Finance and IT: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Celtics vs. Lakers. Mac vs. PC. Stallone vs. Schwarzenegger. There’s nothing like a good rivalry, but when it comes to the long-term health of your business, it’s usually better to NOT have one department declaring war on another. Such has been the outcome with most BI projects, when determining who should drive the project between Finance and IT.
It’s easy to see why there has always been a clash of priorities between the two. Finance wants to access and analyze their data, how, when, and where they want it. But finance professionals haven’t always been the most tech-savvy group, which has only increase their dependence on the IT side of the fence.
From the IT side, any new BI tool can’t just be plugged into the enterprise systems and magically turned into a high-performance, user-friendly solution. Each project has to be vetted, tested, and built for specific organizational needs. It takes time. It takes valuable resources away from other projects. And in larger organizations, it can take an army to move these projects across the goal line.
While the two sides may not be BFFs anytime soon, much of the solution can be found with self-service BI tools. Boris Evelson, Forrester’s principal BI analyst, seems to agree. He states that “with all the modern, user-friendly BI tools, there’s absolutely no reason why Excel-savvy business users can’t create 80% of their own business reports and dashboards.”
Solver’s BI360 helps Finance and IT not merely to coexist, but to align their BI objectives and thrive. It’s an incredibly user-friendly, self-service business intelligence suite that can meet and exceed the demands of any complex, multi-departmental organization. And while it may not be as entertaining as a Tyson vs. Holyfield fight, it can certainly help your organization become more productive (and positive) with its next BI project. Learn more.