Business Intelligence & Technology

Lecture Notes

WHAT IS BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Business intelligence (BI) is a technology-driven process for

analyzing data and presenting actionable information to help
corporate executives, business managers and other end users make
more informed business decisions. BI encompasses a variety of tools,
applications and methodologies that enable organizations to collect
data from internal systems and external sources, prepare it for
analysis, develop and run queries against the data, and create
reports, dashboards and data visualizations to make the analytical
results available to corporate decision makers as well as operational
workers

The potential benefits of business intelligence programs include

accelerating and improving decision making; optimizing internal
business processes; increasing operational efficiency; driving new
revenues; and gaining competitive advantages over business rivals.
BI systems can also help companies identify market trends and spot
business problems that need to be addressed.

BI data can include historical information, as well as new data

gathered from source systems as it is generated, enabling BI analysis
to support both strategic and tactical decision-making processes.
Initially, BI tools were primarily used by data analysts and other IT
professionals who ran analyses and produced reports with
queryresults for business users. Increasingly, however, business
executives and workers are using BI software themselves, thanks
partly to the development of self-service BIand data discovery tools.

Business intelligence combines a broad set of data analysis

applications, including ad hoc analysisand querying, enterprise
reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), mobile BI, real-time
BI, operational BI, cloud and software as a service BI, open source
BI, collaborative BIand location intelligence. BI technology also
includes data visualization software for designing charts and other
infographics, as well as tools for building BI dashboards and
performance scorecards that display visualized data on business
metrics and key performance indicators in an easy-to-grasp way. BI
applications can be bought separately from different vendors or as
part of a unified BI platform from a single vendor.

BI programs can also incorporate forms of advanced analytics, such

as data mining,predictive analytics, text mining, statistical analysis
and big data analytics. In many cases though, advanced analytics
projects are conducted and managed by separate teams of data
scientists, statisticians, predictive modelers and other skilled
analytics professionals, while BI teams oversee more
straightforward querying and analysis of business data.

Business intelligence data typically is stored in a data warehouseor

smaller data martsthat hold subsets of a company's information. In
addition, Hadoopsystems are increasingly being used within BI
architecturesas repositories or landing pads for BI and analytics
data, especially for unstructured data, log files, sensor data and
other types of big data. Before it is used in BI applications, raw
datafrom different source systems must be integrated, consolidated
and cleansed using data integration and data quality tools to ensure
that users are analyzing accurate and consistent information.

In addition to BI managers, business intelligence teams generally

include a mix of BI architects, BI developers, business analysts and
data management professionals; business users often are also
included to represent the business side and make sure its needs are
met in the BI development process. To help with that, a growing
number of organizations are replacing traditional
waterfalldevelopment with Agile BI and data warehousing
approaches that use Agile software developmenttechniques to break
up BI projects into small chunks and deliver new functionality to
end users on an incremental and iterative basis. Doing so can enable
companies to put BI features into use more quickly and to refine or
modify development plans as business needs change or new
requirements emerge and take priority over earlier ones.

Sporadic usage of the term business intelligence dates back to at

least the 1860s, but consultant Howard Dresner is credited with first
proposing it in 1989 as an umbrella category for applying data
analysis techniques to support business decision-making processes.
What came to be known as BI technologies evolved from earlier,
often mainframe-based analytical systems, such as decision support
systemsand executive information systems. Business intelligence is
sometimes used interchangeably with business analytics; in other
cases, business analytics is used either more narrowly to refer to
advanced data analyticsor more broadly to include both BI and
advanced analytics.

Business intelligence (BI) vs. advanced analytics comparison

BI vs. advanced
analytics Business intelligence Advanced analytics

What happened? Why did it happen?

Answers the When? Will it happen again?

questions:
Who? What will happen if we
change x?
How many?
What else does the data
tell us that we never
thought to ask?

