# How to find a good BI consulting firm

> A good BI consultancy structures data and empowers the team, not just delivers dashboards. What to look for and the right questions to ask.

Source: https://www.erathos.com/en/blog/how-to-find-a-good-bi-consultancy
Em português: https://www.erathos.com/blog/how-to-find-a-good-bi-consultancy
Published: 2022-11-29
Category: Business Intelligence & Analytics

![BI consulting assessment checklist with delivery criteria and methodology](https://cms-media.erathos.com/j4mCm89IkY1sAWYCcpOwZSuGfjU-1.png)

When it comes to your data-driven journey, you need a solid strategy to minimize the chances of things going wrong. To help you take the steps needed to launch your Business Intelligence architecture, we've put together this practical guide on how to find the right BI consultancy.

## How does a BI consultancy work?

Did you know that before reaching Business Intelligence, there's a whole data infrastructure that needs to be built, along with a series of critical steps? This is exactly what a Data Team designs and implements with excellence. The first stage is data engineering: setting up an analytical database, building your data pipelines, and creating an ingestion, transformation, and storage structure to be used by all stakeholders.

This part is handled by a data engineer. In addition, you can't forget that company culture is essential for plans to succeed, ensuring your business doesn't become another statistic among those that [fail](https://www.cio.com/article/228774/why-data-analytics-initiatives-still-fail.html) in their data initiatives. A BI consultancy is key to pointing out what needs to be changed or implemented on this front.

The core goal of having these professionals working alongside your company is to take the raw data generated by your business operations and turn it into actionable insights that drive better business decisions. When your company's stakeholders have a clear vision of their destination, it becomes much easier to build a collaborative plan and understand the timeline to get there.

Here are some key elements that need to be aligned so the consultancy can understand the scope of the implementation:

- What does your company expect to improve in its data initiatives regarding the end result?
- Do you have your data sources mapped out?
- What are the primary KPIs and OKRs that need to be tracked and monitored?
- Who will be responsible for analyzing this data within the company?
- How often will data need to be shared, and in what format?
- What information needs to be included in your dashboards?
- What can be automated and which technologies should be used?

Based on these questions, it's possible to outline an effective action plan for your business and define the step-by-step approach of the consultancy.

## What to look for when hiring a BI consultancy

Now that you understand what a BI consultancy does, it's time to learn what to evaluate in the service provider you are vetting to assist in your data-driven journey.

The first point to analyze is whether the consultancy has the right talent for your company's needs. A data team typically consists of data engineers, data analysts, data scientists, and even machine learning engineers. Don't focus on tools or add-on services that are misaligned with what your business actually needs.

What really matters in this kind of partner is finding one with the flexibility, expertise, and organization required to work alongside your business's decision-makers or data team. This includes detailed documentation of all implementations and processes, as well as constant communication between your internal team and the hired consultants. Being data-driven and leveraging business intelligence involves much more than just building dynamic dashboards and centralizing information in one place.

It is an effort that involves culture, people, processes, and different technologies to work properly. Therefore, choose professionals who can quickly understand your business context and deliver realistic solutions to achieve what your company wants to accomplish through its data initiatives.

Strategic partners like Erathos can help you on this mission! We deliver data solutions that decrease time-to-value for your initiative and help transform your company at every level.

Get in touch and find out how to become data-driven faster!