Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Accessing Organizational Information – Data Warehouse

What is Data Warehouse?

Ø  Defined in many different ways, but not rigorously

-          A decision support database that is maintained separately from the organization’s operational database.

-          A consistent database source that bring together information from multiple sources for decision support queries.

-          Support information processing by providing a solid platform of consolidated, historical data for analysis.

History of Data Warehousing

Ø  In the 1990’s executives became less concerned with the day-to-day business operations and more concerned with overall business functions

Ø  The data warehouse provided the ability to support decision making without disrupting the day-to-day operations, because;

-          Operational information is mainly current – does not include the history for better decision making

-          Issues of quality information

-          Without information history, it is difficult to tell how and why things change over time

Data warehouse fundamentals

Ø  Data warehouse – A logical collection of information – gathered from many different operational databases – that supports business analysis activities and decision-making takes

Ø  The primary purpose of a data warehouse is to combined information throughout an organization into a single repository for decision-making purposes – data warehouse support only analytical processing

Data warehouse model

Ø  Extraction, transformation and loading (ETL) – A process that extracts information from internal and external databases, transforms the information using a common set of enterprise definitions, and loads the information into a data warehouse.

Ø  Data warehouse then send subsets of the information to data mart.

Ø  Data mart – contains a subset of data warehouse information.

Multidimensional Analysis and Data Mining 

Ø  Relational Database contains information in a series of two-dimensional tables.

Ø  In a data warehouse and data mart, information is multidimensional, it contains layers of columns and rows

-          Dimension – A particular attribute of information

Ø  Cube – common term for the representation of multidimensional information

Ø  Once a cube of information is created, users can begin to slice and dice the cube to drill down into the information.

Ø  Users can analyze information in a number of different ways and with number of different dimensions.

Ø  Data Mining – the process of analyzing data to extract information not offered by the raw data alone. Also known as “knowledge discovery” – computer-assisted tools and techniques for sifting through and analyzing vast data stores in order to finds trends, patterns and correlations that can guide decision making and increase understanding

Ø  To perform data mining users need data-mining tools

-          Data-mining tool – uses a variety of techniques to finds patterns and relationships in large volumes of information. Eg: retailers and use knowledge of these patterns to improve the placement of items in the layout of a mail-order catalog page or Web page.

Information Cleansing or Scrubbing

Ø  An organization must maintain high-quality data in the data warehouse

Ø  Information cleansing or scrubbing – A process that weeds out and fixes or discards inconsistent, incorrect or incomplete information

Ø  Occurs during ETL process and second on the information once if is in the data warehouse

Ø  Contract information in an operational system

Ø  Standardizing Customer  name from Operational Systems

Ø  Information cleansing activities

-          Missing Records or Attributes

-          Redundant Records

-          Missing Keys or Other Required Data

-          Erroneous Relationships or References

-          Inaccurate Data

Ø  Accurate and complete information

Business Intelligence 

Ø  Business Intelligence – refers to applications and technologies that are used to gather, provides access, analyze data and information to support decision making efforts

Ø  These systems will illustrate business intelligence in the areas of customer profiling, customer support, market research, market segmentation, product profitability, statistical analysis, and inventory and distribution analysis to name a few

Ø  Eg; Excel, Access

Question?

1.       Describe the roles and purposes of data warehouse and data marts in an organization

2.       Compare the multidimensional nature of data warehouses (and data  marts) with the two-dimensional nature of databases

3.       Identify the information of ensuring the cleanliness of information throughout an organization

4.       Explain the relationship between business intelligence and a data warehouse

CHAPTER 7 : STORING ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

CHAPTER 7 : STORING ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

This is CHAPTER 7 : STORING ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

- Information is stored in database.

 Relational Database Fundamentals
 - Database : maintain information about various types of objects (inventory), events (transaction),        people(employees), and     places(warehouses).
 - Hierarchical database model : information is organised into a tree-like structure that allows repeating using parent/child                 relationship.
 - Network database model : a flexible way of representing objects and their relationship.
- Relational database model : type of database that stores information in the form of logically related two-dimensional tables.

 Entities And Attributes 

 - Entity : is a person, place, thing, transaction, or event about which information is stored.
- Attributes : is fields or columns, are characteristics or properties of an entity class.

 Relational Database Advantages 

- Increased flexibility
 : a good database and any good business must able to handle changes quickly and easily.
 : physical view – information deals with physical storage of information on a storage device.
: logical view – information focuses on how users logically access information to meet their particular business needs.