Reporting (KPIs, Statistical/quantitative

metrics) analysis
Includes: Ad hoc querying Data mining

OLAP (cubes, slice & Predictive

dice, drilling) modeling/analytics

Dashboards/scorecards Big data analytics

Operational/real-time BI Text analytics

Automated Multivariate testing

monitoring/alerting

Business Intelligence in Technology

IT stands for Information Technology. Information Technology is a
system designed to gather, process, or distribute information. IT
can be inspected in terms of the following three groupings; the data
gathering, the data processing, and the data distribution.
Information Technology deals with all types of data in which
information can be extracted from. It may seem simple but the
entire process is extremely complex. Without the sophisticated
applications in the Business Intelligence software this information
would remain unseen. Without Information Technology, Business
Intelligence software would also be useless.
How is Information Technology related to Business Intelligence?

Considering the information we discussed earlier it is safe to assume

that IT and Business Intelligence work together to perform the data
related tasks that organization’s need to have done. Information
Technology is present in almost all of the tools provided by the
Business Intelligence systems. The data used in all of the analysis
applications is gathered through the process of Information
Technology.
The list of tools that use Information Technology is endless.
Information Technology is the core of all of the processes involved in
the Business Intelligence applications that deal with gathering,
storing, sorting, and as said before analyzing data for an
organization. Another way that Information Technology is related
to Business Intelligence is the way in which the data and the
information extracted from the data is identified and distributed
into the allocated areas in which the information belongs.
This process ensures that all of the information is in its right place
when managers, executives, or other Business Intelligence software
users access the applications they need. The process leaves little
room for error if the Business Intelligence solution was integrated
properly, and no relevant information is distributed to the wrong
area. When you consider this it is easy to see how closely the two are
related, and how vital each one is to the other.

Business Intelligence Applications that involve IT processes

We are now going to explore some of the Business Intelligence

applications or tools that involve Information Technology, we will
also go over how Information Technology is used by these tools.
The first and most obvious Business Application that works directly
with Information Technology is Statistics. Statistics help the
managers and executives of an organization get a good idea of what
is happening, what has happened, and what may happen within
their enterprise.
Statistics – Statistics are mathematical methods involving the
compilation, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and
presentation of data. Statistics can be applied to an expansive
variety of disciplines. Statistics with Business Intelligence however is
used by managers and executives for making informed decisions.
Statistical methods are normally used to describe in detail the
collection of data. This is called descriptive statistics. Also, repeated
changes in data can be sorted in a manner that accounts for
unpredictability and uncertainty in the observations, and
afterwards used to draw conclusions about the processes being
studied. This is known as inferential statistics.
Statistics are related to Information Technology through the
processes used to collect the data used to form statistical views. This
information is vital to statistics, and without it, organizations would
be in the dark when considering the patterns of their enterprise’s
functions.
Next we will look into data analysis, more specifically technical data
analysis. This tool is used to analyze technical data collected for the
purpose of reviewing any type of technical issues.
Technical Data Analysis – This is most commonly known as the
process of looking at technical data and summing up the data with
the purpose to extract any available useful technical information
and then use that information to draw conclusions. This data
analysis process is closely related to data mining applications ,with
the exception that data mining tends to focus on larger data sets,
and placing less importance on any type of reasoning process, and it
often uses data that was originally compiled for a different reason
all together.
Technical data analysis is often split into Exploratory Data Analysis
(EDA) and Confirmatory Data Analysis (CDA). Exploratory Data
Analysis focuses mainly on discovering new data, whereas
Confirmatory Data Analysis is centered around confirming or
falsifying existing hypotheses.
Technical data analysis uses Information Technology in a similar
way to statistics tools. It takes the information gathered by
Information Technology and processes it, categorizes it, and
allocates it into valid departments. It is not hard to see how
Information Technology is tightly intertwined with Business
Intelligence.
Finally we will quickly delve into Business Process Management
applications. These applications are a vital tool for the management
and monitoring of the processes used within organizations.
Business Process Management (BPM) – This is the growing fields of
knowledge and research at the junction between management and
Information Technology, surrounding methods, techniques and
tools to create, portray, manipulate, and analyze operational
business processes usually concerning people, organizations,
applications, documents, and all other known sources of business
information.
Business Process Management involves activities performed by
organizations to manage and if needed to improve their personal
business processes. Though this type of goal has been long lived, new
software tools known as Business Performance Management
systems have allowed such activities to be completed in less time and
with less cost to the organization. These Business Performance
Management tools monitor the execution of the organization’s
business processes so that managers and executives can analyze and
if needed change processes in response to data rather than instinct.
Business Process Management is a management tool that enables the
users to manage their processes as if they were any other assets and
improve them over time. Good Business Process Management
applications allow organizations to monitor and make changes on a
day to day basis, this directly results in a well- planned and
functioning organization.
This application is perhaps one of the most closely related to
Information Technology, it is easy to explain how Information
Technology works with Business Process Management and why they
work so well together. It shows how Information Technology is
deeply rooted in most applications, especially those that are
designed to deliver data to Business Intelligence application users.
Conclusion

