Before we dive into building an internal user community, we should look at defining what an internal user community is. Within the IBM Cognos BI community, there are external user groups. These are typically groups of IBM Cognos BI users from different companies that are geographically based and meet periodically to discuss how each company is using IBM Cognos BI. An internal user community is very similar, but they are all from the same company, and they often contain full-time roles that are designed for supporting the overall business intelligence initiative. These groups are often called Business Intelligence Competency Centers (BICCs ) or Business Intelligence Centers of Excellence (BICoEs ).

A common misperception is that BICCs and BICoEs are only needed in extremely large companies with thousands of IBM Cognos BI users. The reality is that a BICC or BICoE would add value to any environment.

So, why are these internal user communities so important...