\u201cData analysis is traditionally thought of as
something done by experts in isolation or in
small groups. Social data analysis, however,
suggests the possibility of massive
collaboration in the discovery process,
involving experts and non-experts alike.\u201d

To this day, the power of social data analysis (i.e.
\u2018collective analysis of data supported by social
interaction\u2019) is not yet tapped into successfully by
enterprise software, despite evidence to the fact that
collaborative analytics is a fact of life for many business
users, and related requirements are being
communicated by our customers loud and clear.

In today\u2019s enterprise software, \u2018old school\u2019 approaches
to (heavy-weight) analytics abound: monolithic data
warehouses are interfaced to via slow and cumbersome
reporting tools, that deliver static, asynchronous, and

Copyright is held by the author/owner(s).
CHI 2008, April 5 \u2013 April 10, 2008, Florence, Italy
ACM 1-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

SAP Labs (Palo Alto)
3475 Deer Creek Rd
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daniela.busse@sap.com

SAP Labs (Palo Alto)
3420 Hillview Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA
richard.hong@sap.com

However, the real \u2018intelligence\u2019 that analytics could
provide for business users is articulated in visions of
future analytics capabilities, that:

work activities of professional users (not
isolated in a separate reporting
environment)

activities that is easily accessible and
intuitive, i.e. easy to use for any level of
user

the crowds\u201d of professional users in
socially, continuously creating &
interpreting the data cloud available in the
enterprise space for better business
performance

In this position paper, the authors will briefly outline
their thoughts, ideas & insights into two of these areas
(collaboration support and embedded analytics),
illustrate those with examples from past & current

In the current model of Business Intelligence, all to
often specialized roles are created within companies
(such as \u201cbusiness analysts\u201d or, more informally, \u201cour
SQL reports guy\u201d..) whose sole role is to be familiar
with cumbersome reporting interfaces, and (hopefully)
with having an overview of the data that\u2019s available in
the system for reporting use.

These reporting users are then responsible for fielding
questions from the user pool they service, and answer
them through business reports in regular intervals or
one-off occasions. The target recipients of these reports
typically are the knowledge workers at that company,
up to c-level users that often need a higher level of
aggregation, and a perspective across the value chain
(often focusing on the bottom-line impact of whatever
operational process under investigation).

C-level (executives): 360 degree view of information
because of the position on the pyramid. They can turn
around 360 and look at the info at all direction but only
within a short range so the level is high, not very
detailed. Only one dimensional collaboration.
Mid-level: Business analysts and information workers
have overview of information in a specific domain and
also relatively detailed information. They have two
dimensional collaborations (vertical and horizontal).

O-level (operational officers and workers): These
people in the lowest level of information, the original
application transactional data, have two dimensional
collaborations but they cannot see too far in both
directions.

In today\u2019s world of work, however, the expectation is
there from information workers and c-levels alike, to be
able to have these data & interpretations available at
their fingertips, and being able to modify and
manipulate them themselves, ad-hoc, and embedded in
their current work activities.

For instance, during the \u2018Sales and Operations\u2019 process,
in which different business units come together in
regular meetings in order to share and compare their
data, unearth & explain potential issues, and aim at
coherence in data and interpretation across business
units, is a good example of a business user activity that
is critical to good business performance, has a rich use
of social data analysis, but is currently completely
unsupported by enterprise software tools. The work is
done manually, in meetings and legwork, often
painfully and laboriously, to make sure that overall the
bottom line impact can be calculated by informed plan-
actuals comparisons across the value chain. Overall,
the finance department will need to be able identify
how the company overall manages to achieve their
earning estimates on a quarterly and yearly basis.

We proposed a solution for this business activity (see
Fig. 1) that highlights the collaborative needs of the
financial controller in gathering and interpreting
financial and operational data from various business
units, and in following up on potential issues (i.e.
exception handling).

We also think that this area, however, would be a great
case study for social data analysis as discussed in this
workshop: we envision the business units getting
actively involved in maintaining their data, in the
interpretation & comparison of it, and in the unearthing
of issues that span multiple departments \u2013 rather than
these activities being bundled in the hands of the
financial controller, as is the case today.