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Business Intelligence and Analytics A Comprehensive Overview

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Business Intelligence
and
Analytics
A Comprehensive Overview

IT 4713/6713 BI
Jack G. Zheng
Fall 2019 (since V1 2012)

http://jackzheng.net/teaching/it4713/
http://jackzheng.net/teaching/it6713/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327578485
https://www.edocr.com/v/r4dg6mjr/
Overview
• What is business intelligence (BI) and analytics?
– BI/Analytics as an information and decision process
– BI/Analytics as an information system
• BI/Analytics process
– Data, information, decision
• BI/Analytics systems and tools
– Values, capabilities, and components
– Technologies, architectures, platforms
– Application areas
– Products, industries, and markets
• BI evolution and trend: traditional BI and modern BI
• BI/Analytics learning and career
2
Types of Information Processing
For a more detailed comparison of OLTP and OLAP:
http://www.slideshare.net/fmhyudin/oltp-vs-olap-23317601

Transactional Processing
• Focus on data item processing
(data insertion, modification,
deletion), transmission, and Analytical Processing
non-analytical query • Focus on reporting, analysis,
transformation, and decision
support

• Change product price

• Increase customer credit limit
• Is there a significant increase of
• Who has not paid bills?
operational cost?
• What are the top 10 most
profitable products?

3
DIKW
• The DIKW hierarchy depicts relationships between data, information,
knowledge (and wisdom).
– Data: raw value elements or facts
– Information: the result of collecting and organizing data that provides context and meaning
– Knowledge: the concept of understanding information that provides insight to information,
thus useful and actionable

• The model can be loosely relate to the levels of transactional processing

(OLTP) and analytical processing (OLAP)

Analytical
Processing

Transactional
Processing

For more extensive reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIKW_Pyramid

4 Different opinion: https://hbr.org/2010/02/data-is-to-info-as-info-is-not
Examples of Analysis
• Non-analytical query (like a simple list based on certain conditions)
– Get a list of students enrolled in in the IT 6713 class.

• Descriptive analysis (summarizing)

– How many students are enrolled in online IT graduate courses for the past
year?

• What if analysis
– If inventory levels are reduced by 10%, what is the new cost of inventory
storage?

• Reasoning and correlation

– What is the reason for a decrease of total sales this year?
– How do advertising activities affect sales of different products bought by
different type of customers, in different regions? (synthesizing)

• Fuzzy decision
– What new advertising strategies need to be undertaken to reach our
customers who can afford a high priced product?
– Should we invest more on our e-business?

5
What is Business Intelligence?
Business Intelligence is a set of methods,
processes, architectures, applications, and
technologies that gather and transform raw
data into meaningful and useful information
used to enable more effective strategic,
tactical, and operational insights and
decision-making.
Adapted from Forrester Report
“Topic Overview: Business Intelligence”, 2008
https://www.forrester.com/report/Topic+Overview+Business+Intelligence/-/E-RES39218
More BI from Forrester
https://www.forrester.com/business-intelligence

6
Data
• Different types of data
– Numeric vs. textual
– Structured vs. unstructured
– Standard format vs. proprietary format
– Internal vs. external data, system stored vs. file based data
– Raw fact data vs. simulated/forecast/estimated data
– Simple fact data vs. calculated metrics data

• Common data problems

– Structured, unstructured, semi-structured
• Information and knowledge management is the management of both structured data (15% of information) and unstructured data
(85% of information), according to the Butler Group.
• 80 percent of business is conducted on unstructured information (Gartner Group).
– Information overloading
• too much data and information with varied formats and structure
• difficulty of data organization for effective access and retrieval
• difficult to find useful information (knowledge) from them
• Multiple copies of data exists sometimes with conflicts
– Big data
• Variety, Velocity, Volume, Veracity https://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/infographic/four-vs-big-data
– Data everywhere
• Data in separate systems and different sources; internal and external
• Problem of spreadmart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadmart
• Over 43 percent of organizations have more than six content stores. (Forrester Research).
– Difficulty of access
• We may have that data but we cannot access it (or difficult to get it), because of technical issues or administrative issues.
– Don’t have that data
• The data is simply not available.
• The collection of data may need additional process and is costly.

