This feed provides the new pages added on the domain of Business Intelligence http://www.bipminstitute.com/rss_business_intelligence.xml http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Mon, 4 Feb 2008 11:06:20 +0530 Mon, 4 Feb 2008 11:01:55 +0530 One of the biggest issues of data quality in this ever increasing world of inter-connected systems. Data exchange across the system needs controls at a record, file, application and database level." http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-quality/interface-exchange.php ABA Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Customer data can be enriched by using internal heuristics as well as by gathering field data. http://www.bipminstitute.com/customer-data/quality-augmentation-enrichment.php ACD Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 While the previous topic are at conceptual level, this topic dwells upon the practical tips on how to firm-up your plan and how to get it finalized with business stakeholders." http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-quality-program/approach-finalization.php AEF Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Warehouse initiative is more challenging as compared to a transactional system. You better read it to understand what you are in for.. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-warehouse/challenge-issues.php DAD Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Dimensional model has to address some complex situations liked slowly changing dimensions. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-warehouse/slowly-changing-dimension-SCD.php DDE Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Designing the transformation process including standardizing, integrating, cleansing, augmenting, aggregating and creating the data sets for loading into the repository." http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-warehouse/etl-transformation-design.php DFD Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Warehouse/ Data Mart form the sanitized repository of Data which can be accessed for various purposes. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/data-warehouse-vs-data-mart.php ZAC Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This scenario has a Data Warehouse supplying to Data Marts. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/staging-data-warehouse-datamart.php ZBD Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Each of the architectures has its own context and relevance. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/olap-architecture-choice.php ZCD Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This page provides various data management related issues related to Sales Compensation http://www.bipminstitute.com/sales/compensation-data-management.php ODH Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This page gives you the typical capability for a sales compensation management system http://www.bipminstitute.com/sales/compensation-system.php ODI Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Sales channel management can be fairly tricky in terms of data quality, because the systems keeping the sales channel data range from the core systems to field systems. http://www.bipminstitute.com/sales/channel-data-management.php OGG Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This page gives the list of measures, KPIs and Dimensions linked to Sales compensation. You can use this list to work on your dimensional models, and reports designs http://www.bipminstitute.com/sales/compensation-analysis.php ODG Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This topic provides a high level concept of OLAP and also on how it fits into BI frame-work. It provides different OLAP options and also shared that OLAP is a layer between Data Warehouse and BI end-user tools. http://www.bipminstitute.com/OLAP/olap-in-business-intelligence.php HAA Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 These are the methods of moving horizontally and vertically with in the dimensional structure of Data-warehouse and OLAP. This term is more used in context with OLAP, because typically various End-user Business Intelligence tools sit on top of OLAP, which in turn sits over Data-Warehouse. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-analysis/drill-cross-navigation-analysis.php HCA Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Like other analysis types covered in the chapter, Filtration analysis essentially allows you to place filters for your queries. Applying filter can be seen both for "exclusion" or "selecting specific values for inclusion". In simplistic way, filtering can be equivalent to "where" clause of an SQL query. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-analysis/filtration-analysis.php HCF Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Slicing means taking out the slice of a cube, given certain set of select dimension (product), and value (home furnishings..) and measures (sales value, sales units..). Dicing means viewing the slices from different angles. For example -Revenue for different products within a given state or revenue for different states for a given product. One form of Slicing and Dicing is called pivoting. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-analysis/bi-slice-dice.php HCG Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 What-if analysis is essentially scenario building capability of OLAP. You can draw a straight parallel of what-if analysis in MS Excel, with more sophisticated capabilities in OLAP. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-analysis/what-if.php HFA Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Allocation Engines is another differentiator for OLAP vs Data Warehouse. Simplistically-It allows the users to automatically allocate or in other words "split" the value into multiple values. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-analysis/allocation-engine-analysis.php HFB Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Goal-Seek is What-if analysis in OLAP, but of a reverse order. In a typical What-if analysis, A Calculation model takes a set of input values, to give the set of out-put values. Each different set of these "input and output value combinations" is called a what-if analysis scenario. Depending upon your needs you can build different scenarios of input values, and you can apply those scenarios on the calculation model, and generate the output values. Here we are traveling from input values to output values. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-analysis/goal-seek.php HFC Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 The subject of hierarchies is relevant to both OLAP and Data Warehousing/Marting. Modeling of data is done, both in DW and OLAP, keeping the hierarchies in mind. However, OLAP is the platform where the hierarchies are manifested in their final shape for the purpose of analysis. http://www.bipminstitute.com/OLAP/data-warehouse-olap-hierarchy.php HGA Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Simple or strict hierarchy is the simplest form of business Hierarchies. http://www.bipminstitute.com/OLAP/dimensional-simple-hierarchy.php HGB Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Non-Strict hierarchy has one similarity and one non-similarity with strict hierarchies. A non-strict hierarchy has one level in a hierarchy path to be having only one parent level. However an instance (or member or value) in a level could belong to multiple instances in the parent level. http://www.bipminstitute.com/OLAP/Business-non-strict-hierarchy.php HGC Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Multiple path hierarchies have a dimensional level belong to two different dimensional levels. However the criteria of analysis is same across the multiple paths. http://www.bipminstitute.com/OLAP/multiple-path-hierarchy.php HGD Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Parallel Hierarchies are most flexible hierarchy paths http://www.bipminstitute.com/OLAP/parallel-path-hierarchy.php HGE Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Additivity and correct aggregation methods application is fundamental to the success of Business Intelligence. The most common mistakes the modelers and designers make is on - Setting the Right Hierarchies AND Establishing Right Additivity and aggregation rules. You need to go through the chapter of business dimensional hierarchies, before you go through this chapter. Additivity of a measure is when you are able to apply the sum operator across all the dimensions. Other aggregations on measures-facts are when you use operators like Average, Maximum and Minimum. http://www.bipminstitute.com/OLAP/measure-facts-additivity.php HHA Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Non-Additivity is that when you cannot use a sum operator to generate the needed aggregation. http://www.bipminstitute.com/OLAP/non-additive-measures-facts.php HHB Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Semi-Additivity is when you can have a measure aggregated on a certain dimension, but not all the dimensions. Another phrase for semi-additivity is when you have the summarization with an index of in-accuracy. http://www.bipminstitute.com/OLAP/semi-additive-measures-facts.php HHC Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business Intelligence Management covers the entire gamut of activities to enable end-to-end BI. This page lists the activities under BI management. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/BI-management.php ZDA WED, 2 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business Intelligence has wide range of skills requirements, with uniform demands from Business, Process, Technology and HR. This page gives the list of typical roles, responsibilities and skills required. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/organization-roles.php ZDB WED, 2 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Building a business-case for stand-alone, departmental data-mart is relatively easy. However, to build a business case for enterprise level BI, including the investments in foundation elements like meta-data repository, does become challenging. This page provides few methods to build the business-case for enterprise level BI. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/business-case.php ZDC WED, 2 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 A great OLTP vendor, may not be a successful BI vendor unless there are some significant shifts in capabilities and mind-set are made. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/vendor-evaluation.php ZDD WED, 2 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This page provides the building blocks of analytics and performance measurement for sales campaign management http://www.bipminstitute.com/sales/campaign-business-intelligence-Analysis.php OED Thu, 3 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This page provides various data quality issues which could arise in sales campaign management, and possible solutions. http://www.bipminstitute.com/sales/campaign-data-management.php OEE Thu, 3 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This page provides definition of metadata and tries to provide clarity on metadata management context. Metadata management is not only a BI subject, but an overall data management subject, serving whole of the organization. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata/definition-concept.php BAA Wed, 9 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Metadata has a wide range of benefit. It works on building productivity, enhancing data quality and cost saving on business activities and to reduce the redundancies. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata/objective-purpose.php BAB Wed, 9 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Technical metadata includes all the details on all layers of the systems both at physical and logical level. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata/technical.php BAC Wed, 9 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business metadata is capturing details about an organization out of the boundaries of IT systems. It also has the details on the business specs which define the IT systems. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata/business.php BAD Wed, 9 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Metadata is recorded at different level of details and also from different perspectives. The level of detail ranges from the contextual level to implementation level. The type of metadata includes functional, timing, location, ownership etc.. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata/detail-levels.php BAE Wed, 9 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Both Metadata Management and Master-data management are data management initiatives. They have a close link with BI, but their sole purpose is not BI alone. They serve BI and also gain from BI. However, transactional systems have an equal stake on MDM and Metadata. http://www.bipminstitute.com/master-data-management/MDM-vs.-business-intelligence-vs.-metadata.php BAF Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 A true big-bang enterprise metadata is a failed dream. With advancement of technology world is moving towards multiple metadata repositories linked through a hub and spoke model. The hub and spoke model can work as a federated model or a true metadata warehouse. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata/metadata-architecture.php BAG thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Customer segmentation analysis has to manage the internal data on existing customers as well as the external data on prospects. The external data has a challenge of being dirty and in diverse formats. Most of the data management issues are linked to managing the external data. http://www.bipminstitute.com/customer/segmentation-data-management.php NAE thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Customer segmentation related analysis does not have an urgency of running a business. Therefore, it may be missed out in comparison to sales analysis or supply chain analysis. Once segmentation is done, it is done again after a gap of at least a year. A regular analysis, will help you to validate your assumptions and also throw some signals on how the customers are moving across the segments. http://www.bipminstitute.com/customer/segmentation-BI.php NAF thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Customer value and profitability data is not a production data in true sense, but it still needs to be well integrated with the production data related to the customers. This is needed so that we can track the progress on customer value, post our actions to enhance the same. We also need to keep on re-validating the linkage between the customer value and customer parameters. http://www.bipminstitute.com/customer/value-profitability-data.php NDC thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 The key areas of analytics are to validate the co-relation between the customer parameters and customer value, building predictive analysis on impact of your actions on customer value and finally tracking the actual impact of your actions on customer value. http://www.bipminstitute.com/customer/value-profitability-BI.php NDD thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Metadata standards encompass metadata models, naming conventions, data standards within Metadata, metadata exchange standards and semantic layer. The concept of metadata standards is similar to any business system. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata/standards.php BBB thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Most of the ETL concepts of Metadata are same as that of a data warehouse. In this page, we will focus on providing examples and tips which are specific to Metadata. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata/extraction-transformation-loading.php BBC thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 A single all-enterprise physical metadata repository is found to be non-feasible. There are other architecture topologies which are more practical. Examples are Metadata warehouse, federated metadata and two way metadata. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata/architecture-scenarios.php BBD thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Single customer view is key to doing any kind of analysis on CSR. Another challenge is the customer feedback and survey data which can be incomplete and also descriptive. Either way it is recommended to having frequent gathering of customer feedback. http://www.bipminstitute.com/customer/satisfaction-retention-data.php NBB thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 You can do analysis to define the focus areas for Customer Satisfaction and Retention. http://www.bipminstitute.com/customer/satisfaction-retention-BI.php NBC thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 MDM provides a single reference point for reliable and authoritative Master Data. It is a foundation data management capability which serves business applications and processes. BI is one among its linkages. Customer Data Integration, Product Information Management and Vendor Information Management are among many domains of MDM. http://www.bipminstitute.com/master-data-management/MDM-concept.php CAA Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 MDM objectives include Data Quality, Standardization, Single point of reference and high availability. MDM components are centered on integrating master data in MDM-Hub. http://www.bipminstitute.com/master-data-management/CDI-objectives-components.php CAB Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Architecture and modeling principles of MDM are based on achieving flexibility, extensibility, open computing framework, de-coupling the information flow, and highly secure environment. http://www.bipminstitute.com/master-data-management/CDI-architecture-modeling.php CAC Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This topic list all the distinct tool categories and provide clear differences across the categories and their interlinkageshttp://www.bipminstitute.com/vendor-evaluation/Business-Intelligence-tool.phpYAATue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Licensing regimes can be confusing and mis-leading. Take a complete long term view of the licensing cost, while protecting your intellectual property rights."http://www.bipminstitute.com/vendor-evaluation/commercial-licensing-IPR.phpYEATue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Pain of large investment in a tool, can be reduced by creative billing methods."http://www.bipminstitute.com/vendor-evaluation/commercial-billing-structure.phpYEBTue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Sponsorships to initiatives become easier if there is low upfront cost.http://www.bipminstitute.com/vendor-evaluation/commercial-pre-implementation.phpYECTue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Cost effective of post implementation can significantly impact the long term TCO (Total cost of ownership)http://www.bipminstitute.com/vendor-evaluation/commercial-post-implementation.phpYEDTue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This is a high level list of the architecture level features for Enterprise Reporting Toolshttp://www.bipminstitute.com/enterprise-reporting/multi-layer-architecture.phpY1AATue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 These are the server level administrative features on how an enterprise reporting tool manages the load, process logs and the cache."http://www.bipminstitute.com/enterprise-reporting/load-log-cache.phpY1ABTue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 These are the features related to development of enterprise report by report developers.http://www.bipminstitute.com/enterprise-reporting/explorer-design-development.phpY1ACTue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 These are the enterprise reporting server level features for publishing, scheduling and delivery of reports."http://www.bipminstitute.com/enterprise-reporting/delivery-management.phpY1ADTue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 The ability for an enterprise reporting tool to connect to other platforms and the methods of connectivity.http://www.bipminstitute.com/enterprise-reporting/server-connectivity.phpY1AETue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 These are the reporting objects used by developers, designers and super users."http://www.bipminstitute.com/enterprise-reporting/report-objects.phpY1BATue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 These are the end user features to be used by the super users or end-users.http://www.bipminstitute.com/enterprise-reporting/end-user-features.phpY1BBTue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 