What is this BI Self-Service after all?
BI Self-Service means that:
a) Your company controls every piece of information it has, also having a powerful tool for data gathering, processing, and distribution.
b) It possesses a simple and practical mechanism to distribute this information to its user. It also provides an effective training on the selected distribution tool and guarantees the data’s final quality.
No, it’s not “rocket science” – It is, in fact, a simple method on which I’m going to describe:
Every company has basically two kinds of applications: The source-System, on which provides the information, and the decision support systems, on which compiles the data and then presents it to the users.
A Self-Service environment divides the source and support data by financial management, stocks, human resources, distribution, sales, marketing, or what represents the company’s business. We approach the data to the users when providing data to functional area, making it easier for the users to browse and obtain the information they need with minimal interference.
The next process after data collation is to implement the data capture, transformation, and load process. A database well put together, made for a large volume of data, and fast access guarantees the Data Layer. It is a basic database design, utilizing a well understanding of technology and with no complications – it can be any RDBMS or Hadoop, Spark, but a substantial understanding of architecture is necessary.
Finally, there is the visualization layer that can also be any established product since it reflect the business and process areas and for each process its associated data (in detail and aggregate)
It is easier than it may seem, but it also takes a lot of planning, as the technology is just a boost. The important part is that the structure capture, load processing, and data load guarantee a clean and reliable information. The systems must provide data from,reliable source, insert them in a database that is ready to receive the data, and provide a practical interface.
Any company can have its own BI self-service, but first, it is important to have a plan to implement it in the right way.
Have you seen these ideas somewhere else? Of course you have! This is a corporate
Business Intelligence project and not an expertise area anymore.
MARCO AURELIO CAVALCANTE RIBEIRO
Data Architect GI Brazil na Zurich Brasil Seguros
Original article published on LinkedIn Pulse