7
Decision Making
• Decisions can be made based on
– Facts, or data
– Simulation (models)
– Intuition, perception, sense
– Group negotiation

• Traditionally BI has been also understood as Decision Support System (DSS) –

known as data driven DSS (data directly contributes to decision without
intensive and advanced analytical techniques).
Extended reading: a brief history of DSS
http://dssresources.com/history/dsshistory.html
• Problems in decision making
– A gap between data and knowledge (useful information leading to a decision).
– Management/operation by intuition
– Lack of effective feedback and alignment systems, no improvement cycles
– Need good analytical processing and models

• Evolving analytical needs in decision support

– Real-time, most recent data
– Business user driven, agile, instant
– Exploratory and interactive

8
Additional Notes about BI
• BI is the an umbrella term for a set of methods, processes, applications, and
technologies used to
– gather, provide access to, analyze, and report data and information
– support understanding and decision making
– A common goal in BI is to drive performance

• The evolution of BI resides both in “business” and “intelligence”

– The term “business” is more general and represents the application domain; not just
related to profit driven businesses.
– Traditionally BI is related to business or corporate operations, but can also extend to other
types of organizational contexts, like non-profits, governments, institutions, etc.
– Intelligence represents the resource and the techniques or methods

• Narrowly speaking, intelligence comes from data (facts). Traditional BI normally

does not directly address other content types and formats (which usually falls
under artificial intelligence).
– In this sense, BI focuses on analytical data processing.

• Broadly speaking, intelligence, or knowledge, comes from human experience

and tacit knowledge, in various format like text, image, video, etc.
– In this sense, BI is also related to knowledge management (either BI under KM or vice
versa)
http://capstone.geoffreyanderson.net/export/19/trunk/proposal/research/Knowledge_mana
gement.pdf

9
Evolution of BI
The search for the perfect “business insight system”, from Performance
Dashboard, by Wayne Eckerson
http://download.101com.com/pub/tdwi/files/performancedashboards.pdf

1980s Executive information systems (EIS), decision support systems (DSS)

1990s Data warehousing (DW), business intelligence (BI)

2000s Dashboards and scorecards, performance management

2010+?? Analytics, big data, personal BI, data science, augmented BI, …

“With each new iteration, capabilities increased as

enterprises grew ever-more sophisticated in their
computational and analytical needs and as computer
hardware and software matured.”

Solomon Negash (2004), Business Intelligence, CAIS (13)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228765967_Business_intelligence

10
Analytics
• Analytics has emerged as a catch-all term
for a variety of different business
intelligence (BI) and application-related
initiatives. … Whatever the use cases,
“analytics” has moved deeper into the
business vernacular.
– https://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/analytics/

• Analytics refers to a more systematical, Analytics can be

automated, and flexible process of data viewed as the
analysis for revealing insights and decision
support in more extensive application areas, evolved or
e.g. sports, disease, network traffic, etc. improved BI
– http://pestleanalysis.com/differences-
between-business-analytics-and-business-
analysis/

• Analytics initially referred to advanced

statistical modeling using tools like SAS and The Evolution of BI Semantics
SPSS. … Now, analytics refers to the entire http://www.b-eye-
domain of leveraging information to make network.com/blogs/eckerson/archives/2011/02/whats_in_a_wor
smarter decisions. In other words, reporting d.php
and analysis.
– The Evolution of BI Semantics http://www.b-
eye-
network.com/blogs/eckerson/archives/2011/0
2/whats_in_a_word.php

11
BI and Other Related Terms
• Big data
– “Big Data is not a system; it is simply a way to say that you have a lot of data. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/big-data-silver-
bullet-tomas-kratky
– Big data covers non-structure and various data formats including text, blob, multimedia, etc.

• Data science
– An interdisciplinary field about processes and systems to extract knowledge or insights from data in various forms
– Focus on advanced analytics and presentation models and methods
– Using autonomous or semi-autonomous techniques and tools, typically beyond traditional BI to discover deeper insights,
make predictions, or generate recommendation.
– A good data scientist = data hacker + programmer+ analyst+ coach+ story teller+ artist (http://analyticsindiamag.com/data-
science-the-most-desirable-job-in-the-21st-century/)
– “In some ways, data science is an evolution of BI.” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/data-science-business-intelligence-whats-
difference-david-rostcheck/

• All these new terms try to differentiate them from the (traditional) BI. However, if one considers BI is a dynamic
and evolving field, then all these new terms are just extensions/expansions of BI; they all still fall under the
umbrella of the general BI.
– “In its more comprehensive usage, BI is all of the systems, platforms, software, technology, and techniques that are
essential for the collection, storage, retrieval, and analysis of data assets within a given organization.” – Dataversity 2015
Report on BI vs Data Science

• More perspectives from the industry

– http://www.dataversity.net/distinguishing-analytics-business-intelligence-data-science/ and
https://www.slideshare.net/Dataversity/analytics-business-intelligence-and-data-science-whats-the-progression
– https://solutionsreview.com/business-intelligence/data-science-vs-data-analytics-whats-the-difference/
– https://www.betterbuys.com/bi/business-intelligence-vs-business-analytics/

12
BI/Analytics: A General Process
The process involves analytical Results are presented and
The organization and components, such as
transformation of data delivered in different human
dimensional analysis, statistical comprehendible formats, to
into clean and common analysis, business analytics, and
models and formats. data mining, to extract support decisions. It also includes
information and knowledge. data exploration and reporting.

