Unit 2

Business Intelligence Concept and Platform Capabilities

# 1.Definition of business intelligence

BI(Business Intelligence) is a set of processes, architectures, and technologies

that convert raw data into meaningful information that drives profitable
business actions.It is a suite of software and services to transform data into
actionable intelligence and knowledge.

BI has a direct impact on organization's strategic, tactical and operational

business decisions. BI supports fact-based decision making using historical data
rather than assumptions and gut feeling.

BI tools perform data analysis and create reports, summaries, dashboards,

maps, graphs, and charts to provide users with detailed intelligence about the
nature of the business.

Why is BI important?

 Measurement: creating KPI (Key Performance Indicators) based on

historic data
 Identify and set benchmarks for varied processes.
 With BI systems organizations can identify market trends and spot
business problems that need to be addressed.
 BI helps on data visualization that enhances the data quality and thereby
the quality of decision making.
 BI systems can be used not just by enterprises but SME (Small and
Medium Enterprises)

How Business Intelligence systems are implemented?

Here are the steps:

Step 1) Raw Data from corporate databases is extracted. The data could be
spread across multiple systems heterogeneous systems.
Step 2) The data is cleaned and transformed into the data warehouse. The
table can be linked, and data cubes are formed.

Step 3) Using BI system the user can ask quires, request ad-hoc reports or
conduct any other analysis.

Examples of Business Intelligence System used in Practice

In an Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) system information that could be

fed into product database could be

 add a product line

 change a product price

Correspondingly, in a Business Intelligence system query that would

beexecuted for the product subject area could be did the addition of new
product line or change in product price increase revenues

In an advertising database of OLTP system query that could be executed

 Changed in advertisement options

 Increase radio budget

Correspondigly, in BI system query that could be executed would be how many

new clients added due to change in radio budget
In OLTP system dealing with customer demographic data bases data that could
be fed would be

 increase customer credit limit

 change in customer salary level

Correspondingly in the OLAP system query that could be executed would be

can customer profile changes support support higher product price

Example 2:

A hotel owner uses BI analytical applications to gather statistical information

regarding average occupancy and room rate. It helps to find aggregate revenue
generated per room.

It also collects statistics on market share and data from customer surveys from
each hotel to decides its competitive position in various markets.

By analyzing these trends year by year, month by month and day by day helps
management to offer discounts on room rentals.

Example 3:

A bank gives branch managers access to BI applications. It helps branch

manager to determine who are the most profitable customers and which
customers they should work on.

The use of BI tools frees information technology staff from the task of
generating analytical reports for the departments. It also gives department
personnel access to a richer data source.

Four types of BI users

Following given are the four key players who are used Business Intelligence
System:

1. The Professional Data Analyst:

The data analyst is a statistician who always needs to drill deep down into
data. BI system helps them to get fresh insights to develop unique business
strategies.

2. The IT users:
The IT user also plays a dominant role in maintaining the BI infrastructure.

3. The head of the company:

CEO or CXO can increase the profit of their business by improving operational
efficiency in their business.

4. The Business Users"

Business intelligence users can be found from across the organization. There
are mainly two types of business users

1. Casual business intelligence user

2. The power user.

The difference between both of them is that a power user has the capability of
working with complex data sets, while the casual user need will make him use
dashboards to evaluate predefined sets of data.

Advantages of Business Intelligence

Here are some of the advantages of using Business Intelligence System:

1. Boost productivity

With a BI program, It is possible for businesses to create reports with a single

click thus saves lots of time and resources. It also allows employees to be more
productive on their tasks.

2. To improve visibility

BI also helps to improve the visibility of these processes and make it possible to
identify any areas which need attention.

3. Fix Accountability

BI system assigns accountability in the organization as there must be someone

who should own accountability and ownership for the organization's
performance against its set goals.

4. It gives a bird's eye view:

BI system also helps organizations as decision makers get an overall bird's eye
view through typical BI features like dashboards and scorecards.

5. It streamlines business processes:

BI takes out all complexity associated with business processes. It also

automates analytics by offering predictive analysis, computer modeling,
benchmarking and other methodologies.

6. It allows for easy analytics.

BI software has democratized its usage, allowing even nontechnical or non-

analysts users to collect and process data quickly. This also allows putting the
power of analytics from the hand's many people.

BI System Disadvantages

1. Cost:

Business intelligence can prove costly for small as well as for medium-sized
enterprises. The use of such type of system may be expensive for routine
business transactions.

2. Complexity:

Another drawback of BI is its complexity in implementation of datawarehouse.

It can be so complex that it can make business techniques rigid to deal with.

3. Limited use

Like all improved technologies, BI was first established keeping in

consideration the buying competence of rich firms. Therefore, BI system is yet
not affordable for many small and medium size companies.

4. Time Consuming Implementation

It takes almost one and half year for data warehousing system to be
completely implemented. Therefore, it is a time-consuming process.

Trends in Business Intelligence

The following are some business intelligence and analytics trends that you
should be aware of.
Artificial Intelligence: Gartner' report indicates that AI and machine learning
now take on complex tasks done by human intelligence. This capability is being
leveraged to come up with real-time data analysis and dashboard reporting.

Collaborative BI: BI software combined with collaboration tools, including

social media, and other latest technologies enhance the working and sharing
by teams for collaborative decision making.

Embedded BI: Embedded BI allows the integration of BI software or some of its

features into another business application for enhancing and extending it's
reporting functionality.

Cloud Analytics: BI applications will be soon offered in the cloud, and more
businesses will be shifting to this technology. As per their predictions within a
couple of years, the spending on cloud-based analytics will grow 4.5 times
faster.

# 2. BI architecture

What Is BI Architecture?