These are the various features to enables the end-users to view the reports.http://www.bipminstitute.com/enterprise-reporting/viewer-feature.phpY1BCTue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Cache management is a key differentiator to the response time to the queries demand on an OLAP server.It also has a bearing on RAM usage and network traffic load. http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/server-architecture-cache.php Y2AA Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 There is an ever changing need environment around OLAP, which drives changes in the dimensions, levels, attributes and measures. An OLAP should be able to handle these changes in terms of speed and controls. http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/tool-dimensional-model-change.php Y2AB Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 An OLAP tool should be able allow you navigate across the cubes, if the two cubes share a common dimension. http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/multi-cube-architecture.php Y2AC Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "User write-back is a facility which helps users to perform what-if analysis and business modeling using OLAP server capabilities. This is done without impacting the real data lying in the Data-Warehouse. This feature is a unique differentiator between Data Warehouse and OLAP. http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/server-write-backs.php Y2AD Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This pages talks about the scalability from user point of view. The scalability and performance is not only dependent upon the OLAP server tool, but also on the way it is designed and configured. http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/server-scalability.php Y2BA Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 A common problem with OLAP databases is data explosion- which essentially means that data size multiplies, when it is loaded from the source Data into OLAP.This is because of aggregations, indexes and sparse cubes. This page covers on the tricks an OLAP tool may use to manage data explosion. http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/handling-data-explosion.php Y2BB Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 OLAP Database and Data model tuning are two different subjects. However, they are closely linked to deliver an adequate response time and performance, while maintaining an optimum database size. In this page, we are going to talk about the Database Tuning. http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/server-database-tuning.php Y2CA Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 As mentioned in the previous topic page, there are two kinds of tuning you can do around OLAP Database. One is the database Tuning (as covered in the previous topic), and one is the Database Structure/model tuning. This tuning has to do with changes in the dimensions, attributes, levels (as in hierarchy paths), the level of aggregations, pre-calculated v/s stored vs on-line aggregations and the data-cut across OLAP and Data-warehouse (what we call Hybrid OLAP- the combination of MOLAP and ROLAP). http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/dimensional-model-tuning.php Y2CB Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This page shared the fail-safe and recoverability of an OLAP server to ensure high availability. http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/server-reliability.php Y2BC Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 OLAP performance management topic identifies the performance management areas, linked to maximizing the utilization and distribution across the resources. http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/server-performance-management.php Y2BD Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 An OLAP server should be providing wide and friendly set of administrative capabilities in terms of Administrative console, integration with 3rd party resource administration tools etc. http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/server-administration.php Y2CC Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 OLAP Server security encompasses various objects and data elements. This ranges from the cell level security to the task based security. http://www.bipminstitute.com/olap/server-security.php Y2CD Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Metadata tool should be able to support different Metadata architecture at logical and physical level. Having a web-enabled architecture (and not only a web front-end is must). Having technical partnership with various source system tools and other metadata repository tools helps. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata-tools/repository-architecture-features.php Y3AA Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Being able to exchange metadata and provide seamless access is the most important feature of a metadata repository tool. The biggest hurdle so far in evolution of metadata market is limitation of the diverse tools and technologies to link-up with each-other. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata-tools/repository-access-sharing.php Y3AB Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 A good metadata tool has open framework, whereby it has plug-in which can be used to do administration and management. The administration and management includes change management, logical configuration, physical configuration, user authorization and security. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata-tools/administration-security.php Y3AC Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 A Metadata tool should provide adequate support for metadata projects, change management, metadata models and ease of use. http://www.bipminstitute.com/metadata-tools/change-management.php Y3AD Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "This template is used across various stages of any business or technology initiative, to ensure that DQ considerations are part of the requirements as well as the solution." http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-quality-method-level-project-tracking.php " 207 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This is the tracking as well as a sign-off sheet for implementation of Data Warehouse initiative http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-warehouse-deployment-readiness.php " 217 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This is the questions checklist for the interview http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-warehouse-business-requirement-interview.php " 218 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This is matrix is used in dimensional modeling to map data marts against the fact table grain for the data mart. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-mart-fact-table-grain-matrix.php " 220 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This is used to validate if the dimensional modelling phase is completed http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/dimensional-model-completion.php " 221 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This template is used for producing the final report at the end of business requirement gathering phase in Data Warehouse initiative. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/source-system-mapping-matrix.php " 227 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This work-tool provides a single access and management point for mapping and tracking all Data Management related linkages and roles responsible for managing these entities. The linkages are defined across the functions, systems, processes and data-groups. This mapping inventory is must for driving any data-management (Data Quality, Metadata, Master Data Management, Data Integration, Data Conversion...) and Business Intelligence Initiatives. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-management-stakeholding-matrix.php 898 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This work-tool is used to track the data quality assurance at object level (Data Exchange Interfaces, Input forms, Batch-processes, Data Entities...), through the Analyze, Design and deployment phases of a project. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/detailed-data-quality-tracking-project-based.php 900 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Quality Assurance Checklist is used to ascertain the level of readiness and capabilities within a project, in terms of its adherence to Data Quality Assurance methods. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-quality-in-initiative-checklist.php 901 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This checklist enables a consistency and completeness of data monitoring activities. It contains the Data Monitoring imperatives for planning, design and execution. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-monitoring-checklist.php 906 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 The Data Correction Checklist enables a discipline, control and consistency in conducting 'back-end' data corrections. As the back-end data corrections are risky, they have to be well-planned and tested, before executing them in production environment. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-correction-checklist.php 907 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This work-tool enables you to maintain a centralized inventory for the state of Data Quality assurance in all 'Key' objects. The reason , we are saying key elements, is that sometimes it is not humanly possible to have inventory of all the input forms and data elements, and all the data entities. From a practical perspective, an organization may select top 500 odd objects with in each business domain. