Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing System

Question: Discuss about the Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing System. Answer: Introduction Business Intelligence (BI) is a discipline that comprises of a number of activities that are associated with the analysis of the data related to a particular organization. There are a number of different software and packages that come under BI such as data mining tools, data warehousing tools, online analytical processing and many more. BI Dashboard is the data visualization tool that takes data from multiple sources and brings forward the latest status of the metrics and the key performance indicators on the basis of the data. The document covers the details on the BI dashboard for Woolworths supermarket which is an online retail store. Woolworths Supermarket is the online retail store that provides the users with the groceries along with the recipes as well. There are various products that are available on the online store that are categorized in numerous product categories such as fruit veg, bakery, health food, pantry international food, Easter, confectionary snacks and many more. There are functionalities such as login, search, discovers, locate stores and purchase products provided to the users (Woolworths, 2017). Audience for BI Dashboard The BI dashboard for Woolworths is required to be created that would highlight the business threats and opportunities on the basis of the data associated with the organization. The following list describes the details on the audience of the dashboard that would be developed for the organization. End User Type of BI User Responsibility Decision Making Business Owners Analysis and Monitoring The end user will be responsible of managing the overall organization and will have the responsibilities to make sure that the business continuity is maintained without the execution of any major risks and hazards The user shall make use of BI dashboard for making decisions associated with changes in the business approach and strategy Data Analysts Analysis and Monitoring The end user will be responsible for coming out with patterns and statistics from the data and information that is provided to them and to also come up with probable trends and preferences of the users The user shall make use of BI dashboard for decisions associated with data analysis, data trends and associated results Marketing Experts Monitoring and Prediction The end user will be responsible for understanding the market trends and for predicting and designing the market strategy that shall be followed by the organization The user shall make use of BI dashboard for decisions associated with market performance, market trends, market risks and the market strategy that shall be adopted Security Analysts Analysis and Reporting The end user will be responsible for understanding the security issues that may come up in front of the organization and shall report on the various countermeasures that shall be adopted to avoid the occurrences The user shall make use of BI dashboard for decisions associated with the probable security risks and their countermeasures Business Analysts Analysis, Monitoring and Prediction The end user shall be responsible for understanding and analysis of the business trends along with the monitoring of the performance in the market and in front of the customers. The prediction of the probable changes and the shift in terms of expectation will also be covered by the end user (Abdelfattah, 2013) The user shall make use of BI dashboard for decisions associated with business processes to be completed along with the required changes that shall be made in terms of the strategy and approach Benefits to the Organization Woolworths is facing a number of threats in terms of the security threats such as information security attacks and risks along with various other threats in terms of change in the technology, change in the expectations of the users, performance in the market and presence of numerous competitors. It is necessary for the organization to have an account of all these threats and risks on a real-time basis (Nimmagadda and Dreher, 2011). There are also various opportunities that are available with the organization in terms of performance and business continuity. The growth and expansion of the online retail stores is on an all time rise. Also, there are various unique services that are provided by the organization in terms of product categories, recipes and discount offers. All of these features have the potential to allow the organization to gain a competitive edge in the market. BI dashboard will provide the business owners and the business units with the real-time information on the threats and opportunities associated with the organization as highlighted above. This information will be extremely useful in making decision on the security strategy to execute, marketing strategy to adapt, business processes that require change and likewise. All of these activities will allow the organization to offer better service quality and availability to the customers and will in turn also enable the organization to fulfill the customer expectations in a better way. The sales and profits along with the reputation in the market will also enhance with such practices (Jamalpur and Sharma, 2012). There are a number of data sources that the organizations may use during the set-up and deployment of the BI dashboard for the organization. Internal Data Sources The data that would be internally available with the organization will contribute immensely towards the requirements of data for setting up the dashboard. The internal data sources will include the organization database comprising of the user information, purchase history, order history, purchase preference and likewise. This information will contribute towards the understanding of the opportunities as well as the threats associated with the organization. Employees of the organization along with the business owners will also be the significant data sources that will contribute to the data and information required for the dashboard (AlHazme, Rana and De Lucca, 2014). There are also a number of external data sources that will play an extremely significant role in collection of the data and information