Business intelligence architecture is a term used to describe standards and

policies for organizing data with the help of computer-based techniques and
technologies that create business intelligence systems used for online data
visualization, reporting, and analysis.

One of the BI architecture components is data warehousing. Organizing,

storing, cleaning, and extraction of the data must be carried by a central
repository system, namely data warehouse, that is considered as the
fundamental component of business intelligence. But how exactly are they
connected?

BI Architecture Framework In Modern Business

There are various components and layers that business intelligence

architecture consists of. Each of that component has its own purpose that we
will discuss in more detail while concentrating on data warehousing. But first,
let’s first see what exactly these components are made of.
 A solid BI architecture framework consists of:

1. Collection of data
2. Data integration
3. Storage of data
4. Data analysis
5. Distribution of data
6. Reaction based on insights

We can see in our BI architecture diagram how the process flows through
various layers, and now we will focus on each.

1. Collection of data

The first step in creating a stable architecture starts in gathering data from
various data sources such as CRM, ERP, databases, files or APIs, depending on
the requirements and resources of a company. Modern BI tools offer a lot of
different, fast and easy data connectors to make this process smooth and easy
by using smart ETL engines in the background. They enable communication
between scattered departments and systems that would otherwise stay
disparate. From a business point of view, this is a crucial element in creating a
successful data-driven decision culture that can eliminate errors, increase
productivity, and streamline operations. You have to collect data in order to be
able to manipulate with it.

2. Data integration

When data is collected through scattered systems, the next step continues in
extracting data and loading it to a data warehouse. This process is called ETL
(Extract-Transform-Load).

With an increasing amount of data generated today and the overload on IT

departments and professionals, ETL as a service comes as a natural answer to
solve complex data requests in various industries. The process is simple; data is
pulled from external sources (from our step 1) while ensuring that these
sources aren’t negatively impacted with the performance or other issues.
Secondly, data is conformed to the demanded standard. In other words, this
(transform) step ensures data is clean and prepared to the final stage: loading
into a data warehouse.

3. Data storage
Now we approach the data warehousing and business intelligence concepts.
While both terms are often used interchangeably, there are certain differences
that we will focus on to get a more clear picture on this topic.

he main differences, as we can also see in the visual, between business

intelligence and data warehousing are indicated in these main questions:

a) What is the goal?

Business intelligence and data warehousing have different goals. While they
are connected and cannot function without each other, as mentioned earlier,
BI is mainly focused on generating business insights, whether operational or
strategic efficiency such as product positioning and pricing to goals,
profitability, sales performance, forecasting, strategic directions, and priorities
on a broader level. The point is to access, explore, and analyze measurable
aspects of a business. On the other hand, a data warehouse (DWH) has its
significance in storing all the company’s data (from one or several sources) in a
single place. In a nutshell, BI systems and tools make use of data warehouse
while data warehouse acts as a foundation for business intelligence.

b) What is the output?

The output data of both terms also vary. While BI outputs information through
data visualization, online dashboards, and reporting, the data warehouse
outlines data in dimension and fact tables for upstream applications (or BI
tools). Data cleansing, metadata management, data distribution, storage
management, recovery, and backup planning are processes conducted in a
data warehouse while BI makes use of tools that focus on statistics,
visualization, and data mining, including self service business intelligence.

The output difference is closely interlaced with the people that can work with
either BI or data warehouse. But let’s see this through our next major aspect.

c) What is the audience?

To expand our previous point, the people involved in managing the data are
quite different. C-level executives or managers use modern BI tools in the form
of a real-time dashboard since they need to derive factual intelligence, create
effective sales reports or forecast strategic development of the department or
company. CEOs or sales managers cannot manage data warehouse since it’s
not their area of expertise; they need a tool that will translate the heavy IT
data into insights that an average business user can fully understand. That’s
where business intelligence creates a solid bridge between DWH and BI. On
the other hand, a data warehouse is usually dealt with by data (warehouse)
engineers and back-end developers. They are the technical chain in a BI
architecture framework that design, develop, and maintain systems for future
data analysis and reporting a business might need.

d) What are the tools?

With the expansion of data processed and created in our digital age, the tools
and software needed to perform analysis expanded and developed in recent
years in ways we could not have imagined. In this context, the need for
utilizing a proper tool, a stable business intelligence dashboard and data
warehouse increased exponentially. In such environment, the data warehouse
processes can be managed with a product such as Amazon Redshift while the
full support for BI insights needed to effectively generate and develop
sustainable business acumen with tools such as datapine. Visualization of data
is the core element that enables managers, professionals, and business users
to perform analysis on their own, without the need for heavy IT support or
work.

Now that we have expounded what is data warehousing and business

intelligence, we continue with our next step: analyzing the BI architecture
layers needed for establishing a sustainable business development.

4. Analysis of data

In this step of our compact BI architecture, we will focus on the analysis of data
after it’s handled, processed, and cleaned in former steps with the help of data
warehouse(s). The ubiquitous need for successful analysis for empowering
businesses of all sizes to grow and profit is done through BI application tools.
Especially when it comes to ad hoc analysis that enables freedom, usability,
and flexibility in performing analysis and helping answer critical business
questions swiftly and accurately.

5. Data distribution

Data distribution comes as one of the most important processes when it comes
to sharing information and providing stakeholders with indispensable insights
to obtain sustainable business development. Distribution is usually performed
in 3 ways:

a) Reporting via automated e-mails: Created reports can be shared with

selected recipients on a defined schedule. The dashboards will be
automatically updated on a daily, weekly or monthly basis which eliminates
manual work and enables up to date information.

b) Dashboarding: Another reporting option is to directly share a dashboard in a

secure viewer environment. The users you share with cannot make edits or
change the content but can use assigned filters to manipulate data and
interact with the dashboard.

c) Embedding: This form of data distribution is enabled through embedded BI.

