Business Intelligence –

Turning Data into Profit

By: Ryan Rigby

Who am I? • 15+ years experience in Business Analysis, Product

Management, Project Management and Management

Consulting

• Past President of IIBA Vancouver Chapter

• Certified CBAP, PMP, Agile Scrum Master and Product

Owner

Key Learning Points

• What is Business Intelligence (BI)?

• The Business Intelligence Recipe

• Real World examples of Business Intelligence

• Visualizing Business Intelligence

• New Business Intelligence terms

What is BI?

Business Intelligence (BI)

The right information in the right context to the right person at the right time, which in turn, gives organizations the insight they need to achieve real business agility

Set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-making

Identifying key trends and patterns in your data that have the potential to unlock new growth opportunities, streamline processes and/or reduce costs

Impressions of BI

BI helps answer Business

Questions like…..

I know that half my advertising budget is being wasted but which half? –

Lord Leverhulme

Who are my customers?

Which of my customers are the most profitable?

Which of my customers with the least cost could I turn into more profitable customers?

Which of my products are the most profitable?

What are my highest costs?

Which costs can I cut and how, with the least impact?

How do we find the best employees?

What do our employees think of us?

What can we do to retain employees?

More reasons on why BI is

becoming so important today

• Evidence Based Decision Making

• Cloud Enablement

• Advancement of Analytics

• Companies who use BI have a 6% higher productivity

• 1.5M shortage of people in the US to support BI in the coming years

• From Wall Street Journal - 18th Sept 2013

• 44% of CIOs from Fortune 500 companies said that BI is one of their top priorities

• 51% of Fortune 500 companies plan to increase spending on BI in the next year

Is business intelligence just for

management? Strategic vs. Tactical

Strategic BI

• Historical Data Analysis

• Data Centric

• Future Oriented

• Typically involves the ‘thinkers’

in the company

Tactical BI

• Deals with the here and now

• Uses Real-Time Data

• Activity Centric

• Provides information to support decision making to

align with strategic goals

• Involves whole company

across all departments

Business Intelligence Done Right

Turns:

• Raw Data into Information

• Information into Knowledge

• Knowledge into Decisions

• Decisions into Profits

The Business Intelligence Recipe

Business Intelligence Recipe

Step 1 - Bring in your BA & PM (Team)

Business Intelligence Recipe

Step 2 - Identify and engage stakeholders across the

organization

Source: Alec Sharpe – Clariteq Systems Consulting Ltd.

Business Intelligence Recipe

Step 3 - Determine what Business Questions are we

trying to address?

Business Intelligence Recipe

Step 4 - Determine your metrics for answering the

business question

Business Intelligence Recipe

Step 5 – Determine your sources of raw data

Business Intelligence Recipe Step 5 – Determine your sources of raw data

Business Intelligence Recipe

Step 6 - Turn that Data into Information

Business Intelligence Recipe

Step 7 - Get the information in front of the Right Group

and Analyze it (Knowledge)

Business Intelligence Recipe

Step 8 - Identify and implement new changes

(Decisions)

Business Intelligence Recipe

Step 9 –

• Rinse & Repeat

• What else can we learn? Additional business

questions

BI Project Methodology How is a BI project different then a traditional project?

Business analysts have typically worked to a requirements-based model, answering clearly-defined business questions. BI however, demands a different approach, using opportunistic analytics and exploring answers to ill-formed or nonexistent questions. (Gartner)

Where is the value in BI?

Real World Examples - Airlines

• Average Airline profit margin 2% (run a loss 6yrs out of 9yrs)

• To buy –

• 737NG is $70M

• 787 costs is $210M

• To lease –

• 737NG - $250k+pm

• 787 - $750k+pm

• Airline issues -

• Maximizing Revenue

• Lowering Costs – Delays, Fuel, Maintenance

Real World Examples

• $82B in revenue, $4B in profit (2012)

• 172,000 employees

• 12,000 airplanes currently in service (75% world fleet)

• Production rate –

• 737 – 38 airplanes per month

• 787 – 10 airplanes per month

• 787 Program Cost (2011) $32B

• Boeing handled 1.1B parts last year

• 60 Petabytes (60k Terabytes) of data on its network

• 787 Battery Problem

Real World Examples – MEC

• 40 years old

• 4M Members

• Started in 1970 – 6 employees, $65 startup capital

• Today – 1,800 employees, 17 stores, $300M revenue

• New logo announced 18th June 2013

Real World Examples – Smarter

Cities • City of Oakland has used SeeClickFix

• IBM developed algorithms to identify efficiencies in municipal water provision

• Fehr & Peers has produced network simulations to inform the design and operation of transportation systems from Silicon Valley to Kunming, China

• UrbanVision 3D simulator to help the public more fully understand their choices for development

• Carnegie Mellon has campus-wide sensors for monitoring water, power, infrastructure, biometrics, and others systems.

• Oakland has implemented map based infographics for crimespotting.

• City of Minneapolis has a tool to integrate data streams for events, permits, incidents, and infrastructure.

Visualizing Data - Historically

Visualizing Data - Historically

Visualizing Data

Visualizing Data

Visualizing Data

Visualizing Data

Visualizing Data

Visualizing Data

Visualizing Data

Visualizing Data

Visualizing Data

Visualizing Data

BI Buzz Words – Big Data

Big Data is the term for a collection of data sets so large

and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-

hand database management tools or traditional data

processing applications. The challenges include capture,

curation, storage, search, sharing, transfer, analysis, and

visualization.

BI Buzz Words – Web Analytics

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis

and reporting of internet data for purposes of

understanding and optimizing web usage.

Web analytics is not just a tool for measuring web

traffic but can be used as a tool for business and market

research, and to assess and improve the effectiveness of

a web site.

BI Buzz Words – Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics encompasses a variety of techniques

from statistics, modeling, machine learning (learning

engines), and data mining that analyze current and historical

facts to make predictions about future, or otherwise

unknown, events

Review

• What is BI?

• BI Recipe

• BI Real World Examples

• Ways to visualize complex data

• BI terms

BI Recipe

Steps

1. Bring in your team

2. Identify and engage your stakeholders

3. Identify which business questions to address

4. Identify your metrics

5. Identify sources of raw data

6. Turn the data into information

7. Share the information with the right group (knowledge)

8. Make Decisions

9. Review – Did our profits increase? What other questions can we ask?

Final Thoughts

• BI does not show what one is not doing

• Data offers no knowledge about potential markets where a

company does not yet compete, human intuition and

experience still play key roles.

• You must continue to ask the right questions and, if

necessary, seek out data you don’t already have.

Questions?

Contact Information

info@flightpathconsulting.ca

www.flightpathconsulting.ca

www.vancouverba.com

@ryan_rigby

www.linkedin.com/in/rigbyryan

Sources

http://DavidHubbard.net/