Shawn Lester has written a nice post on Analytics » Expanding BI One Department at a Time on the SAP Analytics Blog, including a handy list of business pains that you might consider as part of needs analysis:
- Executive KPIs: What is top of mind for the executives? Often this may fall into some type of dashboarding and process like six sigma or balanced scorecard
- Extranet Initiative: Is there a need to share information with customers or collaborate with partners or suppliers?
- Operational BI: Is there a department that has a need for operational dashboards or embedded analytics?
- Departmental BI Project: Is there a motivated department with an identified need and desire for a BI project?
Office of Finance: Is there an opportunity to improve budgeting, planning, or financial reporting?