Your own application can use dashboards as a mean of analytics and reporting
without the need for labeling the BI tool in external applications or intranets.

6. Reactions based on generated insights

The final stage where the BI architecture expounds its power is the
fundamental part of any business: creating data-driven decisions. Without the
backbones of data warehousing and business intelligence, the final stage
wouldn’t be possible and businesses won’t be able to progress. CEOs,
managers, professionals, coworkers, and all the interested stakeholders can
have the power of data to generate valid, accurate, data-based decisions that
will help them move forward.

#3.BI Components

The Major Components of Business Intelligence (BI)

The five primary components of BI include:

OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)

This component of BI allows executives to sort and select aggregates of data

for strategic monitoring. With the help of specific software products,
a certification in business intelligence helps business owners can use data to
make adjustments to overall business processes.

Advanced Analytics or Corporate Performance Management (CPM)

This set of tools allows business leaders to look at the statistics of certain
products or services. For instance, a fast food chain may analyze the sale of
certain items and make local, regional and national modifications on menu
board offerings as a result. The data could also be used to predict in which
markets a new product may have the best success.

Real-time BI

In a mobile society, this particular component of BI is becoming increasingly

popular. Using software applications, a business can respond to real-time
trends in email, messaging systems or even digital displays. Because it’s all in
real-time, an entrepreneur can announce special offers that take advantage of
what’s going on in the immediate. Marketing professionals can use data to
craft creative limited-time specials such as a coupon for hot soup on a cold
day. CEO’s may be interested in tracking the time of day and location of
customers as they interact with a website so marketing can offer special
promotions in real-time while the client is engaged on the website.

Data Warehousing

Data warehousing lets business leaders sift through subsets of data and
examine interrelated components that can help drive business. Looking at
sales data over several years can help improve product development or tailor
seasonal offerings. Data warehousing can also be used to look at the statistics
of business processes including how they relate to one another. For instance,
business owners can compare shipping times in different facilities to look at
which processes and teams work most efficiently. Data warehousing also
involves storing huge amounts of data in ways that are beneficial to different
divisions within the company.

Data Sources

This component of BI involves various forms of stored data. It’s about taking
the raw data and using software applications to create meaningful data
sources that each division can use to positively impact business. BI
analysts using this strategy may create data tools that allow data to be put into
a large cache of spreadsheets, pie charts, tables or graphs that can be used for
a variety of business purposes. For example, data can be used to create
presentations that help to structure attainable team goals. Looking at the
strategic aspect of data sources can also help organizations make fact-driven
decisions that take into account a more holistic view of the needs of the
company.

Business Intelligence Tools

Under the umbrella term of Business Intelligence, there are many tools that
are used to analyze the various components of BI and construct them into
actual problem-solving actions. Today’s ubiquitous use of the Internet and the
great entrepreneurial spirit of our free-market economy have fostered niche
markets and start-ups, as well as, consulting firms and other business ventures
that have helped build many BI tools. These specific business tools can help
leaders look at components of their business in more depth and detail. The
most common tools in use today include business and data analytics,
predictive analytics, cloud technology, mobile BI, Big Data consultation and
visual analytics.

Why Business Intelligence Matters

Business Intelligence helps business leaders use data in ways that are
meaningful and powerful. Utilizing the tools derived from BI components,
organizations can better leverage data for competitive advantages. Used
properly, the data can drive business decisions that can proactively respond to
market trends and other external factors. While businesses today collect and
store copious amounts of raw data, few are actually harnessing the power of
that data to drive business insights and transformations. The only true
constant in business is that it’s always changing. Business Intelligence provides
methodologies and tools for today’s business leaders to change effectively and
lead their organizations with fact-based decisions and a more holistic view of
growth potential.

