The document outlines the concept of Business Intelligence (BI), detailing its components, applications, and benefits for enabling data-driven decision-making within organizations. BI integrates data from multiple sources to provide predictive and prescriptive analytics, facilitating real-time insights and informed business actions. It emphasizes the importance of leveraging data warehouses, visualization techniques, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for measuring and adjusting business processes effectively.

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Why BI?
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What if you could see into the future and control what
occurs? Can that be possible given the complexity of
your environment? You have many systems, multiple
databases and a ton of data to work with.
Seeing into the future is possible. Business Intelligence (BI) is the crystal ball!
• In its simplest form, BI is like a spreadsheet on steroids, allowing you to :
• Slice and Dice
• Perform Predictive Analysis
• Define Prescriptive Actions
• With Views based on:
• Current
• Future
• Multi-dimensional Attributes
• Combined with Analytical Analysis
BI considers organization spreadsheet knowledge and adheres to the same look and
feel.
BI is one area of the business that is user owned and driven
requiring significantly less dependence on your IT
organization and resources.
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In a 1958 article, IBM researcher Hans Peter Luhn used the
term business intelligence. His definition was based on
Webster's dictionary definition of intelligence:
"the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented
facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired
goal."[1]
BI Components
BI encompasses:
Data Warehouse
Business Analytics
Reporting
a lot of Data = Big Data
BI enables informed decisions by bringing together data from
multiple sources combined with the analytical abilities to produce
informed business decisions supported by multiple dimensional view
or scenarios.
So, what are the goals that you want to achieve? Where
do you start? Let’s start with areas of the business that will
benefit.
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Applying BI to Enterprise Processes
Measurement /Metrics– inform business leaders to the progress towards business goals
Business Intelligence applied to the following purposes drive
value based processes.
Allowing the measurement and real-time insight to adjust ,
improve , modify many aspects of your business, including:
Business Intelligence provides alert functionality notifies the users if certain
conditions are met.
Example: If a business metric exceeds a pre-defined threshold, the metric will be
highlighted in standard reports, and the business analyst may be alerted via
email or other system services.
Analytics – driven by quantitative processes to arrive at optimal decisions and to discover
business knowledge.
Involves: data mining, process mining, statistical analysis, predictive
analytics, predictive modeling, business process modeling, event processing and
prescriptive analytics.
Enterprise Reporting – strategic reporting, not operational reporting.
Involves data visualization, executive information system and OLAP
Collaboration/Collaboration Platform – internal and external
data sources sharing.
Knowledge Management – supports practices to identify, create,
represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and
experiences that are based on business knowledge.

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BI Great Mashups
Taking a term first coined in the music industry, Mashups
combine multiple sources (rap & rock) and tones (dance &
electronica) to create something totally new.
Mashups in BI allows us to integrate data and
visualize the results in a coherent and
persuasive manner.
When enhanced by technologies like
Flash featuring drill-down and drill-
through capability, they become some of
the most versatile and visually-powerful
BI instruments in the decision-maker’s
arsenal.
The enablers of BI include:
Data Warehouse
Visualization
Dashboards
Big Data
OLAP
KPIs

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Data Warehouse
Let’s start with one of the most obvious components and how BI
and Data Warehouse play together. Distinguishing between the
concepts of business intelligence and data warehouses, Forrester
Research defines BI as:
"Business Intelligence is a set of methodologies, processes,
architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into
meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective
strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-
making."[2]
BI includes:
Data Integration
Data Quality
Data Warehousing
Master-data Management
Text-Analytics
Content-Analytics
and Others….
Forrester sees data warehouse as an enabler of and input to BI based on
combined data bases/sources.
From a user’s view BI portals into the data warehouse provides for analytical
and reporting capabilities. These views are user specific, refreshed and
consolidated.

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Visualization
Supports predictive actions based on knowledge and insights driven
by analytics that are graphic and easily modified for data changes
to project resulting impacts.
Visualization allows you to:
Anticipate
React
Achieve Greater Success
Attributes are assigned allowing for perspectives not obvious in
the data, but striking when visualized

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Dashboards
Dashboards are BI’s graphical representation of information
to allow users to monitor and adjust, according to changes in
priorities, objectives or resources.
Dashboards by User/Function/KPI Specific
User Friendly
Easily Modified by Users
Mobility and Connectivity
Important consideration when deploying via :
Tablets
Other Handheld Devices

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Big Data
It’s all the rage, Big Data! What does it mean?
Is it BI?
Big Data is based on data growth and the ability to harness that data.
Growth in the following areas:
Data Volume
Information Management
System Specific (ERP, CRM, etc.)
Servers
Data Management - Internal
Data Access - External
Virtualization
Distribution
Replication
Not to fear, BI considerations include predefined:
Data Structures
User Interfaces
Data Management
Warehouses

