Business Intelligence and

Analytics
A Comprehensive Overview

IT 4713/7123 BI
Jack G. Zheng
Fall 2021 (V9)

http://zheng.kennesaw.edu/teaching/it4713
http://zheng.kennesaw.edu/teaching/it6713
https://www.edocr.com/v/r4dg6mjr/
Overview
This lecture notes provides a high-level overview of business
intelligence and analytics. This overview is comprehensive and covers
as many aspects as possible, but it keeps them at a high level. More
details are provided in more learning modules.

• What is business intelligence (BI) and analytics?

– Are they the same or different?

• BI/Analytics process and systems

– BI/Analytics as an information and decision process
– BI/Analytics as a computing and information system
– A general process and its components
– Capabilities and components
– Systems, tools, technologies, architectures
– Products, industries, and markets
• BI evolution and trend: traditional BI and modern BI
• BI/Analytics learning and career
2
3
 What is BI and Analytics?

• Are they the same or different?

4
Types of Information Processing
Notice the difference between these
terms as general concepts vs. as
particular technologies/systems.

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

• Change product price.

• Increase customer credit limit.
• What are the top 10 most
• Import data from another source
profitable products?
• Is there a significant increase of
operational cost?

For a more detailed comparison of OLTP and OLAP:

https://techdifferences.com/difference-between-oltp-and-ol
5 ap.html
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
– Wisdom: the understanding of interactions and an integrated view, and the understanding of implications
and indirect results beyond a target domain.
• The model can be loosely related to the levels of transactional processing (OLTP) and analytical
processing (OLAP)

Analytical
Processing

Transaction
al
Processing
For more extensive reading:
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIKW_Pyramid
Examples of Analysis
• Non-analytical query (search results 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 (why) 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)
• Forecast and prediction
– How many students are likely to change degree next year?
• Fuzzy decision
– What new advertising strategies need to be undertaken to reach our customers
who can afford an expensive product?
– Should we invest more on our e-business?

7
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-R
ES39218

More BI from Forrester

https://www.forrester.com/business-intelligence
8
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.
– Lack of data
• The data is simply not available.
9 • The collection of data may need additional process and is costly.
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
Extended reading: techniques).
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
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Important Notes about BI
• BI is 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_manage
ment.pdf
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Evolution of BI

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, data science, augmented BI, …

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

“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_inte
lligence

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Analytics Depending on perspectives, Analytics
• is part of BI
• Analytics has emerged as a catch-all term for a • includes BI
variety of different business intelligence (BI) and • goes beyond (the traditional) BI
application-related initiatives. … Whatever the use • = (the new) BI
cases, “analytics” has moved deeper into the
business vernacular.
– https://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/analytics/
• Analytics refers to a more systematical,
automated, and flexible process of data analysis
for revealing insights and decision support in more
extensive application areas (beyond
organizational contexts), e.g. sports, disease,
network traffic, etc. Analytics can be
– http://pestleanalysis.com/differences-between-busi viewed as the
ness-analytics-and-business-analysis/
evolved, expanded,
or improved BI
• Analytics initially referred to advanced statistical
modeling using tools like SAS and SPSS. … Now,
analytics refers to the entire domain of leveraging
information to make smarter decisions. In other
words, reporting and analysis.
– The Evolution of BI Semantics
http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/eckerson/archi The Evolution of BI Semantics
ves/2011/02/whats_in_a_word.php http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/eckerson/archives/2011/0
• Analytics is geared more toward future predictions 2/whats_in_a_word.php
and trends, while BI helps people make decisions
based on past data.
– Christian Ofori-Boateng
13 https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/201
9/06/21/data-analytics-versus-business-intelligence
Analytics or BI?
• We tend to call analytics rather than BI in the following scenarios.
But their processes and technologies are very similar.
• Non-(traditional) business activities such as
– Learning analytics: learning progress and performance
– Talent analytics: human resources
– Web/app analytics: web traffic or app usage analysis
– Sports analytics: gaming strategies and performance
• Non-organizational contexts; mainly based on public data and for
public communication.
– Social media analytics
– Election/voting analytics
• Individual or small group data monitoring/analysis
– Personal health analytics
– Communication analytics

