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Who Watches the Watchmen?

The irony in business intelligence services who don’t know how they’re

doing

Data warehouse developer for NHS Wales ,MCTS 2005, MCTS

20008, MCP 2012

Richard (Griff) Griffiths

What are where here to do today?

• Agree the purpose of a business intelligence service• Frame measurable categories with respect to that

purpose• Prioritise our work with respect to business impact• Why is all this important?

A Very Brief History of IT

• I.T has to establish its worth to a non-I.T. business• Must demonstrate progression from support to

necessity • Easy to measure where technology has obvious

purpose• Increases products output, customer pool etc• But what is the purpose of business intelligence?

Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #1• Collect Data!• Ok here is some data…• 22• Here is another clue…• Datatype: Integer• Hmm…

• Conclusion• Collecting data alone

has no business value• Prerequisite to

something else…

Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #2• Provide Information!• Applies meaning to the

data• 22 is the temperature

outside in Cardiff in Celsius• I know something you

don’t know!• But… So?

• Conclusion• There is no realised

business benefit from just knowing something• We need to provide

more context to this knowledge

Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #3• Generate Intelligence• Intelligence summarises information into inferences• 22 is the temperature outside in Cardiff in Celsius,

plus• You are in Cardiff• It isn’t raining and the sky is clear• You have a box of sunglasses and a box of umbrellas

• Selling sunglasses would be an intelligent thing to do• But what is this intelligence without action?

Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #3• Conclusion• Business intelligence still has no tangible benefit• Businesses improved by actions not intelligence

alone

• So what is this action as a result of all our data collecting, information providing and intelligence generating…

Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #4 Answer! Purpose of Business Intelligence Guess #4• Support Decisions• BI product is decisions• Actually using the

intelligence decide to sell sunglasses• Business examples• Buy shares• Target customers• Increase staff allocation

Purpose of Business Intelligence Answer• Conclusion• Supporting decisions has a business benefit• Good decisions cause business improvement• Small conceptual distance between intelligence and

decisions made, but makes huge difference• Need to ensure communicate with decision makers• Decision Support Service

Decision Support Service

• “Regardless of your organization’s specific DW/BI objectives, we believe an overarching team goal should be business acceptance of the DW/BI deliverables to support the business’ decision making. This target must remain in the forefront throughout the design, development, and deployment of your DW/BI system.”

KimballGroup

Decision Support Service

Decisions

Generate Intelligence

Provide Information

Data Collection

• Business value increases • Complexity increases• Human effort increases• Volume reduces• Currently ease of

automation reduces

Decision Support Service

• Supporting decisions is the BI services real goal• Frame current BI work with respect to decision

performance• Stimulates measurable indicators (KPIs)• Helps focus goals and effort• Helps prioritise work

Decision Support KPI Categories

Decisions

Reliable

Economical

Relevant

Fast

Successful

Predictable

Reliable Decisions

• Decisions must be based on reliable sources in order for them to be successful• Effort based primarily in

collecting data tier• Large volumes of low

complexity

• Key Terms• Data Quality• Consistency• Unbiased• Traceable• Representative

Reliable Decisions

KPIs• Data constraints• Valid data values• Consistent data values• Service errors

• Data volumes• Data /objects described

Recommendations• Expend effort on

prevention• Automate as this is

simple but large quantities• Reduce duplication• Audit metadata

Economical Decisions

• Service should not exceed its worth • Across all decision

support areas• Understand the

decisions being made to procure most efficient resources

• Key Terms• Resource• Staffing• Hardware• Software• Time spent

Economical Decisions

KPIs• Staff cost per…• Hardware cost per…• Software cost per…

• Products per application

Recommendations• Understand what you

do so less wastage• Investigate open source

software• Reduce duplication of

data• Reduce duplication of

effort

Relevant Decisions

• The decisions being made must be relevant to the business• Decision support has to

keep up with the changing priorities of the business

• Key Terms• Importance• Customer contact• Business requirements• Business knowledge• Business impact• Development cycle• Service management• Changes• Project length

Relevant Decisions

KPIS• Release times• Number of changes• Length of backlog

Recommendations• Meet regularly with

customer (decision-makers)• Understand impact of

decisions• Small iterations and

often

Fast Decisions

• Faster decisions = more decisions• Obtaining data quickly

is in collecting data tier• Accessing and

understanding is in information and intelligence tiers

• Key Terms• Up to date• Real time• Understandable • Accessible• Obtainable • Intuitive • Described• Support

Fast Decisions

KPIS• ETL Times• Data warehouse query

times• Report response times• Support calls• Website / Portal

Navigation times

Recommendations• Expend on effort on

good design and automate creation• Good design improves

performance and understanding• Aim for self service

Successful Decisions

• Ultimately we need to know if decisions made were successful• Can be difficult due to

subjective nature• Usage of service could

be used as a proxy…

• Key Terms• Usage• Follow up• Impact• Satisfaction

Successful Decisions

KPIS• Number of users• User traffic• Customer satisfaction

feedback

Recommendations• Use the information

audit tools provide• Create a simple

satisfaction survey ASAP

Predictable Decisions

• If outcomes can be predicted then decisions more likely to be successful• Effort based primarily in

provide intelligence tier• Higher complexity

• Key Terms• Data Mining• Data Models• Statistics • Patterns• Data Science

Predictable Decisions

KPIs• Number of predictive

data models• Number of non-

predictive data models

Recommendations• Expend lots of human

effort here • Requires “data science” • Rewards are great

Decision Support KPI Categories

• We now have six attributes to broadly define the success of our decision support service• We now have KPIs for them and have used proxies

where neccessary• We have also targeted our customer – the decision

maker• But we have lots of decisions to support??

Prioritising Decisions

• Some decisions have more business impact than others• Business requirements not always in the form of a

decision• How do we determine what decisions are more

important? • How do we change business requirements into

decisions?

Prioritising Decisions

Prioritisation Factors• Weather closer to

where we live is more likely to affect decisions we make• Severe weather can

have life affecting consequences

Prioritising Decisions

Should I wear sunglasses today?

• Sunshine• Excessive squinting• Not looking cool• Low impact• Low frequency

Should I drive my car today?

• Wind & Rain• Delays• Death• High Impact• High frequency

Prioritising Decisions

Business Requirement• What customers buy

cars?

• Who has got flu?

• Get me staff data!

Decision Translation• Who should I target

with the new marketing campaign for fast cars?

• Where should I send flu treatment resources?

• Should I cut 30% of the

workforce?

Prioritising Decisions

• Our own lives suggest there is a way of prioritising decisions• Must understand potential outcomes of decisions

to determine the business impact• Decision support service work should be prioritised

based on this and so should its KPIs• Work may need to be done to translate business

requests into decisions

Why is it important to measure our decision support service?

• How can we sell the service we provide when we don’t use it ourselves? • We believe a good decision support service

improves decisions• We believe good decisions improve a service• Without improvement entropy is guaranteed

Why is it important to measure our decision support service?• Makes decision support workers aware of exactly

what they are doing and why

• “I am making decisions faster for flu patients”• “I am making decisions more reliable for staff

allocation”

• Decision support workers become independent and autonomously improve themselves

Why is it important to measure our decision support service?

• However…• Should never supersede actual business effort• Data should fall out if the correct processes and

infrastructure is in place• Bare minimum required as small skilled audience

Decision Support Service

• What your customers essentially want is a magic 8 ball

• The ultimate Decision Support Service!