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Chapter 2 - Video # 2

What is Business Intelligence?

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Chapter 2: Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing with SSASCourse: SQL Server 2008/R2 Analysis ServicesCourse Id: 165Presented by Scott Whigham

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• Overview of Chapter

• Defining Business Intelligence

• BI and SQL Server

• OLTP vs. OLAP

• “Where should I put my data warehouse?”

• Multi-dimensional databases

• Data Mining

• What is Analysis Services?

• New Features in SSAS 2008

Business Intelligence

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• Business Intelligence is one of the hottest buzzwords/terms around– “BI”

– Closely followed by the term “Data warehouse”

– So what is it?

Business Intelligence

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• BI is getting the right information into the right people’s hands in a format that allows them to understand the data quickly

Business Intelligence

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• BI:… is not just about decision support

… is not a methodology

… is not just about the tools used to make decisions

… is not SQL Server, Analysis Services, Reporting Services, or Integration Services

… does not require a data warehouse or data mart

Business Intelligence

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• Definitions of Business Intelligence from around the web:– “BI refers to skills, processes, technologies, applications and practices

used to support decision making.” – Wikipedia

– “BI is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions.” – TechTarget.com

– “BI is an umbrella term that refers to a variety of software applications used to analyze an organization’s raw data. BI as a discipline is made up of several related activities, including data mining, online analytical processing, querying and reporting.” – CIO.com

Business Intelligence

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• BI needs by position

Business Intelligence

Executive

Upper Manager

Middle Manager

Lower Manager

Team Lead

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• Another look at BI needs by position– Focus this time is on initial level of detail needed

Business Intelligence

Team Lead

Lower Manager

Middle Manager

Upper Mgr

Exec

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• A typical BI implementation might consist of:– Data entry system(s)

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• Ticketing system

• Defect tracking system

• Order entry

• Website registration/shopping cart

– Data warehouse

– Enterprise reporting system

– Training on how to use reporting system

Business Intelligence

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• BI is also about monitoring change– Identifying lagging/growing products and why

– Understanding context behind the numbers

– Identifying trends in quality control, marketing, etc

– Identifying progress towards organization goals

Business Intelligence

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• As a company:– We want to react to changes

• Economic and market conditions

• Competitors’ pricing/features/products

– We also want to cause change

• Change customer buying habits/behavior

• Disrupt market with new pricing, features, etc

• Implementing new quality control tools/procedures

Business Intelligence

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• Remember: BI is getting the right information into the right people’s hands in a format that allows them to understand the data quickly– It’s about helping management understand where

to make the right changes

– It’s about helping management understand which changes are having the best/most/least impact

Business Intelligence

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• The best companies:– Put more money into those projects which have

the best payoff/ROI

– Kill off/lessen projects that have little to no ROI

• BI helps companies of all sizes identify these quickly and efficiently

Business Intelligence

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• A small company CEO may run the business by “gut feeling”– Decisions are often made based on past personal

experiences of the CEO

– Decisions are often not made based on facts

– Reacting to and causing change is often based on anecdotal evidence or gut feeling

Business Intelligence

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• Larger company CEOs must have buy-in from shareholders, investors, management, or even the press– Major decisions cannot be made by one person’s

gut feeling or experiences

– Such decisions require market analysis reports, trend analysis, data mining, etc

• Business Intelligence!

Business Intelligence

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• Before we go on to the next video– “Business intelligence” is an umbrella term that

attempts to cover a lot of ground

– Be wary of vendors who overuse the term…

• Many of the ideas/topics are so generic that almost anything can be under the umbrella of BI

Business Intelligence

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• Business Intelligence and SQL Server

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

Charles Darwin

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