 - Increased scalability and performance
: scalability – refers to how well a system can adapt to increased demand.
: performance – measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction.
: database today scale to exceptional levels, allowing all types of users and programs to perform information-processing and information-searching tasks.

 - Reduced information redundancy
 :redundancy – is the duplication of information or storing the same information in multiple places.
 :database is to eliminate information redundancy

 - Increased information and integrity (quality)
 : information integrity – measure of the quality of information : information constraints – rules that help ensure the quality of information
: relational integrity constraints – rules that enforce basic and fundamental information-based constraints. :business-critical integrity constraints – enforce business rules vital to an organization’s success and often requires more insight and knowledge.

 - Increased information security : information is an organizational asset. : passwords provide authentication of the user who is gaining access to the system.
 : Access levels determine who has access to the different types of information.
 : Access controls determine what types of access they have to the information.

 Database Management System 
 - Database management system (DBMS) : is a software through which users and application programmes interact with the database.

Chapter 6 – Valuing Organizational Information

Chapter 6 – Valuing Organizational Information

ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

• Information is everywhere in an organization
• Employees must be able to obtain and analyze the many different levels, formats and granularity of organizational information to make decisions
• Successfully collecting, compiling, sorting and analyzing information can provide tremendous insight into how an organization is performing
•  Levels, formats and granularity of organizational information

THE VALUE OF TRANSNATIONAL AND ANALYTICALLY INFORMATION

• Transaction information verses analytically information
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  THE VALUE OF TIMELY INFORMATION
  
  -   Timeliness is an aspect of information that depends on the situation
  -   Real-time information – immediate, up-to-date information
  -   Real-time system – provides real-time information in response to query requests
  
  
  THE VALUE OF QUALITY INFORMATION
  
  
  -    Business decisions are only as good as the quality of the information used to make the decisions
  -   You never want to find yourself using technology to help you make a bad decision faster
  -   Characteristics of high-quality information include;
  
  
  
  
  
  -   Low quality information example;
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  UNDERSTANDING THE COSTS OF POOR INFORMATION
  
  
  -   The four primary sources of low quality information include;
  
  

  - Online customers intentionally enter inaccurate information to protect their privacy 

  - Information from different systems have different entry standards and formats 

  - Call center operators enter abbreviated or erroneous information by accident or to save time 

  - Third party and external information contains inconsistencies, inaccuracies and errors

  
  
  -   Potential business effects resulting from low quality information include;
  
  

  - Inability to accurately track customers

  - Difficulty identifying valuable customers 

  - Inability to identify selling opportunities 

  - Marketing to nonexistent customers 

  - Difficulty tracking revenue due to inaccurate invoices 

  - Inability to build strong customer relationships

  
  
  UNDERSTANDING THE BENEFITS OF GOOD INFORMATION
  
  
  -   High quality information can significantly improve the chances of making a good decision
  -   Good decisions can directly impact an organization’s bottom line

Chapter 5 – Organizational Structures that Support Strategic Initiatives

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

• Organizational employees must work closely together to develop strategic initiatives that create competitive advantages.
• Ethics and security are two fundamental building blocks that organizations must base their businesses upon.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Information technology is a relatively new functional area, having only been around formally for around 40 years.
• Recent IT – related strategic positions:

             -   Chief Information Officer (CIO)

             -   Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

             -   Chief Security Officer (CSO)

             -   Chief Privacy Officer (CPO)

             -   Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)

 Chief Information Officer (CIO) – oversees all uses of IT and ensures the strategic alignment of IT with business goals and objectives.

-  Broad CIO functions include;

•  Manager – ensuring the delivery of all IT projects, on time and within budget.
• Leader – ensuring the strategic vision of IT is in line with the strategic vision of the organization.
• Communicator – building and maintaining strong executive relationships.

  Average CIO compensation by industry

Industry	Average CIO Compensation
Wholesale/Retail/Distribution	$ 243,304
Finance	$ 210,547
Insurance	$ 197,697
Manufacturing	$ 190,250
Medical/Dental/Health Care	$ 171,032
Government	$ 118,359
Education	$   93,750

·         What concerns CIOs the most

Percentages %	CIOs Concerns
94	Enhancing customer satisfaction
92	Security
89	Technology evaluation
87	Budgeting
83	Staffing
66	ROI analysis
64	Building new applications
45	Outsourcing hosting

o     Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – responsible for ensuring the throughput , speed, accuracy, availability and reliability of IT

o    Chief Security Officer (CSO) – responsible for ensuring the security of IT systems

o   Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) – responsible for ensuring the ethical and legal use of information

o   Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) – responsible for collecting, maintaining and distributing the organization’s knowledge

