.
The interim manager initiated extensive recruiting measures to build up the team. He also drew up role descriptions for the profiles at BICC and was involved at times in the recruitment process. By the end of the mandate, the new organizational unit was well positioned and could be handed over to the already selected permanent successor.
