Transcript Introduction – Addressing Business Challenges

Introduction – Addressing
Business Challenges
Microsoft® Business Intelligence
Solutions
Roadmap
What is Business Intelligence?
Different Needs for Different Users
Executives
Business Decision Makers
Information Workers
Line Workers
Analysts
Summary
The Problem With Data
Most companies have plenty of data, but data is
not information
Data is often spread across multiple systems,
stored in different formats, and may even be
localized for different countries
The first challenge is to consolidate the data so
that it is consistent and accessible
What is Business Intelligence?
Once data is consolidated, it must still be
turned into information
People must be able to easily grasp what they
see
The information should support easy exploration
so users can answer their own questions
BI should support many different kinds of user
needs
What is Data Mining?
Data mining is a specialized branch of BI that
uses statistical algorithms to examine data
These algorithms seek to identify trends and
relationships that might otherwise not be
apparent
Data mining is often used to perform predictive
analysis (the forecasting of future trends)
Video
Virgin Atlantic Case Study
The Different Users of Business
Intelligence
There are many different users who can benefit
from business intelligence
Executives – Those who focus on the overall
business
Business Decision Makers – Usually focused on
single areas of the business (finance, HR,
manufacturing, and so forth)
Information Workers – Typically managers or staff
working in the back office
Line Workers – Employees who might use BI without
knowing it
Analysts – Employees who will perform extensive
data analysis
Demonstration 1
The Microsoft® Office Business Scorecard
Manager™ 2005 and how it supports
executives and business decision makers
The Purpose of a Scorecard
A scorecard should give an executive a visual
representation of the health of an organization
in a single glance
The scorecard is of sufficiently high level to
represent major business operations and their
goals
The data in a scorecard should be as recent as
possible to make them more actionable
Benefits to the Executive
In a single glance, the executive can see a wide
swath of the business (finance, manufacturing,
sales, marketing, and more)
Immediate value is gained without the need for
the executive to perform analysis
Executives see not just actual values, but
comparisons to plans or prior results
The Contents of a Scorecard
Scorecards usually contain some or all of the
following elements:
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPI actual values compared to historical values (for
trend analysis)
KPI actual values compared to a forecast or budget
amount
Rankings of different departments, locations,
products, and so forth
Demonstration 2 (video)
Dashboards and how they support business
decision makers and managers
The Purpose of a Dashboard
A dashboard is designed to allow decision
makers to see a variety of data that affects their
divisions or departments
This data may be in the form of scorecards,
charts, tables, and so forth
The dashboard is generally customized for each
user
More targeted and detailed than a scorecard
Benefits to Decision Makers
Decision makers see a variety of information
targeted to their department
This allows decision makers to focus only on the
items over which they have control
Information is more detailed than that of a
scorecard
The tools in the dashboard often have better
analytic capabilities than a scorecard
The Contents of a Dashboard
A Dashboard generally contains a variety of
different views of data
The data is generally KPIs and shows trends,
breakdowns, and comparisons against a
forecast or historical data
The dashboard often consists of charts and
tables, and may include scorecard elements as
well
Demonstration 3
Reports and how they support managers and
other information workers
The Purpose of Reports
Reports allow a much broader audience to
benefit from the data in a BI solution
Reports may be static, requiring no training
Reports may also allow a limited amount of
interactivity
Reports can be presented in a variety of
formats, allowing for easier distribution
Benefits to the Organization
BI data are available to almost all people in an
organization
Reports can be emailed, viewed over the Web,
or distributed in other ways to a very wide
audience
Some analytic capabilities can be provided to
many users
Reports can consolidate data from a number of
BI databases
The Contents of Reports
Reports may include high level data such as
KPIs
More detailed information can be presented,
especially for specific salespeople, customers,
and so on
Reports may show the details of a single
transaction, or a history of data over a span of
time
Video
Application Integration
The Purpose of Custom Application
Integration
An application used by line workers may include
business intelligence without the worker
realizing what is happening
A sales clerk may get a list of targeted
recommendations to make based on what the
customer is buying
A loan officer may be presented with the level of risk
associated with granting a loan to a particular
customer
Benefits of Custom Application
Integration
Business Intelligence is pushed into every level
of the organization without the need for training
(or even knowledge of what BI is and how to use it)
The analytic process can be simplified and
tailored on a per application basis
Line workers gain benefits from the BI capital of
the organization as part of doing their daily work
The Contents of Custom Application
Integration
Custom applications may include predictive
output from data mining models
Custom applications can show history and
trends for the current customer, supplier, and so
forth
Custom applications may allow easy ways for
users to explore the data for relationships
Demonstration 4
Analytic applications open up the full power of
BI data and allow extensive data analysis
The Purpose of Analytic
Applications
Analytic applications free analysts from building
complex models and writing complex queries
Analysts are free to focus on the data and
discover relationships and drivers behind
numbers
Rich visualizations allow much easier
understanding of trends and relationships
Benefits of Analytic Applications
Data is significantly easier to analyze
Analysts can focus on analyzing the data and
not writing complex queries
Reports created with analytic applications can
be pushed out to the organization
Graphical tools provide users throughout the
organization with powerful reports and analytic
capabilities
The Contents of Analytic
Applications
Analytic applications typically have no limits;
analysts can see everything
Analytic applications can view and analyze all of
an organization’s data in a number of ways
Analytic applications are powerful, but not as
easy to use as other mechanisms
Summary
Business Intelligence is the process of
consolidating disparate data
BI information should be easily accessible and
support a variety of viewing options
BI should support a wide variety of users
BI enables users to explore the data, examine
relationships, and more
BI can support data mining operations