Implementing « 

Reporting & B.I. »

Lesson’s learned at

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Introduction
 Always a lot of information, ressources and
buzzwords about « Business Intelligence »
 Big business software players (IBM, Microsoft,

Oracle & SAP)

 Innovative and/or Open-Source solutions

(Talend, Qlikview, Tableau Software, …)

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Introduction
Data BICC
Mining

Text Self-Service
Mining BI

Open Source
OLAP
BI

In-
SAAS BI
Memory

Columnar
Database

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Introduction

But it’s not a

technological
project

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It’s about information

Data Information Knowledge

Decisions

Actions

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It’s about information

Right Information - Relevant and reliable information presented in the best

format and the right amount of detail.

Right People - Deliver this information to the appropriate individuals, or groups,

or devices.

Right Time - On a timely basis, and as and when the users need this information.

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… and management
 To answer business questions

 "It is better to be roughly right than precisely

wrong"

◦ In some domains or at some level of aggregation

you can allow some data inaccuracies

◦ But not in « Accountancy » by example

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General Considerations
 Enterprise wide project
 Start small / Thing big
 Business sponsors
 More unknows than OLTP projects
 …
 Not really a project … but a program

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General Considerations

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Enterprise’s current level of maturity

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Other considerations
 Enterprise culture (toward an information-
driven business culture or a culture of fact
based decision making)
 Human ressources and skills available

◦ Business side;
◦ I.T. side.
 Other ressources (possibility to hire skilled
ressources, infrastructure, …)

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J.P. Hoedenaeken 12/8/21 12
La RTBF créateur de contenu

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Our Starting situation
 On a I.T. point of view
◦ Centralized I.T.
◦ No corporate reporting tool
◦ Multi-sources (Informix, Oracle, SQL-Server)
 On a I.S. point of view
◦ Some lack of integration between applications
◦ Data Quality issues
◦ Unloading data to Excel, Access, …
◦ No analytical culture
 « Request for Quote » with 2 parts :
◦ Reporting & B.I.
◦ Budget Planning & Forecasting
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The lesson’s learned

Critical factors are …

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Our Goals … and probably yours !
 Single version of the truth
 Easy access to information (portal)

◦ Avoiding parallel Excel sheets … but not trying to

get rid of Excel !
 Unique & Simplified User Interface
 Usage by non technical business users
 Common language

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But every vendor offers …
 “a 100 percent Web-based BI application
designed for interactive, high-volume use by
non-technical business users”

 So what ?

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Data & User centric
 But it’s not a technological project

DATA CENTRIC
(but B.I. <> Datawarehouse)

 It’s about change management

USER CENTRIC

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Lesson’s learned
 DATA centric

◦ Information (for management and legal ones),

decisions and strategy

◦ Data knowledge (what does that field contain ?

When is that field updated ? …)

Mastering Data is a key factor … so an application &

data owner in the business is crucial

◦ Data Quality (GIGO) … you need data profiling

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Lesson’s learned
 Data Profiling

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Lesson’s learned
 USER centric
◦ Don’t try to get rid of Excel … the user love it !
(feeling of autonomy and … importance)
◦ Presentation (exception highlighting, ..)
Ref : Stephen Few
◦ Get inspiration from Cyber-Marketing
◦ Usability (the right tool for the right user group)
◦ Use the right communication channel for each user
◦ Self-service (Reporting &) BI : super-user with the
right profile

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First project is crucial
 First project :

Financial Reporting As Is

+ some improvements (drill down, link to

supporting documents, …)

Advantage : a clear goal with a deadline

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Lesson’s learned
 Ressources & Methodhology
◦ Skills needed
◦ Methodology : BI projects are data intensive, so the
scope is measured by the data they will use
(complexity of the database(s) schema)
◦ Try to become « Agile » (it’s not a software feature
… it’s a process)
◦ Documentation … during the development process
(document the tricky parts & use descriptive fields
associated with the objects)

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Lesson’s learned
 Ressources & Methodhology

◦ Anticipate the exponential growth of demands

(more and more subject areas, more integration)
 Impact on space disk, hardware and … licences
 Impact on security maintenance, configuration tasks

◦ Usage Tracking

◦ Monitoring that reports are running ok

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Integration has always been critical
 Integration

◦ Data integration

◦ Documents & Unstructured data

◦ SOA

◦ Business Process

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Features
 Features (the only « technical » part !)
◦ Access data sources in real time
◦ Federated Queries
◦ Abstraction layer (star schemas = simplicity +
readibility + agility)
◦ Open tool
 Customization (HTML, XML, …)
 Integration of URL (Google chart, …)
◦ Aggregate aware + generation wizzard
◦ Debugging facility (log with the generated SQL)
◦ Metadata in XML (with search engine)

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Features
 Features (the only « technical » part !)
◦ Security feature and maintenance
◦ Collaboration (annotations, …)
◦ Mobile (alerts => actions to launch)
◦ Usage tracking
◦ Write back
◦ Integration with OLAP cubes
◦ SOA compliant and action framework (to insert in a
DB, to launch a java app., …)
◦ Easy deployment process (Dev to Test to Prod)

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Departemental tools
 This kind of « Self-Service BI » tools, where
business users procure, install and use on
their own …
 Could (will) make it hard to keep a single

version of the truth

 So try to keep a balance between quick

results and a solid foundation

Data consistency & truthworthy

information stays keys

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Conclusion
 We’re talking about information and
knowledge to manage the business
 DATA centric
 USER centric
 Change management

Thank you !

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