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Awesome SQL Server conferences on your door step!
w: sqlrelay.co.uk t: @sqlrelay_uk
Who Watches the Watchmen?
The irony in business intelligence services who don’t know how they’re
doing
Data warehouse developer for NHS Wales ,MCTS 2005, MCTS
20008, MCP 2012
Richard (Griff) Griffiths
What are where here to do today?
• Agree the purpose of a business intelligence service• Frame measurable categories with respect to that
purpose• Prioritise our work with respect to business impact• Why is all this important?
A Very Brief History of IT
• I.T has to establish its worth to a non-I.T. business• Must demonstrate progression from support to
necessity • Easy to measure where technology has obvious
purpose• Increases products output, customer pool etc• But what is the purpose of business intelligence?
Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #1• Collect Data!• Ok here is some data…• 22• Here is another clue…• Datatype: Integer• Hmm…
• Conclusion• Collecting data alone
has no business value• Prerequisite to
something else…
Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #2• Provide Information!• Applies meaning to the
data• 22 is the temperature
outside in Cardiff in Celsius• I know something you
don’t know!• But… So?
• Conclusion• There is no realised
business benefit from just knowing something• We need to provide
more context to this knowledge
Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #3• Generate Intelligence• Intelligence summarises information into inferences• 22 is the temperature outside in Cardiff in Celsius,
plus• You are in Cardiff• It isn’t raining and the sky is clear• You have a box of sunglasses and a box of umbrellas
• Selling sunglasses would be an intelligent thing to do• But what is this intelligence without action?
Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #3• Conclusion• Business intelligence still has no tangible benefit• Businesses improved by actions not intelligence
alone
• So what is this action as a result of all our data collecting, information providing and intelligence generating…
Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #4 Answer! Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #4• Support Decisions• BI product is decisions• Actually using the
intelligence decide to sell sunglasses• Business examples• Buy shares• Target customers• Increase staff allocation
Purpose of Business Intelligence Answer• Conclusion• Supporting decisions has a business benefit• Good decisions cause business improvement• Small conceptual distance between intelligence and
decisions made, but makes huge difference• Need to ensure communicate with decision makers• Decision Support Service
Decision Support Service
• “Regardless of your organization’s specific DW/BI objectives, we believe an overarching team goal should be business acceptance of the DW/BI deliverables to support the business’ decision making. This target must remain in the forefront throughout the design, development, and deployment of your DW/BI system.”
KimballGroup
Decision Support Service
Decisions
Generate Intelligence
Provide Information
Data Collection
• Business value increases • Complexity increases• Human effort increases• Volume reduces• Currently ease of
automation reduces
Decision Support Service
• Supporting decisions is the BI services real goal• Frame current BI work with respect to decision
performance• Stimulates measurable indicators (KPIs)• Helps focus goals and effort• Helps prioritise work
Decision Support KPI Categories
Decisions
Reliable
Economical
Relevant
Fast
Successful
Predictable
Reliable Decisions
• Decisions must be based on reliable sources in order for them to be successful• Effort based primarily in
collecting data tier• Large volumes of low
complexity
• Key Terms• Data Quality• Consistency• Unbiased• Traceable• Representative
Reliable Decisions
KPIs• Data constraints• Valid data values• Consistent data values• Service errors
• Data volumes• Data /objects described
Recommendations• Expend effort on
prevention• Automate as this is
simple but large quantities• Reduce duplication• Audit metadata
Economical Decisions
• Service should not exceed its worth • Across all decision
support areas• Understand the
decisions being made to procure most efficient resources
• Key Terms• Resource• Staffing• Hardware• Software• Time spent
Economical Decisions
KPIs• Staff cost per…• Hardware cost per…• Software cost per…
• Products per application
Recommendations• Understand what you
do so less wastage• Investigate open source
software• Reduce duplication of
data• Reduce duplication of
effort
Relevant Decisions
• The decisions being made must be relevant to the business• Decision support has to
keep up with the changing priorities of the business
• Key Terms• Importance• Customer contact• Business requirements• Business knowledge• Business impact• Development cycle• Service management• Changes• Project length
Relevant Decisions
KPIS• Release times• Number of changes• Length of backlog
Recommendations• Meet regularly with
customer (decision-makers)• Understand impact of
decisions• Small iterations and
often
Fast Decisions
• Faster decisions = more decisions• Obtaining data quickly
is in collecting data tier• Accessing and
understanding is in information and intelligence tiers
• Key Terms• Up to date• Real time• Understandable • Accessible• Obtainable • Intuitive • Described• Support
Fast Decisions
KPIS• ETL Times• Data warehouse query
times• Report response times• Support calls• Website / Portal
Navigation times
Recommendations• Expend on effort on
good design and automate creation• Good design improves
performance and understanding• Aim for self service
Successful Decisions
• Ultimately we need to know if decisions made were successful• Can be difficult due to
subjective nature• Usage of service could
be used as a proxy…
• Key Terms• Usage• Follow up• Impact• Satisfaction
Successful Decisions
KPIS• Number of users• User traffic• Customer satisfaction
feedback
Recommendations• Use the information
audit tools provide• Create a simple
satisfaction survey ASAP
Predictable Decisions
• If outcomes can be predicted then decisions more likely to be successful• Effort based primarily in
provide intelligence tier• Higher complexity
• Key Terms• Data Mining• Data Models• Statistics • Patterns• Data Science
Predictable Decisions
KPIs• Number of predictive
data models• Number of non-
predictive data models
Recommendations• Expend lots of human
effort here • Requires “data science” • Rewards are great
Decision Support KPI Categories
• We now have six attributes to broadly define the success of our decision support service• We now have KPIs for them and have used proxies
where neccessary• We have also targeted our customer – the decision
maker• But we have lots of decisions to support??
Prioritising Decisions
• Some decisions have more business impact than others• Business requirements not always in the form of a
decision• How do we determine what decisions are more
important? • How do we change business requirements into
decisions?
Prioritising Decisions
Prioritisation Factors• Weather closer to
where we live is more likely to affect decisions we make• Severe weather can
have life affecting consequences
Prioritising Decisions
Should I wear sunglasses today?
• Sunshine• Excessive squinting• Not looking cool• Low impact• Low frequency
Should I drive my car today?
• Wind & Rain• Delays• Death• High Impact• High frequency
Prioritising Decisions
Business Requirement• What customers buy
cars?
• Who has got flu?
• Get me staff data!
Decision Translation• Who should I target
with the new marketing campaign for fast cars?
• Where should I send flu treatment resources?
• Should I cut 30% of the
workforce?
Prioritising Decisions
• Our own lives suggest there is a way of prioritising decisions• Must understand potential outcomes of decisions
to determine the business impact• Decision support service work should be prioritised
based on this and so should its KPIs• Work may need to be done to translate business
requests into decisions
Why is it important to measure our decision support service?
• How can we sell the service we provide when we don’t use it ourselves? • We believe a good decision support service
improves decisions• We believe good decisions improve a service• Without improvement entropy is guaranteed
Why is it important to measure our decision support service?• Makes decision support workers aware of exactly
what they are doing and why
• “I am making decisions faster for flu patients”• “I am making decisions more reliable for staff
allocation”
• Decision support workers become independent and autonomously improve themselves
Why is it important to measure our decision support service?
• However…• Should never supersede actual business effort• Data should fall out if the correct processes and
infrastructure is in place• Bare minimum required as small skilled audience
Decision Support Service
• What your customers essentially want is a magic 8 ball
• The ultimate Decision Support Service!