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/detailed-bau-data-quality-tracking.php 908 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This tool is a single point work tool, once you start getting the results out of your DMA exercise in the execution phase. It enables you to capture the results, expectations and quality standards, gap assessment, gap rating, potential root-causes, which finally leads to a universal DQ gap list. This tool helps you during the initiation phase to list out the rules and the validations you want to run http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-mapping-assessment-management.php 909 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This work-tool is used to provide you a structure, guidelines and examples of the text, to present a Data Quality Initiation Proposal. Data Quality initiation phase is relatively as elongated one, as you typically do a comprehensive data quality assessment, root-cause analysis and possible solution-set finding, during this initiation phase, so that you have a clarity on how much its going to take to fix DQ gaps. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-quality-program-initiation-proposal.php 913 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This work-tool enables you to capture the system DQ assessment results, gap analysis, gap prioritization, solution listing and assignment of the Gap to the centralized DQ gap management tool. This work tool is to manage a given scope of systems, which you want to assess for data quality. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-quality-assessment-management.php 915 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This work-tool gives you a template, guidelines and text example for creating a DQ program agreement, once Data Quality Initiation Phase completion report is reviewed and signed off by the stakeholders, and we have a clarity on the scope of DQ program, which is going to be funded. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-quality-program-proposal-agreement.php 916 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This work-tool provides the structure, guidelines and text examples for creating the DQ program initiation completion report. In the whole DQ program WBS, this is the most critical deliverable. It provides the overall results and analysis of the current state of data quality and DQ assurance of the systems and processes, within the scope of DQ program. It provides the solutions, recommendation and proposed game-plan, resources and funding needs. This deliverable is the final input the stakeholders need to take a decision on how much resources they want to deploy for the DQ program. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-quality-program-initiation-phase-completion-report.php 917 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Quality Program WBS provides a comprehensive list of activities, which build-up a DQ program. One can use this list of activities to crearte a DQ program plan. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-quality-program-wbs.php 918 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This work-tool provides the template, guidelines and the text examples to create a universal and central reference for all data related definitions and standards. For example having a universal standard data-model for 'customer entity' or a domain value standard set for locations etc...This reference document is the foundation to bring in the consistency on the way we store, interpret and define our data. An organization needs to provide the universal definition and standards to people building systems and processes. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-management-standards-entities.php 921 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data quality policy can be like a clause in the constitution of the company, which help people take tough calls in the moments of Devil's alternative. The purpose of this work-tool is to provide you all the possible headings and example text for a data quality policy which suits your function. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-quality-policy.php 922 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Quality Assurance Management Guidelines, is the central reference point to understand the Data Quality Assurance mechanisms and controls. These are the mechanisms one needs to incorporate, while designing the IT systems and business processes. This document forms and annexure to the Data Quality Policy. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-quality-assurance-control-guidelines.php 923 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 While in a typical system landscape of an organization, there is documentation of individual data entities at a system level (for example data Model documentation for ERP system) available. Most of this documentation is of IT interest (though the logical data model should be owned and specified by the business). As you set of data quality frame-work, one needs to identify the business owners and business custodians of data-groups. This is from the DQ practice principle that business needs to own the data. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-group-master.php 924 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 DMA WBS provides you with the list of activities that you will do in a DMA exercise. You can use this list of activities to create a project plan for DMA. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-mapping-assessment-wbs.php 926 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This Checklist is used as a reference to assess the current state of enterprise level (or functional level for some components) Data Management and governance. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-governance-management-checklist.php 927 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "A lack of data quality does not always mean high risk. Similarly, less than perfect solution to address a data quality issue may still be acceptable given its cost-benefit. Risk assessment is driven by many factors. The core to success for ensuring data quality and getting the adequate funding is when we spend right money at the right place. One cannot be a perfectionist in DQ. This checklist enables the user to weight the risk of the DQ issue and its possible solutions on factors like- Volume and Value risk, Speed of deterioration, criticality of data, cascading of DQ gap to external stakeholders, probability of incidence etc... " http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-quality-risk-assessment-checklist.php 929 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This tool enables you to assess and quantify the business impact of a data quality gap, given its risk. While the Data Quality Risk Assessment checklist is more of a back-end review for the analysts, the output of this tool goes to the business owners and CIO, for final decision. A Data Quality gap may be felt by a single function, but its actual impact could be cross-functional. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tool-kit/data-quality-gap-impact-assessment-tool.php 930 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Given the ever-growing need for Business Intelligence, organizations are moving towards establishing more permanent organizations to address this subject." http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/bicc-competency-centre.php " 531 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "This text is a replica of the page at maxager.com/news/pressreleases/2007021307_SurveyPR.pdf, and is intellectual property of Maxager. For more information contact http://www.maxager.com. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/metrics-not-optimize-profitability.php " 536 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Knightsbridge is a consulting organization around the subject of Data and Information Management. They have been recently acquired by HP." http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/business-intelligence-payoff.php " 537 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "For more information on EII, please see Ipedo's EII Zone or ebizQ's EII section. For more details on any aspect of the survey, please contact Peter Spielvogel, peter@ipedo.com." http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/eii-survey.php " 540 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "During 2005 and early 2006, a survey was carried out by Harte-Hanks Trillium Software involving a sample consisting of 216 attendees from large companies at data quality and data management industry events around the world. The overall aim of this survey is to understand how data quality is managed in large organizations today, and how it might be in the future." http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/data-quality-survey-results.php " 541 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Gartner's survey of more than 350 global organizations in December 2006 showed the largest number of respondents (40 percent) stated that efforts were sponsored by specific executives; 25 percent said they were sponsored by an IT manager; and 25 percent indicated that they had no executive sponsor." http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/bi-vision-strategy-disconnect.php " 542 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 With SAP acquiring Business-Objects, Oracle acquiring Hyperion and IBM acquiring Cognos in 2007, 2008 brings in a lot of anticipation.This gives a message that Business Intelligence has become an important component of end-to-end value chain for the corporate customers, and the big players are working fast to plug that gap. