Information is Power - From healthcare to retail every business relies on the power of

Information to make business-critical decisions. Initially MIS and subsequently Business Intelligence (BI) projects catered to this need of transforming organization data into meaningful information which could be accessed by decision makers whenever they needed to. Recently, Business Intelligence has evolved from being an IT driven initiative to a business driven strategic initiative. This focus has improved the way in which Business intelligence is utilized. Advancements in telecommunications and internet have provided BI an opportunity to become more pervasive, by enabling access to business critical information on handheld devices. Operational Business systems are generating more data than was previously imaginable and this exponential data growth has posed interesting challenges to Business Intelligence. Even as this data growth challenge was being addressed, the introduction of social media as a critical data source changed the entire game. Big Data, Social Media Analytics, Hadoop are some buzz words currently of interest to many in IT & business. Information available from social media is vast and the market intelligence that can be gleaned from it can be of immense value in terms of having the ability to respond in a timely manner to changes in the marketplace. This type of data is however, of either semi-structured or unstructured nature. This has amplified the challenge of handling this type of data and transforming it into meaningful information. If Information is POWER what would incorrect information translate into? Just ask the executive, whose decision (based on an incorrect BI metric) has just resulted in significant losses to organization, Having the right information not only helps in identifying and correcting flawed business processes, which saves costs, but also in avoiding making disastrously wrong business decisions. The benefits are not just financial; they can help save a companys reputation or uphold the value of its brand. To respond to the challenges above, a clear & agile Information Management strategy is needed which will not only address the current challenges but also help with responding to future requirements arising from long term strategic initiatives.

What is Information Management (IM)?

Information Management comprises of managing the information flow within the organization and making it available for purposes like Business Intelligence, Analytics, Master Data Management etc. Broadly it comprises of 3 components.

1) Integration Integration component provides the access to core Business operational systems from where the operational data could be extracted and transformed into meaningful information. 2) Storage Transformed data is then stored in a RDBMS in a way where it could be accessed by Business in the most optimized fashion. This is generally referred as EDW in the Business Intelligence prospective. 3) Access This component takes care of access to the information. The information could be accessed for Business Intelligence or it could be used for advance analytics like customer segmentation & other statistical analysis.

Over the past few years, an increase in internet usage has resulted in a data explosion that has made Information Management all the more relevant for organizations. With a sound Information Management strategy in place, all the BI & Analytical initiatives stand to gain significant value and hence benefit businesses directly.

Role of Information Management in BI

In the current ever so dynamic environment Mahindra Satyam strongly believes that any new BI initiative should factor in important Information Management dimensions to ensure successful project implementation and higher ROI. Through its dedicated BI Centre of excellence Mahindra Satyam, comprising of experienced BI practitioners, has identified below listed IM points that are considered essential towards ensuring a sound Information Management Strategy. Access to New sources The introduction of Big Data has resulted in an interesting challenge to extract business relevant data from social media sources like Facebook, Twitter & Blogs. The benefits of having access to this information are priceless and have the potential to significantly help organizations to effectively do things like sentiment analysis, marketing campaigns and customer service. Any Integration strategy should cover this important aspect along with the integration of standard RDBMS source. Timely Access -Value of information is time bound and is inversely proportional to the time taken to access that information. In a highly competitive global economy, information is the biggest asset that an organization can use to be ahead of the competition. Near real time access to business critical information results in significant increase in BI ROI and hence this important dimension should be part of an IM strategy. Trusted Information - Most BI projects have historically ignored this important aspect resulting in project failures. Incorrect information can be catastrophic for an organization and the

business must have full trust in the information it uses to make key decisions. Lack of trust defeats the purpose of having a DSS and hence Data Quality must be a part of every BI project. Optimized storage - Historically BI data resides in RDBMS schema functionally known as EDW. Introduction of social media as information source has resulted in a need to effectively store this semi structured and unstructured data in the most optimized fashion. This storage not only has to be cost effective but also scalable, fault tolerant and should not have inherent performance bottleneck. Role of MDM - At the core of the Information lies every organizations Master data and hence due importance should be given to manage the master data. Master Data Management is a framework which comprises of all the best practices to manage master data. Once deployed each operational and Analytical system can have access to MDM system to achieve true single source of truth.

MSats Readiness to meet the Market Potential for BI

Mahindra Satyam BI / DW & Analytics Practice has 12+ years of experience with customers across multiple industry verticals, business functions and technologies. 120+ active customers Skills/Capabilities covering 32 technologies 15+ Alliances in BI / PM and Analytics space 3000+ Associates in the BI ecosystem including Tech Mahindra and BristleCone) IP-Based Differentiated BI solutions & delivery (monetized): iDecisions, InfoMate Pioneer in Niche BI Areas such as Global Shared Services, BI Competency Centre, Data Quality Factory, Integrated CPM, BI Consulting Led Approach Niche Player in Emerging BI Trends viz., Big Data, Mobile BI, Social Media Analytics, Agile BI, In-Memory Computing, Dedicated Centres of Excellence to drive innovation (Enterprise BI, DW Appliance, CPM and Analytics) - IBM , Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, Ab Initio, QlikView, MicroStrategy, Solix, Teradata, Greenplum, SAS, Open Source

MSats Top Notch Experience to Value for Customers

MSats IP for Accelerated BI Delivery - iDecisionsTM (monetized / licensed)

iDecisions - BI and Analytics Framework iDecisionsTM is an IP of Mahindra Satyam and has pre-built BI solution components. The vertical coverage of iDecisionsTM include Banking, Insurance, Telecom, Retail, Life sciences, Manufacturing, Airlines (T&L), and in addition to above, the enterprise modules comprising of Sales, Finance, HR, Customer and Procurement. iDecisions has 33+ implementations across different domains today. iDecisionsTM also offers pre-packaged BI solutions on cloud platform. The cloud solutions can be offered either on Mahindra Satyams own data centers or on third party data centers like Amazon. iDecisionsTM on cloud offers users increased access to BI solutions accessible anywhere anytime, at low TCO, with lower risk and faster ROI.

Conclusion
The benefits of having BI and analytical initiatives are many. The many applications of BI have helped companies improve ROI, cut costs, detect profitable business opportunities, identify and react quickly to changes in the marketplace and business context, and optimize product mixes and prices. However, it is not enough to just have organizational/transactional data and tools. It is just as important to have timely, trusted, and optimally stored data from a wide array of sources such as social media. It is important to have the ability to make sense of this data from the perspective of the particular firm, its markets and its business environment, and to be able to assess the capabilities of the stakeholders and get their participation right from the outset. All of this has the ultimate aim of having the capability to not just make better business decisions, but also to transform your organization for the better. The rapidly changing Information landscape requires every organization to seriously consider a holistic and agile Information Management Strategy in order to reap the true benefits of BI & Analytical initiatives. Mahindra Satyams deep IM expertise can be leveraged to formulate a clear and agile IM strategy which will be justified with the value that immediately becomes visible in current initiates.