comp-14: easyask ® natural language ad- hoc query & reporting: a user’s experience dr. larry...

COMP-14: EasyAsk® Natural Language Ad-Hoc Query & Reporting: A User’s Experience

Dr. Larry R. HarrisProgress EasyAsk

Adrian O’BrienCardif Pinnacle

© 2007 Progress Software Corporation2 COMP-14 EasyAsk Natural Language Ad Hoc Query & Reporting: A User’s Experience

Agenda

What is EasyAsk? Who is Using EasyAsk? Building a Dictionary Deploying EasyAsk EasyAsk Reports New EasyAsk Features

EasyAsk Ad-Hoc Query & Reporting


EasyAsk Natural Language

LogicalView

PhysicalView

DBMS

SQL

ConceptualViewNatural

EasyAsk

Translates Natural Language Questions into SQL/ABL

Using a dictionary in which each definition shows how the word relates to the database


Fundamentals of EasyAsk

Ease of information access to a broader set of users Lower the technical requirements

• SQL• DB Schema

Use the language people already know!• English• French, German, Portuguese in Beta• (Spanish, Italian, Dutch) as required

EasyAsk Goals


Usage ExamplesUsage Examples

Business users need to find information• “Give me a pie chart of the sales in each

region for last month” Managers monitor their business

• Sends email alerts if key measurements are out-of-bounds

Administrators understand how EasyAsk is being used and how to improve it• “Show me last week’s questions that were not

answered.”


Agenda




Selected CustomersSelected Customers


Agenda




Key EasyAsk Constructs

Query Builder• Saved Requests

• Finding a Column

The Map• How tables will be joined together

User Key• What columns will be displayed when a table

name is referred to in a query

Dictionary Inheritance


Agenda




Deploying EasyAskDeploying EasyAsk

Security Performance Range of Expression Database Design Idiosyncrasies Usage Examples Integration


Security

Dynamic Role-Based Security Each User Group Provides:

• Row Level Security

• Column Level Security

Standard Reports still work, but will provide null results for secure data items

Passed Ceridian Security Audit


Performance

Generates very high quality SQL Eliminates any possibility of a non-specified

join Governors for:

• CPU Time

• Result Set Size


Range of ExpressionRange of Expression

The way the User enters the question is correct way The following questions all provide the same answer:

• How many customers bought seafood in each state?

• What’s the number of seafood customers in every state?

• By state, give me a count of the customers who bought seafood.

• Count the seafood customers in each state.


Database Design IdiosyncrasiesDatabase Design Idiosyncrasies

What What percent of employees with employee deferral of employees with employee deferral contributions are contributions are eligibleeligible??SQL-> SELECT count(distinct sd0002.dbo. employee .employee_id) as "Count", (100 * count(distinct sd0002.dbo. employee .employee_id)) / (Select count(distinct sd0002.dbo. employee .employee_id) From employee Where sd0002.dbo. history_view .cash<>0 and {fn UCase(sd0002.dbo. history_view .portion_code)}='EEDF' and sd0002.dbo. history_view .category='02') as "Percent" FROM sd0002.dbo. employee , sd0002.dbo. history_view WHERE (sd0002.dbo. history_view .cash<>0 and {fn UCase(sd0002.dbo. history_view .portion_code)}='EEDF' and sd0002.dbo. history_view .category='02' and {fn UCase(sd0002.dbo. employee .status)} in ('ACT', 'NPA', 'INA', 'PEN')) and sd0002.dbo. employee .client_nbr=sd0002.dbo. history_view .client_nbr and sd0002.dbo.employee.employee_id=sd0002.dbo. history_view .employee_id

Users must carry around a “Cheat-Sheet” to remember the design idiosyncrasies of the database

What if a new eligible code is created?


Agenda




New EasyAsk Features

Query Builder – Help Users Find the Column• Search Capability for Columns

• Hide all but the most meaningful columns

• Show columns relevant to a specific report category


Thank You!

Questions?

An overview of

EasyAsk

within Cardif Pinnacle

Presented By:

Adrian O’Brien, General Manager MI & Projects, Cardif Pinnacle


Who are Cardif Pinnacle

Cardif Pinnacle are the British subsidiary to Cardif, the insurance arm of BNP Paribas.

The French bank BNP Paribas is one of the World’s largest banks

Cardif Pinnacle has 750 employees and also has branches in Ireland and South Africa. EasyAsk is used in all three locations

Established in 1971, Cardif Pinnacle is one of the UK's leading providers of creditor insurance and product warranties. In recent years the company has developed other product lines including Medical Cash Plans, Pet Healthcare and Personal Accident cover.

Cardif Pinnacle also markets competitive, tax efficient investment products via IFAs and direct to the public … and Financial Telemarketing Services provides contact centre and outsourcing services to leading Banks, Building Societies and Finance Houses.


