This session will explore a real case study of analytical acceleration for a major US Retailer. Your business users are ALWAYS asking for faster reports. Big Data has moved from concept to reality. A dozen new tools claim to do what MicroStrategy excels at. These are the challenges that were overcome by adding the Kognitio Analytical Platform to a mature environment, with a short time to value, measurable ROI and zero disruption to end users.

1. Your MicroStrategy –
only BETTER.
(A Retail Case Study)
Nigel Sanctuary
VP, Business Analytics
1
@NigelSanctuary
@Kognitio

2. The need for speed should be
obvious, but a lot of Big Data
projects produce stale insights
because managers have
forgotten the importance of
“time to insight.”
2
#BigData
@BW
@Kognitio

3. • Kognitio is an in‐memory analytical platform that
can underlie any BI Tool to enable it to do complex
ad‐hoc analytics on comprehensive data sets with
real‐time performance on Big Data.
• Nigel Sanctuary is VP Business Analytics at Kognitio.
He has a history working in fashion retail, credit cards
and management consulting.
3
#BIAccel
@Kognitio

4. Contents
•
•
•
•
•
Case Study Background
Case Study: Inter‐MicroStrategy Solutions
Plan for the Future
Building a BI Center of Excellence
Data Scientists and MicroStrategy
4
@Kognitio

5. A Case Study
Their
Industry
Challenges for
the industry
Development of
Technology
BI innovations are the sources of
competitive advantage, so no names
5
@Kognitio

6. The Industry
Margins,
Competition,
Wonderful
Rapidly changing
consumer trends
World of
Retail
6
#Retail
@Kognitio

7. The Business of BI in Retail
» Ergonomics
» Merchandising
» Specialist Customer Services
7
#Retail
@Kognitio

8. New Analytical Challenges in Retail
•
•
•
•
Rapidly changing trends
Huge product lines & categories
Shifting price points & promotional mixes
Internet retailers are better at this (?)
8
#Retail
@Kognitio

9. Technology Challenges in Retail
»Growing User Community
»Transaction Volume & Variety
»Data Richness
»New Distribution
9
#Retail
@Kognitio

10. Forcing the Change
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
New data,
Large data,
Derived data,
Processed data,
Extra sources,
Temporary sources,
Velocity of data
• Warehouse structures,
• Reports structures,
• Performance structures
10
• Drill anywhere,
• Train of thought,
• Monitoring in crises
@Kognitio

11. Case Study
Intelligent Cubes
Mobile
Cloud
Visualization
Broader access, bigger user community, flexible scale,
low disruption
11
#MSTRWorld
@Kognitio

12. In Good Company
45%
40%
39%
Among US Retailers & CPG companies,
MicroStrategy is the most popular
BI & Reporting Tool
Source: IMTS; N=179
35%
29%
30%
25%
22%
18%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
MicroStrategy
IBM Cognos
SAP Business Objects
Others
More info: www.kognitio.com/survey
12
@Kognitio

13. Business Operations
Data Warehouse
Marketing &
Merchandising
Operational
Monitoring
Specialist
Report
Server
Switch
BI MSTR
Users
Consumer
Servicing
Forecasting
Switch
Data Scientists
Hadoop
Cloud
DBA/ETL
Application
Analysis
Application
13
#MSTRWorld
@Kognitio

14. Forcing the Change
14
@Kognitio

15. Forcing the Change: Future‐proofing
• The upside: Big Teradata environments
• Big Netezza environments
• MicroStrategy Web
• MicroStrategy I Cubes
• Drill Anywhere functions
• Distributed Data Marts
15
@Kognitio

16. The Roadblocks
Data Warehouse
Specialist
Report
Server
Switch
BI MSTR
users
Switch
Data Scientists
Hadoop
Cloud
DBA/ETL
Application
Analysis
Application
16
#MSTRWorld
@Kognitio

