Valuing your Business Intelligence System - Part 1

Valuing your Business Intelligence System - Part 1

Sample these statements:

• Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 200 points today, a 2% increase from the previous close
• The carbon footprint of an average individual in the world is about 4 tonnes per year which is a 3% increase over last year
• The number of unique URL's as on July 2008 in the World Wide web is 1 trillion. The previous landmark of 1 billion was reached in 2000
• One day 5% VaR (Value at Risk) for the portfolio is $ 1 Million as compared to the VaR of $ 1.3 Million a couple of weeks back

Most of us buy into the idea of having a single number that encapsulates complex phenomena. Though the details of the underlying processes are important, the single number (and the trend) does act like a bellwether of sorts helping us quickly get a feel of the current situation.

As a BI practitioner, I feel that it is about time that we formulated a way for valuing the BI infrastructure in organizations. Imagine a scenario where the Director of BI in company X can announce thus: "The value of the BI system in this organization has grown 15% over the past 1 year to touch $50 Million" (substitute your appropriate currencies here!).

The core idea of this post is to find a way to "scientifically put a number to your data warehouse". Here are a few level setting points:

1. Valuation of BI systems is different from computing the Return on Investment (ROI) for BI initiatives. ROI calculations are typically done using Discounted Cash Flow techniques and are used in organizations to some extent
2. More than the absolute number, the trends are important which means that the BI system has to be valued using the same norms at different points in time. Scientific / Mathematical rigor helps in bringing the consistency aspect.

My perspective to valuation is based on the "Outside-in" logic where the fundamental premise is that the value of the BI infrastructure is completely determined by its consumption. Or in other words, if there are no consumers for your data warehouse, the value of such a system is zero. One simple, yet powerful technique in the "Outside-in" category is RFM Analysis. RFM stands for Recency, Frequency and Monetary and is very popular in the direct marketing world. My 2-step hypothesis for BI system valuation using the RFM technique is:

• Step 1: Value of BI system = Sum of the values of individual BI consumers
• Step 2: Value of each individual consumer = Function (Recency, Frequency, Monetary parameters)

Qualitatively speaking, from the business user standpoint, one who has accessed information from the BI system more recently, has been using data more frequently and uses that information to make decisions that are critical to the organization will be given a higher value. A calibration chart will provide the specific value associated with RFM parameters based on the categories within them. For example: For the Recency parameter, usage of information within the last 1 day can be fixed at 10 points while access 10 days back will fetch 1 point. I will explain my version of the calibration chart in detail in subsequent posts. (Please note that the conversion of points to dollar values is also an interesting, non-trivial exercise)

Am sure that people acknowledge the fact that valuing data assets are difficult, tricky at best. But then, lot more difficult questions on nature and behavior have been reduced to mathematical equations - probably, the day on which BI practitioners can apply standardized techniques to value their BI infrastructure is not too far off.

Valuing your Business Intelligence System - Part 1

Valuing your Business Intelligence System - Part 1

Sample these statements:

• Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 200 points today, a 2% increase from the previous close
• The carbon footprint of an average individual in the world is about 4 tonnes per year which is a 3% increase over last year
• The number of unique URL's as on July 2008 in the World Wide web is 1 trillion. The previous landmark of 1 billion was reached in 2000
• One day 5% VaR (Value at Risk) for the portfolio is $ 1 Million as compared to the VaR of $ 1.3 Million a couple of weeks back

Most of us buy into the idea of having a single number that encapsulates complex phenomena. Though the details of the underlying processes are important, the single number (and the trend) does act like a bellwether of sorts helping us quickly get a feel of the current situation.

As a BI practitioner, I feel that it is about time that we formulated a way for valuing the BI infrastructure in organizations. Imagine a scenario where the Director of BI in company X can announce thus: "The value of the BI system in this organization has grown 15% over the past 1 year to touch $50 Million" (substitute your appropriate currencies here!).

The core idea of this post is to find a way to "scientifically put a number to your data warehouse". Here are a few level setting points:

1. Valuation of BI systems is different from computing the Return on Investment (ROI) for BI initiatives. ROI calculations are typically done using Discounted Cash Flow techniques and are used in organizations to some extent
2. More than the absolute number, the trends are important which means that the BI system has to be valued using the same norms at different points in time. Scientific / Mathematical rigor helps in bringing the consistency aspect.

My perspective to valuation is based on the "Outside-in" logic where the fundamental premise is that the value of the BI infrastructure is completely determined by its consumption. Or in other words, if there are no consumers for your data warehouse, the value of such a system is zero. One simple, yet powerful technique in the "Outside-in" category is RFM Analysis. RFM stands for Recency, Frequency and Monetary and is very popular in the direct marketing world. My 2-step hypothesis for BI system valuation using the RFM technique is:

• Step 1: Value of BI system = Sum of the values of individual BI consumers
• Step 2: Value of each individual consumer = Function (Recency, Frequency, Monetary parameters)

Qualitatively speaking, from the business user standpoint, one who has accessed information from the BI system more recently, has been using data more frequently and uses that information to make decisions that are critical to the organization will be given a higher value. A calibration chart will provide the specific value associated with RFM parameters based on the categories within them. For example: For the Recency parameter, usage of information within the last 1 day can be fixed at 10 points while access 10 days back will fetch 1 point. I will explain my version of the calibration chart in detail in subsequent posts. (Please note that the conversion of points to dollar values is also an interesting, non-trivial exercise)

Am sure that people acknowledge the fact that valuing data assets are difficult, tricky at best. But then, lot more difficult questions on nature and behavior have been reduced to mathematical equations - probably, the day on which BI practitioners can apply standardized techniques to value their BI infrastructure is not too far off.