After looking briefly into the relationship between Business

Intelligence and Information Technology it is no surprise to find
that the two are very much alike. Each one supports the other in
order to complete tasks. It seems to be our nature to overlook the
details involved with how the technology we use each day actually
function, and the relationships between those technologies.
Information Technology has existed for far longer than most may
think, it was not until Business Intelligence software debuted that
Information Technology actually realized its potential. If you take a
moment to consider your own computer applications, the ones you
use each day, and remember the definition of Information
Technology, you may be surprised to find that you are putting
Information Technology to work for you right now.
Source:
Exforsys

Big data terms you should know

 o

Image: iStock/mindscanner
When it comes to assembling a list of key big data terms, it makes
sense to identify terms that everyone needs to know — whether they
are highly technical big data practitioners, or corporate executives
who confine their big data interests to dashboard reports. These 20
big data terms hit the mark.
Analytics
The discipline of using software-based algorithms and statistics to
uncover meaning from data.
Algorithm
A mathematical formula placed in a software program that
performs an analysis on a dataset.The algorithm often consists of
multiple calculation steps. Its goal is to operate on data in order to
solve a particular question or problem.
Behavioral analytics
An analytics methodology that uses data collected about users'
behavior to understand intent and predict future actions.
Big data
Data that is not system of record data, and that meets one or more
of the following criteria: it comes in extremely large datasets that
exceed the size of system of record datasets; it comes in from diverse
sources, including but not limited to: machine-generated data,
internet-generated data, computer log data, data from social media
sources, or graphics and voice-based data.
Business intelligence (BI)
A set of methodologies and tools that analyze, report, manage, and
deliver information that is relevant to the business, and that includes
dashboards and query/reporting tools similar to those found in
analytics. One key difference between analytics and BI is that
analytics uses statistical and mathematical data analysis that
predicts future outcomes for situations. In contrast, BI analyzes
historical data to provide insights and trends information.
Clickstream analytics
The analysis of users' online activity based on the items that users
click on a web page.
Dashboard
A graphic report on a desktop or mobile device that gives managers
and others quick summaries of activity status. This high-level
graphic report often features a green light (all operations are
normal), a yellow alert (there is some operational impact), or a red
alert (there is an operational stoppage). This "eyeshot" visibility of
events and operations enables employees to track operations status,
and to quickly drill down into details whenever it is needed.
Data aggregation
The collection of data from multiple and diverse sources with the
intention of bringing all of this data together into a common data
repository for the purposes of reporting and analysis.
Data analyst
A person responsible for working with end business users to define
the types of analytics reports needed in the business, and then
capturing, modeling, preparing, and cleaning the required data for
the purpose of developing analytics reports on this data that
business users can act on.
Data analytics
The science of examining data with software-based queries and
algorithms with the goal of drawing conclusions about that
information for business decision making.
Data governance
A set of data management policies and practices defined to ensure
that data availability, usability, quality, integrity, and security are
maintained.
Data mining
An analytic process where data is "mined" or explored, with the
goal of uncovering potentially meaningful data patterns or
relationships.
Data repository
A central data storage area.
Data scientist
An expert in computer science, mathematics, statistics, and/or data
visualization who develops complex algorithms and data models for
the purpose of solving highly complex problems.
ETL (extract, transform, and load)
ETL enables companies to take data from one database and move it
to another database. ETL is accomplished by extracting data from
