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BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IF YOU CAN MEASURE IT, YOU CAN IMPROVE IT. Big data in the cloud What it means and why you need to know Food for thought How B.I. in Alberta agriculture is growing November 2012 AN INDEPENDENT SECTION BY MEDIAPLANET TO THE CALGARY HERALD PHOTO CREDIT: CBC 00 STEPS/TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE STRATEGIES 3 TIPS Bruce Croxon of CBC’s Dragon’s Den weighs in on doing it by the numbers

Bruce croxon of cBc's Dragon's Den weighs in on - Mediaplanet

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Business intelligence

IF YOU CAN MEASURE IT,

YOU CAN IMPROVE IT.

Big data in the cloud What it means and why you need to know

Food for thoughtHow B.I. in Alberta agriculture is growing

November 2012

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Bruce croxon of cBc’s Dragon’s Den weighs in on doing it by the numbers

AN INdepeNdeNt sectIoN By medIAplANet to tHe cAlgAry HerAld2 · NovemBer 2012 AN INdepeNdeNt sectIoN By medIAplANet to tHe cAlgAry HerAld NovemBer 2012 · 3

there is a reason why business intel-ligence sounds like an astute approach to business; it is. It was an emerging discipline for inn-

ovators in the late 1990’s, and is vie-wed today as a competitive differen-tiator for many large and small com-panies across Canada. Despite its ac-ceptance in the mainstream, there can still be confusion over its mea-ning. Is it executive dashboards, bu-siness analytics, or just impressive graphs and visualizations from ni-che technology? In the mid-1990’s the classic definition of business in-telligence was put forward by Ho-ward Dresner; “a set of concepts and methods to improve decision ma-king in business through the use of facts and fact-based systems.” Whi-le there have been some variations on this theme over the years, this de-finition remains the bellwether. It illustrates three important themes. The first is that the simple goal of business intelligence is to improve decision making or to provide ‘bet-ter decisions faster’. Secondly, the-re are fact-based systems that inte-grate disparate data sources and pro-vide the underlying technical back-bone. Finally, to guide the overall effort, there is a set of concepts and methods that are crucial to its suc-cess.

Some may question the previous point regarding the use of facts and

fact-based systems. Haven’t we al-ways done that? Although it seems strange, the answer is; ‘not really’. It isn’t easy to have ready access to meaningful data, or facts, when we need to make important decisions. Data is scattered across various sys-tems in organizations, which makes it difficult to integrate and correlate. So in many cases, we end up relying on gut instinct or on the judgment of individuals with years of expe-rience in a specific business domain. Good judgment, and years of expe-rience is of obvious importance, ho-wever, it isn’t enough in today’s bu-siness environment. If you are not taking advantage of business intel-ligence capabilities when making strategic ‘bets’ on your business, you can be assured that your competi-tion is. Facts, trends, and predictive ‘what if’ scenarios need to factor in to critical decision making.

So where are the opportunities?In the Canadian market, many or-ganizations undertake business in-telligence initiatives to improve ef-ficiency and optimize processes. This is an easy target, since most or-ganizations have analysts spending 80% of their time gathering data in spreadsheets and only 20% of their time analyzing it to understand and improve business activities. So deal-ing with this wasted effort is a simp-le first step, but there are much gre-ater opportunities for value. There

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cHAllenges

field of dreams p. 04 BI boosts Alberta crops

Bruce croxon:Business by numbers

pAge 03

WE RECommEND

BusINess INtellIgeNceFIrst edItIoN, NovemBer 2012

Responsible for this issue:publisher: Eric [email protected]: Gary Sylvestercontributors: Erik heinrich, Richard hines, Jackie poeckens, Bob Spence,Robin Winsor

Managing Director: Jon [email protected] Developer: Jon [email protected]

photo credit: All images are from iStock.com unless otherwise accredited.

Distributed within:Calgary herald, November 2012this section was created by mediaplanetand did not involve Calgary herald orits Editorial Departments.

mediaplanet’s business is to create new customers for our advertisers by providing readers with high quality editorial contentthat motivates them to act.