Data Data Data Data Data

Gathering Cleanse Storage Analysis Presentation

Data Preparation
Queries can also directly
The collection of raw present results to users
data from different The refined data will be modeled
sources by different (if needed) and stored in a without intensive
means, and in different particular place (e.g., a file or a analysis. This is usually
formats. data management system) and used for data exploration
ready for analysis. and descriptive reports.

13
BI in the Decision Process
Another view from the business decision perspective
http://www.slideshare.net/junesungpark/business-process-based-analytics

14
BI Capabilities
This is consistent with the
general BI or analytics
process but more from an
information behavior angle.

Figure from: Business Intelligence, Rajiv Sabherwal, Irma Becerra-Fernandez, John Wiley & Sons, 2011
http://books.google.com/books?id=T-JvPdEcm0oC
15
BI Systems and Platforms
• A BI system is a computer information system that
implements (part or whole) BI capabilities and processes
• The values of BI Systems
– Provide an integrated data (analytical) processing platform
– Enable easy and fast access of data and information at all
levels (raw data, analysis results, metrics, etc.)
– Streamline a controlled and managed process of data driven
decision making
• An enterprise level BI system emphasizes more on
control and performance. While a more user-oriented
analytics platform enables nontechnical users to
autonomously execute full-spectrum analytic workflows
from data access and preparation to interactive analysis
and the collaborative sharing of insights.

16
BI System (Components) at a Glance
• Performance
management
Data Storage • Benchmarking
and Applications • Market research
Management Presentation • CRM
• Strategic
management
• Web site analytics

• Relational database • Query • Reports • Local files

• Data warehouse • OLAP • Data visualization • Website Users with
• Data lake • Business analytics • Dashboard • Reporting server applications (browser,
• Data modeling • Statistics • Scorecards • Application server desktop app, mobile
• Data governance • Data mining • Strategy map • BI server app, email, etc.) and
• Data integration • Text mining • Visual analytics • Portal devices (computer,
• ETL • Advanced analytics • Free form results • Excel services tablet, phone, print-
• Data quality outs, etc.)
• Metadata
• Master Data
• Data virtualization Analytical
Processing Delivery

17
Critical Capabilities of a BI and Analytics Platform
Gartner Magic Quadrant Report 2018/2019

• Infrastructure
– BI Platform Administration. Capabilities that enable scaling the platform, optimizing performance and ensuring high availability and disaster recovery.
– Cloud BI. Platform-as-a-service and analytic-application-as-a-service capabilities for building, deploying and managing analytics and analytic
applications in the cloud, based on data both in the cloud and on-premises.
– Data Source Connectivity. Capabilities that allow users to connect to the data contained within various types of storage platforms.

• Data Management
– Governance and Metadata Management. Tools for enabling users to share the same systems-of-record semantic model and metadata. These should
provide a robust and centralized way for administrators to search, capture, store, reuse and publish metadata objects, such as dimensions, hierarchies,
measures, performance metrics/key performance indicators (KPIs) and report layout objects, parameters and so on.
– Self-Contained ETL and Data Storage. Platform capabilities for accessing, integrating, transforming and loading data into a self-contained storage
layer, with the ability to index data and manage data loads and refresh scheduling.
– Self-Service Data Preparation. The drag-and-drop, user-driven data combination of different sources, and the creation of analytic models such as
user-defined measures, sets, groups and hierarchies.
– Scalability and Data Model Complexity. The degree to which the in-memory engine or in database architecture handles high volumes of data,
complex data models, performance optimization and large user deployments.

• Analysis and Content Creation

– Advanced Analytics. Enables users to easily access advanced analytics capabilities that are self-contained within the platform itself or available
through the import and integration of externally developed models.
– Analytic Dashboards. The ability to create highly interactive dashboards and content, with visual exploration and embedded advanced analytics.
– Interactive Visual Exploration. Enables the exploration of data via the manipulation of visual properties and visual forms representing aspects of the
dataset being analyzed. These tools enable users to analyze the data by interacting directly with a visual representation of it.
– Augmented Data Discovery: Automatically finds, visualizes and narrates important findings such as correlations, exceptions, clusters, links and
predictions in data that are relevant to users without requiring them to build models or write algorithms.
– Mobile Exploration and Authoring. Enables organizations to develop and deliver content to mobile devices in a publishing and/or interactive mode,
and takes advantage of mobile devices' native capabilities, such as touchscreen, camera, location awareness and natural-language query.

• Sharing of Findings
– Embedding Analytic Content. Capabilities including a software developer's kit with APIs and support for open standards for creating and modifying
analytic content, visualizations and applications, embedding them into a business process, and/or an application or portal. These capabilities can reside
outside the application (reusing the analytic infrastructure), but must be easily and seamlessly accessible from inside the application without forcing
users to switch between systems.
– Publish and collaborate Analytic Content. Capabilities that allow users to publish, deploy and operationalize analytic content through various output
types and distribution methods, with support for content search, storytelling, scheduling and alerts.

