Successful Business Intelligence, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

Successful Business Intelligence, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

by Cindi Howson
Released November 2013
Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill
ISBN: 9780071809191

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Book description

Revised to cover new advances in business intelligence—big data, cloud, mobile, and more—this fully updated bestseller reveals the latest techniques to exploit BI for the highest ROI.

“Cindi has created, with her typical attention to details that matter, a contemporary forward-looking guide that organizations could use to evaluate existing or create a foundation for evolving business intelligence / analytics programs. The book touches on strategy, value, people, process, and technology, all of which must be considered for program success. Among other topics, the data, data warehousing, and ROI comments were spot on. The ‘technobabble’ chapter was brilliant!” —Bill Frank, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Program Manager, Johnson & Johnson

“If you want to be an analytical competitor, you’ve got to go well beyond business intelligence technology. Cindi Howson has wrapped up the needed advice on technology, organization, strategy, and even culture in a neat package. It’s required reading for quantitatively oriented strategists and the technologists who support them.” —Thomas H. Davenport, President’s Distinguished Professor, Babson College and co-author, Competing on Analytics

“Cindi has created an exceptional, authoritative description of the end-to-end business intelligence ecosystem. This is a great read for those who are just trying to better understand the business intelligence space, as well as for the seasoned BI practitioner.” —Sully McConnell, Vice President, Business Intelligence and Information Management, Time Warner Cable

“Cindi’s book succinctly yet completely lays out what it takes to deliver BI successfully. IT and business leaders will benefit from Cindi’s deep BI experience, which she shares through helpful, real-world definitions, frameworks, examples, and stories. This is a must-read for companies engaged in – or considering – BI.” —Barbara Wixom, PhD, Principal Research Scientist, MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research

Expanded to cover the latest advances in business intelligence such as big data, cloud, mobile, visual data discovery, and in-memory computing, this fully updated bestseller by BI guru Cindi Howson provides cutting-edge techniques to exploit BI for maximum value. Successful Business Intelligence: Unlock the Value of BI & Big Data, Second Edition describes best practices for an effective BI strategy. Find out how to:

  • Garner executive support to foster an analytic culture
  • Align the BI strategy with business goals
  • Develop an analytic ecosystem to exploit data warehousing, analytic appliances, and Hadoop for the right BI workload
  • Continuously improve the quality, breadth, and timeliness of data
  • Find the relevance of BI for everyone in the company
  • Use agile development processes to deliver BI capabilities and improvements at the pace of business change
  • Select the right BI tools to meet user and business needs
  • Measure success in multiple ways
  • Embrace innovation, promote successes and applications, and invest in training
  • Monitor your evolution and maturity across various factors for impact

Exclusive industry survey data and real-world case studies from Medtronic, Macy’s, 1-800 CONTACTS, The Dow Chemical Company, Netflix, Constant Contact, and other companies show successful BI initiatives in action.

From Moneyball to Nate Silver, BI and big data have permeated our cultural, political, and economic landscape. This timely, up-to-date guide reveals how to plan and deploy an agile, state-of-the-art BI solution that links insight to action and delivers a sustained competitive advantage.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Successful Business Intelligence: Unlock the Value of BI & Big Data, Second Edition
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication Page
  6. Contents
  7. Preface
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. 1. BI and Big Data from the Business Side
    1. Business Intelligence by Other Names
    2. How Business Intelligence Provides Value
    3. The Business Intelligence Market
    4. Battle Scars
    5. The Research
    6. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  10. 2. Technobabble: Components of a Business Intelligence Architecture
    1. Operational and Source Systems
    2. Data Transfer: From Operational to Data Warehouse
    3. The Data Warehouse
    4. Data Warehouse Tables
    5. The Data Warehouse Technology Platform
    6. Big Data Technologies
    7. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  11. 3. The Business Intelligence Front-End: More Than a Pretty Face
    1. Utopia: Self-Service BI
    2. Business Query and Reporting
    3. Visual Data Discovery
    4. Dashboards
    5. Scorecards
    6. Production Reporting
    7. Mobile BI
    8. Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
    9. Microsoft Office
    10. Performance Management
    11. Analytic Applications
    12. Advanced and Predictive Analytics
    13. Big Data Analytics
    14. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  12. 4. Measures of Success
    1. Success and Business Impact
    2. How to Measure Success
    3. Measures of Success at Netflix
    4. Measures of Success at Learning Circle
    5. Measures of Success at Constant Contact
    6. Return on Investment
    7. Anecdotes of Hard Business Benefits
    8. Number of Users
    9. Other Measures of Success
    10. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  13. 5. Catalysts for Success: The LOFT Effect
    1. The Role of Luck
    2. Opportunity
    3. Frustration
    4. Threat
    5. The Role of Time
    6. If There Is No LOFT Effect, Is Successful BI Still Possible?
    7. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  14. 6. Executive Support and Culture
    1. Executive Support and Success
    2. Which Executive Is the Best Sponsor?
    3. The Role of an Executive Sponsor
    4. Getting and Keeping Executive Buy-In
    5. Culture
    6. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  15. 7. The Business–IT Partnership
    1. Voices of Frustration . . . and Hope
    2. The Business–IT Yin-Yang
    3. Meet the Hybrid Business–IT Person
    4. How to Be a Better Partner
    5. Partnership and BI Success
    6. Partnership at Netflix
    7. Alignment
    8. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  16. 8. D Is for Data
    1. Data Breadth
    2. Data Quality
    3. Successful Data Architectures
    4. Master Data Management
    5. Right-Time Data
    6. Data Quality’s Chicken and Egg
    7. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  17. 9. Relevance
    1. Relevance Brings Clearer Vision
    2. Relevance Improves Patient Care
    3. Relevance for Teachers
    4. The Role of Incentives
    5. Personalization
    6. Requirements-Driven BI
    7. What to Do with Big Data
    8. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  18. 10. Agile Development
    1. Waterfall Development Process
    2. Agile Development Techniques
    3. Basic Concepts of Scrum
    4. Agile Culture at Netflix
    5. Medtronic: Agile for the Right Projects
    6. Sharper BI at 1-800 CONTACTS
    7. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  19. 11. Organizing for Success
    1. Enterprise vs. Departmental BI
    2. The BI Steering Committee
    3. Business Intelligence Competency Centers (BICC)
    4. The Best People
    5. BI Team Leaders as Level 5 Leaders
    6. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  20. 12. The Right BI Tool for the Right User
    1. The Importance of BI Tools
    2. The Role of BI Standardization
    3. The Right Tool for the Right User
    4. Characteristics for Defining User Segments
    5. The Most Successful BI Module
    6. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  21. 13. Other Secrets to Success
    1. Innovation
    2. Evangelizing and Promoting Your BI Capabilities
    3. Training
    4. A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Numbers
    5. Best Practices for Successful Business Intelligence
  22. 14. The Future of Business Intelligence
    1. Improvement and Innovation Priorities
    2. BI Search & Text Analytics
    3. Collaboration
    4. E-mail and Microsoft Office Integration
    5. Will Hadoop Kill the Data Warehouse?
    6. Privacy in the Age of Big Data
    7. Evolving Your Capabilities
    8. Words of Wisdom
  23. Appendix A: Successful BI Survey Demographics
  24. Appendix B: Recommended Resources
  25. Notes
  26. Index

Product information

  • Title: Successful Business Intelligence, Second Edition, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Cindi Howson
  • Release date: November 2013
  • Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill
  • ISBN: 9780071809191