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computing in the cloudYou’ve heard the buzzwords: Big data, cloud computing — But what do they actually mean?

Most people are still a bit fuzzy. A re-cent survey by a major player in the field, Citrix, showed that 51 percent of the public thinks that cloud com-puting is affected by weather, (it’s not).

Business intelligence, no longer just for big companiesIt’s worth getting the basics straight. There’s a new transformative level of business intelligence available to every company, big and small, now.

Let’s start with the data. The fact that everything leaves a digital re-cord now means that there is an ocean of data records. Two years ago if you left your iPhone on the bus,

you’d have lost your hardware and all of the intelligence on it. Today, most of your data is stored, whether you know it or not, along with eve-

ryone else’s on server farms in the middle of rural America. Your Goog-le maps, Skype calls, Dropbox files.

When data is pooled like that, it’s cal-led big data.

Your personal data is no less se-cure, because users are still in charge

of what they choose to sha-re or not sha-re. However, much of the shared data will show pat-terns between commercial transactions and how pe-ople go about their dai-ly lives. This mountain of information,

by itself, is no more useful than a mountain of sand but if, as a compa-ny, you have a strategic idea, you can

turn that sand into glass or castles. Now you’re in business.

Data, your customers and youHow does the cloud come in? Re-member those server farms? That’s the cloud. These banks of compu-ters are well protected from all thre-ats, natural or man-made. They are expensive investments but cheaper overall for individual businesses to use because of the economy of sca-le. Individual companies don’t have to purchase the hardware to collect, store and analyze data. They instead use a little bit of this cloud.

The owner of the biggest cloud right now is Amazon. Yes, the bookseller. They had stacks of ser-vers to process their book orders, yet lots of computer downtime when people were asleep and not ordering

books. They decided to make those spare computer cycles available to other businesses – as a service. Think of cloud computing as infrastructu-re being provided to you “as a servi-ce.”

Not all of these server farms are in America. Canada is a bit behind but we are catching up.

Industry Canada has funded a program operated by CANARIE to help Canadian companies get going with all things cloud, called the Digital Accelerator for Innovation and Research (DAIR). Cybera is the point of contact for the program in western Canada. Please contact Lizzie MacNeill for more informa-tion at [email protected].

Robin WinsoR

[email protected]

it’s not just for big companies anymore. Business intelligence is more accessible than ever

Business intelligence goes mainstream

are significant financial returns pos-sible when a company focuses on ve-ry specific areas for improvement. For example, consider the benefits if companies can better plan their workforce, optimize distribution, better utilize assets, reduce unplan-ned maintenance, increase inven-tory turns, or drive more effective customer loyalty campaigns. Con-centrating on optimizing particular workloads ensures we remain dedi-cated to the simple business objecti-ve of driving profit by increasing re-venue and/or reducing costs. These types of opportunities exist across all industries and are indifferent to the size of an organization.

Knowledge of the business intel-ligence discipline is becoming mo-re prevalent. In addition, there are a number of capable technology vendors with reasonably priced so-lutions, so there is no better time to begin to target specific opportu-nities or to consider the art of the possible. Consider this question as a simple example: ‘What do you think the revenue impact of provi-ding additional purchase recom-mendations for customers has been for Amazon?’ As Amazon has pro-ven, companies are reaching new heights by utilizing business intelli-gence capabilities, and those compa-nies that lag will be left behind.

“If you are not taking advantage of business intel-ligence capabilities when making stra-tegic ‘bets’ on your business, you can be assured that your competition is. Facts, trends, and predictive ‘what if’scenarios need to factor in to criticaldecision making.”

richard HinesInstructor, the data Warehousing Institute

MoBile Bi SolutioNS are Now availaBle

for SMart-pHoNeS aND

taBletS. take Your Data oN

tHe go.