Why did we purchase EasyAsk?

Cardif Pinnacle purchased EasyAsk along with a fast access data store Aruna to:

• Overcome delays in reporting• Rationalise reporting• Give ownership of data to our business users

Typical problems we faced before the introduction of EasyAsk were:

• Reports running slowly and clogging up our systems• Inefficient use of IT resource• Users finding workarounds because they couldn’t get their

request done within an adequate time frame• External clients and internal users becoming frustrated as we

could not provide meaningful MI quickly• Business users unable to adequately explain their business

requirements to IT• Data hidden and not properly understood by key people within

the business


EasyAsk – Proof of Concept

In 2003 we set what we considered to be a real challenge:

To transfer data to our new Aruna Date store, create the required EasyAsk dictionary and remove the top twenty five slowest running reports from our IT systems within a two month period.

The challenge was met with plenty of time to spare!

It also demonstrated previously un-thought of benefits such as:

• Rationalising and simplifying our terms and definitions- Changing the way the organisation thinks:

Our Senior Finance Manager states:

“EasyAsk helps us better understand our business and improve our processes”


EasyAsk and Aruna

1.Aruna can integrate data from multiple databases and business applications, EasyAsk can cut and slice views of this in any way we wish

2. Aruna processes queries at super fast speeds

3. EasyAsk allows simple plain-language querying

4. Reports which took hours to run on our administration systems now run via Aruna and EasyAsk in seconds or minutes at the most

The combination of Aruna and EasyAsk allows our business users to take ownership

of information


EasyAsk – More than one natural way to query

For the one finger typist just point and click and the table and field names get written for you


EasyAsk – Training and Support

We provide full internal training for EasyAsk – but it only takes an hour

Hold user’s hand for one month - Then throw them into the sea!

Email request box – when they have real trouble swimming

Turnaround time – one day or less for simple requests – five days for complex reports

Many times faster than producing reports by other means

If we do have to use IT then report specification defined by MI information analyst rather than ordinary user

We currently have 130 users querying EasyAsk

Support - around 30 hours per week


EasyAsk – Controlled Freedom

EasyAsk can provide any level of security you require

Some tips:

• KISS

• Network groups, User groups, subject groups – the business should decide – IT should guide

• Some tables only available to some groups

• Some dictionaries only available to some groups

• Master updateable dictionary – child dictionaries security setting for users to write queries or just run reports


EasyAsk – Keep the Wolves Happy

Drivers for Change

• Legislation and the need to demonstrate corporate governance

• Internal and External demands for speed increase over time.

• Data and the demands for information - always more, never less!

EasyAsk provides the flexibility to adapt to an ever changing corporate and global environment


EasyAsk – Sherlock Holmes & Dr Watson

You all have them – those clever people who look at data in a different way, discover issues and recommend new ways to do business

For Example:• Data Quality Issues• Data Quality Measurement• Data Mining• Digital Dashboard• Progress Developers use EasyAsk• Interaction with other tools – Excel for example

EasyAsk has released the potential of our employees and empowered them in the use of data in a number of

diverse and unexpected ways


EasyAsk – Excellent with Excel

A big percentage of our user base use Excel

• EasyAsk displays like Excel and has many of the features of Excel

• Export to Excel sheet, or copy and paste• Multiple sheets – just like Excel so keep multiple queries• Refresh sheet so you can update one or all queries on

the fly• The above allows monthly reporting at the click of a

button rather than re-querying

If you want your company’s chief accountant to be your buddy introduce her / him to EasyAsk!


EasyAsk – Economies of Scale

Many users – teach one another

No need for third party reporting tools

EasyAsk can link to all systems

One querying tool across the company saves time and money in regard to training, software costs, licence maintenance, IT support, software rollouts etc.

Employees are able to move across the company more easily

EasyAsk – Easy Savings!


EasyAsk – MI/BI View of the World

Data transformation - from a transactional to an analytical view data

EasyAsk the perfect tool for working with a data warehouse

Aruna a perfect fit with EasyAsk

Digital Dashboard and KPIs

Leverage and Control of MI and BI solutions

Master Data Management

EasyAsk helps us to control the flow of information and prevent proliferation of non-standard MI solutions


EasyAsk – Summary

He’s still waiting for his report

I’m off to San Francisco!

EasyAsk - Flexible

EasyAsk - Natural

EasyAsk - Scalable

EasyAsk - Ownership

EasyAsk - SQL Developer

EasyAsk - Building Blocks

EasyAsk - Easy Support

EasyAsk - Controlled Freedom

EasyAsk - Easy Investigations

EasyAsk - Excellent Excel

EasyAsk - Economies of Scale

EasyAsk - Master Data Management

comp-14: easyask ® natural language ad- hoc query & reporting: a user’s experience dr. larry...

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