Successful Business Intelligence: Unlock the Value of BI & Big Data, Second Edition / Edition 2

by Cindi Howson

Overview

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“Cindi has created, with her typical attention to details that matter, a contemporary forward-looking guide that organizations could use to evaluate existing or create a foundation for evolving business intelligence / analytics programs. The book touches on strategy, value, people, process, and technology, all of which must be considered for program success. Among other topics, the data, data warehousing, and ROI comments were spot on. The ‘technobabble’ chapter was brilliant!” ―Bill Frank, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Program Manager, Johnson & Johnson

“If you want to be an analytical competitor, you’ve got to go well beyond business intelligence technology. Cindi Howson has wrapped up the needed advice on technology, organization, strategy, and even culture in a neat package. It’s required reading for quantitatively oriented strategists and the technologists who support them.” ―Thomas H. Davenport, President’s Distinguished Professor, Babson College and co-author, Competing on Analytics

“Cindi has created an exceptional, authoritative description of the end-to-end business intelligence ecosystem. This is a great read for those who are just trying to better understand the business intelligence space, as well as for the seasoned BI practitioner.” ―Sully McConnell, Vice President, Business Intelligence and Information Management, Time Warner Cable

“Cindi’s book succinctly yet completely lays out what it takes to deliver BI successfully. IT and business leaders will benefit from Cindi’s deep BI experience, which she shares through helpful, real-world definitions, frameworks, examples, and stories. This is a must-read for companies engaged in – or considering – BI.” ―Barbara Wixom, PhD, Principal Research Scientist, MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research

Expanded to cover the latest advances in business intelligence such as big data, cloud, mobile, visual data discovery, and in-memory computing, this fully updated bestseller by BI guru Cindi Howson provides cutting-edge techniques to exploit BI for maximum value. Successful Business Intelligence: Unlock the Value of BI & Big Data, Second Edition describes best practices for an effective BI strategy. Find out how to:

• Garner executive support to foster an analytic culture
• Align the BI strategy with business goals
• Develop an analytic ecosystem to exploit data warehousing, analytic appliances, and Hadoop for the right BI workload
• Continuously improve the quality, breadth, and timeliness of data
• Find the relevance of BI for everyone in the company
• Use agile development processes to deliver BI capabilities and improvements at the pace of business change
• Select the right BI tools to meet user and business needs
• Measure success in multiple ways
• Embrace innovation, promote successes and applications, and invest in training
• Monitor your evolution and maturity across various factors for impact

Exclusive industry survey data and real-world case studies from Medtronic, Macy’s, 1-800 CONTACTS, The Dow Chemical Company, Netflix, Constant Contact, and other companies show successful BI initiatives in action.

From Moneyball to Nate Silver, BI and big data have permeated our cultural, political, and economic landscape. This

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071809184
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	11/08/2013
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Cindi Howson is the founder of BIScorecard, a website for in-depth BI product reviews, and has 20 years of BI and management reporting experience. She writes and blogs for Information Week, and is an instructor for The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI). Howson was a manager at Deloitte & Touche and a BI standards leader for a Fortune 500 company. She has an MBA from Rice University. Howson is the author of SAP Business Objects BI 4.0: The Complete Reference.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

1 BI and Big Data from the Business Side 1

Business Intelligence by Other Names 1

How Business Intelligence Provides Value 4

The Business Intelligence Market 11

Battle Scars 18

The Research 19

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 24

2 Technobabble: Components of a Business Intelligence Architecture 27

Operational and Source Systems 28

Data Transfer: From Operational to Data Warehouse 31

The Data Warehouse 34

Data Warehouse Tables 37

The Data Warehouse Technology Platform 40

Big Data Technologies 45

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 49

3 The Business Intelligence Front-End: More Than a Pretty Face 51

Utopia: Self-Service BI 52

Business Query and Reporting 53

Visual Data Discovery 56

Dashboards 60

Scorecards 62

Production Reporting 63

Mobile BI 64

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) 65

Microsoft Office 68

Performance Management 69

Analytic Applications 71

Advanced and Predictive Analytics 72

Big Data Analytics 73

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 73

4 Measures of Success 75

Success and Business Impact 75

How to Measure Success 79

Measures of Success at Netflix 80

Measures of Success at Learning Circle 82

Measures of Success at Constant Contact 83

Return on Investment 85

Anecdotes of Hard Business Benefits 87

Number of Users 87

Other Measures of Success 92

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 93

5 Catalysts for Success: The LOFT Effect 95

The Role of Luck 95

Opportunity 100

Frustration 109

Threat 113

The Role of Time 116

If There Is No LOFT Effect, Is Successful BI Still Possible? 117

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 119

6 Executive Support and Culture 121

Executive Support and Success 121

Which Executive Is the Best Sponsor? 123

The Role of an Executive Sponsor 126

Getting and Keeping Executive Buy-In 128

Culture 131

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 138

7 The Business-IT Partnership 139

Voices of Frustration … and Hope 139

The Business-IT Yin-Yang 141

Meet the Hybrid Business-IT Person 144

How to Be a Better Partner 146

Partnership and BI Success 149

Partnership at Netflix 150

Alignment 152

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 155

8 D Is for Data 157

Data Breadth 158

Data Quality 159

Successful Data Architectures 169

Master Data Management 171

Right-Time Data 175

Data Quality's Chicken and Egg 178

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 180

9 Relevance 181

Relevance Brings Clearer Vision 182

Relevance Improves Patient Care 183

Relevance for Teachers 188

The Role of Incentives 189

Personalization 190

Requirements-Driven BI 191

What to Do with Big Data 191

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 193

10 Agile Development 195

Waterfall Development Process 195

Agile Development Techniques 201

Basic Concepts of Scrum 204

Agile Culture at Netflix 210

Medtronic: Agile for the Right Projects 211

Sharper BI at 1-800 CONTACTS 213

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 213

11 Organizing for Success 215

Enterprise vs. Departmental BI 215

The BI Steering Committee 223

Business Intelligence Competency Centers (BICC) 224

The Best People 229

BI Team Leaders as Level 5 Leaders 230

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 231

12 The Right BI Tool for the Right User 233

The Importance of BI Tools 236

The Role of BI Standardization 237

The Right Tool for the Right User 243

Characteristics for Defining User Segments 244

The Most Successful BI Module 252

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 255

13 Other Secrets to Success 257

Innovation 257

Evangelizing and Promoting Your BI Capabilities 261

Training 268

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Numbers 270

Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence 273

14 The Future of Business Intelligence 275

Improvement and Innovation Priorities 275

BI Search & Text Analytics 281

Collaboration 283

E-mail and Microsoft Office Integration 285

Will Hadoop Kill the Data Warehouse? 286

Privacy in the Age of Big Data 287

Evolving Your Capabilities 288

Words of Wisdom 289

Appendix A Successful BI Survey Demographics 293

Appendix B Recommended Resources 297

Notes 299

Index 309