Business intelligence
BI (from. Business intelligence - usually translated as business intelligence, business analysis, however, these concepts are broader than English-language Business intelligence) can be defined as a set of technologies, software and practices aimed at achieving business goals by best using the available data. There are two categories of business intelligence products - Business Intelligence and Business Analytics. Unfortunately, for historical reasons, both of these terms are translated into Russian the same way, although the first describes reporting systems and relatively simple OLAP analysis, and the second - very sophisticated means of intellectual and statistical analysis of structured and unstructured data.
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A catalog of BI solutions and projects is available on the TAdviser.ru
Global Business Intelligence Market
The year 2007 was rich in events, if we talk about the world market BI. The most important of them were related to the consolidation of the industry (purchases by Oracle, IBM and SAP of specialized suppliers Hyperion, Cognos and Business Objects). Recently, the analytical company Gartner published the results of a study of the market for complex BI-platforms. Read the article "Business Intelligence (Global Market)"
Business Intelligence (Russian market)
The market for BI products in Russia, despite the global trend towards rapid growth, is developing leisurely. Contrary to numerous forecasts, automated business analytics systems did not cause high demand among the Russian consumer even during times of rapidly growing economic indicators. It is believed that BI solutions are irrelevant for the current level of automation development in the country. Read the article "Business Intelligence (Russian market)"
BI issues. Functionality
The most previously known mention of BI refers to the article A Business Intelligence System, published in the IBM Journal in 1958, in which BI's goal is to support business decision-making. In this sense, BI systems can be considered related to decision support systems. In the process of technological development and largely due to problems with data integration, BI approaches focus on the processes of data collection, transformation and integration from heterogeneous sources in a form suitable for their analysis and interpretation from a business point of view, providing opportunities for considering data in the historical perspective, their current and forecast states. Therefore, the key issues in BI include data integration and data warehousing. At the same time, according to some experts, excessive concentration on data has led to some separation of BI from the goals of supporting business decision making, as a result, the BI concept is gradually evolving towards closer integration with business management processes, and developed business analytics tools are conditionally separated from the standard BI functionality to emphasize the importance of the former. The usual functionality of BI systems includes tools for building queries, reporting and basic analysis, including tools for building user queries, multidimensional analysis (OLAP), generating reporting, and dashboards. Advanced functionality includes tools aimed at more complex data analysis procedures, such as Data mining Data intelligent analysis, statistical analysis and forecasting tools, tools for specific subject areas. As a result of using BI solutions, a single information space is formed, created from the combined external and internal resources. Thus, the level of information service for personnel and customers is increased. BI allows, by monitoring and analyzing KPIs, to improve the management efficiency of the parent and subsidiaries. In addition, analysis, monitoring and control of investments, segmentation of the client base, modernization of marketing policy are carried out. Budgeting, financial planning and control processes are reaching the proper level. You can achieve an increase in the profitability of supply channels due to the detailed establishment of the chains themselves. It is important to draw up the necessary documentation and reporting, both internal and external, required by various higher and controlling authorities.
System users
There are four types of business intelligence users:
- analysts
- top managers
- middle managers
- rank-and-file employees
The first and most important are analysts. There are few of them, they are highly qualified and valued for the weight of gold, in fact being the "brain" of the company. No less important users are top managers of the company. As a rule, they understand that business analytics can solve the issue of business health, therefore they treat BI funds with a certain reverence. The third type of user is middle managers. The focus of their activities implies solving a narrow range of tasks related to the field of work performed. Finally, there are ordinary employees who need business intelligence to access up-to-date information and create reporting. Depending on the focus on one user or another, the Business Intelligence solutions offered also differ.
Features and benefits
- integrated platform. BI is a comprehensive platform for enterprise intelligent resource management with built-in analytical tools, including online analytical data processing (OLAP), data capture and update tools, data extraction, transformation and loading tools, data warehouse, and report generation functions. This comprehensive, integrated approach allows organizations to easily build and deploy powerful systems to manage an enterprise's intelligent resources while controlling their costs.
- effective decision-making. Enhancements to existing enterprise intelligent resource management features, such as OLAP and data updates, and the introduction of a new report server, enable enterprises to transform information at all organizational levels - from ordinary information workers to the chief executive.
- safety and operational readiness. Scalability, availability, and security parameters help ensure that users have uninterrupted access to systems to manage intelligent enterprise assets and reports.
- Enterprise-wide analysis capabilities. Advanced data extraction, transformation, and loading makes it easier for organizations to aggregate and analyze data from multiple heterogeneous sources. The ability to analyze data stored on computers running a wide range of operating systems allows organizations to gain a competitive advantage by presenting a holistic picture of the enterprise.
- a single conceptual apparatus and a common information space
- dramatically reduce the cost of collecting and processing information in companies with a distributed structure
- increased efficiency and quality of preparation of management decisions
- automated control of the main indicators of the enterprise's activity.
- prompt informing of stakeholders about deviations of key indicators from the specified standards
- optimal use of the company's computing resources, for example, by reducing the load on the computer systems
- confidentiality of information, delimitation and registration of access to data.
