Business Intelligence:Effective Decision Making

Bellevue College

Linda RumansIT Instructor, Business DivisionBellevue Collegelrumans@bellevuecollege.edu

Current Status

Mountains of Data

What do Ido???

How do I increasesales????

How do I make myproduct better???

Business Users

Mountains of Data

From Operational SystemsERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

– Sales/Order– Inventory

Customer Relationship Management(CRM)Web Sites

– Orders– Click-stream

…

Mountains of Data

Organizations have lots of dataData is not in a form that is useful todecision-makers– Not easy to review– Not informative nor insightful

Today’s Information Flow

Business in 90’s invested in transactionalsystems:

– Supply Chain Management (SCM)– Customer Relationship Management (CRM)– Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)– Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP)– Finance (budget, forecasting and reporting)

Proliferation of Data

MRPSCMCRM Finance

OperationsSales FinanceProcure-ment

Silos of data by functional area

TransactionLayer

ReportingLayer

Data from Disparate Sources

Region: ARegion: BDiv 2 Div 1

SalesSales SalesSales

Silos of data within large organizations

TransactionLayer

ReportingLayer

Business Intelligence

Business is now investing in BusinessIntelligenceBusiness Intelligence is about makingeffective business decisions

What is BI?

The process by which an organizationmanages large amounts of data, extractingpertinent information, and turning thatinformation into knowledge upon whichactions can be taken.

What is BI?

Business intelligence (BI) is a broad categoryof application programs and technologies forgathering, storing, analyzing, and providingaccess to data to help enterprise users makebetter business decisions.

BI

Involves PEOPLE and TechnologyInvolves using a rational approach tomanagementInvolves a continuous cycle of measurement,adjustment & re-measurement

The BI Cycle

BIstart

Reasons for BI

BI enables organizations to make wellinformed business decisions and gaincompetitive advantage.BI enables organizations to use information toquickly and constantly respond to changes.

Benefits of BI

Improved performance based upon timelyand accurate informationElimination of guessworkExpedited decision makingEarly visibility of changes:– Customer buying patterns– Supply chain activity– Financial arrangements

Benefits of BI

“Single Version of the truth”Accurate, timely data available to all levels ofthe organization

To Note:

Although we call it Business Intelligence, theconcepts and techniques are applicable toalmost any organization including those inhealth care, biotech, education,government …

BI Activities

BI applications include the activities of:• decision support,• query and reporting,• online analytical processing (OLAP),• statistical analysis,• forecasting, and• data mining.

BI Users

There are many different users who canbenefit from business intelligence– Executives– Business Decision Makers– Information Workers– Line Workers– Analysts

BI Solutions-How to make it happen

Two main components:– Data Consolidation and Storage– Data Retrieval, Analysis and Presentation

BI Curriculum

Multi-Dimensional AnalysisData WarehousingData MiningDimensional ModelingData Visualization

The Problem

Mountains of DataBusiness People

GAP

How do I increasesales????

How do I make myproduct better???

How do I retaincustomers?

Bridging the Gap

Need data storage structures to facilitate fastanalysis of huge volumes of data

Need software to provide access to the data,allow flexible manipulation, and providemeaningful presentation

Data Storage Structures

Multi-Dimensional DatabasesCubes

Multi-Dimensional Databases

Measures– Any quantitative expression– Some are designated as Key Performance Indicators (KPI)– Appropriate to the business process.

Dimensions– How we describe the measures:

Product/Customer/Region/Time– These are the “By’s– “What were our Customer Sales by Product Line by

Region by Quarter for the past two years?”.

Logical Structure

Multi-Dimensional Databases (Cubes)

ODS ODS ODS

Data Warehouse

Multi-DimensionalDatabase (Cube)

* ODS = Operational Data Store

RelationalDatabasePrograms

BusinessIntelligencePrograms

Multi-Dimensional Databases

Multi-DimensionalDatabase (Cube)

Software Applications

Multi-DimensionalDatabase(Cube)

BusinessPerson

BusinessPerson

BusinessPerson

ReportingApplications

AnalyticApplications

Score CardsDashboards

Analytics

Reporting Applications– Limited user interaction– Fulfill a significant portion of an organization’s

information needs

Analytic Applications– Allow users to visualize and explore data

following their train of thought– Extensive interactivity

Analytic Application

Summary

Students learn to:– Create multi-dimensional databases– Create professional quality reports– Use analytics to provide in-depth data analysis

Data Warehousing

Designing a Data Warehouse

Data Warehouse Topics

Decision Support Systems– history

Requirements Gathering– Where data located, owners, definition, how often

updated

Data Analysis– Determine for table structures

Data Warehouse

ETL Processes &Deliverables– Cleaning & Conforming

Valid, missingAddress, gender

– SchemasDimension TablesFact Tables

Data Consolidation & Storage

MRPCRMSCM Finance

TransactionLayer

Shared DataLayer Data Warehouse

Customers Sales Procurement Suppliers Operations Finance

SharedReporting

Operations and financial information is sharedacross the organization from same core data

Data Warehouses

ODS* ODS ODS

Data Warehouse

Multi-DimensionalDatabase (Cube)

*ODS = Operational Data Store

How is data consolidated?