#4.BI relation with DSS

A decision support system (DSS) is a computer-based information system that
supports business or organizational decision-making activities; typically this
results in ranking, sorting, or choosing from among alternatives. DSSs serve the
management, operations, and planning levels of an organization (usually mid
and higher management) and help people make decisions about problems that
may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance.
There are several types of DSSs that include:
1. Communication-driven DSS which enables cooperation, supporting more
than one person working on a shared task; examples include integrated
tools like Google Docs or Microsoft Groove.
2. Document-driven DSS which manages, retrieves, and manipulates
unstructured information in a variety of electronic formats.
3. Knowledge-driven DSS provides specialized problem-solving expertise
stored as facts, rules, procedures, or in similar structures
4. Model-driven DSS emphasizes access to and manipulation of a statistical,
financial, optimization, or simulation model. Model-driven DSS use data and
parameters provided by users to assist decision makers in analyzing a
situation; they are not necessarily data-intensive.
5. Data-driven DSS (or data-oriented DSS) emphasizes access to and
manipulation of a time series of internal company data and, sometimes,
external data. A data-driven DSS, which we will focus on, emphasizes access
to and manipulation of a time series of internal company data and
sometimes external data. Simple file systems accessed by query and
retrieval tools provide the most elementary level of functionality. Data
warehouse systems that allow the manipulation of data by computerized
tools tailored to a specific task and setting or by more general tools and
operators provide additional functionality. Data-driven DSS with online
analytical processing (OLAP) provide the highest level of functionality.
6. Data warehousing combines the best of business practices and
information systems technology and requires the cooperation of both
business and IT, continuously coordinating in order to align all the needs,
requirements, tasks and deliverables of a successful implementation.
7. The need for a successful data warehouse implementation arises when
reporting from a line of business database and a single report requires
multiple table joins to get relevant data hence a slow rate of retrieval,
when naming conventions are usually not enforced and thus it is difficult
to know where the data you need is stored, when your organization may
have several line of business applications working against a single or
several databases and thus the data quality is low and not tracked over
time.
8. Creation of a central repository for merged and historical data as
opposed to the normalized relational schema represented in the above
scenario has several advantages that include: simplified business
reporting logic with performance gains, faster aggregations, and the
ability to feed Online Analytical Processing systems with Star or
snowflake schemas that cover multiple business areas.
9. The star schema separates business process data into facts and
dimensions. Fact tables record measurements for a specific event
generally consisting of numeric values, and foreign keys to dimensional
data where descriptive information is kept. Fact tables are generally
assigned a surrogate key to ensure each row can be uniquely identified.
This key is a simple primary key not derived from source data.
Dimension tables on the other hand are descriptive attributes related to
fact data, usually having a relatively small number of records compared
to fact tables, but each record may have a very large number of
attributes to describe the fact data.
10.Dimensions can define a wide variety of characteristics dimension tables
are generally assigned a surrogate primary key, usually a single-column
integer data type, mapped to the combination of dimension attributes
that form the natural key.
11.A snowflake schema, on the other hand, is an expansion and extension
of a star schema to additional secondary dimensional tables. In a star
schema, each dimension is typically stored in one table; the snowflake
 design principle expands a dimension and creates tables for each level of
a dimensional hierarchy.
12.As far as the advantages go, Data Warehouses have demerits too and
these include data integrity not being enforced as well as it is in a highly
normalized database. One-off inserts and updates can result in data
anomalies which normalized schemas are designed to avoid. Generally
speaking, star schemas are loaded in a highly controlled fashion via
batch processing or near-real time “trickle feeds”, to compensate for the
lack of protection afforded by normalization.
13.The Star schema is also not as flexible in terms of analytical needs as a
normalized data model. Normalized models allow any kind of analytical
queries to be executed as long as they follow the business logic defined
in the model. Star schemas tend to be more purpose-built for a
particular view of the data, thus not really allowing more complex
analytics Star schemas don’t support many-to-many relationships
between business entities – at least not very naturally. Typically these
relationships are simplified in star schema to conform to the simple
dimensional model.
14.When a data warehouse is included as a component in a data-driven
DSS, a DSS analyst or data modeler needs to develop a schema or
structure for the database and identify analytic software and end-user
presentation software to complete the DSS architecture and design. The
DSS components need to be linked in an architecture that provides
appropriate performance and scalability. In some data-driven DSS
designs, a second multidimensional database management system
(MDBMS) will be included and populated by a data warehouse built
using a relational database management system (RDBMS). The MDBMS
will provide data for online analytical processing (OLAP). It is common to
build a data warehouse using an RDBMS from Microsoft and then use
query and reporting and analytical software from a vendor such as
Tableau or Business Objects as part of the overall data-driven DSS
design. What some vendors call “business intelligence software” provide
the analytics and user interface functionality for a data-driven DSS built
with a data warehouse component.
15.
#5.The main components of BI platforms

1. Data warehousing:
In this digital era, the volume of data being generated has exceeded all
estimates. A plethora of statistics claimed that everyday businesses are
 generating near about 2.5 quintillion bytes’ data. Another important factor is
that more than 90% of the data available these days has been generated only
in the last couple of years.
A company needs to know how they can utilise these accumulated raw data
meticulously. Data which usually comes from multiple OLTP systems and other
diverse sources needs to be accumulated in a database that can then be
passed through analytics and visualisation tools. The aim of data warehousing
is to aggregate all structured data from one or more resources so that it can be
compared and analysed for business intelligence whenever required. The
warehouse should be stored in a secured manner so that it can be retrieved
easily and managed smoothly.
Oracle, Microsoft, IBM and SAP and Amazon AWS inscribe their names as the
leaders in database management systems. The prime benefit of using a data
warehouse is the ability to analyse data from multiple resources. That’s why a
data warehouse is employed to do the analytical work for the company’s huge
volume and veracity of the data.
2. Big data:
In this competition-driven era, businesses need to take the right decisions at
the right time. Critical business issues can be avoided by effectively utilising
business intelligence and looking at available data. The presence of large-scale
data extracted from multiple sources like social media sites, websites, surveys,
RFID, and GPS signals is what Big Data is all about. Though the market is filled
with several database technologies oriented tools, these aren’t able to cope
with the high volume or velocity usually associated with big data. This is where
specialised analytics tool like R and Hadoop step in to provide qualitative
insights.
Big Data analytics has changed the companies’ perception and made an
unprecedented impact on their daily business operations. Some of the benefits
to be gained from Big Data Analytics include –
 Cost reduction – Big Data technologies like Hadoop and cloud-based analytics
have substantially reduced the IT infrastructure costs. By investing in these
technologies, a forward-looking company can easily outweigh the benefits
accrued when compared with the costs incurred. Using these technologies,
larger volumes of structured and unstructured data can now easily be stored
and analysed at a minimal cost as compared to the conventional
techniques.[spacer height=”10px”]
 Improved Efficiency – Hadoop is much more effective as it provides business
houses how to utilise data quickly and also provides an analytical insight. In
fact, this is much faster than the old, traditional ETL tools which were time-
 consuming and hence, they needed time for loading the data from source to
target BI system. Such modern-day business analytics tools increase the
efficiency of a company and help them to arrive at a data-backed decision
quickly.
Looking at the growing influence of online ecosystem and shifting user
preferences to mobile and web, analysing big data is no longer an option, but a
mission-critical success driver. This effective tool helps them to take apt
business decisions. Lower cost, scalability, strong IT support, and outstanding
competitive edge have made big data one of the most well-appreciated
technologies of this era.
3. Web Scraping:
With web scraping the process of extraction of targeted data becomes easier.
As a result, the subsequent steps of meaningful processing and analysis and BI
generation becomes smoother and much more efficient. With its ability to
crawl both unstructured data and social media content, you can cast a wide
net in driving the efficacy of your BI systems. You can listen to what people are
saying about your brand, fine tune your reputation management, improve your
online persona, and devise and deploy strategic marketing campaigns that
carry a higher likelihood of successful conversions for your business.
Diverse applications can emerge from web scraping – aggregator services,
classifieds services, comparison sites, marketers, finance teams, and business
analysts – all find it highly effective to utilise the value proposition of web
scraping and data mining to add the necessary edge to their business.
4. Business intelligence dashboard:
A dashboard is basically a visual display of the most important and relevant
information that can be viewed in one summarised glance. All prerequisite
information is merged and arranged on a single screen so that the users can
monitor and read it at a glance. Some of the key characteristics that define an
effective BI dashboard are as below –
 All the data and visualisations fit on a single computer screen. So, there is no
need to scroll them.
 It displays the most important performance indicators which need to be
monitored on a regular basis.
 Dashboards are very easy to understand and use because they have a simpler
design language.
 The displayed data can automatically be updated without any manual labour.
But it is also true that the frequency of the update will vary from organisation
to organisation.
5. Business intelligence reporting:
Reporting in business intelligence denotes the presentation of data to the end-
users in such a way that they can easily understand and analyse them for the
benefit of their businesses. Usually, a report presents text and number in a
table and moreover, it is optimised for printing and supports other document
formats like PDF. In every business intelligence solution, reporting plays a
crucial role because it helps the businesses to make meaningful sense out of
the harvested data. This is done in order to enhance its competitiveness in the
market. There are various open source business intelligence and reporting
tools available in the market.
Nowadays, business intelligence has become an intrinsic component of a
company if they want to etch their name firmly in this competitive era. Those
who want to extract the maximum from BI need to be aware of and have a
working knowledge of these fundamental components of good BI system.