Zachman Framework for BI Assessments

Zachman Framework for BI Assessments

The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture has become the model around which major organizations view and communicate their enterprise information infrastructure. Enterprise Architecture provides the blueprint, or architecture, for the organization's information infrastructure. More information on the Zachman Framework can be obtained at www.zifa.com.

For BI practitioners, the Zachman Framework provides a way of articulating the current state of the BI infrastructure in the organization. Ralph Kimball in his eminently readable book "The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit" illustrates how the Zachman Framework can be adapted to the Business Intelligence context.

Given below is a version of the Zachman Framework that I have used in some of my consulting engagements. This is just one way of using this framework but does illustrate the power of this model in some measure.

 

Some Salient Points with respect to the above diagram are:

1)       The framework answers the basic questions of "What", "How", "Who" and "Where" across 4 important dimensions – Business Requirements, Conceptual Model, Logical/Physical Model and Actual Implementation.

2)       Zachman Framework reinforces the fact that a successful enterprise system combines the ingredients of business, process, people and technology in proper measure.

3)       It is typically used to assess the current state of the BI infrastructure in any organization

4)       Each of the cells that lies at the intersection of the rows and columns (Ex: Information Requirements of Business) has to be documented in detail as part of the assessment document

5)       Information on each cell is gathered through subjective and objective questionnaires.

6)       Scoring Models can be developed to provide an assessment score for each of the cells. Based on the scores, a set of recommendations can be provided to achieve the intended goals.

7)       Another interesting thought is to create a As-Is Zachman framework and overlay that with To-Be one in situations where re-engineering of a BI environment is undertaken. This will help us provide a transition path from the current state to the future.

Thanks for reading. If you have used the Zachman framework differently in your environment, please do share your thoughts.

Zachman Framework for BI Assessments

Zachman Framework for BI Assessments

The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture has become the model around which major organizations view and communicate their enterprise information infrastructure. Enterprise Architecture provides the blueprint, or architecture, for the organization's information infrastructure. More information on the Zachman Framework can be obtained at www.zifa.com.

For BI practitioners, the Zachman Framework provides a way of articulating the current state of the BI infrastructure in the organization. Ralph Kimball in his eminently readable book "The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit" illustrates how the Zachman Framework can be adapted to the Business Intelligence context.

Given below is a version of the Zachman Framework that I have used in some of my consulting engagements. This is just one way of using this framework but does illustrate the power of this model in some measure.

 

Some Salient Points with respect to the above diagram are:

1)       The framework answers the basic questions of "What", "How", "Who" and "Where" across 4 important dimensions – Business Requirements, Conceptual Model, Logical/Physical Model and Actual Implementation.

2)       Zachman Framework reinforces the fact that a successful enterprise system combines the ingredients of business, process, people and technology in proper measure.

3)       It is typically used to assess the current state of the BI infrastructure in any organization

4)       Each of the cells that lies at the intersection of the rows and columns (Ex: Information Requirements of Business) has to be documented in detail as part of the assessment document

5)       Information on each cell is gathered through subjective and objective questionnaires.

6)       Scoring Models can be developed to provide an assessment score for each of the cells. Based on the scores, a set of recommendations can be provided to achieve the intended goals.

7)       Another interesting thought is to create a As-Is Zachman framework and overlay that with To-Be one in situations where re-engineering of a BI environment is undertaken. This will help us provide a transition path from the current state to the future.

Thanks for reading. If you have used the Zachman framework differently in your environment, please do share your thoughts.

CAM-CRP-1085 when running cogconfig.sh on UNIX

IBM Cognos Configuration displays an error when attempting to start on UNIX. The option when receiving the error is to exit the application.

Error Message:

CAM-CRP-1085 An error occurred while verifying that the security provider classes were loaded.
Reason: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.bouncycastle125.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider

The error with IBM Cognos 8.4 will be:

CAM-CRP-1085 An error occurred while verifying that the security provider classes were loaded.
Reason: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.bouncycastle134.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider

Root Cause:

An Operating System user, other than the one launching IBM Cognos Configuration was used to copy the cryptographic jar files from beneath the /bin/jre/1.X.X/lib/ext directory, to the /lib/ext folder. The files that were copied into the new directory were left with file permissions that prevented read access to anyone but the User that copied the files.

The inability for the user launching IBM Cognos Configuration to access the files, prevents the application from using them.

Solution:

Ensure that all the files and sub-directories referenced by the JAVA_HOME environment variable are readable by the user running cogconfig.sh.