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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 an organization unit
– Operational: focused on streamlining day-to-day operations.
– https://www.business2community.com/business-intelligence/the-four-sid
es-of-business-intelligence-0548311#ycaoYFUR04W76YiY.97

15
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
• Insurance
– Targeted marketing and sales
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
• Work analytics – Student engagement and success
• – Institutional effectiveness
Project and program management
• Power and energy management • Social analytics
• Healthcare management • Sports and games analytics
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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/

17
 BI/Analytics Process and Technology

• BI/Analytics as an information and decision process

• BI/Analytics as a computing and information technology

18
Process and Technology
• BI/Analytics can be viewed as both a process and a (set of)
technology
• An information and decision process (methodology)
– BI and analytics share similar process to transform data to
insights
– A process consists of multiple steps (activities), arrange in varied
order
– Each process may be different depending on a number of
factors, including data sources, quality, analytical needs, etc.
• A computing and information technology
– The technology directly implements and supports BI capabilities
and activities.
– Technology can be in the form of applications, systems,
architectures, platforms, etc.
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BI/Analytics: A General Process
This step involves analytical
Data can be analyzed
components, such as descriptive
immediately in many Results are presented and
analysis, statistical analysis, data
agile analytical cases, delivered in different human
Cleaning and mining, and other advanced
without a formal comprehendible formats (such
transforming data into managed storage. analytics to extract information as tables and charts), to
clean and common and knowledge. support decisions. It also
models and formats. includes data exploration and
reporting (bypassing analysis).

Data Data Data Data Data

Gathering Cleanse Storage Analysis Presentation

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

20
General BI Capabilities Conception
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 – narrated slides
21 https://slideplayer.com/slide/5861482/
BI in the Decision Process
Another view from the corporate decision perspective
http://www.slideshare.net/junesungpark/business-process-based-analytics

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BI/Analytics: Systems and Platforms
• A BI system is a computer information system that implements (part or
whole) and streamlines BI capabilities and processes.
• BI or analytics can be done with multiple independent tools and
technologies, but a complete system can greatly facilitate the process.
• The values of a BI/analytics system
– Provides an integrated data (analytical) processing platform
– Enables easy and fast access of data and information at all levels (raw data,
analysis results, metrics, etc.)
– Streamlines a controlled and managed process of data driven decision making
• Enterprise level vs. personal level system
– 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.

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BI System Components at a Glance
* Data management
usually includes a
data sourcing and • Performance
gathering component. management
This component may • Benchmarking
Data be integrated with or Applications • Market research
Management: independent from a
data storage system. • CRM
Gathering and Presentation • Strategic
management
Storage • Web page visits

• Relational database • Query • Reports • Local files

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

24
Critical Capabilities of a BI and Analytics Platform
Gartner Magic Quadrant Report 2021

• Infrastructure
– Manageability: Capabilities that track usage of the ABI platform and manage how information is shared (and by whom).
– Security: Capabilities that enable platform security, administering of users, auditing of platform access and authentication.
– Cloud analytics/BI: The ability to support building, deployment and management of analytics in the cloud, based on data stored both in the cloud and
on-premises (platform-as-a-service and analytic-application-as-a-service).

• Data Management
– Data source connectivity: Capabilities that enable users to connect to, query and ingest data, while optimizing for performance.
– Data preparation: Support for drag-and-drop, user-driven combination of data from different sources, and the creation of analytic models (such as user-
defined measures, sets, groups and hierarchies).
– Dropped or combined compared to previous reports: data storage, data model

• Analysis and Content Creation

– Reporting: The ability to create and distribute (or “burst”) pixel-perfect, grid-layout, multipage reports to users on a scheduled basis.
– Data visualization: Support for highly interactive dashboards and exploration of data through manipulation of visual properties and visual forms.
– Data storytelling: The ability to combine interactive data visualization with narrative techniques in order to package and deliver analytic content in a
compelling, easily understood form for presentation to decision makers.
– Automated insights: A core attribute of augmented analytics, this is the application of ML techniques to automatically generate findings for end users
(for example, by identifying the most important attributes in a dataset).
– Natural language query (NLQ) or augmented analytics: This enables users to ask questions and query data and analytic content using terms that are
either typed into a search box or spoken. Automatically finds, visualizes and narrates important findings without requiring users to build models or write
– Notable missing compared to previous reports: Advanced Analytics.

