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 AnalystsSummary

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 ed, 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