Business Intelligence

Chapter 11

Intelligence

Information
Intelligence
Business intelligence
What it is, why?
What types of organizations need BI
systems?

Chapter 11

Business Intelligence
Business intelligence (BI):
A broad category of applications and
techniques
For gathering, storing, analyzing and
providing access to data.
Better business and strategic decisions.
Include query and reporting, OLAP, DW, DSS,
data mining, forecasting and statistical analysis.

Starts with Knowledge Discovery

Chapter 11

Evolution of Data Warehouse

To offer more efficient and cost-effective

services to the customer By automating
business processes
Resulted in accumulation of growing
amounts of data in operational databases.
What is database?
Why database?
What is its main objective?
What are the characteristics of Database
systems?
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Database for Transaction Process

System: OLTPs
ODS: Operational Data Stores
Database for TPS.
Benefits to operational portions of
business.

It provides detail data.

It is optimized for frequent access

It provides faster response times.

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Is there any problem in

Databases/ Operational
Systems?

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Problems in Database/ Operational

Systems

Does Not support Decision-making

History is lost
Time consuming, Duplications
Design Garbage, Disparate systems
Multi-dimensional view not possible
Not for entire organization
Operational systems with overlapping and
sometimes contradictory definitions,
inconsistent
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The Data Warehouse

A Data Warehouse is a repository of
* Subject-Oriented
* Historical data
* Easily accessible: Access Tools
* Ready for Analytical Processing
* Exclusively for Decision-Making activities
* For the Entire Enterprise

Chapter 11

Data Warehouse: What it Stores?

Organized around major subjects (decisionsupport data) of the enterprise (e.g.

customers, products, sales) rather than major
application areas (application-oriented data;
of the enterprise (e.g. customer invoicing,
stock control, product sales).
The integrated data source must be made
consistent to present a unified view of the
data to the users.

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The Data Warehouse Continued

Characteristics: A Series of Snapshots

Snapshot: Data is only accurate and valid
at some point in time or over some time
interval.
Time variant. Stores past data
Nonvolatile. Not updated in real-time
Relational. Starflake/ Snowflake Schema
Client/server. Providing end user an
easy access to its data.
Web-based. Support for Web-based
applications
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DW

Facts
Dimensions
How data is stored in database and
in data warehouse
What is objective of DB/ DW
Why the data is organized in a
specific way in DB/DW?

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The Data Warehouse Continued

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The Data Mart

A data mart
** small scaled-down version of a DW
** designed for a department or SBU
** Contain less information compare to DW
** Response time better than DW
** Easier accessibility than DW.

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The Data Cube

Multidimensional databases (sometimes called OLAP)
** Data in these databases: Cubes
** Data Cubes: Preprocessed Query
** Organize facts by dimensions, such as geographical region,
product line, salesperson, time.

Example-1: Quantities of a product sold by *specific

retail locations during *certain time periods by
*salesperson.
Example-2: Sales volume by *department, by *day,
by *month, by *year for a *specific region
Cubes provide faster: Queries, Slices and Dices of the
information, Rollups, Drill Downs

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Business Intelligence Continued

How It Works.
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Comparison of OLTP Systems and

Data Warehousing

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Data Warehouse Queries

End-user access tools include:

Reporting, query, and application

development tools
Executive information systems (EIS)
OLAP tools
Data mining tools
The above tools can be categorised on the
basis of the capability of handling simple to
complex queries.

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Examples of Typical DW Queries

Simple Queries
Complex Queries

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Problems of Data Warehousing

Underestimation of resources for data

loading

Hidden problems with source systems

Required data not captured

Increased end-user demands

Data homogenization
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Problems of Data Warehousing

High demand for resources

Data ownership

High maintenance

Long duration projects

Complexity of integration
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