This document discusses business intelligence (BI) and how it relates to enterprise content management (ECM) systems like Alfresco. It begins by explaining what BI is and is not, then discusses using Alfresco for BI from a technical perspective. It notes that users want to analyze metadata, types, aspects, processes, and more over time. A true BI solution involves a three-tier architecture with a source layer, data warehouse layer, and frontend layer to provide scalability. Open source solutions like A.A.A.R can provide such a three-tier BI system integrated with ECM platforms.

1. Francesco Corti
http://fcorti.com
Enterprise
Content
Management
Business
Intelligence
Janus Bifrons
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus)
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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2. Please, interrupt me!
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
http://fcorti.com
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3. The goal
http://fcorti.com
•
What Business Intelligence is
•
What Business Intelligence is not
•
Taking a look at Alfresco and ECM in general
•
From a technical point of view
Tools
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
Theory
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4. We all use Alfresco and we would like to know…
http://fcorti.com
Who is using it? Which are the top users/offices/departments?
•
How is the repository growing over time?
•
Which are the most viewed contents last week? And in the last quarter? And
in the last year?
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I would like to develop interactive analysis on metadata and types/aspects.
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Where are the bottlenecks in my processes and workflows?
•
What happens to the duration of my processes if the document flows will
increase 15% more than today?
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How can I analyze information like this as a spreadsheet?
•
Business questions
•
Everything should be shared with my Boss/Collaborators on his/her/their
cellphones
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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5. And even if we know everything…
http://fcorti.com
BI specialist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3QGwTcyRLQ
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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6. When reality overtakes fantasy
http://fcorti.com
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Business questions cannot be easily satisfied and
changes along with the organization and the processes
•
Good news: Enterprise BI solutions and architectures is
going to help us!
•
Let’s see how…
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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7. (Probably) everybody knows that BI is…
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Analytics
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Reports
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Dashboards
http://fcorti.com
This is definitely true!
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Spreadsheets and pivot tables
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KPI
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…a lot of other (useful) tools for the end user!
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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8. Front-end tools are focused on data presentation
http://fcorti.com
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Front-end tools:
•
are cool and handsome
•
are focused on data enquiry and presentation
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make the end user’s life easier
•
could be integrated in other applications
•
make the analysis process smarter!
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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9. Is this a BI solution?
•
http://fcorti.com
Yes, it is a possible solution
+
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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10. Is this a BI solution?
•
http://fcorti.com
Yes, it is a possible solution based on a single level
Source level
Frontend level
+
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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11. Is this a BI solution?
http://fcorti.com
•
Yes, it is a possible solution based on a single level
•
But we could get more than this for a real Enterprise
approach
Source level
Frontend level
+
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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12. Data Warehouse guarantees scalability
•
A Data Warehouse is a storage
developed specifically for data
analysis
•
http://fcorti.com
Data Warehouse guarantees
scalability in terms of
• Business questions
• Quantity of data
• Data quality
• Reliability
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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13. Data Warehouse guarantees scalability
•
http://fcorti.com
A Data Warehouse is a storage
developed specifically for data
analysis
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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14. Is this a BI solution?
http://fcorti.com
(*)
•
Yes, more complex to manage but more complete*
+
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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15. Is this a BI solution?
http://fcorti.com
(*)
•
Yes, more complex to manage but more complete*
•
This solution is based on a two levels approach
Source level
DWH level
+
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
Frontend
level
+
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16. A.A.A.R. solution
•
•
http://fcorti.com
A.A.A.R. develops the three levels architecture (DWH
is composed by Operational level and Warehouse level)
A.A.A.R. is, today, based on a pure Open Source stack
Source level
DWH level
+
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
Frontend
level
+
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17. Scalability of …
•
http://fcorti.com
Sources, data, business elements, front-end, …
Source level
DWH level
+
ERP
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
…
Frontend
level
+
…
…
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18. Q&A
http://fcorti.com
Source level
DWH level
+
ERP
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
…
Frontend
level
+
…
…
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19. BI is not magic
http://fcorti.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_bQDruxOAI
Alfresco tech talk n.73 - February 5th, 2014
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