why a company should consider dw/bi
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Why a Company Should Consider DW/BI
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?BI Solutions and LifecycleWhat is the Microsoft BI stack?
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
PerformancePoint Drill-Down
PerformancePoint Decomposition Trees
Intuitive Presentations
BI allows you to present the data in many different formats
Power View
BI Concepts
• Data Warehouse – A single organizational repository of enterprise wide data across many or all subject areas. It is the foundation of a business intelligence solution
• Data Mart - A subset of the data warehouse which is usually oriented to a specific business line or team (finance, marketing, sales)
• Operational Data Store (ODS) – Real-time integration of multiple data sources. Interim step before DW
• 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 (i.e. SSAS
Cubes)
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
BI Solutions
• Operational Reporting: Provides improved access to existing data from operational systems. Usually involves the building of an Operational Data Store (ODS)
• Business Process / Activity Management: Provides improved analysis and reporting capabilities for specific business processes or activities. See BPM and BAM and Business Activity Monitoring and Business Intelligence. Usually involves a real-time summary of business activities from multiple transactional data sources to operations managers and upper management (“Operational Intelligence”)
• Data Mart / Integrated Reporting and Analytics: Provides improved tools and access to business users of an application to enhance its value by improving decision-making. This is the most common solution. Usually involves the Kimball methodology when building the data warehouse
• Enterprise Data Warehousing / Information Management: Provides comprehensive integration of critical information across the enterprise. Also breaks down the barriers between applications. Usually involves the Inmon methodology when building the data warehouse
BI Lifecycle
BI Lifecycle
Business Intelligence Maturity Assessment
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• Power Pivot – 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
Questions?
James Serra, Business Intelligence ConsultantEmail me at: JamesSerra3@gmail.comFollow me at: @JamesSerra Link to me at: www.linkedin.com/in/JamesSerra Visit my blog at: JamesSerra.com
Resources:• 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 • Business Intelligence Requirements Gathering: http://bit.ly/11zXAfk • Ralph Kimball Books: http://bit.ly/11zXEvN • Business Intelligence Maturity Assessment: http://bit.ly/11zXJzp
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