MoBile Bi

1tip

robin winsorpresident and ceo, cybera

“A recent survey, showed that 51 percent of the public thinks that cloud compu-ting is affected by weather, (it’s not)”

[email protected]

AN INdepeNdeNt sectIoN By medIAplANet to tHe cAlgAry HerAld2 · NovemBer 2012 AN INdepeNdeNt sectIoN By medIAplANet to tHe cAlgAry HerAld NovemBer 2012 · 3

inspirAtion

Bruce croxon on building better businessesBusiness by numbers When Bruce Croxon — one of the “Dragons” on CBC-TV’s Dragons’ Den — listens to entrepreneurs ma-ke their pitch to lure one of the Dra-gons into investing in their fledgling business, he is looking to see if they have a real understanding of how they are going to make money. “The most important thing for me is the process … have they come to understand how much they will be spending to get a customer to buy — and to understand how much they will be getting from that customer,” said Croxon.

And how did that understanding come about? Was an effort made to gather data through a business in-telligence project?

Croxon believes that business in-telligence efforts are not just a tool for large corporations, but that small businesses owners, including tho-se of start-ups, need to use various methods — from low tech to high tech — to help them learn more about their customers.

The term business intelligence was first used, in a 1958 article by IBM researcher Hans Peter Luhn, who defined intelligence as “the abi-lity to apprehend the inter-relation-ships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a de-sired goal.”

Dan Antony, a contributor to eHow, describes business intelligen-

ce (BI) tools today as, “add-in softwa-re applications that a company uses to consolidate and make sense of the mountains of data it develops, such that the managers can act intelli-gently upon that data.”

essential intelligence“BI tools,” says Antony, “now inte-grate data from the Internet, from mobile and wireless devices like ra-dio frequency identification (RFID), and geospatial data. Thus BI tools now operate more globally in scope, beyond the four walls of an enterpri-se.”

There are also lower tech options for gathering and reviewing key da-ta about customers.

Croxon, who leads Round13, a company that invests in digital start-ups, has an extensive back-ground in helping to develop start-ups. For example, he and his part-ners grew an early tech start-up — Lavalife, an online dating service launched in 1988 – to the point they were able to sell it for $180 million.

At Lavalife, he used volume num-bers to review what parts of the web-site customers were spending the most time in: the dating section, the long-term relationship section, or the “intimate encounters” section, then compared these numbers with those for the sections customers had actually signed in on.

The business intelligence gathe-red resulted in changes to the

company’s marketing efforts.“It became clear,” said Croxon,

“that we didn’t need to advertise the raciest section of the site as custo-mers (mostly men) were easily fin-ding their way there after signing in to another section. The challenge was finding ways to make women feel comfortable in the dating and long-term relationship sections of the site.”

When asked for other relatively low-tech ways that start-ups could use to gather business intelligence, he cites using your own website or sites to spark feedback, and practices such as offering free newsletters (for example, with wellness tips) to build your contact data.

At the other end of BI tools, depen-ding on individual circumstances — including having a large collection of data — start-ups could purchase and use business intelligence soft-ware, said Croxon.

“Gathering business intelligence — through low tech or high tech — is essential for companies of all si-zes,” said Croxon. “For me, it is ma-king use of the tools at your disposal to learn more about your customers and your company.”

bob spence

[email protected]

tHere are MaNY oN-

liNe aNalYticS toolS iNclu-

DiNg google’S aDworDS avai-laBle free of

cHarge.

tHere are

2tip

“gathering business intelligence – through low tech or high tech – is essential for companies of all sizes.”

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Business intelligence a big hit in Alberta’s agribusinessfarmers are embracing the latest in gpS technology, au-tomation and real-time infor-mation from the web to boost profit margins

Business intelligence (BI) is trans-forming Alberta’s agribusiness in a big way.

In fact many farmers and cattle ranchers in the western province are using advanced technology more commonly associated with sectors such as mining and manufacturing to gain a competitive edge and boost profitability.

This is being achieved in a va-

riety of ways, including the use of sophisticated tractor instruments and automated milking machines to collect operational data that helps improve efficiency and keep produc-tion levels high.

