1 @Kognitio

Your MicroStrategy –only BETTER.  (A Retail Case Study) 

Nigel SanctuaryVP, Business Analytics

@NigelSanctuary

2 @Kognitio

The need for speed should be obvious, but a lot of Big Data projects produce stale insights 

because managers have forgotten the importance of 

“time to insight.” 

#BigData @BW

3 @Kognitio

• Kognitio is an in‐memory analytical platform that can underlie any BI Tool to enable it to do complex ad‐hoc analytics on comprehensive data sets with real‐time performance on Big Data.  

• Nigel Sanctuary is VP Business Analytics at Kognitio.  He has a history working in fashion retail, credit cards and management consulting.

#BIAccel

4 @Kognitio

Contents

• Case Study Background• Case Study: Inter‐MicroStrategy Solutions • Plan for the Future• Building a BI Center of Excellence• Data Scientists and MicroStrategy

5 @Kognitio

A Case Study

Their Industry Challenges for Challenges for 

the industry

BI innovations are the sources of competitive advantage, so no names

Development of Technology

6 @Kognitio

The Industry

Wonderful World of

Retail

#Retail

Margins,

Competition, 

Rapidly changing consumer trends

7 @Kognitio

The Business of BI in Retail

» Ergonomics

»Merchandising

» Specialist Customer Services

#Retail

8 @Kognitio

New Analytical Challenges in Retail

• Rapidly changing trends• Huge product lines & categories• Shifting price points & promotional mixes• Internet retailers are better at this (?)

#Retail

9 @Kognitio

Technology Challenges in Retail

»Transaction Volume & Variety

»Growing User Community

»New Distribution »Data Richness

#Retail

10 @Kognitio

Forcing the Change

• New data, • Large data, • Derived data, • Processed data, • Extra sources, • Temporary sources, • Velocity of data

• Warehouse structures, • Reports structures,• Performance structures • Drill anywhere, 

• Train of thought, • Monitoring in crises

11 @Kognitio

Case Study

Intelligent Cubes Cloud Mobile Visualization

#MSTRWorld

Broader access, bigger user community, flexible scale, low disruption

12 @Kognitio

39%

18%

22%

29%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

MicroStrategy IBM Cognos SAP Business Objects Others

Source: IMTS; N=179

In Good CompanyAmong US Retailers & CPG companies, 

MicroStrategy is the most popular BI & Reporting Tool

More info: www.kognitio.com/survey

13 @Kognitio

Business Operations

Hadoop Cloud

Analysis Application

DBA/ETL Application

Switch

Switch

Data Warehouse

SpecialistReport Server

BI MSTR Users

Data Scientists

Marketing & Merchandising

Operational Monitoring

Forecasting

Consumer Servicing

#MSTRWorld

14 @Kognitio

Forcing the Change

15 @Kognitio

Forcing the Change: Future‐proofing

• The upside: Big Teradata environments

• Big Netezza environments

• MicroStrategy Web

• MicroStrategy I Cubes

• Drill Anywhere functions

• Distributed Data Marts

16 @Kognitio

The Roadblocks

Hadoop Cloud Analysis 

ApplicationDBA/ETL 

Application

Switch

Switch

SpecialistReport Server

Data Scientists

BI MSTR users

#MSTRWorld

Data Warehouse

17 @Kognitio

Operating Vision

Cloud

Hadoop Cloud

Switch

Switch

SpecialistReport Server

BI MSTR users

Data Scientists

Marketing & Merchandising

Operational Monitoring

Forecasting

Consumer Servicing

#MSTRWorld

Analysis Application

DBA/ETL Application

Data Warehouse

Mobile BI

18 @Kognitio

Some Architectural Considerations

• Role of the Data Warehouses

• Proliferation of data uses

• Enterprise MicroStrategy:i‐Cubes and Server

• Other tools: ETL, Data science

Data use multiplication

#EDW

19 @Kognitio

The Solution Architecture

Cloud

Hadoop Cloud Analysis 

ApplicationDBA/ETL 

Application

Switch

Switch

Data Warehouse

SpecialistReport Server

BI MSTR Users

Data Scientists

#MSTRWorld

20 @Kognitio

Business Challenge

Cloud

Hadoop Cloud Analysis 

ApplicationDBA/ETL 

Application

Switch

Switch

SpecialistReport Server

BI MSTR Users

Data Scientists

Marketing & Merchandising

Operational Monitoring

Forecasting

Consumer Servicing

#MSTRWorld

Data Warehouse

Mobile BI

21 @Kognitio

Solution Challenges

» Development challenges

» Complexity of new service

» Interruptions to speed

22 @Kognitio

So, What of the Future?

23 @Kognitio

Actual Future‐Proofing

• Specializing analytics• MicroStrategy still at the user level• Integrating analytics with MicroStrategy Reporting

24 @Kognitio

Traditional Data 

WarehouseStorage

Analytics

Persist data

Process data 

#Analytics

25 @Kognitio

Storage

Analytics

DWHadoop

DBs & Data Marts

Analytics

#Analytics

Analytics

26 @Kognitio

User level model access(“what if” modelling stored for 

instant re‐use)

Dynamic Decision Support

The Roadmap

Detailed Analytical 

Environment

Limit cube proliferation

Enable full“Drill Anywhere” 

Solve ‘Big Data’ issue

Separate Analytics for Current Reporting

High‐Performance Consumer Service

27 @Kognitio

Productivity Improvements

Data Scientists

Business Intelligence Analysts Report Enthusiasts

• Train‐of‐Thought• Throughput of modelling stages

• Faster Processing of data prep.

• Embedded calculation in MicroStrategy

• Connection to business community

• Analytics away from the workstation

• Fewer aggregates• Greater dimensional and metric granularity

• Return to drill anywhere

• Access to the analysts

• Drill Anywhere for the first time

• Mobile, mobile, mobile

• No more paper• Better visualisation

• Access to analytics not just reports

Near‐lineStorage(optional)

Center for Business Intelligence

Enterprise DataWarehouse

OperationalData Stores

Analytical Storage

Application Reporting

Hadoop Clusters

Campaign ManagementWeb Management

WorkforceManagement

CategoryManagement

Promotions

Loyalty Management Promotion Management

E‐mail/Social mediaLoyalty points bonuses

EPOS Connections

EPOS 

Connections

Operational Data

Operational Data

Status

#BIAccel

ModelVisualize

Manage

Score

See

29 @Kognitio

Business Challenge

Cloud

Hadoop Cloud Analysis 

ApplicationDBA/ETL 

Application

Switch

Switch

SpecialistReport Server

BI MSTR Users

Data Scientists

Marketing & Merchandising

Operational Monitoring

Forecasting

Consumer Servicing

Mobile BI

#MSTRWorld

Data Warehouse

30 @Kognitio

Data Scientist

The Analytical Enterprise

Business Analyst

Systems Admin

#DataSci

31 @Kognitio

Key: “Graduation”

Projects will need to graduate from the 

Data Science Lab & become part of Business as Usual

#DataSci

Analytical Platform

Follow @Kognitio ∙   Look for #AnalyticsNews

See us at booth #501!