# 6.The competitive landscape of BI platforms

Modern BI platform use cases and business-led buying are seeing vendors
adopt strategies to survive and win in the Asia/Pacific business intelligence
platform market. We advise competitive intelligence professionals and the
leaders of Asian BI vendors how to evaluate the market.

Table Of Contents

Analysis

Competitive Situation and Trends

Market Players

The Future of Competition

Regional Product Vendors Are Becoming Prominent

SaaS and General Cloud Uptake Is Blurring the Lines Between Products and
Services

Data Discovery Solutions Are Slowly Building Momentum

Advanced Analytics Adoption Is Rising

Hadoop and Spark Adoption Is Leading to a Rethink of Overall BI and Analytics

Architectures

Competitive Profiles

IBM

Microsoft

MicroStrategy

Oracle

Qlik

SAP

SAS

Tableau

Yellowfin

References and Methodology

Definitions

Gartner Recommended Reading

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#7.The building blocks of Business Intelligence

#7.Types of business reports
Informal Business Report
Informal business reports are made conveniently which will be useful to the
reporter and can be presented to the demanded person immediately. You can
present these reports in the form of a business letter or a memorandum too.
These reports are called informal reports because no fixed format is
maintained for these.
Formal Business Report
Formal business reports are prepared in a specified format and are presented
to the appropriate authorities in a so far established manner. These reports are
submitted to bodies or committees or heads of different departments or
organizations. The reports formally give a description of a business, so they are
called formal business reports.

Informative Business Report

These business reports are prepared to give information in a descriptive
manner addressing an issue or a problem or a situation. These reports give
information in a detailed and exhaustive manner that is utilized by the
authorities for gaining an insight into the issue or problem or situation. So,
these reports are called informative business reports.

Analytical or Interpretive Business Report

The analytical or interpretive or interpretative business reports provide facts,
numbers, opinions or views for interpreting specific information or problem or
situation. This report may also have reasons for a specific issue as to why a
specific issue or an event occurred and what should be the course of action as
well as a recommendation for the issue or event.

Summarized Business Report

The report which is prepared with the help of important details discussed in a
business meeting is known as a summarized business report. These reports are
prepared for sending it for the company’s shareholders or for the press release
or for a specific institution’s member.

Verbatim Business Report

The business report made by secretaries or someone else that records word to
word conversations made in a business meeting is known as a verbatim
business report. For instance, a resolution of auditor appointment has passed
in the business meeting and the resolution is recorded word to word as a
verbatim report. Again, in voting where joint votes of separate members are
considered, the verbatim reports contain names, ways of voting and the
results. These reports are not the same as the meeting minutes which are the
summary records of a meeting’s proceedings and decisions.

Fact Finding Business Report

An organization has several situations where finding a fact becomes necessary.
For instance, the rivalry between the manager and associate or machinery’s
breakdown in the factory premises. These situations need in-depth reasoning.
In such cases, the fact-finding report is beneficial presenting facts from a third
person view. These reports are submitted to the top management and they
take necessary actions about the situation immediately based on the report.

Problem Solving Business Report

Problem-solving business reports assist to solve a problem by recommending
or suggesting an action plan regarding a specific situation. The report also
includes the reasons for such problems and the conclusion is made in several
ways which can be applied for solving the problem. This report also includes
ways of avoiding the problem in the future by taking specific steps.

Technical Business Report

As technology is ever-growing, the companies are continuously upgrading
themselves with the newest technology. Whenever such a technological
change happens in a company a technical business report is made to
determine the technology level. These reports contain a detailed way to follow
including money and time which will be required. This assists the top
management in planning and deciding for the future.
Performance Report
The management wants to know each department’s performances regularly.
Apart from this, the management also wants to know about the new branches,
new employees or even the existing employees’ performance whose
promotions are due. The performance report is prepared for analyzing these
things. These reports are crucial for the management for arriving at a decision.
So, the seniors of the departments or branches or respective people prepare
these reports.

