Business Intelligence, Reprint Edition

by Stacia Misner, Michael Luckevich, Elizabeth Vitt

Overview

“This readable, practical book helps business people quickly understand what business intelligence is, how it works, where it's used, and why and when to use it—all illustrated by real case studies, not just theory.” Nigel Pendse Author of The OLAP Report www.olapreport.com
So much information, so little time. All too often, business data is hard to get at and use—thus slowing decision-making to a crawl. This insightful book illustrates how organizations can make better, faster decisions about their customers, partners, and operations by turning mountains of data into valuable business information that’s always at the fingertips of decision makers. You’ll learn what’s involved in using business intelligence to bring together information, people, and technology to create successful business strategies—and how to execute those strategies with confidence. Topics covered include:

• THE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE MINDSET: Discover the basics behind business intelligence, such as how it’s defined, why and how to use it in your organization, and what characteristics, components, and general architecture most business intelligence solutions share.
• THE CASE FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: Read how world leaders in finance, manufacturing, and retail have successfully implemented business intelligence solutions and see what benefits they have reaped.
• THE PRACTICE OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: Find out what’s involved in implementing a business intelligence solution in your organization, including how to identify your business intelligence opportunities, what decisions you must make to get a business intelligence project going, and what to do to sustain the momentum so that you can continue to make sense of all the data you gather.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735645837
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	12/10/2008
Series:	Developer Reference
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	220
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Elizabeth Vitt, a manager at Aspirity, has six years of business development, project management, consulting, and training experience in business intelligence. Her industry experience includes implementations in retail, manufacturing, and healthcare. She has specialized expertise as an educator in data-warehousing design and implementation and is an author of the Microsoft Official Curricula (MOC) for Microsoft's business intelligence product offerings. Elizabeth is also a frequent speaker at SQL Server conferences worldwide. She earned a B.S. in environmental engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

Table of Contents

	About the Authors	vii
	Foreword	ix
	Introduction	xiii
	Our Assumptions About You	xiii
	Organization of the Book	xiv
	Acknowledgments	xiv
Part I	Business Intelligence Foundations	1
	Prologue: The Mystery on Lovesick Lake	3
1	Understanding Business Intelligence	13
	Describing Business Intelligence	13
	Defining the BI Cycle	17
	Enabling Business Intelligence	23
	Summary	27
2	Bridging the Analysis Gap	29
	Multidimensional Analysis	29
	Operational Systems	31
	Business Intelligence Systems	34
	Summary	47
3	Defining BI Technologies	49
	The High-Level View	49
	Reporting and Analysis	53
	The Data Warehouse	60
	Summary	63
Part II	Business Intelligence Case Studies	65
4	Improving Operational Efficiency--Audi AG	67
	Company Background	67
	Business Requirements	68
	The Solution	70
	Solution Benefits	71
	Future Plans	72
	Summary	73
5	Maximizing Profitability--The Frank Russell Company	75
	Company Background	75
	Business Requirements	76
	The Picasso Solution	78
	The Einstein Solution: Building on Success	81
	Summary	83
6	Impacting the Bottom Line--CompUSA Inc	85
	Company Background	85
	Business Requirements	86
	The Solution	88
	Solution Benefits	90
	Project Challenges	92
	Lessons Learned	93
	Future Plans	93
	Summary	94
7	Keeping Customers Loyal--Disco S.A.	95
	Company Background	95
	Business Requirements	96
	The Solution	97
	Solution Benefits	100
	Project Challenges	101
	Summary	102
8	Managing Seasonal Variability--Cascade Designs	103
	Company Background	104
	Business Requirements	105
	The Solution	107
	Solution Benefits	108
	Lessons Learned	109
	Future Plans	110
	Summary	110
Part III	A Business Intelligence Roadmap	111
9	Identifying BI Opportunities	113
	Doing Your Homework	113
	Sharing and Collecting Ideas	122
	Evaluating Alternatives	128
	Summary	142
10	Implementing a BI Solution	145
	An Implementation Strategy	145
	The Fundamental Decisions	151
	Summary	174
	Conclusion	175
Appendix A	Microsoft Data Warehousing Framework	177
	SQL Server	177
	Data Analyzer	181
	Microsoft Business Intelligence Accelerator	182
	Data Warehousing Alliance	184
	Glossary	185
	Bibliography	193
	Index	195

Editorial Reviews

This book illustrates how organizations can make better, faster decisions about their customers, partners, and operations using business intelligence, the process of turning large amounts of data into valuable information and making it easily available to decision makers. The book describes the components and general architecture that most business intelligence solutions share, offers stories of how real companies have implemented business intelligence solutions, and describes steps for implementing a business intelligence solution in an organization. Vitt has six years of business development and project management experience in business intelligence. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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