Additional advantages: flexible adaptation to the needs of users, a convenient interface, presentable reports, rich analytical tools, remote access via the Internet, relatively fast implementation, technical support at the stage of operation and opportunities for further improvement.
Basic BI Technologies
Progress is rapidly moving forward. Analysts jokingly say that the development of IT technologies will stop when all three-letter abbreviations are exhausted. Of course, this cannot stop the flight of thought. Four- and five-letter abbreviations began to be used. But the fact remains. In the IT services market, there are now such a huge number of different offers and innovations that a person unaware of them can simply get confused. Here are the solutions offered within BI:
- Digital Dashboard - an information panel with a convenient presentation of report forms for current periods with the ability to organize an intuitive graphic image, diagram.
- EIS (Executive Information System) is an information system designed for managers.
- ETL (Extract Transform Load) (Extract, Transformation, Loading) - tools for integrating and transforming data.
- BPM (Business Performance Management) is a set of integrated cyclical management and analysis processes, as well as relevant technologies related to both the financial and operating activities of the organization. Key BPM processes are related to the implementation of the organization's strategy and include financial and operational planning, consolidation and reporting, modeling, analysis and monitoring of key performance indicators.
- CRM (Client Relational Management) is a customer relationship adaptation system aimed at maximizing the potential of each of them. Within CRM, messages are sent, calls are made, meetings are scheduled, and the client base is compiled and analyzed.
- ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is an enterprise information system (CIS) designed to automate accounting and management.
Information Analysis Tools
In order to facilitate the work of employees as much as possible, a number of the above-mentioned tools have been developed to automate all data processing and analysis processes. They can be divided into several groups: report generators, analytical data processing tools, BI solution development tools, Enterprise BI Suits, so-called integrated sets of analytical proposals. Reporting tools support all data access mechanisms, they are compatible with DBMS, contain business graphics elements, interact with office applications, and allow you to post reports on the Internet. On their basis, it is possible to create their own unique solutions. In 1993, E. F. Codd put forward the concept of OLAP. As a result of the analysis, the data can be output in the form of tables, cubes, where the relationship of more than two parameters is traced. Desktop OLAP tools are applications that allow you to perform multidimensional analysis in a specific DBMS. Many desktop OLAP tools have access to server OLAP storage. In fact, they are a client application that executes a specific request. Most enterprises analyze and process data on server OLAP tools. Data mining Data mining is the process of finding dependencies, trends, interactions, patterns between data, which is performed through mathematical algorithms. It aims to build a model to predict processes critical to business planning. The difference between Data mining Data mining and OLAP intelligence is that the former does not check for existing interdependencies, but searches for them on its own. For example, if OLAP is used, the question "How many people in their 20s use fast food restaurants?" In the case of Data Mining Data Mining, the question is formulated as follows: "Is there a typical category of people visiting fast food restaurants?" In general, the list of information analysis assets is as follows:
- OLAP (On Line Analytical Processing) performs online data analysis and provides interactive reporting.
- Virtualization
- Data mining Data mining - data mining. A tool for complex investigation of dependencies that help to identify previously hidden patterns. IAD includes methods and models of statistical analysis and machine learning, distancing themselves from them towards automatic data analysis.
- Scorecards - scorecards that allow you to graphically compare key performance parameters
with strategic objectives
BI Standards and Developments
Common standards of use and evaluation are important for unification of any products. Oddly enough, BI tools do not have such standards. There are no universal query languages for them. The XML for Analysis specification claims to be a generally accepted standard. It was successfully developed and implemented by Hyperion and Microsoft. It describes a universal way to access OLAP cubes and Data mining models. Intelligent data analysis hosted on the Internet, which does not require the mandatory installation of client components. This allows you to create universal OLAP client tools that will support multiple server OLAP products at the same time. If we consider all the new things that are proposed in the field of modernizing BI platforms, we can mention the following sections: the development of operational reporting for mass distribution, tools for setting up ad hoc requests, the development of the latest OLAP tools that will answer questions not "what happened?" And "how was it?," But "what will happen?" and "what if?." Toolbars and an interactive visual user interface are becoming more convenient. It is possible to carry out predictive modeling. Enter the latest search tools.
Difficulties in implementing BI systems
Despite the obvious advantages of BI systems for large organizations, many managers avoid implementing them. However, those who decide to optimize the work of the company in this way face some problems. Ignorance of these problems often ends with a lot of time-consuming work, high costs of maintaining the system and a lack of tangible benefits. Read the article "Business Intelligence"
A catalog of BI solutions and projects is available on the TAdviser.ru
Chronicle
2023: Business analysis in the age of clouds, microservices and AI: how the profession has changed and what awaits us next
Clouds, microservices and AI are radically changing the IT landscape, and with it, the profession of business analyst. How does an analyst transform from a "translator" between business and development into an architect of complex digital ecosystems? Why are traditional requirements collection approaches no longer working in a world of distributed systems and ever-changing AI models? This was told by Georgy Savelyev, chief business analyst at EPAM, internationally recognized expert and co-author of the world standard BABOK Guide v3. Find out which competencies - from systemic thinking to understanding AI ethics - come to the fore and what to prepare for. Read more here.
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