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Jamie Oswald Senior Business Intelligence Analyst Arch Coal, Inc. (USA) (SAP Mentor )

Jamie Oswald Senior Business Intelligence Analyst Arch Coal, Inc. (USA) (SAP Mentor ). How Arch Coal is Using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer to Solve Self-Service BI. Main Message.

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Jamie Oswald Senior Business Intelligence Analyst Arch Coal, Inc. (USA) (SAP Mentor )

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  1. Jamie OswaldSenior Business Intelligence AnalystArch Coal, Inc. (USA) (SAP Mentor) How Arch Coal is Using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer to Solve Self-Service BI

  2. Main Message Self-service business intelligence can be a real problem in many organizations, especially for those users who don't spend a lot of time in Web Intelligence. SAP BusinessObjects Explorer can provide a very quick-to-market solution for your highest need data areas to every level of customer. And it has a built-in mobile solution to boot.

  3. Arch Coal Cheat Sheet • Produced 157 million tons of coal in 2011 (5th globally, 2nd in US) • Over $4.2 Billion in 2011 Revenues • Over 6,600 employees Global Coal Producers(2011, in millions of tons) Sources: ACI, Ventyx, Company filings, press articles *Pro Forma

  4. Arch leads the coal industry in safety and environmental compliance Lost-Time Safety Incident Rate(per 200,000 employee-hours worked) ACI Environmental Compliance(SMCRA violations based on state reports) ICG Acquisition ICG Rate Industry 5-year avg. = 2.84 Arch Rate Arch 5-year avg. = 0.74 In 2011, four mining complexes and facilities achieved A Perfect Zero – 0 reportable injuries and 0 SMCRA environmental violations • Earned 25 national and state awards for safety excellence, including two of three national MSHA Sentinels of Safety awards • Ranked #1 among peer group with 27 total SMCRA violations

  5. What I’ll Cover • What is Self-service BI and how does Explorer fit? • How do you get started and whom do you engage? • What are the keys to Explorer Success & Ancillary Benefits? • Questions • Key Points to Take Home

  6. Arch Coal’s BI Journey • Started building out an enterprise data warehouse in 2008, delivering a new subject area every 4-6 months • Went live with SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise in October 2008 • Recent upgrade to our Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system allowed for consolidation of many of our “shadow” reporting tools • Recent acquisition of another company increased our user base All of this created an environment hungry for easy-to-find, easy-to-digest information

  7. What is Self-service BI and how does Explorer fit?

  8. Self-Service BI “Self-service business intelligence (SSBI) is an approach to data analytics that enables business users to access and work with corporate information without the IT department’s involvement (except, of course, to set up the data warehouse and data marts underpinning the business intelligence (BI) system and deploy the self-service query and reporting tools).” • Margaret Rouse, TechTarget,http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/definition/self-service-business-intelligence-BI “I just want the data and I don’t want to wait for IT.” • Every User Ever Pretty Much

  9. Self-Service BI in the IT/User Relationship • Users don’t want to… • Get the wrong answer • Learn tools • Know the data structure • Build queries and then format the output • IT doesn’t want… • To answer a bunch of questions • Users running open-ended queries • To constantly change reports on a whim

  10. How does Explorer solve these issues? • Very easy tool to learn (for IT and users) • Single version of the truth • IT retains tight control over the content • Mobility solution baked in

  11. How do you get started and whom do you engage?

  12. Engagement is necessary throughout the organization Everybody already has some sort of business intelligence solution! • Executives • Easy to ask “someone” for the information • “Someone” knows what they want, how they want it, and how to get it • Managers • Most applications include some sort of reporting • Often that sets up shadow ETL into “spreadmarts” We need to offer them something better than what they’ve already got or something they don’t already have

  13. Getting started • Pick your spots • Not every subject area has a need for self-service • Operational reports still need to be there and always will • Explorer is for asking quick questions and getting quick answers • To start, choose ones that are really intuitive and easy to understand • Inventory • Safety • Just create something • Find a group of reports with the same data but sliced several different ways • Validate the data, and start showing it off • Make sure it makes sense from the top of the organization to the bottom

  14. Explorer reception • “How do I get that?” • “I want all of my people to have it.” • “When are you gonna put [some other piece of data] in here.” • “Why haven’t we always been using this?” • “You aren’t getting out of my office until that is on my iPad.”

  15. What are the keys to success & ancillary benefits?

  16. Double check your data • Nothing kills a BI initiative faster than wrong numbers • Everyone is going to question the data because it is very easy to find • Get your subject matter experts to sign off on every bit of data • Data granularity matters • Reporting header-level measures and line item details can be tricky • Try allocating the header measures if you can get away with it • No universe-delegated measures in Explorer! • Actually, you can with HANA and BW • Beware the “Occurrences” object

  17. Information Space Sizing • We target < 1,000,000 rows per query • Performance varies, but this is the most common number • We target < 25 columns per query • Often the ones at the end are row level info that doesn’t aggregate • We usually differentiate between current and historical The biggest issue impacting the size of your Information Space will be the business rules and data granularity

  18. Don’t be afraid to say “no” • Not all data fits into the Explorer metaphor • Too confusing, too nuanced, mixed granularity • If the data only makes sense as a row, Explorer probably isn’t right • You can’t always use your existing universes • If you can, by all means do so • If you can’t, label everything accordingly • We had to do a lot of derived tables • Sometimes it just makes more sense to create a report • Say “yes” proactively – evaluate new report requests as potential Information Spaces

  19. Details, details, details • Always sort dates chronologically • Pay attention to the order your facets and measures appear • Rename columns • Be as open as you can, personalize when you must • .UNV work in XI 3.x, .UNX work in BI4

  20. Training on Explorer Explorer was originally designed to be a tool that doesn’t require any training. They came pretty close. Some things to bear in mind. • You can’t read across the page • Every selection changes every part of the view • The graph may not always mean what you think it means Formal training isn’t a must – typically whoever introduces someone to the tool gives them a few minutes of back story

  21. Unexpected benefits • We got to decommission a lot of reports • During upgrade, this made us realize some trouble spots in the data • Removed a lot of report instances, lots of emails, lots of everything • Really pushed mobile engagement for other applications • Make sure your support team has a few mobile devices • This will flush out a lot of your other mobile issues

  22. Next steps for Explorer Users • Add more Information Spaces • Nobody minds having one • Upgrade to BI4! • More integrated user experience • FP3 has a lot of new functionality (maps, better charts, etc.) • Exploration Views • Accelerate it • No more limits • More calculation options • HANA is pretty stinking cool • Imagine letting executives explore your whole GL in real time!

  23. Key Points to Take Home • Self-service BI isn't about making report creation easier - It's about letting people find the right information for themselves • Explorer is the easiest BI tool to get started with for everyone • If you give them the wrong numbers in the first pass, they'll never trust you again • Really give your information space a good (but quick) beta test for labels, sorts, etc. • Be thoughtful about what goes into a single Information Space (and what doesn’t)

  24. How to contact me: Jamie Oswald Arch Coal, Inc. joswald@archcoal.com +1 314-994-2882

  25. Additional Resources • My internet home! • http://oswaldxxl.com • Our podcast • http://dslayer.net • SAP Community Network • http://scn.sap.com • Business Objects Board (BOB) • http://www.forumtopics.com/busobj/ • Dallas Marks’ blog • http://www.dallasmarks.org/blog/category/explorer/

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