17. Operating Vision
Data Warehouse
Marketing &
Merchandising
Operational
Monitoring
Specialist
Report
Server
Switch
BI MSTR
users
Consumer
Servicing
Mobile BI
Forecasting
Switch
Cloud
Data Scientists
Hadoop
Cloud
DBA/ETL
Application
Analysis
Application
17
#MSTRWorld
@Kognitio

18. Some Architectural Considerations
• Role of the Data Warehouses
• Proliferation of data uses
Data use
multiplication
• Enterprise MicroStrategy:
i‐Cubes and Server
• Other tools: ETL, Data science
18
#EDW
@Kognitio

19. Data Warehouse
The Solution Architecture
Specialist
Report
Server
Switch
BI MSTR Users
Switch
Cloud
Data Scientists
Hadoop
Cloud
DBA/ETL
Application
Analysis
Application
19
#MSTRWorld
@Kognitio

20. Business Challenge
Data Warehouse
Marketing &
Merchandising
Operational
Monitoring
Specialist
Report
Server
Switch
Consumer
Servicing
BI MSTR
Users
Mobile BI
Forecasting
Switch
Cloud
Data Scientists
Hadoop
Cloud
DBA/ETL
Application
Analysis
Application
20
#MSTRWorld
@Kognitio

21. Solution Challenges
» Interruptions to speed
» Complexity of new service
» Development challenges
21
@Kognitio

22. So, What of the Future?
22
@Kognitio

23. Actual Future‐Proofing
• Specializing analytics
• MicroStrategy still at the user level
• Integrating analytics with MicroStrategy
Reporting
23
@Kognitio

24. Analytics
Traditional
Data
Storage
Warehouse
Process data
Persist data
24
#Analytics
@Kognitio

25. Analytics
Analytics
Analytics
Storage
DW
DBs &
Data
Marts
Hadoop
25
#Analytics
@Kognitio

26. The Roadmap
Solve ‘Big Data’
issue
Separate Analytics
for Current
Reporting
High‐Performance
Consumer Service
Detailed
Analytical
Environment
Limit cube
proliferation
Enable full
“Drill Anywhere”
26
User level
model access
(“what if”
modelling
stored for
instant re‐use)
Dynamic
Decision
Support
@Kognitio

27. Productivity Improvements
Data Scientists
• Train‐of‐Thought
• Throughput of
modelling stages
• Faster Processing
of data prep.
• Embedded
calculation in
MicroStrategy
• Connection to
business
community
Business
Intelligence
Analysts
• Analytics away
from the
workstation
• Fewer aggregates
• Greater
dimensional and
metric granularity
• Return to drill
anywhere
• Access to the
analysts
27
Report Enthusiasts
• Drill Anywhere for
the first time
• Mobile, mobile,
mobile
• No more paper
• Better
visualisation
• Access to analytics
not just reports
@Kognitio

28. Center for Business Intelligence
Campaign Management
Workforce
Management
Web Management
Manage
Category
Management
Visualize
Loyalty points bonuses
See
Model
Status
Near‐line
Storage
(optional)
Promotions
EPOS Connections
Score
E‐mail/Social media
Loyalty Management
EPOS
Connections
Operational Data
Application Reporting
Analytical
Storage
Hadoop
Clusters
Enterprise Data
Warehouse
Promotion
Management
Operational Data
Operational
Data Stores
#BIAccel

29. Business Challenge
Data Warehouse
Marketing &
Merchandising
Operational
Monitoring
Specialist
Report
Server
Switch
BI MSTR
Users
Consumer
Servicing
Mobile BI
Forecasting
Switch
Cloud
Data Scientists
Hadoop
Cloud
DBA/ETL
Application
Analysis
Application
29
#MSTRWorld
@Kognitio

30. The Analytical Enterprise
Data
Scientist
Business
Analyst
30
Systems
Admin
#DataSci
@Kognitio

31. Key: “Graduation”
Projects will need
to graduate
from the
Data Science Lab
& become part of
Business as Usual
31
#DataSci
@Kognitio

32. Analytical Platform
See us at booth #501!
Follow @Kognitio ∙ Look for #AnalyticsNews