Bjarne Berg and Ben PeregoMarch 20th, 2006

Decision Support - What is new? An overview presentation University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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What We will cover

• Enterprise Decision Support Systems (DSS)

• Presentation Tool trends

• Building the Enterprise DSS

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Source: SAP

What Do Users Really Want?

The Target Enterprise Decision Support System Architecture

Metadata

DataExtractionIntegration

andCleansingProcesses

Custom Developed Applications

DataMining

Statistical Programs

Query Access Tools

Data Resource Management and Quality Assurance

SummarizedData

SegmentedData Subsets

Functional Area

Summation

Marketingand Sales

Purchasing

CorporateInformation

Product Line

Location

PurchasingSystems

InvoicingSystems

GeneralLedger

External DataSources

Other InternalSystems

Translate

Attribute

Calculate

Derive

Summarize

Synchronize

Source Data ExtractOperationalData Store Transform

DataWarehouse Applications

Source: Bjarne Berg, “Introduction to Data Warehousing”,

Price Waterhouse Global System solution Center, 1997

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New Trend - Standard Content “off-the-shelf”

Companies are now buying “packaged” DSS from their ERP vendors.

Since the software companies also built the transactions systems, they are in a good position to create the needed components of an enterprise decision support systems.

36%

33%

31%

Mostly standard storage objectsSome customization

Highly customized storage objects

An example from a large manufacturing company

BW Content available:BW Content available:

• InfoObjects 11,772• ODS objects 349 • InfoCube 605• MultiCubes 121• Roles 861• Queries 3,299• Workbooks 1,979

Source: SAP, Sdn BW 2005

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All major ERP vendors have packaged DSS solutions

SAP, Baan, PeopleSoft, Oracle, JD Edwards and others have all packaged Data warehouse solutions. This is commonly known as Business Intelligence (BI) products.

There are many types of BI products: 1. Data Warehouses (DW)

2. Strategic Enterprise management (SEM)1. Corporate Performance mgmt (CPM)2. Business planning & simulation (BPS)3. Business Consolidation services (BCS)4. Stakeholder relationship mgmt (SRM)

3. Data Mining

4. Advanced Planning and Optimization (APO)

5. Supply Chain Event Manager (SCEM)

6. Customer Relationship Manager (CRM)

The data warehouse is the source of the data for

all these integrated analytical applications

(iAnalytics)

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Enterprise Decision Support Systems – Example: SAP

Source: SAP AG 2004

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Level of Pre-delivered ContentToolsets & accelerators

Analytical applications for specific industries

Lev

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f E

mb

edd

ed A

nal

yti c

s

Complex (score cards, budgeting, planning, KPI)

Interactive Mgmt. reporting (OLAP, MQE)

Evolution of Enterprise Decision Support Systems

Emerging (1st generation)

Vertical approach (2nd generation)

Horizontal approach (2nd generation)

Integrated analytical (3rd generation)

Source: Mike Schroeck, David Zinn and Bjarne Berg, “Integrated Analytics – Getting Increased Value from Enterprise Resource Planning Systems”, Data Management Review, May, 2002;

Adapted: Bjarne Berg “How to Manage a BW Project”, BW & Portals Conference, 2004, Orlando

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What We will cover

• Enterprise Decision Support Systems (DSS)

• Presentation Tool trends

• Building the Enterprise DSS

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New trend – Users are more sophisticated and OLAP is everywhere

Statistical software and On-line Analytical processing (OLAP) tools are becoming a “must-have” technology.

Increased information needs (less data) leads to adaptation of more sophisticated DSS tools

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What We will cover

• Enterprise Decision Support Systems (DSS)

• Presentation Tool trends

• Building the Enterprise DSS

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New trend – Data hubs for moving data – no code

Tools such as MicroSoft’s BizTalk, SAP’s Exchange Infrastructure (XI), and the Informatica tool suite is replacing old stand-alone programs for data movement

Due to new tools, a typical DSS project will spend only 30-50% of project effort will be spent on data integration (previously it was much higher).

Source: Bjarne Berg, “An A to Z Guide in Managing SAP NetWeaver Projects” - SAP NetWeaver and Portals Conference, March. 2006, Las Vegas

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New Trend – building DSS using Extreme Programming as a methodology.

Joint Application Design(JAD)

Rapid Application Development(RAD)

Extreme Programming(EP)

System development Life-Cycle based methodologies

(SDLC)

Impact of FailureLow High

Low

High

Time to Delivery

When to Select Different Methodologies

Source: Bjarne Berg, “How to pick JAD, RAD, XP or a SDLC Methodology for your project“, Nov. 2005,

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New Trends - Web cockpits and Dashboards

Web cockpits and dashboards are no longer “sci-fi”.

Technology has led to better integrated decision support systems and the scale of companies now makes it cost effective to implement these tools.

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New trends – more Data Visualization

Due to high volumes of data, the user need visualized information that can be accessed and explored in a non-numerical presentation format.

New tools are addressing these needs and providing built-in interactivity.

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New trends – exception reporting using Broadcaster Tools

No more “pulling” of reports. Now users can set up exceptions to “business as usual” and see the exceptions without having to log-on

Flat ReportingFlat Reporting• FormattedFormatted• PrintPrint• Form basedForm based• StaticStatic• Predictable accessPredictable access

OLAP ReportingOLAP Reporting• Drill DownDrill Down• Slice and DiceSlice and Dice• AnalyseAnalyse• Data Mining Data Mining • Search and discoverSearch and discover

KPI & ScorecardKPI & Scorecard FormattedFormatted• SimpleSimple• Easy to viewEasy to view• Limited navLimited nav• AggregatesAggregates

Reporting needs

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What are some possible advantages of "packaged" DSS?

Can you think of any disadvantages

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Have you experienced the effects of dashboard-based decision-making in your company?

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How might this access to real-time information change the behavior of managers, workers?

….For better or worse?

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Your Turn!!!