• Delivering and sharing of content

– Catalog: The ability to automatically generate and curate a searchable catalog of analytic content, thus making it easier for analytic consumers to know
what content is available.
– 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.
– Notable missing compared to previous reports: Mobile Exploration; Embedding Analytic Content (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.)

Additional resources:
https://www.predictiveanalyticstoday.com/key-capabilities-of-business-intelligence-s
25 oftware/
A Practical Example: MSBI System Architecture

Note: this is only one example

of a typical and traditional BI
Image from
https://bipointblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/imple
system architecture. There are
mentation-of-a-bi-system-using-microsoft-bi-stack-int some more recent self-service
roduction/
oriented architectures.
26
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.
• Analytical database
• Cloud based
• Data lake
• NoSQL Data warehouse/mart will be
covered in IT 4713 module 4.
27
Data Integration and Preparation
• 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 cleaning and preparing data!
– PDF, Paper
• 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 activities - 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
ETL will be covered in IT4713 milestone 2 (module 5 and 6).
may happen
Self-service data just-in-time with
preparation will be analysis.
covered in IT 7123 module 6 and 7.
28
Four Levels of Analytics
Advanced analytics

• Descriptive Analytics: Describing

or summarising the existing data
using existing business intelligence
tools to better understand what is
going on or what has happened.
• Diagnostic Analytics: Focus
on past performance to determine
what happened and why. The
result of the analysis is often an
analytic dashboard.
• Predictive Analytics: Emphasizes
on predicting the possible outcome
using statistical models and Further reading:

machine learning techniques. https://www.analyticsinsight.net/four-types-of-business-analytics-to-know/

• Prescriptive Analytics: It is a type

of predictive analytics that is used
to recommend one or more course
of action on analyzing the data.

29
Analytics Through BI

Advanced Analytics and Business Intelligence, screenshot from

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

30
Descriptive Analytics
• Descriptive reporting has been the most common in all kinds of anlaysis
– 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
– Aggregating results from multiple rows ofDimensional queries
data on multiple and analysis will be covered in IT
dimensions
– 4713 milestone 4 and in IT 7123 module 8.
Ad hoc query and reporting
• Multi-dimensional queries
– A dimension is a particular way (or an attribute) of describing and categorizing data
Descriptive and
– Such queries are usually arithmetic aggregation operations (sum, average, etc.) on records
operational report
grouped by multiple dimensions (attributes) at different aggregation levels.
– A pivot table or crosstab is usually used for OLAP result view (aggregated data)
• Example analysis
More open and
– "What is the total sales amount grouped by product line (dimension 1), location
exploratory analysis(dimension 2),
time (dimension 3) and … (other dimensions)?"
– "Which segment of business provides the most revenue growth?"
• OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)
OLAP will be covered in IT 4713
–milestone
OLAP 3is (module
a technology
7 andand
8). system that is optimized to answer queries that are multi-
dimensional
– OLAP solutions traditionally heavily rely on backend processing and dedicated IT personnel

