Enterprise Business Processes and Reporting (IS 6214) MBS MIMAS 19 th Jan 2011 Fergal Carton Business Information Systems

Last week How managers work –All businesses must manage to a plan (car mechanic example) –Managing is implementing actions to improve performance towards planned level Garage contacts all customers with service date > 6 months ago –Too much time today spent arguing about the data –High level of data manipulation skills found among managers, but is this what they are paid to do? Managers require information –For Cucina, Deliver process can be considered part of Sales Order Processing –Importance of process mapping is clarity –Customer feedback incorporated into process (eg. Apple, Amazon,...) –An activity becomes a process if it’s recurring and we want to know about it –CRM systems incorporate feedback into a process –eCommerce revolution involves using customer data for marketing purposes ERP reports and getting “one truth” –Increasing use of other data manipulation tools (eg. Business Intelligence) for ad-hoc reports ERP demo for SAP sales order processing –Look up other examples of less complex ERP systems –Talk to people involved in sales order processing, delivery and invoicing routines Recipe and inventory data for Cucina –Important for understanding cost drivers, profitability and inventory management

This week Research view on integration and BPM Control objectives of integration undermined by process inflexibility Key ERP modules Types of data (static and dynamic) Latency and response times in entreprise reporting Refresh rates The requirement for real time information Exercise for afternoon session

What does integration mean? Dearden 72 –As computer use expands, control is vital –Single group of experts design a completely integrated supersystem = absurd –Specialist expertise is functional by nature –Finance, logistics, sales = different expertise –Centralisation of control of systems = dangerous –Examine the interfaces Vizard 06 –Data used to be in disparate databases –Data now in databases, file systems, applications, … –“One truth” concerning the state of a business process –Interdependent business processes (eg. sales & service) –Meta-data structures –Enterprise Application Integration vs. BI tools

Business Process Management Yarde 2006

Control objectives of integration undermined

Key modules

Type of data : Cucina What are the types of data you have for Cucina?

Type of data : static What are the types of data you have for Cucina?

Type of data : dynamic What are the types of data you have for Cucina?

Type of data: soft information Data collection - –Grapevine –factory tours (talking and observing) Data storage - –managers’ minds –special reports Data usage: –ad-hoc basis –decision making

Latency in performance reporting Refresh rates can create latency across four levels –ERP to DW eg. every 8 hours DW updated with fresh sales transactions –The time it takes for the refresh to execute can lengthen eg. 2/3 hours –Running a query on the DW can take some time to complete eg. 10 mins –Report display on user machine can slow down eg. 10 minutes –Total latency of 11/12 hours can be critical at quarter end –Decision making not supported in information cannot be trusted

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

Extraction Cleaning Transformation Loading Relational Database on a dedicated Server De normalised, data Static Reporting Scrutinising Multidimensional Data Cubes OLAP tools Data Warehouse Source Systems Discovering Data Mining ……. Data Staging Area Exploiting the DW data

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

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?

Class exercise:Cucina reporting What reports will be required by business? Impact for process design? How will reports look? What are issues around report production? –Real-time –Refresh rates –Latency –Integrity –...