BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS - Assignment
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS - Assignment
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS - Assignment
INDIVIDUAL REPORT
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE APLICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS
URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT IN INDIA
The main aim of the report is to understand to problems faced by the government and other
urban water bodies to effectively implement projects and manage water resources in the
current scenario and analyse how the proposed data-driven multi-sectoral integrated urban
water management implementing a Business Intelligence Solution helps to tackle all the
underlying issues. Rising focus and increased need for a sustainable and effective water
management using modern technologies due to deteriorating water quality and availability
presents a good opportunity to implement a BI Solution for efficient water resource and
utility management (Vibrant Gujarat,2017). This report takes a holistic approach while
describing the various implementation stages of the solution along with capability
development and effective policy making.
A standardised national level information system with data sources integrates data from
various water utility bodies, improving the quality of data and providing a secured access to it
(WRIS, 2016). The data-driven multi-sectoral integrated approach with a decision support
system with a flexible and scalable cloud-based ERP system is demonstrated as a way to
restructure the water management in urban sectors system (Haddara, Fagerstrøm, & Mæland,
2015). The BI solution enables the government to better manage water projects by improved
transparency and enforce accountability across sectors through real time tracking of water
resources by integrating all the enterprise applications (Vibrant Gujarat,2017).
The success of the project lies in effective communication and data exchange within the
various water organizations as well as associated vendors and service providers. Managing
urban water resources and attaining sustainability while doing it would require collaboration
of various stakeholders playing different roles (Mohan Kumar, Manohar, Pallavi, & Anjana,
2013). Water management is a composite area and various factors that interplay must be
orchestrated effectively for a holistic and people-centric approach (Khadse, Labhasetwar, &
Wate, 2012). Business Intelligence solution plays a huge role in strategizing and envisioning
the target models of operation by obtaining an accurate picture in highly dynamic
environment of water management (Stefenova, & Kabakchieva, 2012). A continuous data
collection, generation and presentation with real time event detection allows various end uses
and decision makers to understand and analyse comprehensive water resource and usage data
for assessing, planning, manage and developing water projects in the future (Wadekar,
Vakare, Prajapati, Yadav, & Yadav, 2016).
BACKGROUND
India’s demand for water is likely surge in the next few decades. India has been ranked high
amongst the world’s most water stressed counties by 2040 (Maddocks, Young, & Reig,
2015). Centuries of mismanagement, inefficient political and institutional regimes, siloed
central, state and municipal administration, increased population, etc have somehow in
combination contributed towards to current state of water in India (Biswas, Tortajada, &
Saklan, 2017). Current models of urban planning and water management have already failed
or are likely to fail due to cost ineffectiveness, technical in-capabilities, environment
sustainability, etc (The World Bank, 2016). A system-wide paradigm change is required for
an effective and sustainable management of water to sustain more than a billion population of
the country. Traditionally, water management projects are undertaken in silos by various
water enterprises with very little or no collaboration between or across sectors (Khadse,
Labhasetwar, & Wate, 2012). The proposed BI solution aims to tackle all the underlying
issue through smart governance and decision making.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The Smart Water Management Systems implementing the BI Solution with various sets of
tools, technologies and infrastructure components for efficiently accumulating data from
numerous sources and integrating and presenting them to the key decision makes for effective
analysis have been discussed below -
Internet of Things(IoT) may be defined as a network of interoperable physical devices like
sensors that are provided a unique identifier and the ability to transfer data through different
communication channels. IoT in the recent has developed many folds along with wireless and
embedded technology (Wadekar, Vakare, Prajapati, Yadav, & Yadav, 2016). A range of
sensors monitor deployed across various sectors, enables real-time monitoring of assets,
water flow, pressure, quality and much more (Telstra, 2016).
Information captured from the sensors is uploaded to the cloud infrastructure through a
wireless or cable connection. “The Cloud” could be referred as the internet medium of
providing on-demand computing resources (Linthicum, 2017). Cloud ERP (Enterprise
Resource Planning) is a Software as a Service, which integrates core business processes on a
cloud data infrastructure over the internet for effective real time monitoring and management
(Haddara, Fagerstrøm, & Mæland, 2015). Cloud’s Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS)
specifically emphasizes on on-demand pay-per-use available data center computing resources
including servers, storage and networking facilities (Linthicum, 2017). The Water
Management System based on cloud infrastructure owned by the regulating bodies integrates
information from all different aspects of water resources and from various public domains
(WRIS, 2016).
Data Visualisation and analytical platforms provides decision makers visual drilling capacity
to identify intricate relationships (Stefenova, & Kabakchieva, 2012). Collected data will be
feed into dashboards along with effective real-time visualization and presentation features to
monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for real time analysis and event management. A
performance dashboard works as a performance management system for water projects that
enable decision makers to effective monitor, analyse and effectively manage processes
(Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, 2016).
The framework of the Water Management System implementing the BI solution has been
discussed in three segments:
Infrastructure
The IT infrastructure includes various hardware, software and networked elements like the
Data Centers, Servers and clients, communication channels, etc which are the fundamental
components of an enterprise IT environment. Ubiquitous computing, efficient data
management and fast internet have revolution the world in ways beyond imagination
(Eggimann, Mutzner, Wani, Schneider, Spuhler, Moy de Vitry, Beutler, & Maurer, 2017).
The successful implementation of the solution relies hugely on the effective data storage and
network telecommunication infrastructure. The Digital India programme have largely
emphasized on developing digital infrastructure in the country (Digital India, 2018). These
initiatives have enabled the government to utilize information technology and systems to
improve its organizational processes and services.
