IS Consulting Process (IS 6005) Masters in Business Information Systems 26 th Feb 2010 Fergal Carton Business Information Systems

Last week Cubes are logical configurations, technically there may be one RDBMS Soft information –Very important soft information is not for recording –For consultants, it is the off the record comments that are often the most revealing Data integrity problems can occur within one ERP system –Multiple occurrences of the same customer within one ERP system –Different levels of granularity for recording product weights A framework for transition of data to decisions –Transformation of raw data to management information involves different layers of technology (ERP, BI, DW, Excel) ETL and data quality problems –Transformation from different source currencies to one reporting currency Real time information requirement –Managers always want real time information., but it’s not always necessary –For UCC, come up with requirements for real time information

This week Life cycle of DW and refresh rates Real time information requirement Response times

Data Quality Problems Orphaned transactions: –some transactions may be missing important parts such as an order without a customer. Multipurpose fields: –some databases may combine data into one field such as different components of an address. Conflicting data: –some data sources may have conflicting data such as different customer addresses. Different update times: –some data sources may perform updates at different intervals.

Life cycle of the DW Operational Databases Warehouse Database First time load Refresh Refresh Refresh Purge or Archive

Real time information Up to date On-line Actual data Live feed Decisions made on what basis?

Real time requirement? Historical sales or accounting data, not real- time Sales as quarter end approaches Inventory levels for MRP Exchange rates, when is Visa rate calculated? Real-time processing: card transactions down

Real time requirement UCC?

De-registering students? –BIS dependent of central services –Monthly is good enough in terms of swipe access –Transferring to another course, keeping grant Tutor hours getting into payroll? –Hours have to be entered by a certain deadline KPI’s

Problems with static information Delay contacting a student – –Telephone Fire and safety (for headcount) Queues of students at peak times Parking spaces available Occupancy of rooms Out of date photos

Date driven data at UCC Registration Student card Exam results Fees Teaching support Services Library Payroll Alumni records Timetable Students

Response times Response times are a function of : – response time, –Infrastructure elements, –Database sizing –Transaction processing –Interfaces –Reporting –Other processing demands –Peak times –…

Example Revenue reports from EMC Data warehouse Report can grow to >1million lines at quarter end Should not be run on ERP server Poorly designed?

Manager’s view Volume has been increasing at a huge pace compared to … like, you go talk to Jonathan, … my answer to it will be, get used to it, it’s not going to go away, I don’t care what you do, it’s not my problem, I want the reports, you deal with the volume of records, it’s not going to go away, you deal with it.

Refreshing databases Timing Criticality of information Volume of data Response time Real-time requirement Level of aggregation / granularity

Refresh Optimization

Determining the Refresh Frequency Maximize net refresh benefit Value of data timeliness Cost of refresh Satisfy data warehouse and source system constraints