for the dashboard for Woolworths. Customers and the end users of the web site will be viable data sources as they will provide with the information on their expectations from the web site and the system qualities that they may look for. It will allow the better analysis of the threats and the opportunities associated with the organization. External stakeholders in the form of third parties and partners will also contribute to the required data as they will provide details on the common patterns, sales information and profit details. Market studies shall also be carried out in order to understand the details about the competitors along with the market preferences and performance. A detailed account of the security infrastructure and security risks will also be provided with the help of the BI dashboard (Gonzales, 2011). There will be a number of challenges that will be associated with the implementation of the dashboard for the organization. Data Quality: The data that would be required for the setting up and implementation of the dashboard will be collected from multiple data sources. There may be issues in the data quality as the data will be structured, unstructured and semi-structured in nature. It might be challenging to retrieve the best quality from the data and carrying out a comprehensive analysis might also appear as an issue. Dynamic Data: The data that will be collected for the implementation of the dashboard will primarily be dynamic in nature that is it will keep on changing and modifying. The data such as purchase history of a user or the market trends or security parameters will not remain consistent for a higher period of time. These data types along with several others will keep on changing after a certain period of time and it might be difficult to maintain the pace with the same (Few, 2006). Data Availability: It would be essential for the dashboard to extract the data and information at all times in order to bring forward the real-world scenario and presentation. It would therefore be essential to make sure that the data is available at all times and there is a constant availability of the data from the back end and the data sources. The availability of the data at a non-stop basis might be a challenge as there will be several factors that will be associated with it. End User Satisfaction: The dashboard will be required to incorporate certain system qualities in order to attain the end user satisfaction. These system qualities will include performance, reliability, scalability, adaptability and availability of the dashboard. The issues associated with the data quality and data availability may have a negative impact on the end user satisfaction as the performance of the dashboard may suffer negatively due to these issues. Also, if the dashboard fails to deliver the desired results then it will become difficult to attain the end user satisfaction which would be a prime goal for carrying out of the activity. Choice of Correct Visualization: Dashboard is a data visualization tool that has the options to implement different types of visual effects on the tool. The selected visualization scheme may be in accordance with the preferences of a specific user type and may not fall in line with the expectations of other users. Such occurrences will come up as a probable challenge during the implementation of the dashboard as these will lead to the dissatisfaction among certain users (Churi, 2016). Methodology Implementation of the BI dashboard shall take place according to the phases and steps as mentioned in the BI lifecycle. Project Planning: The first phase shall include the planning activities in order to understand the needs of the implementation of the dashboard along with the set of aims and objectives. The finalization of the scope along with the selection of project team will also be done in this phase. Analysis Phase: This is the phase in which the BI requirements associated with the dashboard shall be studied and analyzed to gain an understanding of the same. Data models along with the user stories shall also be created in this phase. Data collection from multiple sources shall be done in this phase (Kaur, 2013). Designing Phase: This is the phase in which the designing of the BI architecture shall be done along with the preparation of design diagrams. Data Integration Phase: The data for the implementation of the BI dashboard will come from various data sources such as cloud, big data, internal and external sources. All of the data shall be integrated as a single unit to come up with threats and opportunities. Data integration and BI data discovery tools shall be used in order to integrate the data. Testing and Implementation Phase: This is the fifth phase that shall be followed in the implementation of the BI dashboard that will include the use of various BI tools for the purpose. Go-Live Phase: This is the last phase that will be present in the BI lifecycle and it will include the release of the BI dashboard for the end users. Conclusion BI dashboard is a data visualization tool that is used for a variety of purposes. In case of Woolworths, the BI dashboard is required to be set up in order to highlight the threats and opportunities that are associated with the organization. There are various details and components that will be involved in the implementation process of the BI dashboard for the organization. The intended audience for the dashboard will include the business owner, data analysts, business analysts, security experts and marketing experts. There shall be use of internal and external data sources during the implementation process in order to have the required data collected. There might be certain challenges that may come up in the form of issues associated with data quality, data availability, end user satisfaction and likewise which shall be overcome with the use of a proper methodology. References Abdelfattah, M. (2013). A Comparison of Several Performance Dashboards Architectures. [online] Available at: https://file.scirp.org/Html/1-8701162_29589.htm [Accessed 30 Mar. 2017]. AlHazme, R., Rana, A. and De Lucca, M. (2014). Development and Implementation of a Clinical and Business Intelligence System for the Florida Health Data Warehouse. 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