• Overall: Ease of Use, Visual Appeal and Workflow Integration.

18
A Practical System Architecture in MSBI

Image from https://bipointblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/implementation-of-a-bi-

system-using-microsoft-bi-stack-introduction/

19
Data Management/Storage
• In traditional BI, a special database system called data warehouse or
data mart is often used to store enterprise data
– The purpose of a data warehouse is to organize lots of stable data for ease
of analysis and retrieval.

• Traditional (operational) relational databases facilitate data

management and transaction processing. They have two limitations for
data analysis and decision support
– Performance
• They are transaction oriented (data insert, update, move, etc.)
• Not optimized for complex data analysis
• Usually do not hold historical data
– Heterogeneity
• Individual databases usually manage data in very different ways, even in the same
organization (not to mention external data sources which may be dramatically
different).

• The data warehouse approach is a centralized and structured approach

for analytical data management. For more recent personal BI/analytics,
data is also kept locally for easy access and manipulation, without much
technical support.

20
Data Gathering and Integration
• Enterprise level data are coming from multiple different sources, but need to be
combined and associated
– Operational databases Data is never clean!
– Spreadsheets
You will spend most of your time
– Text, CSV
– PDF, Paper cleaning and preparing data!

• The need to bring together different data/information

– Autonomous (may not have the control and management of data)
– Distributed (from different systems and places)
– Different (in data model, format, or platform)

• General processing steps - ETL

– Extraction: accessing and extracting the data from the source systems, including
database, flat files, spreadsheets, etc.
– Transformation: data cleanse, change the extracted data to a format and structure that
conform to the destination data.
– Loading: load the data to the destination database, and check for data integrity

• Traditional BI focuses on upfront separate ETL processes that load the data in a
centralized storage. In modern BI and analytics, data cleanse and
transformation may happen just-in-time with analysis.

21
Analysis Techniques
• Descriptive reporting
– Structured and fixed format reports
– Based on simple and direct queries
– Usually involves simple descriptive analysis and transformation of data,
such as calculating, sorting, filtering, grouping, and formatting
– Ad hoc query and reporting

• OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)

– A multi-dimensional analysis and reporting application for aggregated data
– Great for discovering details from large quantities of data

• Business analytics
– Business analytics (BA) is the practice of iterative, methodical exploration of
an organization’s data with emphasis on statistical analysis.

• Advanced and computation intensive: data mining, deep learning, etc.

– Data mining techniques are a blend of statistics and mathematics, and
artificial intelligence and machine-learning.

22
OLAP
• OLAP is a function/operation that is optimized to answer queries
that are multi-dimensional
– OLAP solutions traditionally heavily rely on backend processing and
dedicated IT personnel
• Multi-dimensional queries
– A dimension is a particular way (or an attribute) of describing and
categorizing data
– Such queries are usually arithmetic aggregation operations (sum,
average, etc.) on records grouped by multiple dimensions
(attributes) at different aggregation levels.
– A pivot table or crosstab is usually used for OLAP result view
(aggregated data) Descriptive and
operational report
• Example analysis
– "What is the total sales amount grouped by product line (dimension
1), location (dimension 2), time (dimension 3) and … (other
dimensions)?"
– "Which segment of business provides the most revenue growth?"
More open and
exploratory analysis
23
Basic Techniques in Business Analytics
• Regression
– Reasoning, estimating the relationships among
variables
• Forecasting
– Trend analysis, based on extrapolation of historical
data
• Correlation
– Relationship discovery between factors (but not
causal relationship)
• Factor analysis
– Determine impacting variables and their variability
24
Data Mining
• Data mining (or, knowledge discovery in database,
KDD)
– Processes and techniques for seeking knowledge
(relationship, trends, patterns, etc.) from a large amount
of data
– Non-trivial, non-obvious, and implicit knowledge
– Extremely large datasets
• Data mining applications use sophisticated statistical
and mathematical techniques to find patterns and
relationships among data
– Classification, clustering, association, estimation,
prediction, trending, pattern, etc.
• Common techniques
– Neural network, genetic algorithm, machine learning

25
Levels of Analytical Processing
A

Advanced Analytics and Business Intelligence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNNk9-tmsZY

26
 Presentation is key – be
Presentation a master of power point.

• The last mile of BI is the presentation of data or analysis

to human users
• Data presentation is the method by which people
summarize, organize and communicate information using
a variety of tools, including tables, diagrams/charts, and
other visualization techniques
• Multiple ways to present results
– Regular/periodical reports
– Live and real time dashboard
– Free form ad hoc results
– Edited PowerPoint
• Presentation commonly utilizes data visualization
techniques to assist interpreting and presenting data in a
visual way.

