Business Intelligence

1. Business Intelligence Tony Devine Ryan Feigelson Angie Koslowski

2. Introduction • Business Intelligence: the exploration and mining of data in search of meaningful patterns • History and Definitions • Progress through the 1990’s-->9/11 • Modern Uses & Applications of BI • Companies that provide this service

3. History of BI • Early references to Art of War • To succeed in war, one should have full knowledge of one's own strengths and weaknesses and full knowledge of one's enemy's strengths and weaknesses • Similar to business: • Collecting Data • Discerning patterns and meaning from data • Responding to resultant information

4. History of BI, cont. • Before information age, businesses struggled to gather data from non-automated sources and made decisions based on intuition. • As more systems became automated, more data became available. • Due to incompatibilities between systems and platforms, businesses were unable to merge data from various sources in order to make it meaningful. • Need for short- and long-term data to make company-wide strategic decisions.

5. History of BI, cont. • Impact of 9/11 • Made security issues more of a concern • Need to know enemy • The need to discern patterns and make strategic decisions in business and governmental organizations. • Encouraged developers to create efficient systems that worked for many industries and organizations. • Data warehouses and data marts emerged as an answer to the problem of multi-system incompatibility

6. Data Warehouses • Data Warehouse: repository of integrated information, available for queries and analysis. • Place where relevant data can be held for completing strategic reports for management. • Strategy-->most execs are less concerned with day to day operations, as they are with overall business functions • Can use this information for strategic decisions.

7. Data Warehouses, cont. • Businesses use multiple platforms and technology. • Data Warehouses take data from multiple platforms and place them in common location using common query tool. • This makes decision support more readily available without affecting day to day operations. • Not a location for all data, but a location for data that is interesting.

8. Data Marts • Data warehouses combine data across the entire enterprise. • Data mart: specialized version of data warehouse. Creation of data is predicated on specific, defined need for certain grouping of select data. • Smaller than warehouse, focuses on particular subject/department.

9. Modern Uses and Applications • Business Intelligence can be used in a variety of business functions, including: • Process Re-Engineering • Decision Support Systems • Finance/Budgeting • Competitive Analysis • Supply Chain Management

10. Designing and implementing a business intelligence program Goal Alignment queries -The first step determines the short and medium-term purposes of the program. -What strategic goals of the organization will the program address? -What organizational mission/vision does it relate to? -A crafted hypothesis needs to detail how this initiative will eventually improve results / performance. Cost and risk queries -The financial consequences of a new BI initiative should be estimated. -It is necessary to assess the cost of the present operations and the increase in costs associated with the BI initiative? -What is the risk that the initiative will fail? -This risk assessment should be converted into a financial metric and included in the planning? Customer and Stakeholder queries -Determine who will benefit from the initiative and who will pay. -What kinds of customers/stakeholders will benefit directly from this initiative? -What are the quantitative / qualitative benefits? -How will customers' benefits be monitored? -What about employees,... shareholders,... distribution channel members?

11. Gartner:Insights and advice from more than 1,000 technology experts North Carolina Courts system problems • Ability to serve the public with speed and accuracy • Lack of universal office automation, easy-to-use systems and internet access for employees who need it Gartner Groups Recommendation • Implement a new technology system over a 5 year plan for $65-$95 million dollars Benefits of new systems • Judge can immediately access the criminal record of a defendant standing in front of him • Clerks could collect fines and court costs over the internet • Electronically submit citations to courts

12. Transferring Data Into Wisdom

13. Company Club Cards • Organizations that have been collecting data from their transactional systems have the opportunity to realize potential of the data as an asset to the organization and leverage that asset in a manner that provides greater understanding of the subject matter. • Location of purchase • Purchase trends: What, Where, When, Who to answer WHY

14. BI Software • Software that enables users to obtain enterprise-wide information more easily. • More tightly integrate querying, reporting, OLAP, data mining, & Data warehousing. • End goal to slice and dice the information from the organizations databases without having to wait for their IT departments to develop complex queries

15. BI Software Inductive Logic • The process of reasoning in which the premises of an argument support the conclusion but do not ensure it. Conditional Logic • If (condition A) THEN (do something) ELSE (do something different)

16. Fatal Flaws of BI • “If we build it they will come” • how the data warehouse is set up is critical • IT organizations often create data warehouses for businesses, wit little or no knowledge of the business it is creating the warehouse for • This can lead the users within the business organization to perceive the information as having little or no value. • Can’t see the benefit of the information • To avoid this the business and the IT company must work in tandem so that the information is relevant to the business’s needs

17. “Data Quality Problem…we don’t have one” • Many companies fail to realize or admit that there are problems with their data • Through 2007 up to 50% of all data warehouse projects will be of little use or a complete failure due to lack of quality data. • Companies tend to blame the IT department for these failures and fail to recognize that it’s the quality of the data they are gathering that is the problem • Quality issues need to be addressed if the warehouse project is to succeed.

18. “Our enterprise applications vendor will deliver the best solution” • It is often the case that businesses assume that a “one stop shop” solution will be the best and most cost effective solution for the business. • However, many enterprise application providers offering BI solutions fail to address the right information requirements • Businesses need to compare the vendor’s solution with that of a market leading specialty vendor to be sure.

19. Smarter use of BI • Leading BI initiatives are interactive, flexible processes that take into account the needs and skills of people within the company. • This means viewing BI as a continuum that spans diverse users-including managers, workers, sales representatives, Sr. Executives, partners, customers, and suppliers.

20. Smarter use of BI • Companies must change the way they implement and manage their information architecture and application portfolios • Better integrate BI with business processes • Sharpen users’ information-analysis skills