31
Business Analytics
• Business analytics
– Business analytics (BA) is the practice of iterative,
methodical exploration of an organization’s data with
emphasis on statistical analysis.
• Common analysis techniques
– 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
32
Advanced Analytics
• Advanced Analytics is the autonomous or semi-autonomous examination
of data or content using sophisticated techniques and tools, typically
beyond those of traditional business intelligence (BI), to discover deeper
insights, make predictions, or generate recommendations.
– https://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/advanced-analytics/
– Advanced analytics are usually computing intensive
• Advanced analytic techniques include those such as
– Complex statistical methods
– Data/text mining: using sophisticated statistical and mathematical techniques to
find patterns and relationships among data. Data mining techniques are a
blend of statistics and mathematics, and artificial intelligence and machine-
learning.
– Predictives
– Machine learning
– Pattern matching, forecasting, visualization, semantic analysis, sentiment
analysis, network and cluster analysis, multivariate statistics, graph analysis,
simulation, complex event processing, genetic algorithm, neural networks

33
Presentation
• 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 static reports
– Interactive reports
– Live and real time dashboard
“Presentation is key – be a master of PowerPoint.”
– Free form ad hoc analysis
– Edited PowerPoint
• Presentation commonly utilizes data visualization techniques to
Reports and dashboards will be covered in IT 4713 in
assist
millstoneinterpreting
4 (module 9 to 11) and
and IT presenting
7123 module 10. data in a visual way.

34
Data Visualization
• Data visualization is the visual representation and presentation of data for the purpose of
sensory enhancement (perception), sense making (comprehension), exploration, analysis,
and communication.
• Visualizing is basically a human physiological and psychological capability, and plays an
important role in human information behavior and decision making
– Recall or memorize data more effectively
– Enable fast perception based on instinct (see the figure on the right)
– Helps data comprehension and enhance problem solving capabilities (cognition)
– Extract/provoke additional (implicit) perspectives and meanings
– Ease the cognitive load of information processing and exploration
– Help to shape the attention and focus
– Effective communication (story telling)
• Data visualization in BI
– Data visualization is an important part of data exploration and decision making. Given the power of
visualization, it is only natural to apply the rich communication techniques in the field of BI and
analytics.
– As organizations seek to empower non‐technical users to make data­‐driven decisions, they must
consider the powers of data visualization in delivering digestible insights.
– 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.
– Visualization can also be part of the analysis process (visual analytics)
Data visualization will be touched briefly in this course. For more coverage, refer to IT 7113 Data visualization
35 http://zheng.kennesaw.edu/teaching/it7113 and the overview at https://www.edocr.com/v/yqwmqeba/jgzheng/Business-Data-Visualization
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.
– It is geared towards people who need data rather than a direct understanding or interpretation of data.
– Its purpose is mainly for printing (with styling) or exporting (raw 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.
– A report style “dashboard” (or more like a visual intensive interactive report):
https://www.cityhealthdashboard.com/ga/atlanta/city-overview
– Magic Quadrant report vs. https://www.g2.com/categories/data-visualization?segment=all
– Dashboard or report? http://www.crazybikes.com/mrc/CRAZYBIKES.R00090s

36
Dashboard
A dashboard is a visual-oriented display of the most
important data and information needed to achieve defined
goals and objectives; consolidated and arranged on a
single screen so the information can be viewed at a glance.
Adapted from: Dashboard Confusion, Stephen Few,
http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/ie/dashboard_confusion.pdf

• Elements of a dashboard
Dashboard = data/information + visual + UI
– Data/information: the most important element
– Visual: data visuals (charts, etc.) provide a high level at-a-glance view
– User interface
• a clean UI that unifies all elements to work together as a whole
• supporting interactions as needed

• The Values of Dashboard

– Provides a one-place presentation of critical information, so users can quickly understand data and
respond quickly at one place.
• Saves time over running multiple reports.
– Allows decision makers to see a variety of data that affects their divisions or departments
• This allows decision makers to focus only on the items over which they have control
• The dashboard is generally customized for each user
– Allows all users to understand the analytics. For non-technical users, dashboards allow them to
participate and understand the analytics process by compiling data and visualizing trends and
occurrences. For more details, visit IT 7113 module on dashboard:
37 – More http://www.bidashboard.org/benefits.html https://www.edocr.com/v/oekl31vr/jgzheng/Dashboard
Delivery/Sharing Medium

• Delivery is about managing and delivering

data and analysis results to users
• Traditional delivery is more one directional
and IT centric
– BI portal, web app, email, etc.
• Modern channels promotes peer sharing
– Social sharing, cloud hosting, direct
saving/uploading, etc.