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tips/beware-of-data-federation.php 849 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 SaaS in Business Intelligence is essentially providing a web based Business Intelligence solution, with " basic" functionality with fairly acceptable and core level of configuration capabilities. http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/business-intelligence-saas.php 851 Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Enterprise Search in BI allows a user to search through the published reports, views and meta data. This has a great potential of making information more easily and widely available. http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/business-intelligence-enterprise-search.php 852 Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 In-memory analytics is an emerging trend, which enables the analytics to be performed in RAM, therefore avoiding the need for time-consuming hard-disk i/o tasks. This has a trememndous potential of quantum jump in BI performance. http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/in-memory-bi-analytics.php 853 Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Analytics has been a subject for Business Process Out-sourcing. This page looks at what and why of Data Analytics outsourcing, and a list of success factors. BPO for Data Analytics can be placed at the initial stage, where companies have started experimenting with this concept. http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/data-analytics-out-sourcing.php 860 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Embedded BI can be a fundamental quantum jump in the way BI is positioned in an organization. Embedded BI broadly means that business applications can have embedded BI components, which can be invoked as part of that business application. http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/embedded-bi.php 868 Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Interactive Visualization is a key tool for improving the speed of implementation and user acceptability of BI initiatives. http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/interactive-visualization.php 854 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 The board definition of SOA is an architecture, where the business applications use a set of loosely coupled services, which are essentially set of small, encapsulated programs. These services can be shared across the computing environments and business applications within an organization. SOA in BI opens many opportunities,though it is yet in the nascent stage of adoption. http://www.bipminstitute.com/trends/bi-service-oriented-architecture.php 869 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Customer Dimension and its attributes are used across most of the analysis. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=351 351 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 An organization product strategy is hinged around this dimension. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=355 355 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "If there are new business requirements which need a change in your current dimensional model, you may not have to build net set of schemas. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=469 " 469 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Data-Marts as they start for a function or a department, can still be designed on a process or a theme. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=470 " 470 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "As business intelligence team grows in size and responsibility, it tends to become a department within itself, with a group heavy weight "know it all" business analysts, architects and data managers. Overtime they tend to loose touch with business." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=471 " 471 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "There are various ways to have the aggregate queries on dimensional tables. However, one needs to have some other tricks for slowly changing dimensions. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=472 " 472 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "There is no data-integration system, which can fully self-document the data integration flow and process. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=473 " 473 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Data Warehouse is one solution which can be implemented in million different ways. People have to maintain a right balance between analysis and time-bound decisions. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=474 " 474 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Sometime due to specific query needs and for audit-ability of your information, you would need to maintain a link between sources to end information. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=475 " 475 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "If you want to have a good cross-drilling capability, its important to have conformed dimensions across multiple fact tables. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=476 " 476 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "The fact table (leading to a single schema ) should be based upon a business process and not by the source system or an entity. Most of the business questions and information needs are hinged around a process." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=477 " 477 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "There are million ways to implement an information management solution. You can range from a big-bang traditional method or incremental-iterative-agile approach. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=478 " 478 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "If you have the conformed dimensions, you have to ensure that any change in the dimensions is implemented accordingly." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=484 " 484 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "In case you have a dimensional tables where significant proportion of instances have majority of the fields as null data in the records, one should look at creating a snowflake to save disk-space, incase the database system is a fixed field records (where null fields also occupy disk space)." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=485 " 485 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "This is a tip which is universally applicable on Data Quality, Data Warehouse and Performance Management Framework. Quick and successful implementation of a show-case project needs you to focus on items with high feasibility and high impact." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=509 " 509 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Data Monitoring routines may take-up fairly large system resource. One should create monitoring indicators which should first look at the broadest signs for good, bad or ugly." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=510 " 510 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Data monitoring is also as much a business issue as it is an IT issue. IT should review with business the data monitoring priorities, tolerance ranges, exceptions and also the business rules on what needs to be done on when an exception is identified." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=511 " 511 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Data is a business resource and therefore should be owned by business. IT is a strategic support function, but data has to be owned by business, like any other business asset." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=512 " 512 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Data quality program is a job of a missionary and not of an event manager." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=513 " 513 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "A high-impact show-case Data Mart project should start from a single and a stable system requiring lesser level of transformation." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=523 " 523 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "If you feel that you will take four weeks to complete ETL Design to testing, add another four weeks to it. Chances are that you will find lot of surprises. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=524 " 524 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Avoid taking production reports from staging area, as there could be little tuning of data during subsequent stages of transformation, creation of data sets during loading. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=525 " 525 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 " Having a refresh window from the technology owners of the source system is one of the major issues." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=526 " 526 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "If you are using an OLAP layer on your Data Warehouse, minimize aggregates in Data Warehouse as that can be addressed by OLAP multi-dimensional database. If you are using ROLAP, the same remains true. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=527 " 527 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Most of the business themes, challenges, issues and information requirements are available in the PPTs, Minutes of the meetings, business plan submissions etc. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=528 " 528 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "One of the most common questions you will phase is that "why can't we do the same thing in excel? Just import the data and create the pivots and bingo..". Be ready with the arguments of Data Integrity, Historical Data and Integration across the system, common definitions etc.." http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=529 " 529 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Pure MOLAP limits your view and reporting only to the level of aggregates. Today's business needs demand a drill down to the transaction level details. Unless you have a significantly cheap and short term option to purchase, avoid pure MOLAP. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=530 " 530 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Federation is essentially an ability to pick the data from various source systems and directly feed it into your OLAP and End-User tools. It means that one does not have to go through the painful process of Extraction, Transformation and Loading. Data federation also provides a "virtual" data-warehouse, where it can run a query across multiple systems as if it was coming from a singular source. However, it does not make Data Federation as your core integration solution. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=848 848 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Periodic Rationalization and Prioritization of Information has multiple benefits. This leads to information clutter and inefficiencies. A periodic clean-up will help, while you implement longer and more fundamental solution to this problem. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=861 861 Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Every organization has organically and chaotically evolved on Business Intelligence. This has led to plethora of IT platforms and business applications, with cost and inefficiency over-head. This page shares the issue of Data-Marts proliferation, solutions and practical scenario in implementation. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=863 863 Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Most of the large organizations have multiple contracts and licensing regimes for same platforms. For example, you may find multiple licenses for business objects in different markets for the same company. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=864 864 Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Governance and Standards essentially points to the consistency and robustness of managing change in the BI environment. The key issue behind high cost of BI is varied IT platform, standards and processes, which have additional over-head and also make BI inefficient and defective. As an organization we can undergo different types of changes, which have to dealt by effective governance and standards. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=866 866 Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 You can reduce your costs, by gradually testing and adopting Open-Source BI in a select set of areas. Open-source BI is gradually gaining attention. Open Source BI is essentially business intelligence software which is open-source. There is a difference within open source and commercial open source. In this page we are talking about commercial open source (don't even think of pure open source, if you are a medium level enterprise and above), which is not free of cost but of minimal cost, with adequate support and services infrastructure. Pentaho and Jasper are examples of commercial open source. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=867 867 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:43:52 +0530 The Data Steward Role has a great significance and potential. Making is accountable, empowered and well-positioned will help. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=877 877 Thu, 3 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Master Data Management is 75% definition+discipline and 25% creational and automation. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=878 878 Thu, 3 Apr 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Organizations have failed in the past to have integrated physical metadata repository, due to the reasons of technology diversity, lack of standards and sheer lack of stamina. As independent and multiple metadata repositories get developed, the more realistic solution is to have integration of these repositories while allowing them to function independently. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=883 883 Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 We recommend to go for phased approach for BI environment integration against a big-bang method. The reasons are lack of business and IT stamina, testing our assumptions, maintain stability and to develop our expertise. The phased approach should first go for integrating the plumbing work like ETL, followed by more front-end integration. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=884 884 Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business owned applications seem like an inevitable reality, where businesses are funding, developing and managing the applications on their own. This leads to data quality issues and chaos. Instead of fight or flight approach, a CIO can embrace this reality and manage it to minimize risk and disruption. Added benefit will be a reduction in these non IT-owned applications over time. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=887 887 Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 As an organization develops enterprise level data standards, it has to figure out the approach and plan for existing data and applications. One cannot have a big-bang conversion approach. Data Steward needs to drive a road-map, which focuses on the business case driven priorities, and also does a piggy-back on the mega IT initiatives. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=888 888 Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Unstructured content in an organization is typically the last phase of evolution of a metadata environment. Most of the unstructured content is linked to business metadata. You can use various tools for content management, collaboration management and business process management to enable automatic generation of Metadata. There are some more basic methods like using shared drives and encouraging standard templates. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=891 891 Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Typically there are multiple dates associated with a fact table. Place each data as a separate dimension. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=893 893 Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:43:52 +0530 One needs to store data in most granular form in the data warehouse. However, in certain situation, you may need to supplement the same with summary data to enhance the performance for predictable queries. One should have the detailed and aggregate data stored in separate fact tables. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=897 897 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This page provides the Tips on sequencing of DMA, setting realistic data quality expectations, offline vs. online and how to delibk DMA from a staging area of DW. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=899 899 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Management Standards for data entities involve setting up the universal and enterprise-wide domains, data models and business rules for data entities. This may create a challenge for some key entities like customer, vendor, product etc...The objective for setting-up universal standards is a combination of collaboration and executive decision. Skewing on either extreme could lead to lack of ownership and delays. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=935 935 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Management Standards for data entities involve setting up the universal and enterprise-wide domains, data models and business rules for data entities. Some examples are- Customer entity, product entitiy etc..Though the terminologies may sound techie, most of these will be defined by business and also used for running business and processes. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=936 936 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 In today's world, when organizations are focusing on their core competencies, the supply and sales chains have well-integrated distribution partners and suppliers. These partners are virtually part of your organization. In this spirit, it is important to cascade your data management standards to your business partners. This sharing has the advantage of achieving a better integration and engagement. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=937 937 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Publish Data Quality Control Guidelines is one of the simplest and easiest tasks you can do to kick-start your Data Quality Agenda. You can evolve these guidelines over time. http://www.bipminstitute.com/template/content_desc.php?content_id=938 938 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Should one wait for the operational systems to stabilize or having a minimum thresh-hold of data quality before starting on the data warehouse project? http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/entry-criteria-dw-project.php " 422 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "There are vendors who claim that they have the pre-build reports/views/metrics, which can meet good proportion of our need and can provide a quick implementation. Is it a valid claim?" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/pre-configured-reports-do-they-work?.php " 429 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Who should own data quality initiative- Business or technology? http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/ownership-of-data-quality-initiative.php " 436 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 What is the difference between an Operational Data Store and Data Warehouse http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/ods-vs-data-warehouse.php " 437 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "I work in a large organization, and during one of the discussions, the CIO stated that we have an excellent level of data quality. This is because in last five years we had very few cases of customer complaints wrong billing statements to our customers. I" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/data-quality-business-case.php " 448 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "If I have to start a data quality program, where should I start?" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/starting-a-data-quality-program.php " 449 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "We are a consumer durables company. We were working aggressively on our Data Warehouse project. As we have just finished our design, we come to know that the logistics management system is getting re-written. What should we do, as this will lead to change in our data-warehouse?" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/source-system-re-writing.php " 450 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "We are diversified financial services company. We have multiple systems for different services and we use data-warehouse route to enable a an operational data store of single customer view and Data Warehouse for analytics and reporting. The issue is that we have people making changes in the source systems without telling us, which is leading to many issues in generating information out of the data warehouse. What should we do?" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/alignment-source-systems-data-warehouse.php " 451 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "We are a medium size company. We have developed two data-marts and we got it done in a cheap way by leveraging the existing licenses of SQL Server 2000? However, surprisingly we are unable to pull users to start utilizing these data marts to full potential. What could be the reasons?" