Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence

(BI)

Business Intelligence…examples A hotel franchise uses BI analytical applications to compile statistics on average

occupancy and average room rate to determine revenue generated per room. It also gathers statistics on market share and data from customer surveys from each hotel to determine its competitive position in various markets. Such trends can be analyzed year by year, month by month and day by day, giving the corporation a picture of how each individual hotel is faring.

A bank bridges a legacy database with departmental databases, giving branch managers and other users access to BI applications to determine who the most profitable customers are or which customers they should try to cross-sell new products to. The use of these tools frees information technology staff from the task of generating analytical reports for the departments and it gives department personnel autonomous access to a richer data source.

A telecommunications company maintains a multiterabyte decision-support data warehouse and uses business intelligence tools and utilities to let users access the data they need without giving them carte blanche to access hundreds of thousands of mission-critical records. The tools set boundaries around the data that users can access, creating data "cubes" that contain only the information that's relevant to a particular user or group of users.

BI Industry Scenario… Today's exciting BI market is ripe with opportunities to hit your strategic

business targets. Gaining market share, keeping customers and controlling costs remain key

objectives. Mid-market executives and big corporate department heads rush to cost effectively meet these complex needs. How? Through improved use of their existing database systems.

CFOs require 'business intelligence' systems that display accurate SKU or customer-level P&Ls, permitting reliable channel and store comparisons over time. Improved forecasts are vital, too!

Data warehousing and analytical skills are combined with an understanding of industry issues, as we refine and implement your vision.

According to Gartner survey of 1,400 CIOs, business intelligence was ranked the top technology priority surpassing security.

The BI and analytics market is currently valued at $8.5 Billion and is expected to grow to $13 Billion over the next five years

Business Intelligence (BI)

BI refers to application and

technology, which is used

to gather, provide access to, and analyze

data and informationabout the company

operations

Business Intelligence Definition

BI is neither a product nor a system.

It is an architecture and a collection of

integrated operational as well as decision-support applications and databases that provide the business

community easy access to business data.

BI Popularized…

In 1989 Howard Dresner

a Research Fellow at Gartner Group popularized "BI"

as an umbrella term to describe a set of concepts

and methods to improve business decision-making

by using fact-based support systems

Why BI solutions ?

More data and data sources…

Evolution from Static Report to BI…

Evolution of financial Systems…

Categories of Report Writers

Sources of Information for Vendor & Product Research

Key Stages of BI

Data Sourcing

Data Analysis

Situation Awareness

Risk Analysis

Decision Support

BI applications and technologies can help companies analyze:

changing trends in market share

changes in customer behavior and spending patterns

customers' preferences

company capabilities

market conditions

Significance of BI…To know about Customers

Having access to timely and accurate information is an important resource for a company, which can expedite decision-making and improve customers' experience.

In the competitive customer-service sector,

companies need to have accurate, up-to-date information on customer preferences,

so that the company can quickly adapt to their changing demands.

BI enables companies to gather information on the trends in the marketplace and

come up with innovative products or services in anticipation of customer's changing demands.

Significance of BI…To know about Competitors…Market…

BI applications can also help managers to be better informed about actions that a company's

competitors are taking.

BI systems can also be designed to provide managers with information on the state of economic trends or marketplace factors, or to provide managers

with in depth knowledge about the internal operations of a business.

Significance of BI…For avoiding Guesswork…

BI can be used to help analysts and managers determine which adjustments are most likely

to respond to changing trends.

BI systems can help companies develop a more consistent, data-based decision making process

for business decisions, which can produce better results than making business decisions by

"guesswork."

Significance of BI…For sharing of information…

BI can help companies share selected strategic information

with business partners.

Some businesses use BI systems

to share information with their suppliers like…..

inventory levels

performance metrics

other supply chain data

Significance of BI…For improving performance…

BI applications can enhance communication among departments, coordinate activities, and enable

companies to respond more quickly to changes (e.g., in financial conditions, customer

preferences, supply chain operations, etc.).

When a BI system is well-designed and properly integrated into a company's processes and decision-making process, it may be able to

improve a company's performance.

BI Technologies

need to have a secure computer system which can specify different levels of user access

to the data 'warehouse',

need to have sufficient data capacity, a plan for how long data will be stored

(data retention).

