Discuss the BI maturity model, spreadmart to data mart conversion, and MS BI Platform

1. Make Better Decisions with Your Data
Dan English Aaron Lowe Alan Wernke
Principal Consultant Senior Consultant Practice Director, Enterprise Data Services
dane@magenic.com aaronl@magenic.com

2. Who are we? – Dan and Aaron
Aaron Lowe Alan Wernke
Dan English
http://vendoran.spaces.live.com/
http://denglishbi.spaces.live.com • Practice Director, Enterprise
Data Services
• 10+ years experience in SQL
• Developing with Microsoft • 18+ years experience with data
Server development,
technologies for over 10 years services
administration and design
• Over 5 years experience with • 10 years at Microsoft
• Experience in advanced
Data Warehousing and Business • 30 years in Information
administration, which includes
Intelligence Technology
performance optimization,
• Experienced in ETL and
backup and recovery, migration
Analysis Services development,
strategies and replication, as
requirements gathering and data
well as security and auditing
modeling
techniques.
• Microsoft Certified IT
• Microsoft Certified IT
Professional (MCITP) and
Professional (MCITP) and
Microsoft Certified Technology
Microsoft Certified Technology
Specialist (MCTS)
Specialist (MCTS)
• Masters degree in Information
Systems Management

3. Who are we? – Magenic
 Founded in 1995, Magenic is a technical consulting firm
focused exclusively on Microsoft technologies and has
designed and delivered more than 500 Microsoft-based
applications
 Headquartered in Minneapolis, with offices in Chicago,
Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco
 2005 Microsoft Partner of the Year, Custom
Development Solutions – Technical Innovation
 2007 Microsoft Partner of the Year Finalist, Data
Management
 Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and National Systems
Integrator
 40 Enterprise Data Services (EDS) consultants

4. Today‟s Agenda
• What is Business Intelligence (BI)?
• What are Spreadmarts and Data Marts?
• What is a Business Intelligence Platform?
• Where do I go from here?
• Questions?

5. What is Business Intelligence (BI)?
The Gartner Group coined the term Business Intelligence in
the mid-1990s and defined it as follows:
“An interactive process for exploring and analyzing structured
and domain-specific information to discern trends or patterns,
thereby deriving insights and drawing conclusions. The
business intelligence process includes communicating
findings and effecting change.”
(Source: A glossary on the web site www.gartner.com)

6. BI Maturity Model – where are you at?
STRUCTURE: Mgmt Reports Spreadsheets Data Marts Data Warehouses Enterprise DW BI Services
System Individual Department Division Enterprise Inter-Enterprise
SCOPE:
By Wayne Eckerson, Director of Research, TDWI

7. Spreadmart BI – Infant (2nd) Stage
Are the users What happens when
Did they extract all How long does it
extracting and the person responsible
of the necessary take to extract
reporting on the for the report goes on
data to allow the data and how
right data? vacation or is sick or
management to ask clean is it once it
leaves the company?
further questions? is extracted?
MS Access MS Excel MS PowerPoint Business Users
Do they have enough
What logic is
Source Data data collected to
being applied and
perform yearly
Is all of the data
is this common
comparisons or
available in the
logic within the
trends over time?
source system?
organization?

8. Datamart BI – Child (3rd) Stage
OLAP Engine
Datamart
Source Data Business Users

9. Spreadmart vs. Datamart BI
Spreadmart Datamart
• High end-user control
• Shared/consistent view of data
• Easy to generate
• Centralized logic
• Can be pieced
Pros • Highly interactive (slice-and-
together
Pros dice)
• Highly customizable for
• Secured
the intended audience
• Very Flexible
• Low cost solution
• Extremely Fast response time
• Inconsistent view of the data
• •
No centralized logic Takes time to generate
Cons • •
Typically no security applied Less end-user control
Cons
• •
Silos of data throughout Costs more to develop
organization • Could potentially introduce
new tools (training)

