EVOLUTION/JOURNEY FROM

“ORGANIZATIONAL BUSINESS
ANALYTICS TO SELF SERVICE
ANALYTICS TO SMART ANALYTICS”
[Document subtitle]

Shehzeb rehan
Bilal Aamir
Asif Mehmood
Introduction:

Business Intelligence (BI) comprises the strategies and technologies used by enterprises for

the data analysis of business information. BI technologies provide historical, current and

predictive views of business operations. Common functions of business intelligence technologies

include reporting, online analytical processing, analytics, data mining, process mining, complex

event processing, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, predictive

analytics and prescriptive analytics. BI technologies can handle large amounts of structured and

sometimes unstructured data to help identify, develop and otherwise create new strategic

business opportunities. They aim to allow for the easy interpretation of these big

data. Identifying new opportunities and implementing an effective strategy based on insights can

provide businesses with a competitive market advantage and long-term stability."

Some people think big data is managing/using data that can’t fit into an Excel file but Big data

needs to be used in a context with real huge volume of data like collection of TBs of data every

day. Having GB/TBs of data in your entire company is not big data. Only a handful of

companies such as Google, Facebook and Insurance companies can realistically talk about Big

Data usage. Nevertheless, the needs of some of these big companies created a new ecosystem

and techniques to address these specifics problems. Hadoop and distributed storage with

clustered file system (HDFS) are usually what people are talking about when they are talking

about Big Data. It is important to note that big data is not simply technologies that allow

companies to store different types of data (structured, semi-structured and unstructured data) in a

manner that is cheaper than in traditional servers. Big data is also about using different new

generation tools to process data in order to address a business problem.

Now that we have defined these terms, let’s look at the tools’ evolution and the new environment

that emerged in recent years. What we can observe from these charts is that we started with a few

big players (Cognos, BO, Oracle, SAS, SAP, Hyperion and SAP etc.) There were generalists and

specialists. For example, Hyperion, a specialist, focused more on Financial data management and

reporting and SAS, another specialist, focused on data processing, mathematical, scenario and

forecasting requests. This was the ecosystem of the start of 2000s. Then the market started to

concentrate. IBM bought Cognos, Oracle bought BO. MS started to develop their first version of

real BI with SSAS, SSIS.

In 2012-2013, Tableau and Qlik started to be used more widely. A new trend started to

emerge; small players began to propose niche tools more user friendly than the big solutions. The

small players also allowed business users to create their own reports/analysis.

In recent years, big companies are still struggling with historical big platforms and

solutions that they try to deploy across their different BUs. They sporadically introduce the new

generation of BI/analytical tools and slowly replace the big solutions.

Tableau, Qlik, Alteryx and PowerBI are examples of tools that I will use to define the

new generation of tools. They are more friendly, easy to use by non-technical people and easier

to deploy than the traditional big solutions. They are including better designs to provide sexier

reporting, simple implementation and a larger focus on addressing business problems than

technical needs. For example, Tableau allows business users to load data onto their tool.

PowerBI is so well designed that you can just drag and drop a component around and you will
have a chart. Furthermore, in PowerBI, there are a lot of ready-to-use “applications” and

connectors that are provide small and medium companies an easy way to start their BI and

analytics journey for a cheaper price.

To put it simply, the consolidated market reduced the number of big players that provided

traditional tools with extremely closed functionalities. Thankfully a new generation of more

flexible and easier to use tools have emerged for business users for data manipulation and simple

reporting.

SAS is a traditional big player in the analytics business but it is more designed to be used

by experts. IBM also have a long history in this area and recently improved their capability

significantly with AI, an easier to use solution (Watson) and designed-for-analytics hardware.

Microsoft are also increasing their capability and expertise; hence it is also a good solution to

explore further if you wish. However, Analytics tools are generally complicated to understand

due to the fact that mathematical calculations and technical algorithms need to be understood by

users in order to analyse data correctly, forecast and trigger the right actions.

The BI and now Analytics eco-system was old and did not change for a decade till a few

years ago when more flexible and easier to use tools appeared and begun to be used by

companies and business users. 

Smart Analytics enables us to analyse in an efficient way large amounts of information.

This way it’s possible for us to benefit from all the information that we wouldn’t be able to

analyse with traditional methods.

The biggest benefit of Smart Analytics is the accuracy of the information we have to

make a decision. Thanks to technological advances such as IoT or Big Data, we now have up-to-

date and accurate information on different aspects that affect our business. The goal of Smart

Analytics is to know how to read all that data to help us make smart decisions.

Information has always been a decisive factor in decision making. Accurate information

differentiates a right decision from a wrong one. As mentioned above, nowadays we have at our

disposal a massive volume of information, and knowing how to properly take advantage of all

that data will enable us to gain a significant competitive advantage.