38
BI Stakeholders
Producers
vs.
Consumers
(at different levels)

Technical vs. Business users

Figures originally from

http://www.bileader.co
m/Dashboards.html

39
Users Have Different Needs

Casual users
may not be as
technical as
power users.

Power users
may also be
technology savvy
and capable of
programming.

Figure from
http://eckerson.com/articles/part-iv-seven-keys-to-a-united-bi-environment

40
The Fit between Tools and Users

Another view put

into layers

Gartner Report,
Select the Right Business Intelligence and Analytics Tool for the
Right User
Published: 23 May 2016 Analyst(s): Cindi Howson
41
 Modern BI Trends

• Modern vs. traditional BI

More details of modern BI will be covered

in IT 7123 module 5.

42
History and Trends

Traditional enterprise BI
based on data
warehouse and OLAP

From Wayne Eckerson

talk
https://vimeo.com/68143
902

http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/eckerson/archives/2011/03/bi_
43
market_evolu.php
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-wha
ts-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).
44
Notable Trends/Features of the Modern BI
• Self-service BI/Analytics: Business led, IT enabled
• Embedded analytics/BI: use of reporting and analytic capabilities directly in business applications
http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/embedded-analytics/
• Search driven analytics: (aka clickless analytics) aims to build a report and charts on the fly, using web search style.
– Incorporating natural language processing
– A quick intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=868-pR-cxZo
• Augmented analytics: uses machine-learning automation to supplement human intelligence across the entire analytics life-
cycle.
• Advanced analytics (machine learning, deep learning, AI, etc.)
• Cloud BI and analytics: cloud computing is regarded as an ideal platform to provide business intelligence applications as it
serves as a repository for structured and unstructured data. Likewise, big data technology enables BI to analyze a large
amount of data to deliver actionable insights into businesses and generate opportunities. The increasing need for business
intelligence solutions to analyze huge chunks of data for social media channels will enable speedy expansion of the market
during the forecast period.
• Other notable trends and developments
– Location intelligence http://sandhill.com/article/iot-and-the-growing-use-of-location-features-in-business-intelligence-software/
– New data gathering techniques and technologies. New data sources and capability to capture more data. From passive collection and
use of data (reporting driven) to proactive generation of data (business development driven)
– 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: delivering results at the fingertip.
– Visual BI or visual analytics Visual oriented, - http://www.perceptualedge.com visual-based data discovery capabilities
– Information/data portal
– Expanding application areas at all levels: in more extensive application areas, e.g. sports, disease, network traffic, etc.
• More trends
– https://bi-survey.com/top-business-intelligence-trends
– https://www.slideshare.net/TableauSoftware/top-10-business-intelligence-trends-for-2017
– https://www.mrc-productivity.com/blog/2019/01/5-business-intelligence-trends-to-watch-in-2019/

45
Self-Service BI
• [A solution for] end users designing and deploying their own reports and analyses within an approved and
supported architecture and tools portfolio.
– http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/self-service-business-intelligence
• Key features
– Shifting focus from IT back to user: enables all kinds of users with varied skill levels to autonomously execute full-spectrum
analytic workflows. These users include traditional power users, data professionals or data scientists, managers and
business analysts.
– Fits a more distributed and collaborative environment.
– The process is more flexible and agile, and responds to user needs quickly. Supporting ad hoc analytic needs, hence more
interactive and explorative.
– Self-service BI tools still have fundamental BI components and provide BI capabilities, but they are more integrated (in one
software package) than separated.
– Independent but very often work with enterprise systems.
– Good 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
• Tools and market
– Best self-service tools: https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-self-service-business-intelligence-bi-tools
– 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-a
pplication-analysis-and-forecast-by-2023