10. Spreadmart to Datamart Case Study
Spreadmart
• Excel file report system
• Lots of embedded business logic and conditional formatting
• Generated over 1500+ files (most contained multiple reports) with macro
• Process took approximately 30 hours to run
• Initial Excel file was created and tested over a 6 month time period
• If there were any data issues or report creation errors process had to be re-run
• Not easy to implement additional change requests
Datamart
• Star schema database engine designed
• Analysis Service database created with centralized logic
• Reporting Service reports created and data driven subscription setup
• Generated same reports in approximately 30 minutes
• Entire database along with reports was created and tested in 2 month time frame
• Database and reporting structure extremely flexible to change requests

11. To BI or Not to BI?
Reasons to BI
• Integrate data from multiple source systems
• Create centralized „single version‟ of the truth
• Centralized business logic and calculations
• Gain insight into unknown and disparate areas of the organization
• Maintain competitive edge
• Provide additional services to customers
Reasons to Not BI
• Do not have the time and resources
• Do not have any competition
• Not interested in evaluating your organization

12. BI Platform – what is it?
“Gartner defines BI platforms as those that enable
users to build applications that help organizations
learn and understand their business. It divides
these capabilities into the functions of integration,
information delivery, and analysis.”
InformationWeek, Microsoft Gets Gartner's Business Intelligence Top Ranking,
Mary Hayes Weier, February 5, 2008

13. Magic Quadrant for BI Platforms, 2008
Microsoft strengths:
• Pricing
• Tight integration with MS Office
• PerformancePoint Server
• SQL Server
• Extremely large Microsoft
Developer community
• Attractive to those already on
Microsoft platform
Source: Gartner (January 2008)
Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00154227

14. Microsoft BI Tool Offerings
DELIVERY
SharePoint Server
Analytic
Excel Scorecards Plans
Reports Dashboards
Views
Workbooks
END USER TOOLS & PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT APPS
Excel PerformancePointServer
BI PLATFORM
SQL Server SQL Server
Reporting Services Analysis Services
SQL Server DBMS
SQL Server Integration Services

15. SharePoint Business Intelligence
• Excel Services
• Dashboards
• Key Performance Indicators (KPI‟s)
• Filter Web Parts
• Report Center/Report Library (Integrate Reporting Services)

16. PerformancePoint Offering
Performance Management Cycle

17. PerformancePoint Server

18. PerformancePoint Server

19. Source Information
Business Intelligence Definition – http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/?p=31
BI Maturity Model – http://www.dmreview.com/issues/20041101/1012391-1.html or
http://www.tdwi.org/publications/display.aspx?ID=7199
BI Platform Definition –
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/microsoft_news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=
206104502
Magic Quadrant –
http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/vol7/article3/article3.html

20. Resources
Microsoft BI Site
http://www.microsoft.com/bi/
SharePoint BI Features Introduction
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA100872181033.aspx
PerformancePoint Home Site
http://www.microsoft.com/business/performancepoint/default.aspx
PerformancePoint Developer Portal
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb660518.aspx
Channel9 MSDN BI Screencasts
http://channel9.msdn.com/Showforum.aspx?forumid=38&tagid=277
SQL Server 2008 Home Site
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/default.aspx
Microsoft Virtual Labs (TechNet and MSDN)
http://www.microsoft.com/events/vlabs/default.mspx
Magenic Blogs
http://blog.magenic.com/blogs

21. How Do We Get Started?
 Complimentary Strategy Session
 Up to 4 hours
 Deliverable:
 Customized BI Recommendations
 Business Intelligence Benefit Assessment
 5 days
 Deliverables
 Initial proof-of-concept development custom to your
company‟s unique reporting needs
 High level BI architecture
 Mentoring & Knowledge Transfer
 Email info@magenic.com for more information

22. Contact Information – Thank You!
Contact us to find out how your business can benefit
from a complimentary strategy session with one of our
consultants and look into one of our BI quickstart
engagements.
Dan - http://denglishbi.spaces.live.com
Aaron - http://vendoran.spaces.live.com
Magenic - info@magenic.com