27
Data Visualization
• Data visualization is the visual and interactive exploration and graphic
representation of data of any size, type (structured and unstructured) or origin.
• Visualizations help data comprehension and enhance problem solving
capabilities
– Provide a high level overview of complex data sets
– Extract/provoke additional (implicit) perspectives and meanings
– Ease the cognitive load of information processing
– Recall or memorize data
– Enable perceptual inference operations and detection of patterns

• Visualization in BI
– Data visualization is an important part of understanding for information seeking and
decision making.
– Visualization tools have become increasingly important to business intelligence, in which
people need technology support to make sense of and analyze complex data sets and all
types of information.
– As organizations seek to empower non‐technical users to make data‐driven decisions, they
must consider the prowess of data visualization in delivering digestible insights.

• Visualization can also be part of the analysis process (visual analytics)

Get more details at

• https://www.edocr.com/v/yqwmqeba/jgzheng/Business-Data-Visualization
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321804138_Data_Visualization_for_Business_Intelligence
28
Basic Visualization Forms/Styles
Form/Style Description Typical Types and Examples
Embedded visual It is embedded in, or directly on top of,  Conditional formatting (visual
texts and other forms of data cues)
presentation (table, graphic, etc.).  Inline chart (Sparkline)
Block visual It is displayed as an independent visual  Chart
unit and occupies a larger space. It is  Illustrational diagram
often a part of a report or dashboard,  Map (smaller)
appearing together with other content.  Data table (usually with embedded
But sometimes it can become a visuals)
standalone visual with many data
points or enough complexity.
Standalone visual It is a standalone application and is not  Dashboard
mixed with other types of content or  Visual analysis tool (or an
tool. Most interactions are within the analytical dashboard)
visual. It may consist of a combination  Map (bigger or full screen)
of different types of visuals.

See more details at https://www.edocr.com/v/yqwmqeba/jgzheng/Business-Data-Visualization

29
Reports
• Reports
– A report is the presentation of detailed data arranged in defined layouts and formats
– Based on simple and direct queries: usually involves simple analysis and transformation of data (sorting, calculating,
filtering, filtering, grouping, formatting, etc.)

• Traditional reports contain detailed data in a tabular format and typically display numbers and text only.
– Its purpose is mainly for printing (with styling) or exporting (raw data).
– It is geared towards people who need data rather than a direct understanding of data.

• Modern reports can be interactive and visual but the focus is still on detailed data. Sometimes the distinction is
a bit blurred with dashboards in some practical cases.
– http://www.crazybikes.com/mrc/CRAZYBIKES.R00090s
– A report style “dashboard” (or more like a visual intensive interactive report):
https://www.itdashboard.gov/drupal/summary/006

30
Dashboard
• A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to
achieve one or more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single screen
so the information can be monitored at a glance.
– Dashboard Confusion, Stephen Few,
http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/ie/dashboard_confusion.pdf

• A set of visualization or presentation of data views organized in a single

screen/page
– The data is generally KPIs and shows trends, breakdowns, and comparisons against a
forecast or historical data
– A dashboard generally contains a variety of different views of data: charts, diagrams,
tables, standalone numbers, interactive controls (such a filters)

• Dashboard vs. report, visual analysis tool, and scorecard

– http://www.dashboardinsight.com/articles/digital-dashboards/fundamentals/what-is-a-
dashboard.aspx

• The Values of Dashboard

– Allow decision makers to see a variety of relevant data that affects their divisions or
departments
– Quickly understand data and respond quickly at one place; save time over running multiple
reports
– More: http://www.bidashboard.org/benefits.html

31
Delivery Medium
• Delivery is about managing and delivering
data and analysis results to users
– Modern: social sharing, cloud hosting,
Live example:
https://sasweb1.kennesaw.
edu/SASPortal/public

Live example:
https://www.itdashboard.gov/

Figure from Database

Processing13th Edition, by
David Kroenke and David Auer

32
BI Users
Producers
vs.
Consumers
(at different levels)

Technical vs. Business users

Figures originally from

http://www.bileader.com/
Dashboards.html

33
Users Have Different Needs

http://eckerson.com/articles/part-iv-seven-keys-to-a-united-bi-environment
https://vimeo.com/68143902

34
The Fit between Tools and Users

Gartner Report,
Select the Right Business Intelligence and Analytics Tool for the Right User
Published: 23 May 2016 Analyst(s): Cindi Howson

35
BI/Analytics Application Areas
• BI/Analytics can be applied in all “businesses” (industries,
functional areas, or domains) to drive “business” performance
– Companies (for profit) and financially related
• Retail, manufacture, real-estate, financial, sports, media, advertising,
entertainment, healthcare, publication, energy, etc.
– Public (non-profit)
• Organization, institution, association, community, etc.
– Government: citizen service, city planning, crime, immigration, etc.
– Personal: personal health, exercise, learning, eating, power
consumption, etc.
• BI can be applied at different levels
– Strategic: focused on high level organizational strategies and
directions
– Tactic: focused on goals of a organization unit
– Operational: focused on streamlining day-to-day operations.
– https://www.business2community.com/business-intelligence/the-
four-sides-of-business-intelligence-
0548311#ycaoYFUR04W76YiY.97