46
IT Support in Self-Service BI
• The goal of self-service BI
– NOT to eliminate the need for IT
– Instead, to put data and results in the user’s hands and reduce the
burden on the IT department.
• “Self-service BI does remove much of the reporting burden from
the IT department. The IT department must control the data and
the user access. They’re responsible for keeping the data clean,
and ensuring that users can only access data they’re authorized
to see. The self-service BI tool only acts as a doorway for users to
access the IT-controlled data.”
– https://www.mrc-productivity.com/blog/2015/08/6-common-misconceptio
ns-of-self-service-bi/
• IT’s role
– Data management and governance, including security, access control,
data quality and accuracy, compliance, etc.
– Technical support for the systems and platforms, especially cloud based
47
A Changing BI Platform

Technology Insight for Modern Business Intelligence and Analytics

Platforms
Gartner Report, October 2015

48
 Market, Career, Education, and
Resources

49
BI Market
• Commoditization and consolidation of multiple technologies
– Forrester no longer sees reporting and querying, online analytical processing (OLAP), data visualization,
dashboards, data exploration, and location analytics as separate market categories within BI. Rather, most
enterprise BI platforms now provide these capabilities.
– The same commoditization is happening in the cloud and mobile BI as most leading vendors now build their
platforms on cloud-based multi-tenant architecture or offer a cloud version in addition to an on-premises
one. Similarly mobile BI is now simply a feature of most BI platforms.
– https://www.zdnet.com/article/is-the-business-intelligence-market-finally-maturing/
• Company has been going through consolidation
– Many smaller products that target specific functional areas are consolidated into major BI/analytics suites
and platforms.

Major vendors
https://www.appsruntheworld.c
om/top-10-analytics-and-bi-soft
ware-vendors-and-market-forec
ast/
Vendors/Products
• Traditional big four: these are mega vendors that provide complete solutions that cover full spectrum
of BI processes and related applications.
– Microsoft: SQL Server, Power BI, SharePoint, Excel https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/
– SAP: SAP BusinessObjects BI, Lumira https://www.sap.com/products/analytics/business-intelligence-bi.html
– IBM: Cognos, Watson https://www.ibm.com/analytics/business-intelligence/
– Oracle: Oracle BI 12c https://www.oracle.com/solutions/business-analytics/business-intelligence/
• Other notable vendors/products
– SAS: SAS Enterprise BI https://www.sas.com/en_us/solutions/business-intelligence.html
– Salesforce Tableau
– QlikTech
• More other analytics/BI tools list
– https://www.datanyze.com/market-share/business-intelligence--243
– https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/analytics-business-intelligence-platforms
– https://www.techradar.com/best/best-bi-tools
– https://www.g2.com/categories/business-intelligence
– https://www.itcentralstation.com/categories/business-intelligence-bi-tools
– http://www.capterra.com/business-intelligence-software/
– https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-self-service-business-intelligence-bi-tools
– Others
• https://www.softwareadvice.com/bi/
• https://www.betterbuys.com/bi/reviews/
• https://www.bitool.net/business-intelligence.html

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

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

51
Vendor Positioning
In 2019 Gartner started to put
“analytics” before “BI”.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business

Intelligence and Platforms 2021

G2 Grid for Analytics Platforms

https://www.g2.com/categories/business-intellige
nce-platforms

52
BI/Analytics Careers
• Typical BI/Analytics positions
– BI analyst
– BI solution architect and integration specialist
– BI application developer and tester
– BI system support specialist
– Data warehouse specialist
– Database analyst, developer and tester
– Report/dashboard developer
• More about jobs and careers
– https://www.datapine.com/blog/bi-skills-for-business-intelligence-career/
– https://www.discoverdatascience.org/career-information/
– https://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Data-management-rol
es-Data-architect-vs-data-engineer-others
– https://dzone.com/articles/five-data-tasks-that-keep-data-engineers-awake-at
– Data analyst:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/professionals/121515/data-analyst-care
er-path-qualifications.asp