For example Rob Saik, chief execu-tive of the Red Deer, AB–based Agri-trend Group of Companies, uses a combination of GPS technology and GIS (geographic information sys-tem) controls to maximize the out-put wheat and barley farmers can obtain from their land. The key to this service is combining informa-tion derived from soil samples with GPS readings to create digital maps

of a farmer’s property.These maps are then used in real-

time by computers in the tractor ca-bin as it pulls farm equipment across a field to automatically apply the op-timal combination of nutrients for different soil conditions.

Not only can on-board computers dispense as many as five nutrients in varying quantities, they are al-so able to drive the tractor with the aid of GPS and satellite technology. “The farmer does not need to be the-re. They normally like to keep an eye on things, but could be at home lis-tening to Shania Twain or watching hockey.”

A farmer can also use custom maps to determine which parts of his field need to be sprayed with pes-ticides and which do not, thereby re-ducing the overall cost and impact of unwanted chemicals. “I can increase a farmer’s yield by as much as 15 to 20 percent,” says Saik.

Similarly, Joe Chomistek of Brooks, AB–based Chomistek Con-sulting uses BI to help Alberta far-mers and ranchers obtain top dollar for their commodities using a com-bination of laptops, spreadsheets and real-time information from the web. Since farmers can store cereal grains and oil seeds for up to three

years, the difference between profit and loss can come down to selling in-to markets willing to pay premium prices as a result of shortages. “The Ukraine had a lower than expected yield of cereal grains this year,” says Chomistek, hinting at where he is steering some of his clients.

eRik HeinRicH

[email protected]

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Keys to successful business intelligence projectsBusinesses need information for decision making, yet they can often get lost in “analysis para-lysis”, sorting through the moun-tains of data operational sys-tems provide while trying to re-solve data conflicts. BI systems

can help create the information organizations need, but we need to recognize that these are com-plex projects that often fail. Here are five recommendations to help make your BI projects more suc-cessful.

Strong executive sponsorshipBI projects are typically cross-or-ganizational, expensive and politi-cal. An active and visible coalition of executive sponsorship is critical to the successful implementation and adoption of the change introduced across departments and business units with a BI solution.

a clear understanding of the problem to be solvedThe far too common phrase (and “trap”) used in failed BI projects by IT organizations is “if we build it, they will come”. Experience shows that BI projects are iterative in na-ture because, unlike transactional systems that produce data, BI sys-tems source data that need to be tur-ned into information. This unique challenge requires business direc-tion and ownership; IT cannot defi-ne the value of the information, on-ly the business can. BI is a business project, not an IT project.

allow enough time to address data quality“Garbage in, garbage out”. BI pro-jects often uncover the underlying data governance and quality pro-blems that exist in an organization. It is important to allow enough ti-me in the project plan for data qua-lity assessments of the source sys-tems feeding the BI solution, for da-ta cleansing (at data sources, ware-houses and data stores), and for re-solving data quality/data infrastruc-ture issues.

Manage the change to people and processNobody likes “airing their dirty laundry” and employees can react negatively to data quality issues. BI projects must include awarene-ss and communications tactics in their Organizational Change Mana-gement Plan to help manage expec-tations and perceptions around the “bad” information in current sys-tems and reports — often the BI so-

lution is reporting the information correctly for the first time. Processes will need to change to ensure that previously erroneous data is entered correctly.

Beware of changing DemandAs users start to get information via BI, they find they have growing needs. Changes to technology (mo-bile, iPad, visual applications, GIS/mapping, etc.) will drive more chan-ges to the original set of BI require-ments. BI projects should account for this in their business cases and architectural design. Project plans should be phased/iterative to make sure that the BI solution continues to have relevance over time.

newsMark cunninghamFounder and CEo, Indicee

David lodExecutive Vice president, pivot Data Centres

pete Baran Founder, president at Blueneck Consulting, Calgary AB

Question 1:Is there such a thing as too much data?

Question 2:What factors should a business consider when setting itself BI related goals?

Question 3:What is your advice to a company who is suffering from “analysis paralysis,” or struggling to execute plans based upon infor- mation they have gathered?