THE GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS PERSONNEL AND IT PRSONNEL

•  Business personnel possess expertise in functional areas such as marketing, accounting and sales
•  IT personnel have the technological expertise
• This typically causes a communications gap between the business personnel and IT personnel

IMPROVING COMMUNICATIONS

• Business personnel must seek to increase their understanding of IT
• IT personnel must seek to increase their understanding of the business
•  It is the responsibility of the CIO to ensure effective communication between business personnel and IT personnel

ORGANIZATIONAL FUNDAMENTALS – ETHICS AND SECURITY

•  Ethics and security are two fundamental building blocks that organizations must base their businesses on to be successful
• In recent years, such event as the 9/11 have shed new light on the meaning of ethics and security

ETHICS 

• Ethics – the principles and standards that guide our behavior toward other people
• Privacy is a major ethical issues;

• Privacy – the right to be left alone when you want to be to have control ever your own personnel possessions and not to be observed without your consent

• Issues affected by technology advances

Intelligent property	Intangible creative work that is embodied in physical form
Copyright	The legal protection afforded an expression of an idea, such as a song, video game and some types of proprietary documents
Fair use doctrine	In certain situations, it is legal to use copyrighted material
Pirated software	The unauthorized use, duplication, distribution or sale of copyrighted software
Counterfeit software	Software that is manufactured to lock like the real thing and sold as such

•  One of the main ingredients in trust is privacy
• Primary reasons privacy issues lost trust for e-business

1.	Loss of personnel privacy is a top concern for Americans in the 21stcentury
2.	Among Internet users, 37 percent would be “a lot” more inclined to purchase a product on a websites that had a privacy policy
3.	Privacy/security is the number one factors that would convert Internet researchers into Internet buyers

SECURITY – HOW MUCH WILL DOWNTIME COST YOUR BUSINESS??

Sources of Unplanned Downtime
Bomb threat	Hacker	Snowstorm
Burst pipe	Hail	Sprinkler malfunction
Chemical spill	Hurricane	Static electricity
Construction	Ice storm	Strike
Corrupted data	Insects	Terrorism
Earthquake	Lightning	Theft
Electrical short	Network failure	Tornado
Epidemic	Plane crash	Train derailment
Equipment failure	Frozen pipe	Smoke damage
Evacuation	Power outage	Vandalism
Explosion	Power surge	Vehicle crash
Fire	Rodents	Virus
Flood	Sabotage	Water damage (various)
Fraud	Shredded data	Wind

·         How much will downtime cost your business??

PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL ASSETS

·         Organizational information is intellectual capital – it must be protected

·         Information security – the protection of information from accidental or intentional misuse by persons inside or outside an organization

·         E-business automatically crates tremendous information security risks for organization

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Measuring the Success of Strategic Initiatives

MEASURING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY’S SUCCESS

• -          Key performance indicator – measures that are tied to business drivers
• -          Metrics are detailed measures that feed KPIs
• -          Performance metrics fall into the nebulous area of business intelligence that is neither technology, nor business centered, but requires input from both IT and business professionals

EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS

• -          Efficiency IT metric – measures the performance of the IT system itself including throughput, speed, and availability
• -          Effectiveness IT metric – measures the impact IT has on business processes and activities including customer satisfaction, conversion rates, and sell-through increases

BENCHMARKING – BASELINE METRICS

• -          Regardless of what is measured, how it is measured, and whether it is for the sake of efficiency or effectiveness, there must be benchmarks – baseline values the system seeks to attain
• -          Benchmarking – a process of continuously measuring system results, comparing those results to optimal system performance (benchmark values), and identifying steps and producers to improve system performance.

EFFICIENCY IT METRIC

• measure the performance of the IT system itself including throughout,speed and availability.
• lots of useful information

EFFECTIVENESS IT METRIC

• measure the impact it has on business processes and activities including customer satisfaction, conversation rates, and sell-through increases.
• the extent to which our services are prefer by many consumers.

METRICS FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

-          Metrics for measuring and managing strategic initiatives include;

·         Website metrics.

·         Supply chain management (SCM) metrics

·         Customer relationship management (CRM) metrics

·         Business process reengineering (BPR) metrics

·         Enterprise resource planning (ERP) metrics 

WEBSITE METRICS

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT METRICS 

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT METRICS

BPR and ERP Metrics

-          The balanced scorecard enables organizations to measure and manage strategic initiatives.