– https://blog.udacity.com/2014/12/data-analyst-vs-data-scientist-vs-data-engine
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)
BI jobs in Atlanta
https://www.dice.com/jobs?q=BI&l=Atlanta%2C+Ga+
Business Intelligence Developer
Metro+Area
• Business Intelligence Developer is responsible for
Business Intelligence Specialist designing and developing Business Intelligence
• Maintain or update business intelligence tools, databases, solutions for the enterprise.
dashboards, systems, or methods. • Key functions include designing, developing, testing,
• Provide technical support for existing reports, dashboards, debugging, and documenting extract, transform, load
or other tools. (ETL) data processes and data analysis reporting for
• enterprise-wide data warehouse implementations.
Create BItools or systems, including design of related
databases, spreadsheets, or outputs. • Responsibilities include:
– working closely with business and technical
Business Intelligence Analyst teams to understand, document, design and
code ETL processes;
– working closely with business teams to
• Technical skill requirements understand, document and design and code
– Works with business users to obtain data requirements for new data analysis and reporting needs;
analytic applications, design conceptual and logical models for the
– translating source mapping documents and
data warehouse and/or data mart.
– Develops processes for capturing and maintaining metadata from
reporting requirements into dimensional data
all data warehousing components. models;
– designing, developing, testing, optimizing and
• Business skills requirements
deploying server integration packages and
– Transform data into analytical insight and desire to leverage the
stored procedures to perform all ETL related
best technique to arrive at the right answer.
functions;
– Generate standard or custom reports summarizing business,
financial, or economic data for review by executives, managers, – develop data cubes, reports, data extracts,
clients, and other stakeholders. dashboards or scorecards based on business
– Analyze competitive market strategies through analysis of related requirements.
product, market, or share trends. • The Business Intelligence Report Developer is
– Collect business intelligence data from available industry reports, responsible for developing, deploying and supporting
public information, field reports, or purchased sources. reports, report applications, data warehouses and
– Maintain library of model documents, templates, or other reusable business intelligence systems.
knowledge assets.
55
BI/Analytics Education at KSU
• MSIT/BSIT - Graduate Certificate in Data Analytics and Intelligent Technology
https://msit.kennesaw.edu/future-students/program-requirements.php, which
includes my
– IT 7123 Business Intelligence http://jackzheng.net/teaching/it6713/
– IT 7113 Data Visualization http://jackzheng.net/teaching/it7113/
• BSIT - the new concentration on “data analytics and technology”, including my
– IT 3703 Intro to data analytics and technology
– IT 4713 Business Intelligence http://jackzheng.net/teaching/it4713/
• Other departments
– Data Science Institute 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

56
Core Readings
• What Is Business Intelligence? A Beginner's Guide in 2020
https://learn.g2.com/business-intelligence - this is a very practical but not very comprehensive view
of BI
• Distinguishing Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Science:
https://www.dataversity.net/distinguishing-analytics-business-intelligence-data-science/
• Data Analyst vs Data Engineer vs Data Scientist: Skills, Responsibilities, Salary
https://www.edureka.co/blog/data-analyst-vs-data-engineer-vs-data-scientist/ - from some job and
career perspectives.
• Short video intro:
– DIKW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9DoQ9gY4z4
– A quick, conceptual, and practical introduction of BI by Jared Hillam (Intricity), from a traditional perspective:
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
– Data Analytics for Beginners Video Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm2A5tKVIpg
• Others
– A Brief History of Decision Support Systems by D.J. Power: http://dssresources.com/history/dsshistory.html
– 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
– http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/2519/2580469/addit_chmatl/TURBMC04_0131854615App.pdf
– 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

57
Good General BI/Analytics Resources
• General BI resource web sites
– BI and DW resource directory: http://www.bi-dw.info
– BeyeNetwork: http://www.b-eye-network.com
– https://solutionsreview.com/business-intelligence/
– DSS Resources: http://dssresources.com/
– ACM techpack: http://techpack.acm.org/bi/
– 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, communities, and events
– BI Bake Off https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/tag/bi-bake-off/
– Dataversity: http://www.dataversity.net/
– 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
– Ralph Kimball

58