From Data to Information

For years companies are focused on gathering data thru different applications. All this data is stored in databases and on excel files.
Is the purpose of this data just to go to our application interfaces and see the information regarding one customer, or do we want more?

Well more and more companies see the need to change this data into usable information.

If a company has multiple CRM systems do we want to know the customer crossover and what can we do with it? Well we can actually create a full customer list (master data management) and use this to see what the different patterns are and use these patterns to increase sales within your current customer list. (retention is always easier then new business)

If we use the helicopter approach and look at the information we can notice trends. And adapting to these trends to increase sales and stay ahead of the competition.

General: Setting Goals

To set goals follow these simple 6 rules:

1. The goal must be part of a higher target; such as a corporate strategy.
2. The goal should not contradict with any other goal. A Project Governance Board is a perfect method to monitor goal & projects.
3. The goal should be written in a positive way. Try to avoid negative words.
4. The goal should be the helicopter-view with high-level sub goals.
5. The goal must be realistic but make sure that the bar is high.
6. Write the goal down and share with others!

General: Targets & Goals

Everyone and in any position needs to set goals and/or targets.
Goals within project, (individual) performance measuring etc.

Just make sure the these goals are S.M.A.R.T.

I you have SMART goals then you can use the simple "3 balls in the pocket" method to realize these goals.

Source(s):
http://www.topachievement.com/smart.html

General: Meetings

So many times I have been in meetings where we talked and talked and at the end everyone left the room without any concrete result.
A meeting should NOT be bored. This will kill all the enthusiasm of all the participant.
But it should at least have some structure.
The meeting-invite and the meeting minutes will create some structure.

A meeting starts with an invite, containing a clear description of the goal, scope and agenda of the meeting.

Then the actual meeting starts:

• be on time!
• do not accept the meeting without showing up (personal reasons excluded)
  
• the facilitator will repeat the goal, scope and agenda of the meeting
• the facilitator or another participant will write meeting minutes
• items that someone want to discuss, that are NOT on the agenda; put them in a parking lot either to discuss if there is time left or put it on the agenda for next meeting
• do NOT go into to many details unless it is in scope
• 5 min before the end the facilitator will recap (discussed items, decisions and action items)

Types of meetings:

• Weekly status meetings > the goal of a weekly status meeting is that a team of group has a clear understanding of all the activities in the pipeline
• Project meetings > there are a variety of meeting within a project; from kick-off to brainstorm meetings
• 10-10 meetings > performance meeting between manager and employee

All of these meetings should follow the same structure.

Template(s):
Microsoft Meeting Minutes template
Google result on Meeting Minutes

Marketing: New Business vs. Retention

Too many marketeers focus on getting new customers and not a lot of emphasis is put on retaining the existing customers. A great example are the cell phone companies and Internet provider companies. They only give new customers discounts and rebates. But if you are an existing customer you do not get anything. So my approach is to change after every contract.

Another reason that marketeers tend to focus on new business is that bonus structures are mainly based on this concept.

All the Marketing 101 books talk about that it is a lot harder to get a new customer (new business) vs. retaining the customer.

Why don't we focus more on retention, apply models to our prospects to deter main who is more or less likely to retain as well as changing the bonus structures for marketeers.
A good example is that if a supermarket put their diapers on sale it also increases the beer sales. This trend is caused by the very simple concept; if the diapers are on sale the wife send the men to the store to get the diapers in bulk and the men buys beer.

DW: SCD (Slowly Changing Dimensions)

After working for years in the DW and BI world I have seen a variety of Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCD).

And this is my perfect solution.
It is basically Type 2 (see source link) but then with some additional information.

• Effective Date: the date-time the row/transaction got entered or when a change occurs
  
• Expiration Date: the date-time when the row was either removed or changed from the OLTP system. The current row/transaction has always 12/31/2999
• Counter: a column that simply counts all the variations of a unique row/transaction
• UID: The first unique row/transaction will be I (Insert), a change will have a U (Update) If then the row/transaction gets removed/deleted from the source system we replace the U with a D (Delete)

Advantages:

• If you want to know how the source system looked like at a certain moment in time; you can do a between statement.
• The current mirror of the source system is where the Expiration Date is 12/31/2999
• The counter shows the number of variations
• The UID tells you what the first record is (note: the counter "1" tells you the same) But if you see a D you know that there is no following record.

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowly_Changing_Dimension

DW: ODS (Operational Data Store)

The ODS or Operational Data Store is a perfect solution for basically two things.

1. An ODS can be used to run complex reports against. You do not hit the OLTP systems directly, so there are no issues for all the business users that enter and change data elements thru the GUIs.
2. The ODS is also the base for data warehouse solutions such as Dimensional Models and Data marts.

Types of ODS:

1. A direct mirror of the OLTP system. Either using replication tools or a replace of data during the night.
2. A direct mirror of the OLTP system but then all the tables converted into slowly changing dimensions. This gives you the flexibility to see how your OLTP system looked like at a certain moment in time. If there are a lot of changes then you will create a lot of data. Data storage might be a problem.
3. A normalized mirror of the OLTP system with the slowly changing aspects . This is in general best-practice. Data storage is better controlled, but it takes a lot of work to analyze and architect the solution. Actual view can create the same look and feel as the OLTP environment.

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_data_store
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowly_Changing_Dimension

BI: OLAP Solutions

OLAP Solutions are very useful solutions to provide quick answers within a decision making process.
The reason that OLAP solutions are fast is because they pre-calculate all the metrics at every intersection of every dimension and level during the build. A normal report (SQL) against a OLTP database might take x% longer.
The flip side of the coin is that the OLAP solution contains "old" data compared to a report running against a OLTP data source.
OLAP solutions are also called Multi-Dimensional Cubes. The reason is that it is a perfect solution for star or snowflakes (Dimensional Models) but almost all OLAP tools can also be utilized against relational data sources (OLTP).
OLAP solutions are made for aggregation of data but if needed you can always drill-thru to the lower-level detail information.

