10 Steps to a Successful Business Intelligence Implementation Presented by Marcia Livingston

A bit about me  Experience  Working with Oracle Business Intelligence Products since 2000  Working with other BI products since 1998  My goal for this presentation  Provide some guidelines  Many questions that need to be asked and answered  Some answers

Agenda  Expectations of the Project  Proper Privileges  What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  How will the BI info be administered  Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  What security procedures will be put into place  Determining an appropriate timeline  Standard Definitions  Last Tip  Summary and Q/A

Expectations  Executive Sponsor  Who is the Executive Sponsor  What are the Executive Sponsor’s expectations  Project Manager  Authority  To get definitions of reports/KPIs etc  To ensure testing is completed  Users  What do the users expect to get from this?  Do they consider this a priority? An Asset? Or a Hindrance to their job?  How do you turn a negative into a positive to the users?

Agenda  Expectations of the Project  Proper Privileges  What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  How will the BI info be administered  Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  What security procedures will be put into place  Determining an appropriate timeline  Standard Definitions  Last Tip  Summary and Q/A

Proper Privileges  What username should the Administrator(s) use?  Database Oracle/supplier Recommended Audit recommended  Apps Oracle Recommended Audit Recommended  Software Oracle/Supplier Recommended Audit Recommended  What privileges should the Administrator(s) have?  Database  Apps  Software

Agenda  Expectations of the Project  Proper Privileges  What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  How will the BI info be administered  Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  What security procedures will be put into place  Determining an appropriate timeline  Standard Definitions  Last Tip  Summary and Q/A

What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  Narrow base  limited use information. This is normally written to solve a single problem. Re-use is rare. Example » SELECT order_number, customer_name, order_date from orders where Customer_service_representative = ‘SUE’ and status = ‘Entered’

What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  Broad base  multi use information This is normally written to solve a multitude of problems. Re-use is normal. Example » SELECT order_number, customer_name, order_date, customer_service_representative, status, item, qty, list_price from orders

Agenda  Expectations of the Project  Proper Privileges  What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  How will the BI info be administered  Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  What security procedures will be put into place  Determining an appropriate timeline  Standard Definitions  Last Tip  Summary and Q/A

How will the BI info be administered  Gatekeeper  Pros Allows 1 person to manage the information Minimizes duplication of effort  Cons If no backup administrator, or if the backup is not kept up to date, then all of the knowledge is with 1 person  Area Specific  Pros Allows a team to manage the information Each area is managed by 1 person with a good base knowledge of that area Multiple people will have the skills to maintain the information  Cons Different philosophies could exist in the building of the information, this could result in confusion and frustration for the users Only 1 person within an area will have the knowledge for that area

How will the BI info be administered  Generic  Pros Users will likely have a quicker response time since whoever is available can address their issue  Cons Duplication of effort could occur if excellent communication is not maintained  Consultant  Pros Multiple requirements can be accumulated, and resolved at one time, any overlaps can be combined with little/no duplication of effort  Cons This can be expensive

Agenda  Expectations of the Project  Proper Privileges  What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  How will the BI info be administered  Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  What security procedures will be put into place  Determining an appropriate timeline  Standard Definitions  Last Tip  Summary and Q/A

Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  Materialized Views  Cloning Before Module ‘Go-Live’ After Module ‘Go-Live’  Business View Setup Will running this affect my data? What does this do?  Age of data When is the data refreshed? Real-time? Hourly? Nightly?  Table  A table is restructured with many new columns, renamed columns, and deleted columns. How does this affect your reports?  View  A view is changed how does this affect your reports?

Agenda  Expectations of the Project  Proper Privileges  What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  How will the BI info be administered  Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  What security procedures will be put into place  Determining an appropriate timeline  Standard Definitions  Last Tip  Summary and Q/A

How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  Data verification  Who will verify the data being returned from the BI system?  Report verification  Who will define the reports  Who will verify that the reports meet the definition requirements?  Report distribution  Who will determine user access to reports?  Who will resolve report distribution/data access conflicts?

How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  Change requests  How will report change requests be handled? This is only applicable if reports are created by a report writer and distributed. If reports are user written » What responsibility does the report writer/BI Administrator have in changing reports? » What responsibility does the report writer/BI Administrator have In solving data integrity issues with the report? » How are reports shared with other users?

Agenda  Expectations of the Project  Proper Privileges  What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  How will the BI info be administered  Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  What security procedures will be put into place  Determining an appropriate timeline  Standard Definitions  Last Tip  Summary and Q/A

What security procedures will be put into place  Access to tool  Internal  External  New users  How to request access  Report creation/running privileges  Information access privileges Who requests? Who authorizes? Who monitors?  Training Who will provide? What will the new users be allowed to do until they receive training?

What security procedures will be put into place  Current Users  Training Who provides? What does it consist of? What types will be offered? » Initial (Example: Beginning) » Additional (Examples: Intermediate, Advanced) » Refresher  Information Access privilege changes Who requests? Who authorizes? Who monitors?  Report creation/running privilege changes Who requests? Who authorizes? Who monitors?

Agenda  Expectations of the Project  Proper Privileges  What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  How will the BI info be administered  Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  What security procedures will be put into place  Determining an appropriate timeline  Standard Definitions  Last Tip  Summary and Q/A

Determining an appropriate timeline  Basic info  What will this consist of Examples: » Oracle Seeded EUL and Workbooks for Discoverer » KPIs and Reports for DBI » Views for NoetixViews or Discoverer with Noetix  When will this info be available How long will it take to install/create the basic info? How long will it take to test/verify this info?

Determining an appropriate timeline  Basic info (con’t)  Does this information provide any immediate benefit? If so » to Whom? » Are they aware of the benefits? » Does this solve their most pressing need? If not » Why is it being installed? » When will it provide a benefit? » Is this really your basic info?

Determining an appropriate timeline  Advanced info  Prioritize requests Make sure to identify a process for distributing changes in priority  Evaluate Legitimacy Feasibility Cost Benefit Analysis (can it be cost justified?)  Special requests (Works the same as Advanced Info for the most part)  Is the information already available?  Priority  Affect on other requests How will this be communicated

Agenda  Expectations of the Project  Proper Privileges  What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  How will the BI info be administered  Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  What security procedures will be put into place  Determining an appropriate timeline  Standard Definitions  Last Tip  Summary and Q/A

Standard Definitions – Make sure to get them!!  Hierarchies (Drill capabilities)  Date  Item  List of Values (LOVs) creation –  Apps Materialized View/View base » Simple » Complex Table base  Non-Apps View base » Simple » Complex Table base  Alternative Sorts  Examples: Fiscal Year, Calendar Year, Alphabetical Order (for Months)  Standard Calculations  Examples: PO Committed Qty, Allocated Qty (on Orders), Unallocated Qty (on Orders), On-Time Delivery

Agenda  Expectations of the Project  Proper Privileges  What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  How will the BI info be administered  Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  What security procedures will be put into place  Determining an appropriate timeline  Standard Definitions  Last Tip  Summary and Q/A

Last Tip Have Patience This is an on-going process, not everything will be accomplished during a single project. There will always be additional information that will become useful to your users. That is the sign of success!!

Agenda  Expectations of the Project  Proper Privileges  What philosophy will be used to administer the BI info  How will the BI info be administered  Understanding underlying info and how changes affect that info  How will the information/delivery methods be promoted to production  What security procedures will be put into place  Determining an appropriate timeline  Standard Definitions  Last Tip  Summary and Q/A

Questions / Answers