36
Sample BI/Analytics Applications
• Business management • IT management
– Strategic planning – Web analytics
– Performance management – App analytics
– Process intelligence – Security management
– Competitive intelligence
• Supply chain and Logistics
• Marketing and sales – Supplier and vendor management
– CRM – Shipping and inventory control
– Customer behavior analysis
– Targeted marketing and sales • Insurance
strategies • Government
– Customer profiling
– City planning
– Campaign management
– Traffic management
– Inventory management
– Urban Analytics
• Human resource/capital – Power usage
– HR analytics
• Education
– Talent management
– Learning analytics
• Project and program management – Student engagement and success
– Institutional effectiveness
• Power and energy management
• Social analytics
• Healthcare management
• Sports and games analytics

37
 Figure from http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2014/06/24/roundup-of-
BI Market analytics-big-data-business-intelligence-forecasts-and-market-estimates-2014/

The global Business intelligence market size is

expected to grow from USD 17.09 Billion in
2016 to USD 26.88 Billion by 2021, at a
Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of
9.5%.
https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-
Reports/social-business-intelligence-bi-market-
1048.html

Major vendors Worldwide Business Analytics Software Market Shares, 2015, IDC July 2016
Major Vendors/Products
• Mega vendors provide complete solutions that cover full spectrum of BI
processes.
– Microsoft: SQL Server, Power BI, SharePoint, Excel
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/bi-analytics
– SAP: SAP BusinessObjects BI
• https://www.sapbi.com
– IBM: Cognos, Watson
• http://www.ibm.com/analytics/us/en/technology/business-intelligence/
– Oracle: Oracle BI 12c
• https://www.oracle.com/solutions/business-analytics/business-intelligence/index.html
– SAS: SAS Enterprise BI
• http://www.sas.com/en_us/software/business-intelligence.html

• More Other top BI tools, including Tableau, Qlik, etc.

– https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/analytics-business-intelligence-platforms
– http://www.capterra.com/business-intelligence-software/#infographic
– https://www.softwareadvice.com/bi/
– https://www.g2.com/categories/business-intelligence
– https://www.bitool.net

• Open source tools, including BIRT, Pentaho, etc.

– https://blog.capterra.com/top-8-free-and-open-source-business-intelligence-software/

39
Vendor Positioning Notice this year Gartner
put analytics before BI.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business

Intelligence and Platforms
• https://www.atscale.com/blog/analyzing-gartner's-2019-
magic-quadrant-for-analytics
• https://www.atscale.com/blog/magic-quadrant-for-
analytics-and-business-intelligence-platforms-2018

https://www.g2.com/categories/business-intelligence-
platforms

40
BI Trends

http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/eckerson/archives/2011/03/bi_market_evolu.php

41
The Modern/New BI
• A modern BI platform supports IT-enabled analytic content development. It is defined by a self-
contained architecture that enables nontechnical users to autonomously execute full-spectrum
analytic workflows from data access, ingestion and preparation to interactive analysis and the
collaborative sharing of insights. It moves from passive collection and use of data (reporting
driven) to proactive generation of data (business development driven).

• By contrast, traditional BI platforms are designed to support modular development of IT-

produced analytic content, and specialized tools and skills and significant upfront data
modeling, coupled with a predefined metadata layer, are required to access their analytic
capabilities.

• https://www.slideshare.net/Dataversity/analytics-business-intelligence-and-data-science-whats-
the-progression
Technology Insight for Modern Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms
Gartner Report, October 2015
Analytic Workflow Component Traditional BI Platform Modern BI Platform

Data source Upfront dimensional modeling required (IT-built Upfront modeling not required (flat
star schemas) files/flat tables)

Data ingestion and preparation IT-produced IT-enabled (business-led)

Content authoring Primarily IT staff, but also some power users Business users;

Analysis Predefined and regular reporting, based on Free-form exploration, ad hoc analytics
predefined model

Insight delivery Distribution and notifications via scheduled Sharing and collaboration, storytelling,
reports or portal; passive collection and use of open APIs
data (reporting driven).
42
A Changing BI Platform

Technology Insight for Modern Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms

Gartner Report, October 2015

43
Some Notable Trends/Features
• Personal (self service) BI/Analytics
– Self service enables nontechnical users to autonomously execute full-spectrum analytic workflows from data access,
ingestion and preparation to interactive analysis and the collaborative sharing of insights

• Embedded analytics
– Use of reporting and analytic capabilities directly in transactional business applications http://www.gartner.com/it-
glossary/embedded-analytics/

