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You will summarize PowerPoint, For the article summary. Need 200 words. Please use simple words and grammar.
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Selecting the Right BI Tools for Enhanced Adoption
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BI Tool Selection and Building Consensus
Source: Howson
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The Importance of the BI Front End Tool
Front end tools facilitate data access, insight and action
Business users should define requirements for the front end tool
Joint business and IT involvement is key
Joint business-IT evaluations should balance
Ease of use and scalability
Flexibility and ensuring consistent results
Visual appeal and security
While users tend to be reasonable and understand the importance of the solution architecture, they care most about the front end tool
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The Case of the Maligned Tool
Situation
A division of a pharmaceuticals company implemented a locally developed BI application with a Business Objects front end and an unreliable back end
Their enterprise focused colleagues implemented Business Objects with a well engineered solution architecture
What do you think happened?
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The Case of the Maligned Tool (Cont’d)
Result
The division’s users blamed Business Objects for their suboptimal solution and resulting BI use was minimal
Enterprise users embraced Business Objects because they could rely on Business Objects’ output.
Both sets of users referred to their BI solutions, both the suboptimal local implementation and the well engineered enterprise one, as “Business Objects”
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The Case of “We Like This Other Tool Better”
Situation
A reinsurer embarked on a $100 million enterprise resource planning (ERP) effort
Their standard enterprise BI technologies were Oracle, Informatica and Business Objects
The company shifted from an centralized IT model to a shared IT model with local IT “shops”
One business unit accepted the enterprise BI technologies
The other business unit was more comfortable with Microsoft SQL Server so they used that
This business unit also considered replacing Business Objects with Cognos because they had experience with it and “liked it better”
What do you think happened?
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The Case of “We Like This Other Tool Better”
Result
The business unit that did not follow the enterprise standard needed to manage their own back end databases and extracts built with Microsoft SQL Server
Had they gone with Cognos they would have had to manage that as well
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BI Standardization
Varieties of standard BI “tool stacks:”
Business Objects front end, Informatica ETL, Oracle Back End, SAS for Analytics
Cognos front end, Ab Initio ETL, Teradata Back End, SAS JMP For Analytics
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Source: Howson
BI Standardization’s Pros and Cons
Driver: The business requires a return on their software investment
Pros and Cons:
| Pros | Cons |
| The company reaps their required return Lower cost of ownership and improved support. The solution architecture tends to be more scalable with less interfaces between modules to maintain A (potentially) seamless user experience Fosters a single version of the truth | Potential inflexibility due to lack of a “best of breed” approach The knowledge required to maintain the modules may be specialized. You may be held captive by your vendor. A (potentially) disjointed user experience May wittingly or unwittingly foster multiple versions of the truth |
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Source: Howson
Progress Toward the BI Technology Stack
Companies are proactively managing their BI tool portfolios.
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Source: Howson
Beware Custom BI Applications
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Source: Howson
The Case of the BI Application in Search of a Programmer
Situation
One day when your Professor was working for a large insurer he received a call from a business user
This user had a catastrophe mapping application her team built locally that needed a software upgrade. Unfortunately the programmer had left the company
What do you think happened?
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The Case of the BI Application in Search of a Programmer (Cont’d)
Result
Your Prof assessed the situation and attempted help on an ad hoc basis
As usually happens with “ad hoc work” the time requirement became too demanding so they added the remaining work to the BI team’s demand pipeline
This business user left the company soon afterward
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The Benefits of BI Standards
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Source: Howson
Additional Points About BI Standardization
Switching vendors becomes more difficult as the scale of deployment increases
As tool capabilities evolve companies’ BI services also evolve, i.e. from self service and standard reporting to visualization and big data analytics
Custom development should be used on a very limited basis to supplement existing tool capabilities. These days “build” is rare
Ensure your BI environment evolves with the marketplace and keep your BI vendors “on their toes” and alert
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Source: Howson
The Right BI Tool for the Right BI User
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Source: Howson
BI User Segmentation
General User Population
Management of the General User Population
Functional Subject Matter Experts
Senior/Executive Management
Data Subject
Matter
Experts
Widest, Guided
Use
Narrowest,
Most Autonomous Use
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Source: Howson
Fact-Based Decisions
Strategic Decisions
Long term consequences
Broad implications
Less frequent, annual or longer
Tactical Decisions
More frequent, weekly or monthly
BI’s traditional focus
Operational Decisions
Details
Many more operational decisions are taken than strategic decisions
While one operational decision alone does not make a large difference, in the aggregate thousands of these decisions have a huge impact!
