Business Intelligence Solutions for the Workplace

1. Business Intelligence Solutionsfor the Workplace Enhancing Analytical Reporting Presented by: Jason Strain, Senior Project Manager, MEAG Power Some content courtesy of John Hack, Director of Solution Development, OutlookSoft Corporation APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

2. Agenda • Evolution of Business Intelligence (BI) • How we started with a BI/Business Performance Management (BPM) software solution • New business problem for 2006 • Our chosen solution • Sample reports • Overview of the analysis website • Live demo • Lessons learned APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

3. What to do about it? • Achieving Performance Why is it happening? • Understanding Performance Evolution of BI to true Performance Management What happened? • Reporting Performance APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

4. From Business Intelligence… APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

5. …to Performance Management… APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

6. To Predictable Performance APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

7. Our Entry Into Business Performance Mgt. • Initial project was to replace a system of cost center budgeting spreadsheets. • Justified the implementation cost just by comparing it to products that only did budgeting as well as custom development. • Purchased OutlookSoft in the spring of 2005. • Worked with a consultant to guide the implementation that went live successfully in the summer of 2005. • Used by 40+ cost center managers and their assistants to budget the basics of salaries, travel, training, etc. • Now distributing monthly variance reports online via the OutlookSoft SharePoint Accelerator. APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

8. New Business Problem for 2006 • Market volatility in natural gas supply and hourly market prices raised concerns over dependability of a once per year budget. • Decided to run the hourly budget model every month and reforecast the entire year. • The ideal solution would be able to report a combination of year to date actuals and remaining year forecasts to produce a rolling year end reprojection. APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

9. Solution Requirements • Needed a way to compile the rolling year end reprojection • Use as many months of actual bills as possible • Do not change the last forecast the board reviewed for the next month • Utilize as much of the latest forecast as possible for future months. • Needed to compare any combination of scenarios: Actual, Budget, Forecast, and Reprojection. • Needed quick turn around whenever the source system data was updated. • Needed the flexibility to create new reports and graphs quickly. • The numbers had to tie to the source systems. • Analysis needed to include not just dollars, but also energy and capacity. APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

10. Decision • Faced with 2 options • Change the source transactional systems • Use OutlookSoft • Built the Proof of Concept using OutlookSoft • No consultants needed • Quick implementation (4-6 week) • Management saw the reports they wanted • Bonus of a web-based, color coded site for quick analysis • Board of Directors is now getting this information each month APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

11. Solution Architecture Budget Database Billing Database Compile Reprojection Combine Actual Bill Results with Future Forecast(s) Board Approved Budget Monthly Forecast Monthly Bill Results Slice and Dice by: Category: Actual, Budget, Each Forecast, Reprojection Participant City: All 49 Project: All projects (funds) Account: Fuel, Generation, Margins, … Fixed or Variable Unit of Measure: Dollars, Energy, Capacity Time Excel Based Reports & Graphs Insight Analysis APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

12. Sample Reports • These reports exceeded the initial requirements. • Illustrate the basic reporting capabilities of any BI tool. Note: Any correlation between the names on these reports and our actual participant names is purely coincidental. The names were replaced using state capitals. APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

13. Board Report APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

14. Variance from Budgeted c/kWh APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

15. Budget to Actual APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

16. Variable c/kWh APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

17. Graph of c/kWh APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

18. Project & Account by Unit of Measure APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

19. What is Predictive Analytics? • Discovery: • Automated identification of relationships between KPIs and their causes • Prediction: • Early warning indicator of future performance deviation based on discovered relationships • Delivery: • Proactive alerting and delivery of structured and unstructured data … in a personally relevant context APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

20. Discovery • Automated variance analysis : • Reasons – base level results • Root Causes – transactions • Context – unstructured data APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

21. Discovery WHAT The KPI Value and Variance are highlighted APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

22. Discovery WHY REASONS are base level data elements that are automatically shown APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

23. Discovery WHY ROOT CAUSES (if any) are operational events that are correlated to the KPI variance APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

24. Discovery CONTEXT Unstructured data that relates to the variance is automatically linked to the KPI APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

25. Discovery CONTEXT One Click takes you to the unstructured data linked to the KPI APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

26. Prediction • Based on Relationships in the Data • This is NOT Statistical Forecasting! APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

27. Prediction – What Insight Tells You The KPI at Risk is Identified APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

28. Prediction – What Insight Tells You The predicted value is displayed APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

29. Prediction – What Insight Tells You The correlated KPI drivers are listed APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

30. Delivery in a role-appropriate context Executives Business Analysts Line of Business Managers Suppliers/Partners APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

31. Demo OutlookSoftReports and Insight APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

32. Lessons Learned • Go with software that fits your existing environment. • Know what you want to analyze. • Make sure your source systems are in order. • Have someone who understands the source data. • Focus on creating a solid foundation for standard reporting. • Predictive analytics build on top of this foundation. • You need to be able to know “what” is happening before you can begin to look at “why” it is happening. • Start as simple and as small as possible • Use iterations to build confidence over time. APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006

33. Questions ? APPA Business & Financial Conference 2006