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/maximizing-usage-data-warehouse.php " 452 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 We are going to start the Data Quality Program. Should we go ahead and by a Data Profiling tool? http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/data-profiling-tool.php " 453 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 We are going to start a Data Quality Program and I am assigned to do an assessment of Data Quality. We have huge databases and I have been advised by one of the statistical analysis person within the company to start with establishing the sampling logic. However we are not comfortable as we may miss-out something. What should we do? http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/statistical-sampling-data-quality..php " 454 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Logistics management is core to our business. We were in the process of getting the sponsorship for the Data warehouse project, when its decided to re-write one of our core systems. The management wants the Data Warehouse to be productionlized along with the new system. What will be your recommendation?" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/launch-source-system-data-warehouse.php " 455 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "We are an insurance company, and we are implementing the Data Warehouse. We are trying to implement a security matrix, but both the sponsors and stakeholders are not in favor of a strict security, as they feel that this Data should be an enterprise resource. What should we do?" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/data-warehouse-security-matrix.php " 456 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "We have started a data quality program in our company. When we approached the users to assess the level of data quality expectations, all of them said that they wanted 100% accurate data and also gave reasons on why the heavens will fall if the data quality is bad. We are at the dead end and we don't know how to prioritize and deliver. What should we do?" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/data-quality-program-prioritization..php " 457 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 We started with a Data Warehouse initiative few months back. The Vendor providing the Data Warehouse suite committed that phase I of the project will be done within 6 months. However we suddenly are spending too much time in ETL phase. The argument given is that our data is in bad shape and it needs to cleansed and also the extraction and transformation design is taking more time than estimated. What should we do? http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/etl-phase-too-long.php " 458 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "We have got an OK for a Data Warehouse at the market level. However, there is an enterprise meta data project which is going on at a regional level. This project is expected to implement common standards for OLTP and Data Warehouse applications. There is a pressure on us to wait till the meta-data initiative is complete. What should we do?" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/data-warehouse-wait-for-metadata.php " 459 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 We implemented a Data Mart on sales management in our company. However the problem is that reports from Data Warehouse are not matching with the reports from the operational source systems. This is happening because we cleansed and augmented some data during the one time migration of historical data. What should we do? http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/source-vs-data-warehouse-reporting.php " 460 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "What data is necessary to create, implement, and sustain a performance management system, and how is that data most effectively used?" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/data-for-performance-management.php " 461 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "What is the difference between datawarehouse, datamart and datamining?" http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/data-warehouse-mart-mining.php " 462 Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "We have Data quality assurance controls missing in our environment, and it seems to be a very high risk situation. If a data quality assurance control is missing, does it mean that risk rating will be high? " http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/data-quality-assurance-risk-assessment.php 931 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 We are a start-up, and we are going through rapid organization changes. Is it possible to assign the business owners for the data-group, because one does need some level of stability in that role? http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/data-quality-business-ownership.php 932 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Lot of our data in lying in the excel sheets and in the ad-hoc systems developed by business groups. How do we include these systems in our Data-Quality Frame-work? We don't have documentation on many of these systems. http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/informal-systems-data-quality-scope.php 933 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 We have small system initiative. Can we skip the use of object-level data quality tracking and straight-way use the method-level tracking? http://www.bipminstitute.com/q/detail-data-quality-tracking.php 934 Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Project definition phase comes before the data warehouse project initiation phase. This is the hazy phase, where the idea of Data Warehouse takes shape http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-warehouse/project-definition-phase.php DJA Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data warehouse project intiation is the stage, where the first level assessment of the Data Warehouse scope, cost and time estimate is done. This is mainly achieved by prioritizing the business themes for Data-Warehouse. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-warehouse/project-initiation-phase-wbs.php DJB Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This is the stage of business requirements gathering at a detailed level. This includes interviews, detailed reporting and analytics requirements followed by assessment of current IS-IT environment. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-warehouse/project-business-requirements-wbs.php DJC Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This is the stage where you translate the business requirements into detailed dimensional modeling. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-warehouse/project-dimensional-modeling-wbs.php DJD Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Warehouse design phase is hinged around the extraction, transformation and loading phase. It is advisable to do a test run on a simple schema, before getting down to a full design of your enterprise data warehouse. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-warehouse/design-phase-wbs.php DJE Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Warehouse can be considered incomplete without the OLAP server layer. This topic covers the design work needed around OLAP and for OLAP+DW combination. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-warehouse/olap-design-phase-wbs.php DJF Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Core Business Intelligence Platform includes Data Warehouse Server, Metadata management tool, ETL tool and OLAP server. These are the foundation/plumbing/infrastructure elements of your business intelligence. We recommend for you to go for a single and financially robust vendor for as many of these elements as possible. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tips/single-business-intelligence-vendor.php 952 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business requirements around your BI initiative will be one of many other inputs and considerations, which will drive your BI model, design and architecture. Business information requirements keep on changing and by the time you deliver your Data Warehouse, chances are than a fair proportion of the information requirements might have changed. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tips/BI-business-requirements.php 953 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Metadata is core to BI architecture. It provides a map, a catalogue and reference on data about the business, technical and operational elements of Business Intelligence Components. It spans across Business Metadata, BI technical metadata and Source Systems Metadata. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/bi-metadata-model.php ZAG Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Back-Room Metadata spans across the Data Source and BI Technical Metadata areas and hence occupies a large scope. It encompasses the ETL metadata, data model, security profiles and audit/usage details. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-warehouse/dw-backroom-metadata.php DFK Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 "Business Intelligence Metadata Architecture has essentially two scenarios- Centralized and Distributed. This page provides you the representation and comparison across these two scenarios. " http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/bi-metadata-architecture-scenarios.php ZBF Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business Intelligence Metadata Management has the agenda of reduced BI efforts, data quality & integrity, flexibility, standardization and centralization of administration & usage of BI platform. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/bi-metadata-management-program.php ZDE Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business Intelligence Competency Centre (BICC)is a kind of 'practice' unit, within an enterprise, which guides, governs and supports the efforts related to making an intelligence enterprise. The inherent assumption is that information is an enterprise level asset and it has to be managed accordingly. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/competency-centre-preface.php ZEA Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business Intelligence as a subject touches all functions and processes in an organization. Therefore, a Business Intelligence Competency Centre will be having a broad-based and cross-functional skill-set. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/competency-centre-organization.php ZEB Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 The strategize phase will be reviewing the state of current processes and capabilities to finalize on the BICC road-map, effort estimation and benefit expectations. Business Intelligence Competency Centre is a foundation element of your business intelligence agenda. It will be requiring lot of finesse and details to get sponsorship for moving to establishment phase. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/competency-centre-strategy-roadmap.php ZEC Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This page provides a comprehensive work break-down structure for establishing a Business Intelligence Competency Centre. Many of the components will be similar to what you will do in creating an ERP (say) competency centre. The difference is in the details. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/competency-centre-establish.php ZED Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This page provides details of the management and tasks around keeping BICC running and continuously evolving. The work of the sponsors does not end with the establishment phase. There needs to be a continuous 'feedback and improvement' cycle. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/competency-centre-operate.php ZEE Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business Intelligence Competency Centre provides services around people, process, technology and data domain. This page provides a high level list. A mix-n-match of these services can create a customized service mosaic. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/competency-centre-services.php ZEH Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business Intelligence Competency Centre has three phases- Strategize, Establish and Operate. A BICC evolves over time and it needs to be customized as per the organization needs and readiness. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/competency-centre-setup.php ZEI Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Governance is core to Business Intelligence Competency Centre. Process Compliance, Technology Governance and Data Governance are closely inter-linked. They provide robust vehicle to BI initiatives in terms of process quality and reliability, infrastructure management, vendor management, and an end-to-end data management frame-work. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/competency-centre-process-data-technology-governance.php ZEF Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business Intelligence competency centre has diverse components and requires diversity in terms of skills and their scale. One needs multi-skilled consultant base, supported by rigor of methodologies and IT centre of excellence. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/competency-centre-competencies.php ZEG Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Mining term is used interchangeably with KDD. In reality, it is one of the steps in the whole process of knowledge discovery in databases. Data Mining needs a well defined business case and a diligent data preparation and has to be followed with a detailed evaluation of the discovery results. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-mining/what-is-kdd.php GAA Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 KDD - Data Mining program has two streams of requirements. Business/Functional requirements are centered around growth in revenue & profitability and business process optimization. Non-functional requirements like high response time, accuracy, visualization, metadata management and data quality ensure a continued sponsorship of a KDD program. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-mining/kdd-program-requirements-goals-objectives.php GAB Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Knowledge Discovery in Databases comprises four key stages in an iterative flow- Business Case Definition, Data Preparation, Data Mining and Evaluation. Data Mining has no value on a stand-alone basis. Its success depends on how well you define the problem and on the level of diligence in data preparation. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-mining/kdd-process-preparation-evaluation.php GAC Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Mining architecture has three layers- Database Layer with sub-layers of database & metadata, application layer performing data management & algorithms and front-end layer for administration, input parameter settings and results display/visualization. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-mining/technology-architecture-application-frontend.php GAD Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Key issues around KDD-Data Mining are around limited information, noisy & missing data, level of uncertainty and dynamically & fast-changing data reference. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-mining/kdd-challenge-issues.php GAE Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) methodology comprises five phases- Definition (vision/ business case/tools), specification (requirements/techniques/data analysis), design (data preparation/business case model), build and deploy. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-mining/kdd-methodology-framework-phases.php GAF Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Data Mining Propensity modeling works on discovering a natural inclination or tendency across the variables. This group of techniques includes Cluster Analysis, Association Analysis and Sequential/Temporal patterns http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-mining/propensity-cluster-association-patterns.php GAG Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Predictive modeling is used to create a model of future or expected behavior. This group of data mining techniques includes Induction, Classification, Regression and Neural Networks. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-mining/predictive-regression-induction-classification-neural.php GAH Mon, 1 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 The physical data-warehouse database design and implementation includes setting naming standards, designing database tables and columns, setting aggregation plan and resource handling parameters. http://www.bipminstitute.com/data-warehouse/physical-database-design-implementation.php DJG Mon, 15 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Synonyms and Views create a user friendly layer for user access and querying. They also enable to make underlying database changes with minimum impact on user access interface. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tips/synonyms-views.php 961 Mon, 15 sep 2008 11:43:52 +0530 BI initiatives provide unique situations on decisioning. It is difficult to make a business customer to decide on which information he will and which he will not. This asks for better and clearer articulation to the business to enable faster decisioning. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tips/articulate-better-BI-decision.php 969 Tue, 16 dec 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Pre-configured BI frame-works claim to be plug-and-play BI set-up with respect to a given industry and function. If it works for you, it can be a blessing, but if it does not, it can be much more pain, compared to doing it from scratch. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tips/pre-configured-designed-BI.php 970 Tue, 16 dec 2008 11:43:52 +0530 When it comes to developing an organizational brain around BI, one should build internal capability to become technology and vendor-independent, without giving away the benefits of these two enabling entities. http://www.bipminstitute.com/tips/building-bi-modeling-analysis-capabilities.php 971 Tue, 16 dec 2008 11:43:52 +0530 BI Performance Management includes various aspects like BI project management, BI information quality, platform quality, organizational impact, ease and extent of usage etc... This page sets the context, before you look at the details of individual performance aspects. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/performance-management-context.php ZFA Tue, 16 dec 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Business Intelligence Project Management traverses all layers of BI and all different type of initiatives. There is no single type of BI project. The performance management factors are to be applicable on different kinds and sizes of BI initiatives. We also talk about some of the tricks one can apply to achieve project adherence to timelines, cost, scope and process-quality http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/project-performance-success-metrics.php ZFB Tue, 16 dec 2008 11:43:52 +0530 Information and data quality is fundamental to BI. Most glitzy and sophisticated outputs of BI are worthless, if the data contained therein cannot be trusted. One cannot have any BI performance parameter to take precedence over the quality of information. The information quality includes data correctness, data completeness, data consistency and integrated view of data. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/performance-information-data-quality.php ZFC Tue, 16 dec 2008 11:43:52 +0530 The BI platform quality talks about the BI scalability, extensibility, flexibility and stability to handle increasing number of users, data, queries and applications. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/performance-platform-system-quality.php ZFD Tue, 16 dec 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This page talks about the extent to which users are able to use the data warehouse and how much of the benefit it has brought to them, both in reality and perception. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/performance-usage-metrics.php ZFE Tue, 16 dec 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This performance area goes beyond the individual and looks at how well BI has performed at an organization level. Most of the performance parameters here talk about the ultimate benefits realized from the BI. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/performance-metrics-organization-impact.php ZFF Tue, 16 dec 2008 11:43:52 +0530 This BI operational performance aspect deals with the resource utilization, response time, and cost of operations, security, and administrative ease. http://www.bipminstitute.com/business-intelligence/performance-operational-success.php ZFG Tue, 16 dec 2008 11:43:52 +0530