Some earlier Bi programs thought you couldn’t plan the benefit until you found it. Build it and they will come, so to speak. In most cases that is not true today. BI programs work best with your biggest and most important business challenges. Ask yourself if you are main-ly trying to increase your revenues, im-prove your product or service, or simply trying to decrease your costs? Within the stream you select, what topics drive busi-ness results? That is what you focus on. That is where you set goals for BI.

firstly, don’t try to boil the ocean. With any BI project, it’s better to start small and build over time than try to cap-ture every possible data point across your organization at the first attempt. Make sure you choose BI tools that will be flex-ible enough to grow with you.

Secondly, consider: what questions do you actually want answered? Having so-me pretty new graphs won’t necessarily provide actionable insights into your bu-siness. Work with different departments to discover the questions that need answers, then make sure your business users can answer them.

keep the Bi goals simple and clear. The goals need to be key indicators of past and trending performance based around critical data points which act as a dash-board, not the strategy, to the healthy bu-siness growth and sustainability.

Start smaller; focus on the basics first; build from there. It is more valua-ble to have a positive early BI win than to aim for the moon but fail to launch. So-metimes you can do a pilot project wit-hout even buying any BI software. If you don’t have the internal skills or the con-fidence of experience to get going, get so-me help from an independent expert, but not someone trying to sell you their pro-duct. If a consultant is also selling ham-mers, your problem will always end up looking like a nail.

get back down to basics and get tough on those vanity metrics! What answer do you actually need to make de-cisions? For every metric, ask yourself “so what?”If you can’t eventually answer the “so what” question with an action, then ditch the metric.

One of the best ways to avoid analysis pa-ralysis is to give your business users more power to build their own reports and ma-nage their data - they won’t get bogged down in fancy-looking, but unnecessary, charts. They’ll use reports that help them do their jobs.

if it takes you longer to accurately col-lect the data than to analyze it and make a meaningful decision around it then the process needs revisiting. Get a new set of eyes on BI requirements if your current team is unable to see through the chal-lenges in the analytics.

there absolutely is! Effective busi-ness intelligence programs come from good design, not from randomly wande-ring through a junkyard of confusing da-ta. Real insight comes from collecting and using the right data needed for the topic you are investigating, which means you need to do some planning. Bad or un-related data can lead to confusing, wrong or nonsensical results. Garbage in, gar-bage out. Also, gathering more data than you need can be very expensive. This cuts into the benefits of implementing a busi-ness intelligence program. Use only what you need.

No, so long as the process of captur-ing and reporting on that data is not ta-king away from the process of analyzing and finding actionable business insight. There is alway a danger of vanity metrics, where you end up reporting on any num-ber of superficial data points that don’t drive you to take action, or don’t give you a real indication of progress.

Not to be confused with “Big Data” of course, which by it’s nature means lots of data! However, Big Data challenges re-main the preserve of only a small number of large companies.

it’s not a matter of having too much, but rather ensuring that it is secure and accessible. The environment in which you house your IT assets/data has to be unfailingly safe. Organizations are deal-ing with unprecedented volumes of digi-tal data and it is critical they have secure and reliable storage and access to that data. The proper data architecture needs a solution that not only includes the da-tabase layers but the physical data centre infrastructure, as well. Co-locating IT da-ta in a purpose-built data centre protects your data without fail and allows you to scale up easily as your data volume in-creases.

You want your business and ITprojects do more than justspend money; you want to seeyour business improve. Now.

We care deeply about seeing your projects get the results you want, and believe that in every big, slow, and expensive project there is a faster, more agile, higher payback project waiting to be found and implemented.

If you think you’d like your business or IT project to be a successful project that actually makes your business better, contact us. We can help.

Peter Baran, President

You want your business and ITprojects do more than justspend money; you want to seeyour business improve. Now.

We care deeply about seeing your projects get the results you want, and believe that in every big, slow, and expensive project there is a faster, more agile, higher payback project waiting to be found and implemented.

If you think you’d like your business or IT project to be a successful project that actually makes your business better, contact us. We can help.

Peter Baran, PresidentPeter Baran, President

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