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Source: Howson
Decisions, Value and Volume
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Source: Howson
Predictability
Type of decision (strategic, tactical and operational) drives its predictability
Exploratory analytics are later instantiated into reports or dashboards
When information needs are predictable, dashboards, standard reports or custom-build applications are ideal
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Source: Howson
Job Level and BI
Job level drives the breadth and detail of data accessed
Executives
Broad data, less detail
High access, less analysis
Dashboards are prevalent
Mid Level
Broad data, more detail
Add slice-and-dice and what-if analysis to dashboards
Lower Level
Narrow data, highest detail
Standard reports with interactive prompts
Operational information integrated into customer applications
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Source: Howson
Job Function and BI
Job Function
Segment users by
Similar information needs
Required features
Examples
Finance: Spreadsheet integration
Marketing: Predictive analysis or Powerpoint integration for Marketing
Sales: Mobile and tablet applications
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Source: Howson
Job Context and BI
Analytic Content
Some jobs require more data analysis than others
This segment has the highest BI usage rate
Examples:
Financial Analysts, Actuaries, Data Scientists
Senior personnel
Work intensely with BI tools
Understand data sources and nuances
Comfortable creating complex queries
These people may complain loudest but they’re not your only users!
Other roles may only access BI a few minutes weekly or rely on analytic output
Do not expect users to become BI experts!
Empower them vs. assuming data analysis is their primary job
Just because they demand more features all your users do not need advanced capabilities, recognize the differences
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Source: Howson
Data Literacy
Technical literacy and data literacy are two different things
Some users understand the solution architecture but do not understand business statistics
Some users understand data nuances, others do not
Consider what you provide in your BI solutions. Users may emerge with sufficient capability to hurt themselves!
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Source: Howson
Data Meaning and Tailored Training
Users tend to be more familiar with the precise meanings of data elements
Hierarchies within the BI application may be a new concept for users
Tailor BI training and mentoring to the audience
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Source: Howson
Technical Literacy
As technology has become a consumer product people are more aware of it
Some people are less technically proficient than others due to
Age
Education
Socioeconomic Factors
As previously discussed, different roles require different technical literacy
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Source: Howson
User Demographics = Added Complexity
| Baby Boomers (Born 1945 – 1965) | Millenials (Born 1980 – 2000) |
| Technology is new Prefer phone calls and face time Tolerant of errors Willing to wait Accept asynchronous communications | Grew up with technology Prefer texting Expect perfection Want instant gratification Are avid users of and expect real time response |
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(And Generation X (born 1965 – 1980) must be considered too!)
Source: Dalkir
Include BI Tool Orientation in User Adoption
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Source: Howson
Spreadsheets, Friend and Foe
Many think everything should be delivered via spreadsheet
Microsoft Excel is known as “the leading BI tool”
Spreadsheet management is required or chaos will result
Consider spreadsheet based BI interfaces
Friend: Users work with spreadsheets with refreshed data from the BI platform
Foe: Users export data out of BI applications into their spreadsheets
Exports from BI applications to Excel remain common
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Source: Howson
Other Key BI User Needs
Mobile capabilities for travelling workers
Sharing data with external users (suppliers and customers) introduces
Licensing concerns
Different requirements
Authentication via extranets
Volume and scalability challenges
Potential restrictions on content and functionality
Howson (2014)
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BI Module Success in Declining Order of Impact
The “big three” of fixed reports, query and dashboards in top three spots is no surprise
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Source: Howson
Satisfying Frustrated BI Users
“If someone, whether central IT, central BICC or a power user, is doing a better job of creating that fixed report, the business user is satisfied”
Business users want access to data and to tweak that data as needed
A recurring theme is IT is not responsive or a roadblock
IT should “join them, they should not try to beat them”
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Source: Howson
Additional Business Impacts
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Source: Howson
Reference List
Dalkir, K. (2011). Knowledge management in theory and practice (2nd
Ed.). Cambridge. MIT Press.
Howson, C. (2014). Successful business intelligence: Unlock the value
of BI and big data. New York. McGraw Hill Education.
ISBN: 9780071809184
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