Ad-hoc Committee Report

The special committee report is another name of the ad-hoc committee report.
It is quite clear from the name that a special committee is formed for dealing
with the investigation and this committee is dismissed after the presentation
of the report. Special committees are formed in specific or special cases such
as accidents of employees during work or fire in office premises, etc.

Standing Committee Report

A committee appointed for a certain reason is known as a standing committee.
The reason can be departmental assessment, employee assessment or
financial assessment. The standing committee is required to submit a detailed
report of these things and this report is called a standing committee report.
Many organizations require submission of these reports at frequent intervals.

Majority Report
A committee’s members including the chairperson, generally make unanimous
decisions amongst them. In these cases, a single report is made and submitted
to the official committee. Otherwise, the majority of the members prepare
their own report and submit to the appropriate authority. This report is called
the majority report.

Minority Report
A special committee’s team is appointed for submitting a report based on a
special subject’s investigation. 3 members can be selected to form the final
committee and each one is the said committee’s chairman. If there is a
difference of opinion among the members on the subject, the report may be
separately submitted by the other members. The separate reports submitted
by the dissenting members are called minority reports.
Annual Report
A report generated once a year containing the business’s yearly processes such
as the sales, the turnovers and profits is known as the annual report. This
report is presented to the corporate heads so that they can have a detailed
study of the business year.
Research Report
The most exhaustive among the types of reports are the research reports.
Generally, these reports are needed when a company attempts to venture into
new territories like to expand into a new geographical region or to offer a new
product, etc. These are the most time-consuming and complex to prepare
among all types of business report.
# 8.The components of business reporting systems

Activities

The beginning of your document should state activities within the scope of
your report, although it's also OK to provide a brief history of your business,
then move from the big picture to details. For example: “Humane Solutions
was launched in 2005. Our purpose is to remove wildlife from commercial
and residential dwellings in an effective yet compassionate manner. This
report focuses on our 2012-13 bird removal activities aimed at caring for sick
and injured birds, and relocating healthy captures to sanctuaries.” Specify
your activities in narrative form, bullets or simple graphics. Avoid the detailed
descriptions that would appear in a work plan.

Successes

A business report highlights your successes. Positive outcomes can be

formative or summative. Formative outcomes focus on processes and early
results – such as establishing a bird cataloging system, performing medical
diagnostics on all captured animals and developing a sanctuary referral
system, using the aforementioned example. Summative outcomes address
effects. For example: capturing 208 invading birds, rehabilitating
approximately 72 percent of sick or injured animals and relocating 86 percent
of birds to sanctuaries within one month of capture. Take credit for as many
improvements as possible, but choose results that are significant, not trivial.
If you report periodically at established intervals, make it clear what was
achieved during that specific period.

Challenges

The definition of success is overcoming challenges. Therefore, your business

report should also address barriers encountered in your efforts. Were you
unable to handle some treatments in-house and had to refer animals to a
veterinarian? Did sanctuaries have certain acceptance windows you had to
adhere to, requiring you to lodge some birds for an extended time period?
Immediately follow your discussion of challenges with resolutions. Even in
situations in which you’re still developing solutions, share your progress,
including brainstorming, research, protocols or capacity building.

Finances
An important component of accountability is how your business spends
money to accomplish its efforts. After your report’s conclusion, an addendum
might be required that addresses finances. For projects, repeat the original
budget and add a column labeled “expenditures to date” or “final
expenditures.” Readers will be able to see how actual costs relate to your
previous plan. Explain major discrepancies, including unanticipated costs. For
reports about higher-level business activities, you may include an income
statement or balance sheet clearly showing your company’s financial
strengths and weaknesses.

# 8.The structure of business reporting systems

1. Title Page

Every business report should feature a title page. The title itself should clearly
set out what the report is about. Typically, you should also include your name
and the date of the report.

2. Summary

Most business reports begin with a summary of its key points. Try to include:

 A brief description of what the report is about

 How the report was completed (e.g., data collection methods)
 The main findings from the research
 Key conclusions and recommendations

A paragraph or two should suffice for this in shorter business reports.

However, for longer or more complex reports, you may want to include a
full executive summary.

3. Table of Contents

Short business reports may not need a table of contents, especially if they
include a summary. But longer reports should set out the title of each section
and the structure of the report. Make sure the headings here match those
used in the main text. You may also want to number the sections.

4. Introduction
The introduction is the first part of the report proper. Use it to set out the brief
you received when you were asked to compile the report. This will frame the
rest of the report by providing:

 Background information (e.g., business history or market information)

 The purpose of the report (i.e., what you set out to achieve)
 Its scope (i.e., what the report will cover and what it will ignore)

These are known as the “terms of reference” for the business report.

5. Methods and Findings

If you are conducting original research, include a section about your methods.
This may be as simple as setting out the sources you are using and why you
chose them. But it could also include how you have collected and analyzed the
data used to draw your conclusions.

After this, you will need to explain your findings. This section will present the
results of your research clearly and concisely, making sure to cover all the main
points set out in the brief.

One tip here is to break the findings down into subsections, using headings to
guide the reader through your data. Using charts and illustrations, meanwhile,
can help get information across visually, but make sure to label them clearly so
the reader knows how they relate to the text.
6. Conclusions and Recommendations

The last main section of your report will cover conclusions and
recommendations. The conclusion section should summarize what you have
learned from the report. If you have been asked to do so, you should also
recommend potential courses of action based on your conclusions.

If you are not sure what to suggest here, think back to the objectives set out in
your brief.

7. References

If you have used any third-party sources while writing your report, list them in
a bibliography after the main report. This could include other business
documents, academic articles, or even news reports. The key is to show what
you have based your findings and conclusions upon.
8. Appendices (If Applicable)

Finally, you may have gathered extra documentation during your research,
such as interview transcripts, marketing material, or financial data. Including
this in the main report would make it too long and unfocused, but you can add
it to an appendix (or multiple appendices) at the end of the document. It will
then be available should your reader need it.

