Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence
A set of technologies and processes that use data to understand and analyze business performance (Davenport and Harris, 2007).
Business information and business analyses within the context of key business processes that lead to decisions and actions and that result in improved business performance (Williams and Williams, 2007).
Business IntelligenceBusiness
InformationBusiness Analyses
Business Decisions
Management Processes, e.g. Planning, Budgeting,Forecasting, Monitoring,
and Controlling
Revenue GeneratingProcesses, e.g.,Marketing, Sales,
CampaignManagement, and
Channel Management
Operating Processes,e.g., Customer Service,
Order Fulfillment,Billing, Manufacturing,
Logistics, and InventoryManagement
Increased Sales,Reduced Costs, and
Increased ProfitsThat Drive
In the Context of Core Business Processes
Extent of BI Adoption
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Potential BI Users BI Users who useregularly
Today
In 3 years
Analytical Application Domains
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Finance and Accounting
Sales
Marketing
Forecasting
Budgeting and Planning
Customer Service
Human Resources
Shipping and Logistics
Application Platforms
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Web Application
Desktop Application
Corporate Portal
Operational Application
Mobile Devices
Examples
Western Digital uses BI to better manage its inventory, supply chains, product lifecycles, and customer relationships. BI has enabled the company to reduce operating costs by 50%.
Capital One uses BI to analyze and improve profitability of its product lines as well as effectiveness of its business processes and marketing programs.
Continental Airlines invested $30 million in BI to improve its business processes and customer service. Continental says it has reaped a $500 million return.
BI Drivers
Abundance of data ERP Systems Inexpensive storage Ease of collection
Network infrastructure Web technologies Mature data warehouse technologies Powerful and easy to use analytical software Need to squeeze as much as possible from business processes Recent Accenture study that found that nine in 10 senior
executives at Fortune 1000 companies place strong analytical and business intelligence capabilities at the top of their list in preparing them for their biggest challenge ahead
What does BI Include?
Data warehouses, data marts Reporting, querying Dashboards, scorecards Forecasting, statistical analysis Simulation, optimization models
Measurement Process reengineering Business Process Management (BPM)
BI and Analytics
Degree of Intelligence
Com
petit
ive
Adv
anta
ge
How many, how often, where?Ad hoc reports
Query/drill down
Alerts
Statistical analysis
Forecasting/extrapolation
Predictive modeling
Optimization
Standard reports What happened?
Where exactly is the problem?
What actions are needed?
Why is this happening?
What’s the best that can happen?
What if these trends continue?
What will happen next?Analysis
Accessand
Reporting
Corporate Information Factory
http://www.inmoncif.com/includes/contentimages/cif.gif
Closed Loop Analytical Process (Vesset, 2003)
Track
Act
Analyze
Model
Decide
Tra
nsac
tion-
Orie
nted A
nalytical
Entity-Relationship ModelManufacturerSales Person
ManufacturerSales Region
Geography
ManufacturerSales Contact
Process
ManufacturerSales Office
ShipmentsProcess
Time
Order TakingProcess
Store
Chain Retailer
Product
Warehouse
Retail Customer
Brand
Point of SaleProcesses
Retail Promotion
Chain RetailerPayment Process
Account
General Ledger
E-R model includes allthe processes of an organization includingmany that do not intersect in the real world
Dimensional Modeling
The goal of dimensional modeling is to create an intuitive representation of the data that is optimized for high-performance access
Essentially an E-R model with some restrictions
A single E-R model breaks down into multiple dimensional models
Time Dimension
PK time_key
SQL_dateday_of_weekweek_numbermonth.etc.
Sales Fact Table
FK4 product_keyFK2 store_keyFK5 customer_keyFK3 clerk_key
promotion_keydollars_soldunits_solddollars_cost
FK1 time_key
Store Dimension
PK store_key
store_IDstore_nameaddressdistrictfloor typeetc
Clerk Dimension
PK clerk_key
clerk_IDclerk_nameclerk_gradeetc
Product Dimension
PK product_key
SKUdescriptionbrandcategorypackage_typesizeflavoretc
Customer Dimension
PK customer_key
customer_namepurchase_profilecredit_profiledemographic_typeaddressetc
Promotion Dimension
PK promotion_key
promotion_nameprice_typead_typedisplay_typeetc
One-to-manyrelationships betweendimensions and fact table
~103 records indimension tables~106 to 109 in facttables
Diagram makes itobvious why themodel is calledthe Star Schemaor Star Join
Retail sales process dimensional model
SAP Terminology
A dimensional model is called an InfoCube
The facts in the fact table are called Key Figures
Attributes of the dimensions are called Characteristics
Titanic InfoCube
Titanic Fact Table
CounterFK1 Passenger Key
Passenger Dimension
PK Passenger Key
Class Age Gender Mortality
Counter key figure has the value of1 for all records so it can be usedto count the number of records foreach combination of characteristicvalues by summing
Passenger isn’t quite correct because Classincludes the crew
ERPSim Market InfoCube
Marketing Fact Table
Revenue QuantityFK1 Customer KeyFK2 Account KeyFK3 Material Key
Customer Dimension
PK Customer Key
ZipCode City Region OutletTypeFK1 Region SID
Region
PK Region SID
GDP Population
Account Dimension
PK Account Key
Account Number Profit Center
Product Dimension
PK Material Key
Material Plant
Material
Type Size DateTo DateFrom MaterialSID
Business Explorer Suite
Query Builder Analyzer Report Designer Web Application Designer Information Broadcasting
BEx Analyzer Query Designer
Analyzer
Viewing Query in SAP GUI (RSRT)