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLAP

BI: Prototyping

Prototyping is something I have do a lot within my Business Intelligence career.
It is nothing more then putting something together to make it visible.

a) Prototyping within Projects
Prototyping is a perfect method to use in JAD sessions to talk about idea's, solutions etc.
Within these JAD sessions you can actually visualize possible solutions.

b) Prototyping for Sales purposes
Prototyping is also a effective method to sell a possible solution to internal or external clients.
It triggers a ripple effect that very often results in an actual project.

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototyping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_application_development

Project: CBA (Cost Benefit Analysis)

The Cost Benefit Analysis or CBA is a key aspect in large projects.
I have execute and participate in a fair amount of projects. The question I had was always for example; why did we choose to implement a certain product. Was it the great impression the sales person left behind or is there another subjective reasons.

Well the challenge is to convert these decision making elements into something that is objective and measurable, a CBA.

A CBA is nothing more then a list with costs and benefits by option/product.
You compare these and you have an objective model. With a nice break even point.

Well not exactly.
It is very difficult to (g)estimate costs and benefits. The costs are easier. If we do nothing we spend x. If we implement product "A" we have an initial and variable costs etc.
What are the benefits; if we choose for product "A" we reduce human error and with that we can reduce the department by a number of people. Now we are reducing a department which might result in an opposition from the department manager. Product "A" is now reducing his department and therefore also his power.
And how do we quantify the increase in capacity? Do we have to increase or even keep our market share? And how do we quantify these elements?

As you can see a CBA is difficult, inaccurate and very beneficial.

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost-benefit_analysis

General: 3 Balls in the Pocket

Did you ever drive home from work and thought about the workday you just finished. Realizing that you did nothing productive. Well I have. A lot of time caused by endless meetings, being pulled into discussions, starting something and had to change focus, etc.

Well I read an article from a research group in Great Britain that analyzed how to improve the productivity from professionals.

It basically boiled down too:
An individual can do a lot of things in one day, but to start and finish something there is a limit.
So create, in the morning, a list with 3 thing you want to do. And focus on these things.
I noticed that it improved my productivity drastically and at the end of the day I had a feeling that I actually accomplished something.

General: Change Management

The contradiction

Every person is affected by change every day, either thru their personal life or within a business environment. If a change occurs slowly the individual accepts the change without or with minimal friction. If the change occurs “fast” or unwanted the individual does not want to accept the change and created friction. If we do not change, the individual gets bored.

Challenge

How to invoke change with a high level of acceptance?

One theory describes three stages of change:

a) Unfreeze: Make the individual aware of an upcoming change. If we want to increase the level of acceptance we need to involve the individual in the change process.

b) Mind Set: The actual change takes place. This is the time of confusion.

c) Refreeze: The change has been executed. Now we need to adapt and make the change part of our day-to-day routine.

Too many simultaneous changes have a negative effect on the individual. The refreeze stage needs complete prior to a new unfreeze.

My personal take on this

Changes are inevitable. The key in this is the acceptance of changes by (business) users. How can we make sure that the user accepts the change? We can do this by various or a mix of strategies.

a) Communicate clearly and frequently

b) Have the users participate in decision making moments. This will make the user own the change.

c) Have users participate in creative processes regarding the change; such as logo, name, color-templates etc.

d) Create mistakes in the UAT phase. Users will find it and report it. Now the user has a higher level of acceptance.

Source(s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_management

BI: Metadata Management

Ever had the situation where there where 3 managers with 3 different reports and all these reports showed the profit ($) but all the numbers where different. Well I have.

Metadata Management is the practice where every term has only one description, definition and (technical) calculation. I am a BI expert and this is one of the most challenging tasks.

The ultimate goal is to have all the managers/business-users look at the same numbers and understand the meaning behind the numbers.

The process I normally take to get to the ultimate goal is:

1. Interview the key business-users that use the reports with the differences. To get a clear understanding of their interpretations and to understand the business processes.
2. Execute a data analysis to understand the data and the calculations.
3. Have a meeting with the key business-users and a sponsor (example CFO) to define the different terms. And to determine the ownership.
   
4. Document and communicate this clearly to the business-users.

BI: Enhanced Reporting

What is the value of your company?
Current economic models determain that 25% of the value of your company is based on the numbers in your financial systems. This information is easy accessible and with the correct controls in place we know that it is fairly correct.

Where does the other 75% go?
Well this is always open for discussion, but 15-35% is based on everything that is in the pipeline. When a large airplane builder closes a large deal the stock will go up drastically, while the nothing as been put in the books.
The other part of the value of your company is based on macro economics, changes in laws, competitors and other external influences.

The goal of Enhanced Reporting is to give value to the things in the pipeline and external influences.

BI: Business Intelligence

What is Business Intelligence?
The best description I can give to the term "Business Intelligence" is that it is the CIA of a company. The CIA gathers data from multiple places and turns it into information so the leaders can make better decisions.

Every company gathers data in their CRM, ERP and Ledger Systems. Sporadicly this data is used to support decisions. The main reason is that the data is not available to the decision makes in a form they can use. Business Intelligence should make a change in this process.

Business Intelligence changes the data into information by analyzing the business needs, processes and data. And then morphing the data into easy accessible information.
The goal is to empower business users with correct information.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence