Individual Assignment

Name: Heloise Sreshta

sNumber: s5041102
Subject: Business Intelligence
Executive Summary:

The report was commissioned to examine the issues faced by BigRock during thanksgiving
which led to many customers unable to access their website.

The research draws attention to the fact that if BigRock can implement a Business Intelligence
solution, it would help them make better decisions and avoid further issues. Further, the report
discusses on the ways to integrate a Business Intelligence solution and also the technologies
needed moreover, the report analyses the benefits and drawback of a business Intelligence
solution.

It is highly recommended to integrate Business Intelligence solution because

1. It would help in making better decisions

2. Get insight into customer behavior
3. Get faster answers to Business questions
4. Improve efficiency

Introduction:

This report provides information on the how to integrate a Business Intelligence in a company,
its benefits and drawbacks. This report will pay particular attention to the four Business
capabilities and how to implement them in a business solution. The report will comment on the
best way to integrate this Business Intelligence system and also the factors that need to be taken
in consideration.

Issue:

On the 26th November 2015, around 25% of the customers of the server hosting BigRock
complained about the slow connectivity and some unresponsive websites. The reason behind
this was that the marketing team along with the management came to an agreement overnight to
have a discounted rate of $1 per month for their servers in regard to the Black Friday. Even
through the primary servers had the capacity to handle the new customers, the server architecture
was tuned such that each server could handle 100VPS/ server. The technical team was not
informed regarding this advertisement.

When the scheme was open to the public, the marketing team kept issuing virtual primary servers
to the customers resulted in a number of servers been created which led to the number of virtual
primary servers limit to exceed the set limit on the primary servers which led to new as well as
old customers facing issues with their websites. When the technical team was made aware of the
issue, on doing an analysis they realized that in USA, the resources usage had exceeded the limit
and a whole lot of virtual primary servers were created. On quick reflex they sorted out the
issue by increasing the resource limit on the primary servers and also to avoid further issues
tuned their servers using MYSQL and Apache tuning.

This issue regarding overcrowding of servers led the customers of BigRock to undergo losses as
their websites were not accessible during black Friday, a day most of the products have good
discounts and people tend to do shell out a good amount of money.

To avoid reoccurrence of this problem, to access user friendly real time information, creating a
good knowledge of the past problems, to improve decision making, implementing a Business
Intelligence system would be likely solution.

What is Business Intelligence:

BI is providing decision makers with valuable information and knowledge by leveraging a

variety of sources of data as well as structured and unstructured information. BI is a system used
as an analysis tool for gathering, storing, analyzing and providing access to the data which in
turn helps users to gain creative insights and also more strategic approach for decision making.
BI in simple is a solution that provides managers the ability to utilize large amounts of data.

The main factors that drive BI is

1. Exploding data volumes

2. Increasingly complicated decisions
3. Need for quick reflexes
4. Technological Progress

Business Intelligence has data and information as the inputs. The data and information act as an
input for the BI systems which in turn produces information in friendly way using appropriate
analysis. The information got from the BI system is used in decision making. The main
difference in BI systems is that BI incorporates internal as well as external data and information.

Why Business Intelligence is needed?

Business Intelligence in the modern world has become a main strategy for having competitive
advantages. The organizations can use data in BI systems to shape it into correct information in a
short time. They are basically a system that helps organization estimate their results and also help
them perform better and also evaluate results in a more realistic way.

The main qualities of a Business Intelligence system are

1. Ease of Use
2. Flexibility
3. Data Security

To build a business Intelligence system, we will need to analyze on the four main capabilities of
a Business Intelligence system.

1. Organizational memory:

Organizational memory is the ability to store information and data which can be accessed later.
This data is mainly collected over a period of time. The data is also structured and internal that is
the data is limited

For the problem related to webservers, it would be ideal to use data warehouse to store all data
which can be used for querying and reporting which later can be used for Business Intelligence
analysis. Data warehouse is primarily used to store enterprise data which later help to support the
decisions made by the organization. Below is a simple architecture for a data warehouse

The main characteristics of data warehouses are:

1. Subject Oriented: Depending on the company the major subject areas can be unique
2. Integrated using: Here data is fed into the data warehouse from multiple sources
 3. Nonvolatile: Once data enters the warehouse it cannot be changed
4. Time variant: Every data entering the data warehouse is stamped with a time and data

The organization would be able to store all the details relating to different topics in one data
warehouse. For example,

1. Customers

Where the customer details can be documented based on the person details, number of virtual
primary servers assigned to them, also the primary server on which the virtual primary servers
are located which in case of any issue will be able to determine on which customers are affected
because of extra load on the main servers which in turn would determine the particular primary
server affected.

2. Servers

Here the details relating to the configuration of the primary server, the maximum capacity of the
primary server, the values to which the servers are tuned, the hardware related to the virtual
primary server. These details would be helpful if the configuration needs to be updated or the
maximum if any issues arise relating to the hardware of the server

3. Customer call center

Which would record all the calls made by customers to the support center of the company and
also documenting the issues faced by the customers. If there is a sudden rise in the call traffic, it
would help indicate an issue has occurred.

Benefits of data warehouse:

1. Better Decision making

2. Quick and easy access to data
3. Data quality and consistency

Data warehouse stores data from various departments in the company like marketing, customer,
server details. The company will be able to make better decisions and analyze any problem by
studying the data retrieved accordingly. As most of the data is stored in a single location hence it
is easy to access and use.

2. Information capability:

The ability to use structured and unstructured data from multiple sources. The process of
decision making becomes more complex due to the diverse factors taken in consideration. This is
mainly based on using external data. The use external data depends on various organizations.
Some tend to use external data and some do not require to use external data. The requirement to
use external data is based on

1. Business Need
2. Data availability and organizational expertise
3. BI application sophistication
4. BI budget

In our case scenario I would be unlikely to use any external data most of the data relating to
servers and their customers is mostly organization based.

3. Insight creation capability:

This capability is vital because in the present generation the need for quick reflexes relating to
any organizational problem. Data mining is used to extract patterns and knowledge from large
amount of data. It helps companies determine relationships on internal factors such as price,
positioning, staff skills and also helps determine the impact on sales, customer satisfaction, and
corporate profits.

Data mining consists of five major elements:

1. Extract, transform, and load transaction data onto the data warehouse system.
2. Store and manage the data in a multidimensional database system.
3. Provide data access to business analysts and information technology professionals.
4. Analyze the data by application software.
5. Present the data in a useful format, such as a graph or table.

Softwares like SAS, Oracle Data Mining are use analyze data and produce desirable results
which would collectively help in decision making in an organization

4. Presentation Capability:

Information is presented in user friendly way mostly defining a single task. There are many
technologies enabling presentation capability. In our case using presentation dashboards would
be ideal.

What is Presentation Dashboards?

Presentation dashboards server as a magnifying glass, providing multiple indicators, originating

from many internal and external sources of information in a rich, colorful and visual way. It
helps to measure the performance, reward positive contributions and align efforts.

To accomplish its goal of helping improve organizational performance, It should meet the three
basic characteristics known as the three threes
 1. Three applications: It helps to integrate the monitoring application, analysis application
and a management application
2. Three layers: It integrates monitoring layer, analysis layer and detailed information layer,
allowing users to understand the root cause of the problem.
3. Three types: It can support operational, tactical or strategical decision making

How Presentation capability can be used in our analysis?

The data retrieved by data mining needs to be presented in user friendly way. Normally analysis
of data is done by technical experts. This data needs to presented in way which would be
understood throughout the organization.

Using dashboards, we will be able to view most of the information on a single screen. It would
be ideal to not display more than six analysis displaying on a single screen. This analysis will be
displayed using graphs, bar or pie charts or an indicator.

Using these graphs or charts we will be able to predetermine issues arising and make necessary
decisions relating to various scenarios.

if we have a graph monitoring the call flow in the customer center, in case there is sudden rise in
the call flow in the technical side it would indicate there might be a chance of a risen issue. In
case the severs exceed the capacity, there would be am indicator letting the users know that the
capacity has been exceed and would immediately change the configuration.

These dashboards can be customized based on the requirement for each department.

Having discussed all the capabilities, we know that all the capabilities come together to form a
BI solution.

Some of the drawbacks of Business Intelligence tools are,

If customized:

1. This would lead to wasting of time on tools rather than spending time on business tasks
where it is most necessary
2. Customization could lead to unnecessary querying which in turn leads to load on the
system.

If Standardized:

1. This would not meet the demands of the organization

2. This could inhibit some of the major benefits of BI.
In order to reduce the time and cost when customized, following are some guidelines on which
tools can and cannot be customized.

1. Tools supporting organizational memory capability should be standardized

2. Tools supporting information integration should be customized only with respect to roles
3. Tools supporting insight creation capabilities should be customized with respect to roles
and tasks
4. Tools supporting presentation capability should be customized with respect to roles,
tasks, and individuals

With the help of business intelligence tools, a BI solution delivers information and knowledge
for effective decision making. An organization can adopt multiple BI solutions

The main characteristics of a BI system are

1. Alignment fit with business strategy and processes

2. Intelligence provide new and valuable insight
3. Usability should be easy to use
4. Accuracy based on clean and accurate data
5. Connectivity effective interfaces with other ITs
6. Flexibility should be easily and quickly modifiable
7. Portability should work on different software and hardware platforms
8. Scalability should be expandable as users and volume of data increase

Based on these characteristics, we will be able to decide a BI solution. It would be good to use
Agile Development for the development process.

Agile Development works on the basis of repeating the sequence of steps multiple number of
times. Tasks are broken down into smaller tasks and then build upon them. Below is the figure to
show he agile development of a BI solution
The primary development steps are

1. Plan: The company needs to plan properly. If it doesnt, it risks decisions based on
incorrect data.
2. Analyze: To identify the functional and technical requirements relating to
infrastructure, data reporting and training aspects.
3. Design: The main aim during this process is to create a detailed specifications
regarding the business capabilities
4. Build: Based on the design specifications, a complete BI solution is created
5. Deploy: System testing, training the users to effectively use BI solutions, and also
open the BI solution to a certain number of users.
6. Review: The BI solution to be evaluated.

The main benefits of using an Agile development system is

1. Revenue: the features are developed incrementally which enables the organization to
realize some key missing features as early as possible
2. Quality: The main element in agile development is testing through each lifecycles which
enables a regular inspection of the problem as it develops
3. Visibility: This development encourages active user participation which provides
visibility to the key stakeholders
4. Risk Management: The issues are identified early and makes it easier to respond to
change.

The main advantages of BI systems are

1. Eliminate guesswork: With analysis of data and analyzing on them the organization can
take practical decisions
2. Get insight into customer behavior: It gives the organization a visibility on the customer
behavior
3. Identify cross-selling and up-selling opportunities: It helps to build, modify and refine
predictive models that help the marketing team to have suitable discounts.
4. Improve Efficiency: Using BI, all the information is centralized and can be viewed using
dashboards or turned into reports saving enormous amount of time
5. Learning how to stream line operations: With detailed insights on the business
performance, the organization can make changes in their operations where needed.

Some of the main disadvantages of BI system are the cost, if its done wrong it can be a total
waste of money. Some of the major costs associated with business Intelligence system
include hardware costs, software costs, implementation costs, and personnel costs.
Maintenance costs can be significant as well.
Conclusion:

To conclude, it would good to use a BI solution but it would need to be developed according to
the business need and requirements. Even through it is expensive, having a BI solution,
companies like BigRock would be able to give a better service to customers. If any issues arise
relating to overcrowding of servers, using BI solutions even the marketing team would be aware
of the issue.

References:

Business Intelligence: Benefits, Applications, and Challenges 2007.

Blokdijk, G. 2012, Business Intelligence 100 Success Secrets - 100 Most Asked Questions: The Missing
BI software, Tools, Consulting and Solutions Guide, Emereo Publishing.

Han, J., Kamber, M. & Books24x7, I. 2011;2012;, Data mining: concepts and techniques, 3rd;3;3; edn,
Elsevier, Burlington, MA.

Kleine Deters, M. 2011, Agile Development for Business Intelligence projects.

Sabherwal, R. & Becerra-Fernandez, I., 1960 2011,Business intelligence: practices, technologies, and
management, Wiley, Hoboken, N.J.