This is difficult!!!!!– Data is often spread across multiple systems,

stored in different formats, and may even belocalized for different countries

Transforming Data

Data must be transformed for consistency andmeaning

– Transformations may be as simple as copying columns ormay be incredibly complex

– Common transformations include:Hard-coded changes (‘T’ to 1)Looking up values in a table (mapping a customer numberacross disparate systems)Inserting dummy records and mapping them to unknowns(inserting an ‘Unknown’ customer)

Cleansing Data

Data must be cleansed to be meaningful– All companies have “bad” data in their systems– Data may be missing– Data may be inconsistent– Data may be wrong

Data Warehouses

ETL (extract, transform and load) processesare needed to create data warehouses– This is an arduous and technical process that can

account for a large percentage of a BI projectcost!!!!

Data Mining

Data Mining

The process of identifying patterns in data

Goes beyond simple querying of the database

Goes beyond multi-dimensional databasequeries as well

Data Mining

Data Mining works for problems like:– Develop a general profile for credit card customers

…– Differentiate individuals who are poor credit risks

…– Determine what characteristics differentiate male

& female investors.

Data Mining vs. Data Query

Use data query if you already almost knowwhat you are looking for.Use data mining to find regularities in data

that are not obvious.

Data Mining Applications

Fraud detectionTargeted MarketingRisk ManagementBusiness Analysis

Origins of Data Mining

Mathematics– Statistics– Numerical Analysis

Artificial Intelligence/Machine LearningComputer Science– Data Storage and Manipulation

How does Data Mining work?

Uses induction-based learning:

The process of forming general conceptdefinitions by observing specific examples ofconcepts to be learned.

How does Data Mining work?

What-Cha-Ma-Call-Its NOT What-Cha-Ma-Call-Its

How does Data Mining work?

Which of these are What-Cha-Ma-Call-Its?

Data Mining Process

List of Customers:-some bicycle buyers-some not

Data MiningSoftware Model

List of Prospective Buyers ModelList of Likely Buyers

Overview of Mining Strategies

Note: This representation is over-simplified and data mining strategiesare continually being invented.

More on our Curriculum

Skills

Written communicationProblem Solving– Analytical– Troubleshooting

Software– Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio– SQL Server BI Development Studio– SQL Server Reporting Services– Pro Clarity

Delivery Methods

Online: Distance Education, reaches widermarketTelecourse: tremendous effort to create, butonce created easy to deliver– Televised, DVDs, online for homework, exams

Hybrid: Meet once a week, the rest onlineOn campus: evenings only

Delivery Methods

Use of Camtasia for– Software demonstrations– PowerPoint lectures

Pod casting

Certificates

Business Intelligence Analyst (5 classes)– Multi-dimensional analysis, data warehousing, data

mining, statistics, general business– 2 quarters full-time/ 3 quarters part-time

Business Intelligence Developer (4 additionalclasses)– Dimensional modeling, data visualization, multi-

dimensional II, data warehousing II (moreprogramming with SQL Server)

Web site: www.bcc.ctc.edu/bi

Certificates

Relational Database Analyst (6 classes)– SA & D, programming, reporting, spreadsheets, db

theory– 2 quarters full-time/ 3 quarters part-time

Relational Database Developer (3 additionalclasses)– Programming, SQL, group processes

Web site: www.bcc.ctc.edu/bi

Jobs

Business AnalystData AnalystFunctional AnalystMarketing Analyst

Jobs

Report DeveloperData ModelerETL DeveloperData ArchitectData Warehouse DesignerData Warehouse DeveloperData Warehouse AdministratorDatabase Administrator

Jobs

Business Intelligence ConsultantBusiness Intelligence DeveloperBusiness Intelligence AnalystBusiness Intelligence Project Team Member

Jobs

One of the fastest growing segments of IT

Less likely to be outsourced

May exist in business units rather than IT

Knowledge/understanding of the organizationis key