Careful planning is essentially when deploying a Business Intelligence system. For example, details such as database connection parameters and account logons will usually have to be changed before moving from a test environment to a live one. Elements that worked perfectly in the test environment might not work when transported to a production server, unless details like these are taken into account.

Data itself usually changes when deploying a system to a ‘live’ environment. Often the amount of live data is far larger than in test, for example.

Client and server software might need to be deployed, and user accounts made available. Rollout is usually done in stages, starting with just a few (friendly!) users, to minimise the risk, expecially with large, complex rollouts. That way, any unforeseen problems can be dealt with early in the deployment process.

Risk to the organisation should be minimised, and this usually includes a roll-back plan to revert to the previous system if problems with the rollout make this necessary.

If deployment across more than one site, the customisation required for each site must be considered, which might include different languages, time zones and possibly data sources. In some cases reports such as financial reports are customised to suit different legal environments.

Unforeseen performance issues may become apparent once your system is deployed to live servers with more users and data to process. However, with careful project planning overwhelming problems can be avoided.

Deployment is a challenging but interesting phase of a project. As with most things, experience and good planning should ensure that your deployment goes to plan.