# The role of mathematical models in BI:

A business intelligence system provides decision makers with information and

knowledge extracted from data, through the application of mathematical
models and algorithms. In some instances, this activity may reduce to
calculations of totals and percentages, graphicall`y represented by simple
histograms, whereas more elaborate analyses require the development of
advanced optimization and learning models. A business intelligence system
provides decision makers with information and knowledge extracted from
data, through the application of mathematical models and algorithms.

First, the objectives of the analysis are identified and the performance
indicators that will be used to evaluate alternative options are defined.

Mathematical models are then developed by exploiting the relationships

among system control variables, parameters and evaluation metrics.

Finally, what-if analyses are carried out to evaluate the effects on the
performance determined by variations in the control variables and changes in
the parameters.

# Factors Responsible for successful BI Project

The five key factors are:

1. Conduct research and don’t go it alone

“Conduct research and discover lessons learnt from those who have been there,
and if you haven’ t done it before, don’t attempt to do it by yourself. You need to
bring in people who know what they’re doing, people who have achieved it
before, and Yellowfin certainly fits that category.
2. Accuracy of data

“Ensure the accuracy of your data. If the data is not accurate, it will not generate
confidence in the user base, users will not see it as a trusted source of
information. So first and foremost, they have to have absolute confidence in the
data set. We’ve spent six to nine months working on the data set itself, to make
sure that it’s accurate.

3. Self-service Business Intelligence: Fast, trustworthy, accessible

“If we have a fast, agile system that can support self-help, that runs on the Web,
that can be delivered on iPads, iPhones, desktops, and be completely platform
independent, is like gold for us. So Yellowfin absolutely fits that category.

4. Make your key customers part of your project team

“Understand who your customer base is, and get them involved in the project
process from day one. We selected single points of contact from all our defined
user groups and made them part of the project team to ensure that they were
completely across what we were doing. This ensured that they understood what
was going on, that they had input into the process, and that they could provide
feedback every step of the way to generate a sense of ownership. The result
meant that our key customers could see that this was going to solve their
problems.

5. Ensure that business and customer needs drive the technology

“Use the business need as the driver of the technology, not the other way
around. You don’t want to be deploying a tool without a problem to solve. You
want to understand the immediate needs of your customers, or users, and
ensure those concerns become the focus.

“In the BI space, everyone for the most part, is intelligence poor – drowning in a
sea of data, but with very little timely, actionable, accurate intelligence. So the
ability to now equip our customer base with useful and useable reports, that can
immediately help them perform their jobs better, is again like gold for us.

# Obstacle to Business Intelligence in an Organization

#1: Lack of BI Strategy
Organizations should proactively define the problems they trying to solve. Only
then they will be able to identify the right Business Intelligence solution that will
suit their requirements. This is because once BI is implemented, executives
should know the pros and cons of the solution they are using and how the
solution could add value to them. Hence devising a strategy before adopting a
solution is very important as confusion may lead to the failure of the adoption.
Attempting BI without the fundamental preconditions for success in place is likely
to be frustrating, painful, costly, and destined to fail.
A good practice would be to go for assessment and review the existing business
processes. This will help to gather critical requirements necessary for laying out a
proper roadmap and devise overall Business Intelligence and Data Management
strategy. This should be followed by a Proof of Concept (PoC) to validate the
solution and create a business case.
#2: Business Intelligence when you don’t know how to code
Now a days, executives find it difficult to access the right data at right time. And
even if they do find what they’re looking for, data formats are typically so
complex and unstructured it’s hard to find out meaningful and relevant data.
Now unless they are using Excel extensively, they probably would not get much
satisfaction (or value) from their BI system.
A good practice would be to replace Excel Sheets with intuitive dashboards to
make data more engaging, meaningful and eventually very powerful. Hence for
this a BI Solution should provide the ability to create advanced filters and
calculations all without coding. A self-service business intelligence solution
enables executives to create customized reports in no time with little
involvement of IT once the entire solution is implemented.
Read 3 ways self-service BI can help your organization
#3: Lack of Training & Execution
Many a times, companies might have well-articulated requirements, a sound BI
strategy, and a good tool solution, but lack technical skills like designing, building,
maintaining, and supporting BI applications. This results in BI applications to run
slowly, break frequently, deliver uncertain results and eventually leading to rising
cost of using the BI solution. The causes of lack of execution often are multiple
and varied, as are its remedies.
Organizations should more focus on helping to understand their resources why is
a BI solution needed and the benefits of a BI Solution as well. Resources should
be in line with the executives on the gains that they can get by the use of their
newly adopted BI Technology. Organizations should spend wisely on providing
ongoing training, so that users understand how to use the system.
#4: Lack of BI impact (Low utilization)
Management might always wonder why there is no change in business results
attributable to BI and might feel that business value of BI investments not
captured. This indicates that the organization is not utilizing the BI solution at par
with global standards and best practices. This is because executives are unclear
on how their company could benefit from BI. Management may not be able to
use information in the system and even may not be aware that it even exist. As a
result, they are not satisfied with what investments in BI have yielded the
organization, and therefore are reluctant to approve any additional funding for
BI. They might even pull the funding, and spend that budget somewhere else.
What should matter to executive is how they use data and how accessible the
data is in order to do something with it. It’s time for business intelligence
implementations to stop relying on dull, uninspired pivot tables and spreadsheets
and start presenting data in compelling visuals that are easy to understand and
loaded with insight.
In such case, Executives and the BI Solution they are using to stop relying on
spread sheets and start using actual BI to present the data intuitively. This will
enable BI to unlock the full value of the data it gathers and deliver the desired
ROI.
Quick Tip: Reclaim hours in your day when you discover how easy it is to analyze,
visualize, and share insights with Power BI. Get started with a quick Power BI
proof of concept.
#5 Business Intelligence with unstructured data
Most of the times data is unstructured for BI to analyze. This lead to a problem
when users need to perform simple BI Processes. Businesses may invest in big
data analytics but cannot complete the tasks in time. They may result to people
spending hours on cleaning and structuring the data first and then using the BI
solution.
A BI solution which could be loaded with automatic ETL capabilities to process
data sets that need to be restructured will be a real solution here. This will
enable users to create a single source as well as a front-end with data
visualization capabilities. Ideally, the back-end of the solution would be able to
manipulate the data for it to be analyzed in the front-end. Hence, the front-end
will then allow users to visualize data in dashboards, reports and graphs.
Quick Tip: Use Azure Data Lake Store to unlock maximum value from all of your
unstructured, semi-structured, and structured data. To know how this can help
your business, click here
#6 Installation and Deployment
A painful BI solution installation and deployment would be difficult to maintain.
Even an unplanned & rushed deployment would be unsuccessful so often. Doing
this may leave users void with time to understand the system and develop the
skills using the solution effectively.
Executives can take a step by step approach to implement a BI solution. They can
make a list identifying business problems and rather than expecting to solve
every business problem all at once, they can try to prioritize specific outcomes
they want to achieve. They can solve the issues consecutively until they have
incrementally solved all the problems on the list and then think of implementing
a BI solution.

OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) is a technology for discovery of data which

includes capabilities like prediction, report viewing and complex analytical
calculations. It also allows users to easily extract the data to analyze it from
different points of view.

OLAP could be a class of software package that permits users to investigate data
from multiple information systems at a similar time.

It is a technology that allows analysts to extract read and consider and examine
business knowledge from completely different points of view.

Analysts need to group aggregate and join data. OLAP data can be pre-calculated
and pre-aggregated which makes analysis faster.

OLAP Applications

Typical applications of OLAP embody business news for sales, marketing,

management news, business method management (BPM), budgeting and
prognostication, money news and similar areas, with new applications arising,
like agriculture.

The term OLAP was created as a small modification of the normal info term OLTP
(Online dealing Processing).

Two leading OLAP merchandise square measure Titan Solution's Essbase and
Oracle's categorical Server.

OLAP merchandise square measure usually designed for multiple-user

environments, with the price of the package, supported the number of users.

Types of OLAP systems

here are 3 main types of OLAP servers are as following,

1) Relational OLAP (ROLAP) – Star Schema based –

The ROLAP relies on the premise that knowledge needn't keep

multidimensionally to viewed multidimensionally, which it's doable to use the
well-proven relative database technology to handle multidimensionality of data.
In ROLAP knowledge is keep in an exceedingly electronic information service. In
essence, every action of slicing and dicing is such as adding a "WHERE" clause in
the SQL statement. ROLAP can handle large amounts of data. ROLAP will
leverage functionalities inherent within the electronic information service.

2) Multidimensional OLAP (MOLAP) – Cube based –

MOLAP stores information on disks in a specialized dimensional array

structure. OLAP is performed on that counting on the random access capability of
the arrays. Arrays component square measure determined by dimension
instances, and also the truth information or measured price related to every cell
is typically kept within the corresponding array component. In MOLAP, the
dimensional array is typically kept in an exceedingly linear allocation in step with
nested traversal of the axes in some predetermined order.

But not like ROLAP, wherever solely records with non-zero facts square measure
keep, all array parts square measure outlined in MOLAP and as a result, the
arrays have a tendency to distribute, with empty parts occupying a bigger a part
of it. Since each storage and retrieval prices square measure vital whereas
assessing on-line performance potency, MOLAP systems generally embody
provision like advanced compartmentalization and hashing to find information
whereas playacting queries for handling distributed arrays. MOLAP cubes square
measure quick information retrieval, best for slicing and dicing and it will perform
the advanced calculation. All calculation square measure pre-generated once the
cube is formed.

3) Hybrid OLAP (HOLAP) –

HOLAP could be a combination of ROLAP and MOLAP. HOLAP servers permit

storing the big knowledge volumes of detail knowledge. On the one
hand, HOLAP leverages the larger quantifiability of ROLAP. On the opposite
hand, HOLAP leverages the cube technology for quicker performance and
summary-type information. Cubes are smaller than MOLAP since detail
knowledge is unbroken within the electronic information service. The info are
wont to stores knowledge within the most practical method attainable.
Some other types of OLAP

1. Web OLAP (WOLAP):

It is a Web browser-based technology. In traditional OLAP application is
accessible by the client/server but this OLAP application is accessible by
the web browser. It is a three-tier architecture that consists of client,
middleware and database server. The most appealing features of this style
of OLAP was the considerably lower investment involved on the client-side
and enhanced accessibility to connect to the data. A Web-based
application requires no deployment on the client machine. All that is
required is a Web browser and a network connection to the intranet or
Internet.
2. Desktop OLAP (DOLAP):
DOLAP stands for desktop analytical processing. In that user can download
the data from the source and work with the dataset, or on their desktop.
Functionality is limited compared to other OLAP applications. It has a
cheaper cost.
3. Mobile OLAP (MOLAP):
MOLAP is a wireless functionality or mobile devices. Users are work and
access the data through mobile devices.
4. Spatial OLAP (SOLAP):
Merge capabilities of both Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and OLAP
into the single user interface, SOLAP egress. SOLAP is created because the
data come in the form of alphanumeric, image, and vector. This provides
the easy and quick exploration of data that resides on a spatial database.

# differences between OLAP and OLTP.