Business analytics and data visualisation

1. Business Analytics and Data Visualization

Business Analytics • Broad category of applications and techniques • Help enterprise users to
make better business and strategic decisions • Also known as analytical processing, BI tool, BI
applications or just BI. • Is becoming a major tool for most medium and large corporations. • E.g.
Pizza Hut has significantly boosted it’s sales revenue by using BI tools.

Tools and techniques of BA

Vendors Classification 1.MicroStrategy’s classification of BA: The five styles of BI • Enterprise

reporting • Cube analysis • Ad hoc querying and analysis • Statistical analysis and data mining •
Report delivery and alerting

2.SAP’S classification of strategic Enterprise Management • Operational level-supports

transaction processing on the operational level. • Managerial level-Managers can use SAP R/3 to
access all reports, make queries and drill down • Strategic level-company offers products under
title SAP SEM, which includes BA.

Capabilities of EIS/ESS Capability Description • Drill down • Critical success factors • Key
performance • Status report • Trend analysis • Ad hoc analysis • Exception reporting • Ability to
go to additional details • Can be organizational, industry, departmental etc. • Specific measure of
each CSF • Latest data available on KPI • Short, medium and long term trend of KPI • At any
time, with any desired factor • Using reports that highlight deviations larger than certain
thresholds.

Online Analytical Processing(OLAP) • Activities performed by end users in online systems –

Specific, open-ended query generation • SQL – Ad hoc reports – Statistical analysis – Building
DSS applications • Modeling and visualization capabilities • Special class of tools – DSS/BI/BA
front ends – Data access front ends – Database front ends – Visual information access systems
Types of OLAP • Multidimensional OLAP:OLAP implemented through multidimensional
database • Relational OLAP: is implemented on the top of relational database • Database OLAP
and Web OLAP: Database OLAP-RDBMES designed to host OLAP structure. Web OLAP-
OLAP data accessible from a web browser • Desk OLAP: Performs local multidimensional
analysis

Characteristics of OLAP • Categorical Analysis: Based on historical data • Exegetical Analysis:

Based on historical data. Adds the capability of drill-down analysis. • Contemplative Analysis:
allow user to change a single value to determine it’s impact. • Formulaic Analysis: permits
change to multiple changes.

Benefits of OLAP • Multidimensional conceptual view for formulating queries. • Transparency

to the user. • Easy accessibility: Batch and online access • Consistent reporting performance •
Client/Server architecture: the use of distribution resources • Generic dimensionality • Dynamic
sparse matrix handling. • Multi user support rather than support for only a single user. •
Unrestricted cross-dimensional operations. • Intuitive data manipulation • Flexible reporting •
Unlimited dimensions and aggregation level.

Reports and Queries Reports • Must be uniform, flexible, adjustable • Two types: 1.Routine
Reports- • Generated automatically and send periodically • E.g. weekly sales figures, units
produced each day, Monthly hours worked. 2.Ad Hoc Reports- • Created for specific user
whenever needed • For different time intervals or for only a subset of the data

Queries Ad Hoc Queries • Query cannot be determine prior to the query is issued. • Allow user to
request information from computer which not include in reports. • To generate new queries or
modify old ones. • Queries can be done on static data or dynamic data.

Multidimensionality • Efficient way to organized raw and summery data for analysis and
presentation. • It enables data to be organized the way individual managers. • Factor considered
1.Dimensions:like products, salespeople, market segment 2.Measures: like money, sales volume,
inventory 3.Time: are daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly

Multidimensional data cubes • Used to represent data along some measure of interest. • It can be
two dimensional, three dimensional or higher-dimensional. • Provide an opportunity to retrieve
decision support information in an efficient manner. • Cube analysis: Allow to perform queries
by flipping through a series of report views.

Limitations of Dimensionality • More computer storage. • Multidimensional products cost

significantly more. • Database loading consumes significant system resources and time. •
Complex interfaces and maintenance

Advance Business Analytics • Data Mining: – Statistical methods – Decision trees – Case based
reasoning – Neural computing – Intelligent agents – Genetic algorithms • Predictive Analysis: –
Helps to determine the probable future outcome for an event – Identify relationships and patterns

Data Visualization • Technologies supporting visualization and interpretation – Digital imaging,

GIS, GUI, tables, multi-dimensions, graphs, VR, 3D, animation – Identify relationships and
trends • Data manipulation allows real time look at performance data.

Visualization Spreadsheets • The major end user tools for programming decision support
applications. • Widely adopted as an easy-to-use and powerful tool for free-form data
manipulation. • Sophisticated and flexible tool for collecting, analyzing and summarizing data
from multiple sources. • Power of Excel can be leveraged with visualization including enhancing
effectiveness, focusing communications, facilitating comprehension, and empowering
collaboration.

Geographic Information System(GIS) • Computerized system for managing and manipulating

data with digitized maps – Geographically oriented – Geographic spreadsheet for models –
Software allows web access to maps – Used for modeling and simulations – Sophisticated and
affordable – Provide framework to support the process of decision making and designing
alternative strategies.

GIS And Decision Making • Provide extremely useful information in decision making. •
Graphical format easy to visualize the data. • Countless applications to improve decision making
like: 1.The dispatch of emergency vehicle 2.Transit management 3.Facility site selection
4.Drought risk management 5. Wildlife management

Real-Time Business Intelligence • Increasingly demand to access real-time, unstructured, or

remote data, integrated with data warehouse. • Real time data updates and access are critical for
an organization’s success and survivals • Need frequent updating of data warehouse • Real-time
requirement change the view of database, data warehouse, OLAP and data mining tool

Automated Decision Support(ADS) • Ruled-based system provide solutions to repetitive

managerial problems. • Rapidly builds rules-based applications to automate or guide decision
making • Injects predictive analytics into rules-based applications • Combines business rules,
predictive models, and optimization strategies • Accelerates the uptake of learning from decision
criteria into strategy design, execution, and refinement.

ADS Applications • Product or service configuration • Yield(price) optimization • Routing or

segmentation decisions • Corporate and regulatory compliance • Fraud detection • Dynamic
forecasting • Operational control Implementing ADS Software companies provide the following
components to ADS: • Rule engines • Mathematical and statistical algorithms • Industry-specific
packages • Enterprise systems • Workflow applications

Competitive Intelligence • Monitoring the activities of their competitors to acquire competitive

intelligence. • Drives business performance by increasing market knowledge, rising the quality
of strategic planning. • Can be facilitated with technologies such as optical character recognition,
intelligent agents and internet • Internet: Important tool in supporting competitive intelligence.

Web Analytics • Application of BA to websites • Includes e-commerce • Tools and methods are
highly visuals Clickstream analysis: Analysis of data present inside the web environment Provide
trailer of user’s activities and shows the user’s browsing patterns. By analyzing data one can
find the effectiveness of promotions.Can determine which products and ads attract the most
attention