BI analysts have developed software tools to gather and analyze

large quantities of unstructured data such as

production metrics, sales statistics,

attendance reports,customer attrition figures.

BI Tools

AQL – Associated Query LogicBalanced Scorecard

Business Activity MonitoringBusiness Performance Management

Business Planning Business Process Re-engineering

Competitive AnalysisUser/End-User Query and Reporting

Enterprise Management SystemExecutive Information System

SCM – Supply Chain ManagementDemand Chain Management

and Finance and Budgeting tools.

Other BI applications are used to store and analyze data

Data Mining, Framing & Warehousing(DSS) and Forecasting

Document Warehouse & ManagementKnowledge Management

Mapping, Information Visualization and Dash boarding;

Management Information System (MIS);Geographic Information System (GIS);

Trend Analysis; Software As A Service (SaaS)

Business Intelligence offerings (On Demand)Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and

Multidimensional analysissometimes called "Analytics"

(based on the "hypercube" or "cube"); Real Time Business Intelligence

Statistics and Technical Data AnalysisWeb Mining, Text Mining and

Systems Intelligence

Other BI applications are used to analyze or manage the

"human" side of businesses,

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Marketing Tools

Human Resources applications.

Web Personalisation

Some common factors of ill-equipped organizations to implement BI…

Lack of understanding of the complexity of BI decision-support projects

Lack of recognizing BI decision-support projects as cross-organizational business initiatives and not understanding that cross-organizational initiatives are different from stand-alone solutions

Unavailable or unwilling business representatives Unengaged business sponsors or business sponsors who

have little or no authority due to their low-level positions within the organization

Some common factors of ill-equipped organizations to implement BI…

Lack of skilled and available staff as well as suboptimum staff utilization

Inappropriate project team structure and dynamics No software release concept (no iterative development method) No work breakdown structure (no methodology) Ineffective project management (only project administration) No business analysis and no standardization activities No appreciation of the impact of dirty data on business profitability No understanding of the necessity for and the usage of meta data Too much reliance on disparate methods and tools (the "silver bullet"

syndrome)

Designing and implementing a Business Intelligence Program

Factors need to be consideredGoal Alignment queries

Baseline queries

Cost and risk queries

Customer and Stakeholder queries

Metrics-related queries

Measurement Methodology-related queries

Results-related queries

The Future of BI…

BI users are beginning to demand [Real time BI] or near real time

analysis relating to their business, particularly in front line operations.

They will come to expect up to date and fresh information in the same fashion as

they monitor stock quotes online.

Monthly and even weekly analysis will not suffice

The Future of BI…

"Business users don't want to wait for information. Information needs to be always on

and never out of date.

This is the way we live our lives today. Why should Business Intelligence be any

different?"

Charles Nicholls, CEO of See Why, a Software company,

Windsor UK

The Future of BI…

In the not too distant future companies will become dependent on real time business information in much the same fashion as people come to expect to get information on the internet in just one or two clicks. "This instant "Internet experience" will create the new framework for business intelligence, but business processes will have to change to accommodate and exploit the real-time flows of business data."

Nigel Stokes, CEO, DataMirror Corp.

Kinds of Business Intelligence

Real-time BI 

Compares current business events with historical patterns to detect problems or opportunities automatically

Business intelligence system that maintains the current state of the enterprise.

Tactical BI (or task-oriented/-centric)

Tactical business intelligence, called traditional and/or analytical in various industry articles, is the application of business intelligence tools to analyze business trends, frequently comparing a specific metric (such as sales or expenses) to the same metric from a previous month or year. In most companies, there are usually a few analysts in each department who use online analytical processing (OLAP) and ad hoc query to perform this task. To date, BI tools are mostly used to analyze historical business data to discover trends or anomalies that need attention.

Investigative BI (or exploratory)

Investigative BI is generally launched from a dashboard. Flexibility of drilldown is a key differentiator.

This concentrated specialty focuses on the current status of the business. Specifically, will take a good hard look at the location of assets, pertinent financial information, and can perform background investigations on officers and employees within the organization.

Third-party BI

At the higher end, third-party BI can be delivered via dashboards. Often, however, it just looks like a single parameterized report. (E.g. Google Analytics.)

Traditional BI

Traditional business intelligence presents historical data for manual analysis

Thank You!