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OLAP
OLAP or On Line Analytical Processing supports
multidimensional analysis or the analysis of data from
different dimensions, often called OLAP cubes.
OLAP prioritizes the way data is shown by a given column.
Multidimensional Databases are complex
architectures.
* With these databases, intersections of relevant
data become more apparent and easier to:
Group
Summarize
Analyze
For example, if you have a table of data about sales,
analyze it by:
product type (a dimension)
demographic (another dimension)
geographic region (another dimension)
For example, OLAP allows an analyst to answer questions like
“how many computers have been sold in the US this year?” and
“of those sold, how many were sold to people over 60?”
Not to oversimplify the capabilities of OLAP, think of OLAP as a pivot
table that also extends beyond the enterprise leveraging other data
sources via APIs and overlays like :
• Google Maps - location specific information
Location

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KPIs
Remember the dashboard is only as effective as the KPI’s that
are tracked and measured.
KPIs should be used to trigger alerts and actions!
Give careful consideration to what
and why you are measuring the
KPIs selected.
Don’t measure too many KPI’s;
consider combining multiple KPIs
into one.

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With BI you can take the data from those and other systems to:
Perform Predictive Analysis
Prescription Capabilities
Establish KPI Driven Analytics and User Dashboards
BI Deployment
There are many touch points to consider when BI
solutions are being planned.
Consider your other systems ERP, CRM, SCM, etc.
ERP enabled :
Integrated Processes
Information Flows Across Processes
Business Function Level Automation
CRM for Sales
Financial Systems
Sales Order Planning
Operations And Production Processes, Priorities, and Scheduling.
SCM enabled
Automated/Anticipated/Actionable/Information Based
Interactive/Actions With
In-bound Suppliers
Out-bound Activities To Customers in Your Supply Chain

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BI Product and Services Options/Considerations
There are many products to satisfy the capabilities of BI.
Don’t be drawn in by any one that claims to provide you the
entire package. Understand what you need based on what you
want to accomplish and the investments you’ve already made.
As you evaluate your options, consider what you have
already invested in systems and how that supports your BI
initiative.
There are many reports from analysts with
solution comparisons.
 Do your homework on the required
investment and completeness of the
solution.
Look beyond the enterprise.
 SaaS may be a viable option for your BI
implementation.

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Why BI?
Still need to know more.
The results speak for themselves. The following chart from Bain &
Company shows you…WHY!
Bain & Company’s Insights Analysis
2X more likely to have top-quartile financial performance
5X more likely to make decisions “much faster” than competition
3X more likely to execute decisions as intended
2X more likely to use data very frequently when making decisions

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Summary
This journey is one that you’ve been on for a while.
The system and supporting technologies that have been
deployed to-date have led you to this newest technology.
The foundation has been laid and BI will take you far.
BI is a technology that brings together the
combined knowledge of your organization based
on the systems and databases in place and the
foundation that has been laid.
 You have made the investments and it’s
time to realize those investments.
This should help you get on your way. If you would like to talk
about you rBI initiatives, please reach out to me or our team
of consultants here at Barry-Wehmiller International. Contact
me at Pat.McGrath@B-WI.com. Wishing you a successful
project! ;-)
You are in a position to harness the power of BI.
 The power of knowledge and insight gained, captured and
presented via BI to support decisions based on
prescriptive and predictive actions.

16. Why BI?
Other Sources
• Video http://progressive.uvault.com/2361/2014/corp/Selection-Consultant-short-
DEPM.mp4
• Links:
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2014/06/24/roundup-of-analytics-big-data-
business-intelligence-forecasts-and-market-estimates-2014/
• Sector Report on Business Intelligence Redwood Capital Report on the Players
• http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/feature/Defining-and-using-KPIs-in-a-
successful-business-intelligence-system KPIs in BI dashboards
• Big Data: The Organizational Challenge Bain & Company Insights
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References
• 1 H P Luhn (1958). "A Business Intelligence System". IBM Journal 2 (4):
314.doi:10.1147/rd.24.0314.
• 2 Evelson, Boris (21 November 2008). "Topic Overview: Business Intelligence".
• http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-
products/newsletters/information_builders/vol3_issue1/gartner.html

17. Why BI?
About Barry-Wehmiller International (B-WI)
At Barry-Wehmiller International (B-WI) we are proud of our remarkable journey, a journey we
began 20 years ago to become who we are today – a trusted, global, people-centric, ‘Total
Solutions’ provider with a rich heritage in manufacturing. We take particular pride in our people-
centric culture and values.
We have built a strong foundation, we are here to lend a hand and be a guide to our customers
with our specialized consulting, technology, engineering and manufacturing talent. We were
there then, we are here now and we will be there with you into the future. Welcome to Barry-
Wehmiller International.
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Enterprise Consulting
Enterprise Systems
Engineering Expertise
Technology
Products
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LOCATIONS
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18. Why BI?
About the Author
Patricia McGrath is pleased to represent Barry-Wehmiller International, as
Director of Strategic Initiatives.
B-WI provides consulting and services for manufacturing, engineering, ERP
solutions, and specialized development and support services.
Pat’s career includes positions with such prestigious companies as IBM and
KPMG. While there she focused on strategy, ERP business partners and business
consulting, plus having her own company working with others to develop both
strategic initiatives and tactical plans.
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