What exactly is Business Intelligence?

James Serra – Business Intelligence ConsultantJamesSerra3@gmail.comJamesSerra.com

About me

• Business Intelligence Consultant, in IT for 28 years• Owner of Serra Consulting Services, specializing in

end-to-end Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse solutions using the Microsoft BI stack

• Worked as desktop/web/database developer, DBA, BI and DW architect and developer, MDM architect, PDW developer

• Been perm, contractor, consultant, business owner• MCSE for SQL Server 2012: Data Platform and BI• SME for SQL Server 2012 certs• Contributing writer for SQL Server Pro magazine• Speaker at the PASS Business Analytics Conference• Blog at JamesSerra.com

AgendaWhat is Business Intelligence?BI ConceptsWhy use a Data Warehouse?Why use Business Intelligence?What is the Microsoft BI stack?Why BI is a lucrative careerBenefits of a BI career

What is Business Intelligence?

“Business Intelligence is a set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-making”…Forrester Research

Or more briefly:

“Gathering of data from multiple sources to present it in a way that allows executives to make better business decisions”

Help with: “I have all this data, what should I do with it?”

“Knowledge is power!”. BI is a core business function that allows companies to be more competitive and reduce costs.

PerformancePoint Dashboard

Intuitive Presentations

BI allows you to present the data in many different formats

BI Concepts

• Data Warehouse – A single organizational repository of enterprise wide data across many or all subject areas

• Data Mart - A subset of the data warehouse which is usually oriented to a specific business line or team (finance, marketing, sales)

• Master Data Management – Processes, policies and tools that define and manage master data

• Star Schema – Fact table referencing any number of dimension tables

• Cube – Built from Star Schema. Summarization of data to quickly slice and dice. User does not need to create table relationships/joins

Why use a Data Warehouse?

All these reasons are for data warehouses:• Reduce stress on production system• Optimized for read access, sequential disk scans• Integrate many sources of data• Keep historical records (no need to save hardcopy

reports)• Restructure/rename tables and fields• Use Master Data Management, including hierarchies• No IT involvement needed for users to create

reports• Improve data quality and plugs holes in source

systems• One version of the truth• Easy to create BI solutions on top of it

Why use a Data Warehouse?

Legacy applications + databases = chaosProduction

Control

MRPInventory

ControlParts

Management

Logistics

Shipping

Raw Goods

Order Control

Purchasing

Marketing

Finance

Sales

Accounting

Management Reporting

Engineering

Actuarial

Human Resources

ContinuityConsolidationControlComplianceCollaboration

Enterprise data warehouse = order

Single version of the truth

Enterprise DataWarehouse

Every question = decision

A data warehouse is the foundation of a business intelligence solution. 75% of the effort in an end-to-end BI solution is building the DW

Business Intelligence Technology Layers

Why use Business Intelligence?

− Get the right data at the right time to make the right decision for the organization

− Opportunity to save costs− Reduce maintenance and usage cost due to

multiple reporting systems and silos of information− Reduce costs (losses) associated with decisions

made on basis of inaccurate information− Make you entire organization more efficient− Be able to compete in the market with today’s pace

and stay ahead of competition due to use of right business intelligence

Why use Business Intelligence?

Tangible Benefits:− Enable critical data and analysis tools as identified

for multiple business groups− Provide data integrity, simplification and

standardization for the business areas− Provide dynamic and interactive reporting− Reports create simplicity and reduce Business

Technology dependence for report creation and updates

− Cost savings by reducing the business users effort to create these reports and validate the data

− Rapid access to data from all sources− Standard KPI and dashboard reports− Allow for data mining and predictive analytics

Why use Business Intelligence?

Intangible Benefits:− Improve efficiency and accuracy of decision support

system for management and executive decision making

− Reduce manual consolidation efforts thereby improving productivity

− Provide transparency

Questions that BI can answer

• Is excessive overtime a reason for employee turnover?

• How are the sales territories performing?• How are the sales people performing?• Which customers are likely to buy from us?• What products do our customers buy together?• Do we have suppliers in the same region that we can

consolidate?• Is a decrease in sales due to the weather?

BI will stimulate questions and give you answers that you never had before!

Why use Business Intelligence?

Typical problems with current reporting solution:

• Are using reports from 3rd-party app that is hitting production data• Need to integrate data from a variety of data systems, often in different

formats• Reports are slow, getting timeouts, badly formatted, and inflexible• Need to combine, cut and paste reports together to form other reports• Data systems are not optimized for analytical queries, don’t contain all the

data needed, and are not available all the time• The systems do not have universal definitions (no “single version of the truth”)• Does not manage historical context• Employees may not have the sufficient skills, tools, or permissions to query

data systems• Want to use data in other front-end tools to do ad-hoc querying and data

mining 

So decision makers need, and what a BI solution gives them, is:

• Reliable, secure access to data to do their job effectively• Flexibility in the ways they access data• Tools to browse and analyze data and view reports• Time savings in creating reports can be spent analyzing data• Low time-to-impact; low latency query results• In the end, you want an environment that is: Persistent, Consistent, Timely

Kimball Lifecycle

BI Bible: The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit by Kimball

What is the Microsoft BI Stack?

• SQL Server Engine – Holds databases for all BI products

• SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) – ETL tools that is used by most BI products to transfer data

• SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) – OLAP cubes containing summarized data

• SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) – Server-based report generation software

• Visual Studio 2008 BIDS, SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)

• Report Builder – Light weight version of SSRS• PerformancePoint – Dashboard creation in SharePoint• PowerPivot – Excel add-in to query data• Power View – Fun, visual, drag-and-drop report

builder

What is the Microsoft BI Stack? (cont)

• Data Mining – Analyze data to find hidden patterns• Master Data Services (MDS) – Centralized data

source for Master Data Management• Data Quality Services (DQS) – Manage the integrity

and quality of data• SharePoint – Landing zone for most Microsoft BI

tools. Most reports are viewed on SharePoint• Excel & Excel Services – Excel is the common front-

end for most Microsoft BI tools. Excel Services enables you to display workbooks on SharePoint

End-to-End BI Solution

Why BI is a lucrative career

• Huge return on investment (ROI)• BI market is hot – large demand, low supply• Huge future growth• Interaction with upper management• High visibility• Highest salary/pay rate• Way for companies to reduce costs without reducing

employee count• Difficulty in finding person with technical and

people skills• Difficult to outsource

Contractor Rates

Benefits of BI career

• Top pay• Way to move up career ladder• Way to learn new skills, grow career• Alternative to management path• More rewarding• Different/New challenges• Many new features/products - Always learning• Won’t have black hole in your knowledge base

Questions?

James Serra – Business Intelligence ConsultantJamesSerra3@gmail.comJamesSerra.com

Resources:• DBA’s, want to earn the big bucks? Learn BI: http://bit.ly/wJ7u5u• Blueprint for consulting riches: http://bit.ly/X2vMrf • How To Make a LOT More Money as a Consultant: http://bit.ly/NgaYdo• End-User Microsoft BI Tools – Clearing up the confusion: http://bit.ly/SrBMLT • SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence Enhancements: http://bit.ly/10rN3Pp • Why you need Business Intelligence: http://bit.ly/10rN9GD