Webinar: Business Intelligence

Best PracticesLeveraging Report Views

February 15, 2011

Craig LinderothArchitecture Engineer Lead

Business Intelligence Solutions

Luna RajbhandariDirector

Business Intelligence Solutions

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Agenda

• Introduction• BI Overview• Demonstration

– Logging Into BI Portal– Report Object Actions and Properties– My Folders– Report Views– Save Prompts– Save Archives– Run Multiple Formats– View Archives– Schedule Reports

• Questions• Further Information

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Business Intelligence (BI) Solutions

Services Highlights:• BI Solutions Development: Data Marts,

Reporting, Analytics• BI System Architecture and Support• BI Training and BI Best Practices consulting• Centralized product management for IBM Cognos

BI including deployment of user licenses

About BI Best Practices

• Share best practices with Northwestern University BI user community:– Effective usage of BI tools– Solutions that provide Business Intelligence:

Information and Analytics• Enable self service and build awareness of

available solutions– Provide key insights– Improve decision making process

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Business Intelligence

“Business Intelligence is not just about technology and cannot be effective in isolation. To live and breathe it needs to be part of a broader framework covering the questions that its users need to answer, the actions that they take based on these answers and the iterative learning that occurs in the process.”

Peter J. Thomas

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What is Business Intelligence?

• Business Intelligence (BI) is a collection of technologies • Data Modeling – Data Marts• ETL – Extraction Transformation and Loading, moving the data from source into the data

mart• Metadata Modeling – Framework packages that present the data in the data mart in an easy

to utilize format

• And applications • OLAP – OnLine Analytical Process, Analysis Studio, dimensional modeling of the data to

allow for easier analysis using crosstab• Query Studio – Simplified Ad-Hoc tool to allow business users to ask simple questions

without needing to ask for a complex report• Report Studio – Rich development studio to create complex reports and applications• Predictive Analytics – Forecasting models to show future trends• Data Mining – Find previously unknown correlations in large data sets

• That enables business users to make better and more informed decisions based upon data instead of intuition

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Data Marts at Northwestern

• NU Financials (Café)• Info ED (Café)• ORIS

– Transaction Snapshots– Cost Accounting

• HR– Position Management– FASIS (in

development)7

• OARD– Gifts and Giving– Prospect Management

(in development)• SES

– Student Records– Registrations– Class– Faculty Load– CTEC

Demonstration

• Demonstration– Logging Into BI Portal– Report Object Actions and Properties– My Folders– Report Views– Save Prompts– Save Archives– Run Multiple Formats– View Archives– Schedule Reports 8

BI Portal

• Log into https://reporting.northwestern.edu/

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Click to go to your Home Page

Jump directly to a tool

Use this checkbox to remove this page if you always go to your home page

BI Portal Home Page

• Home Page

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List of Folders and Objects Available

The search box allows the user to quickly find reports by name

These tabs can be set to allow the user to quickly navigate

The Launch button shows the studios available to the user

Report Object Actions

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Actions shows the most used, click on More to show all the actions available for a report object

Set Properties

Run Report with Options

Open Object in Studio if Available

Create a Report View Wizard

Schedule Object – must have write permission

Report Properties - General

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Run History setting determines how many run histories of the saved report to show.

Report output setting determines how many outputs of the saved runs to keep in the archive.

Report Properties - Report

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This tab allows the user with write capacity to the object to change the behavior of the report.

Default action, which is set to View the most recent report, defines what happens when a user clicks on the report name.

View the most recent report is the default behavior. It will open the HTML version of the last archive report in the report history if possible. If there is no archive, then it will run the report.

Run the report will run the report using the default report options, usually HTML output and English, even if there is an archive of the report available.

These other options allows the user with write capability to change how the report renders, whether there are saved prompt answers, and whether or not to use those answers when running the default report.

My Folders

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The My Folders tab takes the user to a portal location that they own completely.

Users can create their own folders in this location.

This allows a user to paste report objects into this location.

A user can also add a URL item into this tab.

My Folders is the location where a user can paste report views and this will allow them to save prompts, save report outputs, and schedule reports even if they don’t have the capability to do this actions on the report object in the main portal.

Create Report View alt.

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To make a report view from the object, click on the create a report view button.

A dialog box will come up where the user can enter the new title, and it is also good to enter any information about this object such as save prompts or schedule.

Finally, click on Select another location and navigate to My Folder and any folder to put this object into. A new folder can be created through this dialog if required.

Report View

• An object that references the source object:– Any change to the source report will be reflected in the report

view object

• Report Views allow a user to:– Store prompt information to save prompting time– Create report archives to save previous runs of the report– Create a schedule to have the report run automatically

• Multiple Report Views can be created from the same report object

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Multiple Report Views

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Here are three Report View objects of the same report that run different prompts and different schedules.

The screen tip property was populated with some information to identify what prompts and schedules the report views represent.

The screen tip can be shown by hovering the mouse over the report icon.

Report View Prompts

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Click on Set under Prompt Values to define the values for this report view.

The default prompt page will come up with the prompts needed for the report.

Define the prompt values as you would when running the report and click on OK.

The report properties tab now shows prompt values for this object.

Clear the Prompt for values so that it will use the save prompts.

Run Report into Archive

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A report must be run with options to generate a save file in the archive.

Choose the format, but in this page you can only select a single format.

Check the Save the report delivery method.

Make sure it will use the defined prompt values.

If you would like this run to instead generate multiple formats, click on the advanced options.

Multiple formats are efficient, the report will only deliver the data once and will then render the multiple formats.

Run Report into Archive – Multiple Formats

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This must be set to Run in the background, else it won’t save it into the archive and only a single format will be selectable.

The run time can be set now or in the future if the report needs to be generated after the next data refresh.

Choose the formats. All the available formats can be selected, and the report will only be run once saving on database run cost.

This allows drill through operations to work on an archived report.

Make sure the prompt for values is unchecked so the report run will use the saved prompts.

Click on Run to generate the report.

View Archives

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Click on the View output button to get to the archives. Clicking on the report name will show the last archive version.

The archive shows the different formats for the version (run) chosen.

There is only one version in this screen, the report output version was set to 1.

Setting the occurences to five, the archive will now store the last five runs.

Schedule Reports

• Knowing how to– Use My Folder– Create Report View– Save Prompts– View Archives

• Allows scheduled reports• Run reports when data is refreshed• Reports ready for you, no waiting on long reports

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Schedule Report Process

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Set the frequency and type of schedule for the report.

Define when the schedule will start and stop running, can be indefinite if needed.

The options for format and delivery can be set here. If the report would benefit from multiple formats, click on Override and set all the formats that are required.

It is recommended that the Report View have the correct prompt values, but they can be changed here for the schedule if required.

Set the schedule and options, then click OK. Check the archive to see the scheduled report versions.

Questions

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Further Information

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www.it.northwestern.edu/business-intelligence/