Sensing Layer
IOT based Wi-Fi connected devices with enhanced sensing capabilities allows active and
passive water data collection for a spatially enabled society and smart cities (Eggimann,
Mutzner, Wani, Schneider, Spuhler, Moy de Vitry, Beutler, & Maurer, 2017). The collected
data will be further uploaded to the cloud data center for real time tracking of water quality
and quantity (Kumar, Manohar, Pallavi, & Anjana, 2013). The sensing layer has been divided
into the following -
End User
The end user includes industries, agriculture/livestock, municipalities/households, etc.
amongst the various sectors that utilizes water.
Water Distribution Network
The Water Distribution Network is a system of engineered hydrologic and hydraulic
components which provide water supply (Mohan Kumar, Manohar, Pallavi, & Anjana, 2013,
p. 307, fig 3). Smart water networks include smart pipes for monitoring and analysing water
quality and quantity with real-time leak and event detection (Kumar, Manohar, Pallavi, &
Anjana, 2013). Smart network metering allows a use pattern detection through a detailed
water-related activity data monitoring (Eggimann, Mutzner, Wani, Schneider, Spuhler, Moy
de Vitry, Beutler, & Maurer, 2017).
Figure 3 – Water Distribution Network of Bangalore
Producers
The Producers include direct river extractions, reservoirs, groundwater extractions, water
waste treatment plants, dams etc. amongst various water resources.
Network Layer
The network layer works on telemetry system for the communication of water data collected
from the sensing layer to the application layer data centres (Vibrant Gujarat, 2017). The data
from the three above mentioned sources – End Users , Water Distribution Network and
Producers, is accumulated with wireless or cable transmission technology and is then
uploaded to the cloud data infrastructure (Yuntao, Lianga, Zhaoa, & Yunzhong, 2016).
Application Layer
The application layer built on cloud-based ERP system with increased data collaboration
supports a real-time monitoring of the whole water supply chain network with zoom facility
to focus on a particular aspect (Linthicum, 2017), allowing decision makers to analyse and
get a clear picture of water scenario for a particular region (The World Bank, 2016).
Supporting Layer
The supporting layer covers operational support, data sharing and cloud data integration,
middleware platforms, GIS platforms, HMI support platform, application security
management, etc (Acharya,2017). The main functionality of the supporting system includes
processing the incoming data from various fields and provide a base for monitoring and
presentation layer for supporting statistical analysis and insightful decision making (Haddara,
Fagerstrøm, & Mæland, 2015).
Presentation Layer
The presentation layer provides visualization solutions along with performance dashboards
which serves as an “organization magnifying glass” for measuring, monitoring and managing
(Eckerson, 2005). The BI solution main supports two below mentioned interfaces -
1. Open Government Data – Open data sources provides a platform that allows common
people to access non-sensitive project related data (Open Government Data Platform
India, 2015).
2. Govt and Water Institutions – Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) like
system with GIS and HMI interfacing is used for a real-time analysis with improved
time-based data visualisation dashboards to support informed operational and
strategic decision making for various users within water utilities (Vibrant Gujarat,
2017).
Event Management
The Smart Water Management System provides an integrated event management platform
with ability to detect, analyse and manage events. Events such as thefts, leakages, telemetry
and data issues, operational failures and glitches are detected in real time and acted upon to
reduce the impact (Takadu, 2018). Events are created as per the detection of incidents and are
acted upon as per the priority and severity of the issue.
Processes
Center of Governance and Planning Commission
The planning commission serves as a center for enterprise which would coordinate the
implementation of the BI solutions across different sectors and drive governments strategy
(Digital India, 2018). The institution also enforces all the best practices and standards across
sectors and maintains data stewardship (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology,
2016).
Organizational Culture
Development of a “Analytics Culture” which treats data as a key driver to establish processes
and operations is vital for effective implementation of BI solution (Dunlea, 2015). A
community or organizational culture is built on people’s attitude and beliefs and the initial
foundation sets people’s habits and behaviours around the use of data (Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology,2016).
Evaluation and Continual Improvement
A fast and efficient feedback loop and focus on KPIs allows the water organizations to revisit
their expectations and utilize them as the baseline for a progress evaluation for their ongoing
water management projects (Eggimann, Mutzner, Wani, Schneider, Spuhler, Moy de Vitry,
Beutler, & Maurer, 2017). This would also help water organizations to strategically align
operations and process towards processes that performing well and remove or improve the
ones that are not (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, 2016).
2. Foreign direct investment from various world organizations (The World Bank, 2016)
would help create new job opportunities and better living standards (Vibrant Gujarat,
2017).
3. Effective regular stakeholder engagements and monitored operations would to help
detect roadblocks and minimize delays (Khadse, Labhasetwar, & Wate, 2012) and help
deepen customer relationships (Telstra, 2016).
4. Early detection of leaks and abnormalities in the water distribution network would
help water organisations wisely manage water (Sorbello, & Marck 2014, p. 77, fig 5)
and helps the state to become independent and would also allow it to export the surplus
water to other states (Vibrant Gujarat, 2017).
Figure 5 – Leak detection
22. Telstra: The connected future has arrived - Transforming Australian Water Utilities
with intelligent networks. (2016). Retrieved from
https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/business-
enterprise/industries/pdf/intelligent-water-management-brochure.pdf
23. Stefenova, K., & Kabakchieva, D. (2012). Management Aspects of the Business
Intelligent Systems Development. Economic Alternatives, Issue 1. Retrieved from
www.unwe.bg/uploads/Alternatives/BROI_1_ECONOMIC_ALTERNATIVES_ENGL
ISH_2012-04.pdf