A full day seminar presented by Cindi Howson. This workshop is being coordinated by Dr. Atish Sinha, Associate Professor in Management Information Systems, Lubar School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Overview

Business intelligence (BI) has become a top technology investment for many companies because of its promise to boost financial performance, improve customer service, and increase operating efficiency. Yet few companies would declare their BI deployment a wild success, and it remains a tool used by only a small percentage of experts. This workshop looks at what is business intelligence, what are factors for success, and what are the key components to a BI solution. The afternoon session provides an industry overview and a framework for evaluating a BI platform.

Topics

BI -- The Vision

Business intelligence (BI) is a set of technologies and processes that allows people at all levels of an organization to access and analyze data. Without people to interpret the information and act on it, business intelligence achieves nothing. The section presents case studies of the myriad ways companies are using business intelligence to provide competitive advantage.

Components of BI Architecture

Business intelligence includes the back-end architecture of a data warehouse and source systems as well as the front-end components of business query tools and dashboards. We will discuss differences between source systems, data warehouses, and data marts and the roles they play in a BI solution.

Success Factors

Drawing on an industry survey and research from a just-released book, the instructor will present the key technical and organizational issues that most affect the success of BI deployments. We will discuss the importance of data quality, executive level support, business-IT partnership, and culture, and practical steps to address each aspect.

Industry Overview

B2006 saw a number of vendor acquisitions (Oracle/Hyperion, SAP/Business Objects, IBM/Cognos), reflecting the increasing importance of business intelligence and its convergence with performance management. We will review recent events and the changing landscape of the BI industry. Strategic differences among key vendors are highlighted.

Evaluating Solutions

The BI tool is the face of business intelligence and what business users most care about. Select the right tool for them and users will embrace BI. Deploy an inappropriate tool and BI becomes impossible. We will review how to evaluate a BI platform and discuss detailed differences.

About the speaker

Cindi Howson is the founder of BIScorecard®, a Web site for in-depth BI product reviews. She is the author of Successful Business Intelligence: Secrets to Making BI a Killer App and Business Objects XI: The Complete Reference. Prior to founding BIScorecard®, Howson was a manager at Deloitte & Touche and a BI standards leader for a Fortune 500 company. She is a TDWI (The Data Warehousing Institute) faculty member, writes for Intelligent Enterprise, and advises clients on BI strategy and tool selections. She has an MBA from Rice University.

Who should Attend?

This workshop is recommended for CIOs, IT managers, business people who sponsor BI projects, business analysts, and BI specialists. It is appropriate for people new to BI as well as experienced BI professionals who feel their company could get more value out of their BI efforts.

Coordinator

Atish Sinha, Associate Professor in the MIS area, Lubar School of Business, UW-Milwaukee