Why Visible ? Why Business Intelligence ?
- We have a track record of successfully helping to solve our customer’s problems.
- These are often Information Management solutions that involve the business and are not simply a technology implementation or an excuse to use this or that software product.
- Part of this success is based on our "commonsense approach" of getting to know the business BEFORE we implement any technology as part of a business intelligence solution.
- We are guided in this philosophy by the world standard Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture (ZF) and the Corporate Information Factory (CIF) introduced by the father of data warehousing, Bill Inmon in the early 1980's
- The ZF is perhaps an onerous sounding title but is simply a ROADMAP TO BUILD SOMETHING.
- We just happen to be using it to build information management and business intelligence solutions.
- It can just as easily be used to build bridges , airplanes and factories as has been used as such by engineers for many decades.
- As such it is not "new technology" which is good from a business risk perspective.
For more information on EA refer to one of our VITAL (VIsibleTruthsAndLearning) sheets on our download page
 Visible Services Provided Within the ‘Corporate Information Factory’ (CIF)
What is the CIF ? (based in part on DM Review magazine article on page 10, November 2004 Issue by Claudia Imhoff, co-author of the book ‘Corporate Information Factory’)
Think of the CIF as a well run farm. [Click here to see a graphic of the CIF]
This particular ‘farm’ is split into two halves or fields (“paddocks”) each with its own processes and data stores. One half is to do with ‘getting data in’ and the other half is to do with ‘getting data out’.
Visible offers professional services in both of these ‘fields’.
Visible Services to help you ‘get data in’ (left side of CIF diagram)
This field consists of operational systems (e.g. SAP, Siebel, Oracle), the data warehouse and/or operational data store (ODS) e.g. SQL 2000, and the complex process of data acquisition, particularly the extract, transform and load (ETL) process. The deliverable for this part of the CIF is a repository of integrated, enterprise•wide data for either strategic (data warehouse) or tactical (ODS) decision making.
Services we offer in this field are:
- Project Management (using internationally recognized PRINCE2 methodology)
- Business Analysis (using ZF) which includes mapping business entities and attributes to system entities and attributes. This is where Row2 of the ZF meets Row3. We publish this for each customer as a metadata report.
- ETL process design and development (we use the following ETL applications: DJ Cosmos/Data Junction by Pervasive; iWay by Information Builders, SPSS by SPSS Corp., The SAS System by SAS Institute, DTS2000 / Integration Services (SQL Server) by Microsoft Corporation, Data Integrator by Business Objects).
- Data Warehouse design and development (using CIF).
- Business Process Modelling (using standard modeling tools such as ER Studio by Embarcadero, Power Designer by Sybase, Visio by Microsoft, Silverun by Silverun). This includes conceptual. logical and physical data modelling.
- Metadata management (using David Marco’s MME approach) and metabase design and development compatible with the OMG group’s Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) international standard for XML storage and communication of metadata.
- Data quality framework (includes data profiling using either SPSS or Business Objects)
Question: How does  Data Integration fit into the CIF ?
Answer: Please click here to see the answer. Data Integrator is shown in blue.
This figure also shows the types of data users (Tourists, Explorers etc.)
Visible Services to help you ‘get data out’ (right side of CIF diagram)
The other half of the CIF consists of the data delivery and data presentation process. This is where Business Intelligence (BI) lives. The data warehousing institute (TDWI) defines BI as “The processes, tools and technologies to turn data into information and information into knowledge and plans that drive effective business activity”. This ‘field’ consists of the variety of data marts available for the business usage and the decision support interface or technologies that access the marts and perform the various analytics or reporting needed by the business community. The deliverable for this half of the CIF is an easily used and understood environment in which to perform analyses and make decisions. Most of the BI benefits are derived from getting information out i.e. data consistency, access to business critical data, improved decision making etc.
Services we offer in this field are:
• Data mart design and development (SQL)
• OLAP Design and development (SQL Server Analysis Services, SAS)
• Report design and development using Crystal Reports, MS Reporting Services, SPSS or MS Access.
• This includes operational reports, web reports, exception reports, scorecards.
• Analytics including metrics, KPIs, data mining, forecasting, risk analysis where we use SPSS , Crystal Analysis (Business Objects) or perhaps SAS.
• We offer all of the services listed in each of the four Analytical Groups (Report, Analyze, Predict, Monitor) shown in the above diagram “Analytical Landscape”.
Business Objects have published a diagram on their website (copyright held by Business Objects) which is their version of the 'Analytic Landscape' but their's is broader in scope.
Click on the following thumbnail to see a full size image.
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