1. Business Intelligence (BI) at Work
Timothy Hinds and Lisa Jenkins
November 2, 2010

2. Agenda The BIAC – Timothy Hinds OSWER Projects – Lisa Jenkins
Cleanups in My Community (CIMC)
OSWER Performance Assessment Tool (OSWER PAT)
Questions

3. What is BI?
Business Intelligence (BI) is about getting the right data to the right person in the right format at the right time.
BI is a broad category of applications & technologies that:
Gather,
Store,
Analyze,
and provide Access to data
BI applications enable and equip decision-makers, analysts, and other information workers

4. BI Functional Areas ETL Query and Reporting Databases
Data integration
Data profiling & cleansing
Interoperability
Databases
Data warehouse, data marts
Metadata repositories
Analytics and Modeling
Statistical analysis
Data modeling
Data mining
Advanced visualization
Query and Reporting
Reporting
Scorecards and dashboards
Alerts
Ad hoc query
OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)
Multi-dimensional analysis
Integrated drill-down & drill-through

5. What is the BIAC?
The Business Intelligence & Analytics Center (BIAC) was formed to enhance the Agency’s analytical & decision-making capabilities by:
Providing enterprise leadership and perspective
Facilitating the sharing and reuse of knowledge and experience
Achieving economies of scale for BI tools and applications
Supplying BI solutions, tools, and consulting

6. What BI Products Are Available?
The BIAC offers various BI products:
BusinessObjects XI
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)
Informatica PowerCenter
SAS
The BIAC offers centrally shared hosting for:

7. What BI Services are Available?
Shared Environment Hosting
Advisory and Assistance Support
IV&V (Independent Verification and Validation)
Consulting Support
Deployment Support

8. Who Does the BIAC Support?
Office of Technology Operations & Planning (OTOP)
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER)
Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO)
Office of Information Collection (OIC)
Office of Water (OW)
Office of Air and Radiation (OAR)
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA)
Office of Research and Development (ORD)
Office of Administration and Resources Management (OARM)

9. How is BIAC Support Provided?
Methodology - Agile
ETL - Informatica
Minimal Custom Code - Oracle Application Express (APEX)
Database – Oracle
BI – Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)

10. What is Agile?
An approach to development that emphasizes collaboration, iteration, and adaptation
Alignment of development with a customer’s needs, goals, and budget
Rapid adaptation to evolving requirements
Rapid delivery of high-quality solutions
Working solutions delivered within days or weeks rather than months or years
Frequent collaboration between developers and business analysts 10

11. Agile Solutions 11

12. Typical BI Application Architecture
Pg 6

13. ETL - Graphical User Interface

14. Dashboards

15. Reports

16. BIAC Project Highlights
BIAC Engaged by OSWER
Agile Methodology
Oracle Application Express
Informatica
Oracle Business Intelligence

17. OSWER Overview
EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) has several applications being developed and/or maintained by the BIAC.
We will focus on 2 that are managed under the OSWER IMO and SIO:
CIMC
OSWER PAT 17

18. OSWER BI Project - CIMC Cleanups in My Community (CIMC)
Web application that allows the public to locate cleanups in their “communities” from a variety of environmental programs, and to drill down to cleanup-specific data of interest…Glorified Mashup!
Primary users: residents, concerned citizens, potential buyers and the real estate industry (bankers, insurers, etc.). 18

19. OSWER BI Project - CIMC Business Problem
Were spending $23K/month just on maintenance (no development).
Some development cost/time estimates were exorbitant!
Needed to reduce the maintenance and development costs.
Decided that updating the technology would be good, too. 19

20. CIMC – Data ETL Data is obtained from multiple sources
Envirofacts: A central source for EPA data intended for the public (ACRES, CERCLIS, FRS, RCRA).
FRS: To determine “multiple program” cleanups.
OW’s web service: To show water monitoring stations.
Near future: Web services for state cleanup data, RCRA facilities that aren’t “cleanups”, and EPA removals.
System then links back to profiles in OECA’s ECHO, OW’s monitoring data, Superfund CPAD and Envirofacts and, in the future State web sites and epaosc.org. 20

21. CIMC – Geospatial Connection
Integrated GIS
ESRI’s ArcGIS Server – query and filtering.
ESRI’s JavaScript API front end.
Earlier version integrated with Bing and, alternatively, you could integrate with Google as well.
Could enable us to integrate many layers from ESRI’s web service as well. 21

22. CIMC – Dashboards/Reports
OBI allows reports that integrate data with boilerplate language – without a lot of custom coding.
And to do the development very quickly.
We also get the drilldown capability as a built in feature which requires much less custom coding (saves money and time). 22

23. CIMC – Interface
Pg # 23

24. CIMC – Interface
Pg # 24

25. CIMC – Interface
Pg # 25

26. OSWER BI Project - OSWER PAT
OSWER Performance Assessment Tool (OSWER PAT) provides OSWER management/staff with a tool that:
Reduces burden by automating several aspects of a previously very manual process of reporting.
Improves QA by pulling data directly from source systems (where possible), allowing central review of the data and pushing the data directly to ACS. 26

27. OSWER BI Project - OSWER PAT
OSWER Performance Assessment Tool (OSWER PAT) provides (continued):
More timely access to the data throughout the year.
Enables drill down to detailed data that support reported measures.
Enables ad hoc reporting to end-users for faster and better responses to Congressionals and FOIAs. 27 27

28. OSWER PAT – Data ETL Data is obtained from multiple sources
ACRES, CERCLIS, LUST4, ICIS (and OECA system), new RCRAInfo web services.
Allows for manual data entry by specific authorized users for measures that have no source systems.
Meets OCFO requirements for batch upload to ACS.
Plan to enable drill down to data in CIMC and other source systems. 28

29. OSWER PAT – Data Entry Oracle Application Express component:
Edit records as needed.
Use placeholder records to add data for measures with no source system.
Flexible to accommodate different program requirements.
Oracle Access Manager
EPA system manager manages user authorizations.
Linked to Web Access Management system (so users can use their LAN ID and Password). 29

30. OSWER PAT– Dashboards/Reports
A picture is worth a thousand words. Can point out:
All dashboards to which you have access – across the blue bar
Tabs to organize summary and different views
Drop down menu options to choose different reporting timeframes
Ability to show tables and charts – even on the same page
Being able to create this sort of table or chart - built into OBI – no custom coding
Can create more reports and charts – ad-hoc – using “Answers”
Can integrate across Data marts there – as long as the data are connected with primary keys.
Pg # 30

31. OSWER PAT– Dashboards/Reports
Click on a region to drill down to a site list supporting the accomplishment!
A picture is worth a thousand words. Can point out:
Different type of chart (stacked bar next to bar)
Ability to drill down to more detailed data for regions and sites 31

32. OSWER PA – Dashboards/Reports
A picture is worth a thousand words. Can point out:
Table
Drill down to more detailed data for sites
In the future – we hope to link these entries to CIMC or CPAD site specific profiles which contain a rich array of additional data and documents and pictures, etc. on each site
Pg # 32

33. OSWER PAT – Dashboards/Reports
A picture is worth a thousand words. Can point out:
Time series line chart (Note: is this really looking the way Matthew wanted it?)
Pg # 33

34. Questions

35. Contacts: Timothy Hinds BIAC Program Manager hinds.timothy@epa.gov
Lisa Jenkins
Architect, Web Infrastructure Liaison, System Manager, GIS Coordinator, OSWER
BIAC Website 35