• Search Driven BI
– Build a report and charts on the fly, using web search style.
– Most BI and analytics tools require users use a tool to “build” a query or visualization. When users type in a search phrase,
such as "sales for New York 2016," and either an existing report or a visualization appears.
– A search driven environment uses the power of Google-like search and build report and visualizations on the fly.
– Some product examples: ThoughtSpot, SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, Microsoft Power BI Q&A, IBM Cognos Go Search,
Oracle Endeca, Information Discovery and Information Builders Magnify.
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=868-pR-cxZo
– http://www.thoughtspot.com/what-is-search-driven-analytics

• Other trends
– In-memory processing (in-memory OLAP): emerging technology for processing of data stored in an in-memory database.
http://www.bi-dw.info/in-memory-olap.htm
– Mobile BI/Cloud BI: new delivery method
– Visual BI or visual analytics - http://www.perceptualedge.com
– Augmented analytics and natural language processing
– Advanced analytics (machine learning, deep learning, AI, etc.)
– http://www.zdnet.com/article/is-the-business-intelligence-market-finally-maturing/
– https://www.slideshare.net/TableauSoftware/top-10-business-intelligence-trends-for-2017

44
Personal (Self-Service) BI
• Self-service BI refers to BI products that are primarily configured and designed to be used by non-technical
business users such as managers and business analysts.
– Typical products: Tableau, Qlik, etc.

• Some features
– Shifting focus from IT back to user
– Supporting ad hoc analytic needs, hence more interactive and explorative
– It still has fundamental BI components and provides BI capabilities, but they are more integrated than separated
– Using self-contained in-memory processing
• Easy and efficient data models (or even without one)
• Quick query and analysis
• Flexible data manipulation
• Simple delivery and sharing
– Independent but very often work with enterprise systems
– Best for individuals or non-corporate environments

• Different levels of self-service

– Started from client oriented report building and data visualizations, and eventually extended to analysis models, and finally
to data discovery, preparation, and cleanse.
– https://www.eckerson.com/articles/part-2-one-size-does-not-fit-all-customizing-self-service-analytics-for-business-users

• Dashboards, reporting, end-user self-service, and advanced visualization are the top four most important
technologies and initiatives strategic to BI in 2018.
– https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2018/06/08/the-state-of-business-intelligence-2018/#b2fca2878289

• The global self-service business intelligence market to grow from USD 3963.04 million in 2016 to USD
10992.96 million by 2023, at a CAGR of 15.69%.
– http://www.nbc-2.com/story/38414064/global-self-service-business-intelligence-market-2018-size-share-growth-trends-type-
application-analysis-and-forecast-by-2023

45
Embedded Analytics Integrating components into existing
enterprise applications through APIs

Built-in
Analytics

Analytics is
provided by the
application itself

2016 State of Embedded Analytics Report by Logi Analytics

http://www.logianalytics.com/report/state-embedded-analytics-2016/

46
BI/Analytics Careers
• Typical BI positions
– BI solution architects and integration specialists
– Business and BI analysts
– BI application developers and testers
– BI system support specialists
– Data warehouse specialists
– Database analysts, developers and testers

• BI jobs in Atlanta
– https://www.dice.com/jobs?q=Business+intelligence&l=A
tlanta%2C+Ga+Metro+Area
Critical Knowledge and Skills
• Three competencies
– Technical, Business (management), Analytical

• Technical knowledge
– Knowledge of database systems and data warehousing technologies
– Ability to manage database system integration, implementation and testing
– Ability to manage relational databases and create complex reports
– Knowledge and ability to implement data and information policies, security requirements, and state and federal regulations
– Knowledge of client tools used by business users
– Knowledge of data models
– Knowledge of programming tools used in analytics

• Solution development and management

– Working with business and user requirements
– Capturing and documenting the business requirements for BI solution
– Translating business requirements into technical requirements
– BI project lifecycle and management

• Business and Customer Skills and Knowledge

– Effective communication and consultation with business users
– Understanding of the flow of information throughout the organization
– Ability to effectively communicate with and get support from technology and business specialists
– Ability to understand the use of data and information in each organizational units
– Ability to train business users in information management and interpretation