It is at this point that the smart analysis of information that enables us to make decisions

effectively and rapidly comes into play. Below we will discuss six benefits of Smart Analytics:

ANALYSIS AND MONITORING FOR PLACES WHERE HUMANS CANNOT GO

Society is faced with volumes of data that are impossible to analyse using traditional

methods. According to scientists of the University of San Diego, it is expected that by 2024

company servers will process every year an amount of information equivalent to a column of

books –filled with analogic information– that reaches Alpha Centauri, the closest constellation to

the Solar System. This is an enormous quantity of information to collect and analyse. However,

the latest advances in analytics enable companies to analyse that quantity of data in milliseconds.
ACTION AND IMMEDIATE REACTION

Analysis programs are capable of detecting even the slightest change and elicit an

immediate response. Real-time data analysis allows to relate events, detect patterns, and generate

responses. This way of analysing allows for the detection of temporary information, which

would have been impossible through traditional analysis, since the information would have

“expired.” In this regard, a good practical example would be the Experian credit company, which

thanks to the use of Smart Analytics are capable of offering their clients custom-tailored

solutions for a specific moment. WSO2 enabled Experian to have an IT system that allowed

them to monitor the influx of data and react immediately to any change.

DECISION MAKING IN COMPLEX SCENARIOS

Traditionally, decisions were taken based on intuition and experience; however, the

capability of smartly analysing extraordinary volumes of data has introduced a new variable to

the equation. Analysis enables us to separate valuable information from noise in order to find, in

record time, responses or solutions that could not be found in plain sight. Smart Analytics

enables us to face situations as complex as those in which a high number of variables are in play.

For example, Coca Cola’s “Black Book” algorithm is capable of understanding the 600

factors that intervene in the flavour of an orange, being capable of analysing acidity, sweetness,

meteorological patterns, tree productivity, and calculate how to consistently offer an identical

flavour, independently from the big differences between fruit shipments.

In addition, Smart Analytics encourages the emergence of new products or services that

would otherwise be impossible. Smart data analysis offers us new, previously unknown solutions

and experiences. One practical example could be the improved London public transportation

system (Transport for London) which, thanks to WSO2’s Smart Analytics improved traffic

efficiency. This system allows for the identification of user schedules, calculate traffic peaks, and

adjust prices in accordance.

LOCALIZATION AND CONTEXTUALIZATION OF DATA IN ORDER TO CREATE A

BETTER USER EXPERIENCE

On the other hand, the new horizon for companies is personalization. In this case,

companies such as Amazon or the aforementioned Target are true masters in the field. Another

iconic case is that of West, a platform that connects companies in order to offer various services

and solutions. West’s challenge lay in the need to build a system of interaction with their over

300 million users spread around the world. This system is capable of delivering a smart reply to

all users, independently from the location where they are, or the communication channel chosen,

whether it is, for example, a phone call or an SMS. This platform is monitored, and therefore, a

significant amount of valuable data is analysed and extracted, which generates countless

opportunities.

ANALYSIS OF THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Modern analysis methods are not limited to the past and present, but they are also aimed

at the future. A smart analysis of all the information collected in the past may be useful to even

predict the future. A good example in this regard would be the CVS Health company, which has

developed a system that predicts which employee would be a better fit for each client in order to
get a better reaction from him. The analysis of data generated by this system reveals that this

smart way to pair employees with clients has boosted by 30% their customer retention rate.

The Evolution:

As the number of business data is continually developing, it is significant that

organizations focus their actions around dealing with the data and analyse it with the help of

Self-Service business intelligence, intended to help Business managers draw insights from past

accomplishments, predict future events and avoid obstructions even before they have occurred.

The interest and use of tools that can generate high-quality business insights has undergone long-

term development, and there is little scrutiny about the financial cycle. In recent years, this

situation is accelerating because companies want to obtain data to develop and improve, and they

need to continue to deal with organisations.

Due to complexity, nature, cost and required functions, online Business Intelligence is

only used by many companies in the era. Today small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are

turning out to be vital Business Intelligence purchasers. In order to separate from the opponents,

reduce costs and increase revenue, organisations should choose wise choices. For this reason,

these choices should be legally based on reliable and important data, which actually proves that

BI is convenient. As applications, tools and tools become more rational, the presentation of self-

service business intelligence (SSBI) makes analysis easier to use, so everyone in the group can

contribute.
What is Self-Service Analytics BI

Self-service analytics BI can be described as a basic type of business intelligence (BI).

On this basis, business customers can use easy-to-use self-service BI devices to obtain applicable

data, execute queries and create reports by themselves. The self-service measure is simplified

and downsized for better ease of use.

Growth of Self-Service Analytics BI

As a powerful force of current self-service Business Intelligence innovation, we really

need to investigate what BI was before, and then clear cloud-based software based on the scene

to make on-demand announcements and presentations to non-professional groups. 

