Chapter 10

Business Intelligence
Road Ahead “Fundamentals of Business Analytics”
RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
Learning Objectives and Learning Outcomes

Learning Objective(s) Learning Outcome(s)

To learn how BI seamlessly integrates with To appreciate the benefits that will
technologies such as Mobile computing, ensue from collaboration of BI with
Cloud Computing, Social CRM, etc. other technologies such as Mobile
computing, Cloud Computing, Social
CRM, etc.

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
Session Plan

Lecture time : 45 to 60 minutes

Q/A : 15 minutes

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
Agenda

• Understanding BI and Mobility

• Data Security Concerns for Mobile BI
• BI and Cloud Computing
• Benefits of BI in Cloud Computing
• Why ERP ?
• Need for BI in ERP
• Benefits of BI in ERP
• Social CRM and BI

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
Answer a Quick Question

Do you think BI should be used in conjunction with other technologies such as

Mobility, ERP and Social CRM, etc.?

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
Need of BI and Mobility
• Mobile technology offers a solution to people who want to do things on the
move.

• Two major offerings of Mobility:

1. 24×7 connectivity
2. Mobile workability

• Need for better and faster transfer of information extracted by decision support
systems to the people who consume that information

• Power to be able to view performance metric reports, KPIs, etc. anywhere,

anytime on your hand-held mobile device

• To make quicker decisions for your business

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”
RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
 BI Mobility Timeline
• The Antediluvian Era
– BI was delivered to the end-users by a system that consisted of a wired local computer
network

• Taking Up the Challenge

– Era of smartphones and laptops

• The Roadblocks
– Small screen for viewing reports and KPIs; hence lack of detail.
– Poor resolution
– Poor connectivity
– Poorly equipped browsers.
– Information is sent to recipients on fixed schedule. However, recipient has no control over it.
– Small amount of transmitted data
– Limited user interactivity: no analysis capability; no drill-down; no drill-through to sub-
reports
– No freedom to query either.
– Low on memory and processing power.
– Very limited functionality on keyboard. “Fundamentals of Business Analytics”
RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
 Overcoming the Shortcomings
• Wireless e-mail

• Larger screens

• Advanced browser

• Advanced MOS (mobile operating system)

• QWERTY keyboard and thumbwheel for better user interactivity.

• A native application for the device that is specially designed for the mobile
screen to provide superior interactivity

• Smaller, lighter and easily portable laptops

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”
RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
The Present

• Usage Model of Mobile BI

– Exception and alerts

– Push Reporting

– Pull Reporting

• Mobile Devices/Applications as of Today

– MOS (Mobile Operating System)

– Apple iPhone

– Apple iPad
“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”
RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
 Data Security Concerns for Mobile BI

• Device Security

– Let the source data stay on centralized servers

• Transmission Security

– Use of SSL (secure sockets layer), VPN (virtual private network)

connection, cryptographic encryption of data transmitted, etc.

• Authorization, Authentication and Network Security

– Assigning access privileges to users through IDs and/or passwords, all

stored in an encrypted database storing user credentials.

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
 BI and Cloud Computing

What is cloud computing?

– It is location-independent computing, whereby shared servers provide data,
software and services to computers and other devices as and when required

– Any user who has access to the Internet can use the cloud and the services
provided by it.

– Since all these services are connected, users can share information between
multiple systems as well as with other users

– Local computers need not take the heavy load when it comes to running
applications. The network of computers that forms the cloud handles the load
instead.

– Due to this hardware and software demands reduces on the user’s side.
“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”
RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
 Answer a Quick Question

Do you think BI on the cloud will prove to be a slightly inexpensive proposition?

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
Benefits of Cloud Computing

• Software as a subscription
• Reduced software maintenance
• Increased reliability
• Increased scalability
• Cost reduction
• Matches current computing trends
• Portability/accessibility
• Efficient use of computer resources
• Version-less software
• Environment friendly
• Pay per use

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
Why BI should be on Cloud?
• Increased Access, Maximum Results

• Faster ROI

• Lower Implementation Costs

• Lower On-Going Costs

• Scalability

• Flexibility

• Greater Visibility

• Data Warehouse on Cloud “Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Why ERP?

• Benefits of ERP

– Consistency and reliability of data across the various units of the organization

– Streamlining the transactional process

– A few basic reports to serve the operational (day-to-day) needs

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
Answer a Quick Question

Will ERP serve the analytical and advanced reporting needs of the organization?

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
 Need for BI in ERP

“PlusSales” has humungous amount of data in a multitude of systems. Most, if not all, of
the organization’s financial data is safely housed in the ERP system. But Kevin, a
senior executive, looking to gain a quick view of how the business is progressing
requires not only the financial data but also the data from sales, inventory, CRM, etc.
His needs can be satisfied from a merged data set that combines data from all the
systems.

What is the solution?

Business Intelligence could do just that, i.e., it can include data from internal and external
sources; it can support information access to external parties, vendors and customers,
etc.; it can provide real-time actionable business insights; it can provide single version
of the critical information; it can support the analytics and reporting needs of the
organization; and much more.

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
 Benefits of BI in ERP

• ERP today is considered as “Trusted Data Source” and hence basing decisions
on ERP data is considered more “Safe” by decision makers.
• Employs customized analytics to meet business needs.
• Enables users to perform “what if ” forecasting.
• Enables users to develop customized reports.
• Presents key information in dashboard views using charts, pivots, gauges, etc.
• Drills down to view data at a more detailed level.
• Drills across from dimension to dimension at the same hierarchical level.
• Merges information from multiple varied systems to provide a “unified
source” of data.
• Performs trend analysis using historical data.
• Searches for hidden patterns.

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
Social CRM and BI

• Paul Greenberg, a leader in Social CRM, defines it as:

“CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology

platform, business rules, workflow, processes and social characteristics,
designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in
order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent
business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s
ownership of the conversation.”

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
 Social CRM and BI Contd…
• Essentials of Customer Relationship

– Notice/observe the customer’s requirements, habits, choices and preferences etc.

• The details of each and every interaction with the customer can be recorded using a
transaction processing system.
– Remember the customer’s behavior over time
• The transaction processing system can collect humungous amount of data, but this
enormous amount of data will simply remain data mounds if it is not carefully cleaned,
sorted, merged, organized and summarized. That leads to the data warehouse.
– Learn from the past interactions with its customers
• Now is the time to apply intelligence to memory. This will help recognize patterns,
propose hypothesis, accept or dismiss hypothesis, make predictions, etc. The data
warehouse is used to capture the differing needs, preferences, choices, propensities, etc.
of the customers.

• Social CRM requires dealing with conversations and relationships with social customers in
addition to the data or information that you might have about them.

“Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights
Summary please…

Ask a few participants of the learning program to summarize the lecture.

Fundamentals of Business Analytics”

RN Prasad and Seema Acharya
Copyright  2011 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All rights