the database that it originally is kept in, transforming the data into a
format that can be used in the database that the data is being moved
to, and then loading the transformed data into the database it is
being moved to. The ETL process enables companies to move data
in and out of different data storage areas to create new
combinations of data for analytics queries and reports.
Hadoop
Administered by the Apache Software Foundation, Hadoop is a
batch processing software framework that enables the distributed
processing of large data sets across clusters of computers.
HANA
A software/hardware in-memory computing platform from SAP
designed to process high-volume transactions and real-time
analytics.
Legacy system
An established computer system, application, or technology that
continues to be used because of the value it provides to the
enterprise.
Map/reduce
A big data batch processing framework that breaks up a data
analysis problem into pieces that are then mapped and distributed
across multiple computers on the same network or cluster, or across
a grid of disparate and possibly geographically separated systems.
The data analytics performed on this data are then collected and
combined into a distilled or "reduced" report.
System of record (SOR) data
Data that is typically found in fixed record lengths, with at least one
field in the data record serving as a data key or access field. System
of records data makes up company transaction files, such as orders
that are entered, parts that are shipped, bills that are sent, and
records of customer names and addresses.
Three tips on how to tackle big data storage management and
safekeeping chore:
Data stores continue to be overwhelmed by big data, so why don't
data center managers get rid of excess big data that isn't of use?
The main reason why is fear of missing out on any possible uses of
big data analytics. There is an ever-present thought that the Vice-
President of marketing might one day ask for a long-term trends
analysis of product sales over the past 20 years. Companies have
made use of data that old, and you never know where new
governance and regulatory requirements might take you, so why not
hold on to the data to be safe?
There is also the very real possibility that these vast stores of data
will go unused for years and even decades, while companies continue
to steadfastly store and maintain them. Gartner (2001), refers to this
unused data as "dark" data, and defines it as "the information
assets organizations collect, process and store during regular
business activities, but generally fail to use for other purposes (for
example, analytics, business relationships and direct monetizing).
Similar to dark matter in physics, dark data often comprises most
organizations' universe of information assets. Thus, organizations
often retain dark data for compliance purposes only. Storing and
securing data typically incurs more expense (and sometimes greater
risk) than value because often organizations don't classify it or
intend to use it."
"Data is dark when we do not know it exists, when we can not find
it, when we cannot interpret it, and when we cannot share or
interface with it." Colgan, the director of information governance
solutions for Nuix, helps companies manage growing volumes of
unidentified, unstructured data that sits in their storage
repositories. "Sometimes data goes dark because we're simply too
busy to deal with it, so we push it to the side and ignore it."
So, how can you "lighten up" dark data and still ensure you retain
necessary data?
Here are three suggestions:
1: Filter data
If you are using machine- or internet-generated big data, you are
getting a lot of noise as well as useful information. Data filtration
that can isolate the information you want and eliminate the rest is
one way to purify data feeds before you end up with a lot of
unidentifiable junk in your data repositories. Vendors and tools can
help you with this data cleansing process, but they can't help if you
haven't identified the present and most likely future pieces of data
that your business will need.
2: Export data
If you are concerned about retaining information for decades for
purposes of governance or long-term trends analysis, start exporting
this data to a trusted cloud-based vendor for safekeeping. You can
bring the data back into your data center for analysis when the time
comes.
3: Define data retention policies
The hallmark of excellent data center management is to be as
aggressive in defining data retention polices with business users for
big data as you are with systems of record data.