In any event, when "data warehousing" turned into extremely popular and OLAP

programming and ETL tools gave an answer for breaking down more modern data sets, you

couldn't sign in to your framework and run a brilliant representation to impart to the group in

your early evening at a meeting. You called your IT office to pull reports, or pulled them

yourself utilizing work area programming that put out data that, when it was "prepared," was at

that point obsolete. Self-service BI means the opportunity to associate data sheet pages with

complex equations to obtain the required data as quickly as possible.

Luckily, we kept on bringing new business frameworks into your environment, the act of

"business intelligence" (at this point a stylish trendy expression) improved. However,

considering the increasing number of data sets built around you, it actually takes a long time to

discover the data-backed responses in time. Fortunately, network innovation is ready for the

ideal time.
Who Needs Self-Service BI

In spite of the fact that the need for self-service access to data is probably not going to

incorporate association, it is a more extensive crowd than most BI groups are thinking

about Self-Service Business Intelligence widely used by Managers. For example, product

managers, supply chain, sales pioneers, record managers, digital marketing managers, field sales

head, area service manager and many more decision makers and business leaders within the

enterprise.

Traditional and Self-Service BI Approaches

Typically, business customers set up business prerequisites for generating reports or

dashboards. The venture/report should be approved, and, later on, the data is prepared for

extraction, transformation, and load (ETL) into the data warehouse. The IT or BI division creates

the report or business dashboard while business clients don't have any control over this cycle.

Then again, in a self-service setting, business clients don't have enough knowledge to deal with

the data all alone. The IT group works intimately with clients' requirements to pick the most

ideal tool; however, the analysis, reporting, and dashboard creation is totally under control of the

client.

, deleting and loading data into the warehouse is done automatically, but in conventional

settings, the IT department will pay attention to separating the data from the warehouse by

combining SQL queries to create reports. Furthermore, in the self-service setting, business

customers can directly access the data and have unlimited permissions for the creation of

analysis, reports or dashboards. Under normal circumstances, the entire analysis measures are set

and controlled by the IT department, while self-service enables customers to take the
responsibility of the entire cycle with the help of self-service Business Intelligence tools.

Although they do have to coordinate in part of the data plan, business customers still have the

right to help the IT department and relieve them of a large number of tasks.

Present day business intelligence tools are normally designed of an intuitive drag and

drop interface that empowers non-specialized IT experts to construct their own queries and

produce complete reports. In a traditional BI setup, this is done by IT experts, and business

customers will confirm or request changes in reports or dashboards. This cycle may take several

weeks, and as of now, the IT department is often occupied by various tasks. Making reports has

become a repetitive task, and no one is satisfied. Recently, ordinary business customers have

been able to conduct their own analysis (especially designated reports), investigate data and

interact with dashboards with the help of various representations. The cycle has become so easy

that the IT division doesn't need to hold full control over the business intelligence of an

organization. Commercial customers can use self-service reporting tools and manage data on

their own. 

In today’s world, a single data set doesn’t encompass enough information to answer the

many and varied questions your organization faces. You, or any business users, are often tasked

to bring together more and more data to develop a more comprehensive view. Even then, once

you do this, the data your organization has may not be as you need it to answer those questions.

Harness the Power of Your Data Sources

The smart wrangling capabilities in SAP Analytics Cloud alleviate the need to perfectly

prepare the data before the start. You have the power to manipulate, restructure and enrich data
from both governed and ungoverned sources into a cohesive data set that helps you answer all

the real business questions your organization faces.

Answer Questions with Speed and Agility

Historically, IT has been the central point for managing data and the go-to for getting

answers. However, smart wrangling helps you answer questions quickly without the heavy

dependence on IT. With Smart Wrangling you have the power to clean and unifying messy and

complex data sets and create your own calculations by yourself, instantaneously. Ultimately,

smart wrangling empowers the modern-day data analyst to manipulate, restructure and enrich

data themselves through the technology themselves.

Let the Data Guide You

New self-service analytics experience giving the ability to easily iterate between question

and insight. The smart wrangling features don’t limit you to the same old repeated processes so

instead of waiting for IT to make changes to a data source you to harness what you have and

wrangle it with ease to get the job done—swiftly and flexibly.

You can create complex calculations as part of your workflow with the new custom

expression editor. With this, you can build out a sequence of calculations to be conducted in a

specific order and capture the answer at the end.  The data validation feature highlights data

quality issues and points out erroneous values

BI&A Evolution: Key Characteristics and Capabilities

1950s. Business intelligence became a popular term in the business and IT communities only in

the 1990s. In the late 2000s, business analytics was introduced to represent the key analytical

component in BI (Davenport 2006). More recently big data and big data analytics have been used

to describe the data sets and analytical techniques in applications that are so large (from terabytes

to exabytes) and complex (from sensor to social media data) that they require advanced and

unique data storage, management, analysis, and visualization technologies. In this article we use

business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) as a unified term and treat big data analytics as a

related field that offers new directions for BI&A,