When employees at United Pipe & Supply in Portland, Ore., were reluctant to use their new business intelligence tools, CIO Mike Green built a virtual BI university to educate them.
Why were users reluctant?
As we deploy technology, people are responding at varying rates -- and much slower than I predicted. I was shocked as both a technologist and a business person. BI is sexy, but users don't get it.
Where is this university?
The university is conducted via Web-based training, and we're sending users to off-site training. They also get business training. ... They might have an afternoon with the CFO where they learn the nuances of a P&L. We also give them certification exams -- and it could take up to a year to get to a certain level of certification.
What's the ultimate goal?
Right now, our managers are going to programmers to get data analyzed. If managers do it themselves, it makes them better decision makers.
This article originally appeared in CIO Decisions as "."
This was first published in March 2005