• https://www.datapine.com/blog/bi-skills-for-business-intelligence-career/
Sample Roles (from real world job ads)
Business Intelligence Specialist Business Intelligence Developer
• Maintain or update business intelligence tools,
databases, dashboards, systems, or methods. • Business Intelligence Developer is responsible for
• Provide technical support for existing reports, designing and developing Business Intelligence
dashboards, or other tools. solutions for the enterprise.
• Create business intelligence tools or systems, • Key functions include designing, developing, testing,
including design of related databases, spreadsheets, debugging, and documenting extract, transform, load
or outputs. (ETL) data processes and data analysis reporting for
enterprise-wide data warehouse implementations.
• Responsibilities include:
Business Intelligence Analyst
– working closely with business and technical
teams to understand, document, design and
• Technical skill requirements code ETL processes;
– Works with business users to obtain data requirements
for new analytic applications, design conceptual and – working closely with business teams to
logical models for the data warehouse and/or data mart. understand, document and design and code data
– Develops processes for capturing and maintaining analysis and reporting needs;
metadata from all data warehousing components. – translating source mapping documents and
• Business skills requirements reporting requirements into dimensional data
– Transform data into analytical insight and desire to models;
leverage the best technique to arrive at the right answer.
– Generate standard or custom reports summarizing – designing, developing, testing, optimizing and
business, financial, or economic data for review by deploying server integration packages and
executives, managers, clients, and other stakeholders. stored procedures to perform all ETL related
– Analyze competitive market strategies through analysis functions;
of related product, market, or share trends. – develop data cubes, reports, data extracts,
– Collect business intelligence data from available dashboards or scorecards based on business
industry reports, public information, field reports, or
purchased sources. requirements.
– Maintain library of model documents, templates, or other • The Business Intelligence Report Developer is
reusable knowledge assets. responsible for developing, deploying and supporting
https://dzone.com/articles/five-data-tasks-that- reports, report applications, data warehouses and
keep-data-engineers-awake-at business intelligence systems.

49
What are Employers Looking For?

Data from BI Congress III Survey 2013

50
Where to Take BI Courses

Data from BI Congress III Survey 2013

51
BI/Analytics Education at KSU
• MSIT/BSIT
– IT 6713 Business Intelligence http://jackzheng.net/teaching/it6713/
– IT 7113 Data Visualization http://jackzheng.net/teaching/it7113/
– Certificate on data management and analytics
http://ccse.kennesaw.edu/it/programs/cert-dm.php

• BSIT
– The new track on “data analytics and technology”
– IT 4713 Business Intelligence http://jackzheng.net/teaching/it4713/

• Other departments
– Ph.D. in Analytics and Data Science https://datascience.kennesaw.edu
– ACS 8310 Data Warehousing
– IS 8935 Business Intelligence - Traditional and Big Data Analytics
– Certificate in High Performance Cluster Computing
http://ccse.kennesaw.edu/cs/programs/cert-hpcc.php

• Lecture notes on BI and Data Visualization

– https://www.edocr.com/user/jgzheng

52
Good Readings
• A quick, more conceptual and practical introduction of BI by Jared Hillam (Intricity):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFnewuBsYiY

• BI intro video by LearnItFirst (focused more on the traditional BI; there are some good points
which I do agree): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhZX0MAYKp8

• Distinguishing Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Science:

https://www.dataversity.net/distinguishing-analytics-business-intelligence-data-science/

• An Overview of (traditional) BI Technology from CACM (premium magazine from ACM):

http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/8/114953-an-overview-of-business-intelligence-
technology/fulltext

• Others
– http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/2519/2580469/addit_chmatl/TURBMC04_0131854615App.pd
f
– A Brief History of Decision Support Systems by D.J. Power:
http://dssresources.com/history/dsshistory.html
– Advanced Analytics and Business Intelligence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNNk9-tmsZY
– History of BI (casual video with wacky visuals): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1y5jBESLPE
– https://www.datapine.com/blog/bi-skills-for-business-intelligence-career/
– https://www.1keydata.com/datawarehousing/datawarehouse.html

53
Good General BI/Analytics Resources
• General BI web sites
– BI and DW resource directory: http://www.bi-dw.info
– BeyeNetwork: http://www.b-eye-network.com
– Dataversity: http://www.dataversity.net/
– Business intelligence resources: http://www.businessintelligence.com/
– https://solutionsreview.com/business-intelligence/
– DSS Resources: http://dssresources.com/
– ACM techpack: http://techpack.acm.org/bi/
– Data warehouse world: http://www.dwhworld.com
– http://businessintelligence.com/
– http://blog.capterra.com/learn-about-business-intelligence-resources/
– https://www.itprotoday.com/business-intelligence

• General learning resources

– https://www.1keydata.com/datawarehousing/datawarehouse.html

• Organizations and communities

– The Data Warehousing Institute: http://tdwi.org

• Paid industry reports: you may get some free reprints from some vendors after registration.
– Gartner annual report on “Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms”
– Gartner report “Technology Insight for Modern Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms”
– The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise BI Platforms (two versions, one for on-premise and one for cloud)
– Forrester Playbook: https://www.forrester.com/playbook/The+InsightsDriven+Business+Playbook/-/E-PLA940

• Industry experts and influencers

– Howard Dresner: http://dresneradvisory.com
– Wayne Eckerson: https://www.eckerson.com/blogs/the-new-bi-leader
– Gregory Piatetsky: http://www.kdnuggets.com

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