For ambitious small businesses looking to grow, making data-driven decisions is no longer a “nice-to-have” - it is a competitive necessity. However, many companies lack the expertise and resources to implement an enterprise-grade business intelligence (BI) program that transforms data into strategic insights. Hiring a full-time BI manager or team is costly and often exceeds the company’s needs. This is where partnering with a Fractional Business Intelligence Manager can provide tremendous strategic value.
A Fractional BI Manager is an
experienced data analytics expert who works on a part-time, outsourced basis as a key member of your team. The Fractional BI Manager handles the technical complexities of BI so your team can remain focused on core business operations. Key responsibilities may include:
A Fractional BI Manager conducts interviews with department heads to deeply understand their data and analytics needs across sales, marketing, operations, finance, or any other part of your business.
One of the most integral parts of a Fractional BI Manager is knowing how to combine data from your CRM, financial systems, inventory databases, web analytics, and other sources into a unified view using ETL/ELT tools. This will allow for a cross-functional understanding of business success metrics.
The BI Manager will help you choose the right BI platform like Tableau, Power BI, or Qlik based on your use cases and required dashboards, security settings, and governance needs..
Design interactive sales performance dashboards, financial reports, operational KPIs, customer segment analyses, and other tailored visualizations based on stakeholder needs. The Fractional BI Manager not only leads the charge for your data utilization, but they will also be entrusted with keeping the rest of the team on the same page.
Conduct training sessions to get users across departments adept at leveraging BI solutions and insights within their strategic decision making process.
By leveraging a Fractional BI Manager, you can finally reap the benefits of data-driven decision making without the costly overhead of a full-time hire.
A Fractional BI Manager has deep expertise in technical areas like BI tool configuration, data visualization best practices, and translating data findings to tangible business outcomes. You get access to enterprise-grade skills that typically cost over $100k annually for specialized full-time roles.
An unbiased external expert can guide your BI program based on ideal practices, not internal politics or subjective demands. The Fractional BI Manager maintains a bird's eye view of true organizational needs at all times. This guidance forces your team to confront the issues as they really are, keeping your business healthy and on track.
An experienced Fractional BI Manager knows how to bypass common pitfalls and quickly deliver an effective BI program tailored to your organization, enabling faster data-driven decision making. For example, they can rapidly build an interactive sales dashboard highlighting regional revenue trends, individual rep performance, changing product mix, seasonal factors, and more.
This provides executives with actionable insights to capitalize on opportunities and address underperformance. Rather than waiting months for your internal team to produce basic reports, a Fractional BI Manager can deliver high-value repeatable visualizations in weeks.
With an enterprise-caliber Fractional BI Manager as a strategic partner, high-growth small businesses can finally tap the full potential of their data to gain competitive advantage. Let Brewster Consulting Group provide the expertise to crystallize data into strategic insights that accelerate growth and impact.