There seems to be a lot of activity on the BI front these days.  As the world emerges from its recession darkness, BI is there to welcome it with open arms.   BI bloggers all over the blogosphere are making predictions for the new year and touting their top 10 trends and predictions for 2010; most of them share common advancements:  cloud BI tools, improved analysis and advanced visualization.

I’ve been glancing through these articles and started to consider what the future might look like in a sci-fi world.  So, taking these three advancements into account, this is my vision of Sci-Fi BI.

Cloud BI tools exploded into the market in 2009.  They combine the appeal of getting data out there quickly with a visual dashboard that contains the results of the analysis.  Dashboards contain all the classic elements of gauges, bar graphs, pie charts and the like, with some cool Flash widgets that make a dashboard super cool.  In a sci-fi world, this concept would be taken to the next level.

Let’s consider the advancement of data visualization over the past few years; I recently wrote a blog about a few of my favorite data visualizations.  Using tools like Adobe Air or Microsoft Silverlight allows for a more flexible and dynamic visualization application.   In the sci-fi world, data would be continuously added to a database/data warehouse or, even better, read directly from transactional systems; analytical tools would process the data and feed its results to a free-standing or web-based visualization application.  This application would be accessible through your computer or your smart phone; or a big screen in Times Square.  

The visualizations that you would be presented with would go way beyond the pie charts and gauges of a typical dashboard today.  Your business intelligence would be presented like a news ticker complete with advanced visualizations, and, at any time, you could glance at the images and get a feel at that moment for what’s happening at your business.   The tools might even “ding” you when something significant happens and you could immediately see what’s afoot.  Imagine your BI reporting in the same way news is reported.  You could even have a full-time analyst that adds BREAKING NEWS tickers.  

That’s how I see sci-fi BI.  I’ll finish with a J.G. Ballard quote “Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century.”

Your dashboard design needs to be simple and clean with a focus on the data.   Your challenge is to display all the required information on a single screen in a way that can be instantly digested and with minimal distractions.  The idea is that the less the business user has to think, the better your dashboard design.  

There are a lot of theories about the layout of dashboards, but there are no hard and fast rules.  The basic tenet is that a dashboard needs to be customized for its purpose, well organized, concise and free of distractions.  There are some elements that need to be considered:  

• Windows:  If you have  too many windows the mind can’t focus on any one of them.  Generally good dashboard designers don’t use more than 6 windows in a 3 x 3 symmetrical layout.  The windows should be equally sized to be the least distracting.
• Widgets:  The widgets you use need to make sense based on the data it’s representing and be easy to read and understand.  If you have animation it should be controlled by the business user rather than run automatically or in a continuous loop.
• Colors:  The color scheme should be neutral and if you’re conveying information with color, check it out in black and white:  10% of us are color-blind and different monitors render colors differently

It's a good idea to perform user testing to be sure the dashboard is user friendly, particularly if you have a lot of interactions.  Finally, make certain you get input from your business users; they know what they need and like.

Metrics for a dashboard are tied to a target or have an acceptable range.  Reporting on them in a dashboard then generally expresses how they differ from the target and where they fall for an acceptable range.  These metrics are designed to instantly tell the business user where they stand on a goal, plan or problem resolution.  To select the metrics, you should start with the event that is your dashboard focus.  Working through the event takes you on a path through the data and eventually you’ll find the metrics that support your dashboard focus.  The business users know these processes better than anyone and need to be heavily involved.  You can help them by starting a dialog and prompting them to answer some key questions.

Questions to ask:

• What is the business question that needs answered?
• Why is this question important/necessary?
• Who creates the data, what is the process?
• What action or decision can be made with this information?
• At what granularity do you need this data in order to take that action or make that decision?

After working through these questions, a set of metrics will emerge.   You’ll also be able to determine how the data needs to be presented—a percentage, a specific value or simply a thumbs up or down.  Keep in mind that the metrics you choose need to have the following characteristics:

• Easy to understand
• Relevant
• Provide context
• Lead to positive action

Finally, they need to be tied to a target or a range.  You may need to collect data for a while before the optimum target or range is determined.  Review your metrics every few months to be certain they are still relevant.

If you thought the swine flu was your biggest concern this season, you may need to re-examine your relationship with data.

Symptoms of information overload include:

• Your inbox is frequently over the size limit due to daily reports being emailed to you
• You spend more than 5 hours per week deciphering the spreadsheets that are filling your inbox
• You are constantly distracted working with the data to the point of missing date night with your spouse
• You experience anxiety if you don’t receive your 10 gigabyte report

Sound familiar?   You may be suffering from this pandemic.

According to the Xerox Information Overload site 53% of people believe that less than half of the information they receive is valuable and 42% of people accidentally use the wrong information at least once per week.  

The cure lies in your business intelligence tool, you just need to put it to work!  Your first step is to sift through those data sets once and determine what decisions you are making from the data.  If the answer is “none” then stop getting the report - you should have your BI tool do the analysis for you so you only receive the data you need.   For example, if you are a sales manager your time is best spent selling.  Chances are, your BI tool is designed to analyze data; it should be delivering decisions to you in easy to digest bits, thereby freeing up your time and removing the stress of doing the analysis yourself.   This is why the dashboard has become so popular in recent years.  A dashboard presents you with massive amounts of data in 5 or 6 little visualizations that help you decide within minutes your course of action.  

The cure for your information overload is to let your BI tool analyze your data and transform that data into actionable intelligence that will improve your planning and decision-making.  This is your vaccine that will give you a sustainable competitive advantage.

I was pondering recently all the different kinds of BI reports that exist.  I've worked with several businesses at various levels of business intelligence and have identified my own pattern of report progression.  These aren't necessarily a maturity model, nor are they mutually exclusive.  Read my report generations and let me know what you think!

Generation One
These reports are collected and delivered by an IT department from data stored in a transactional system.  They are typically run weeks after the event.   For example, a department store runs a promotion.  The promotion ends and relevant data is transferred to IT from the point of sale system.  Someone in IT gets a massive data set and does some “black box” manipulation of the data.  Eventually, multiple datasets are delivered as “reports” and after a bit more manipulation, the success of the promotion is determined.

Generation Two
We’re still getting reports directly from the transactional system, but now, the reports are closer to real-time.  Snapshots of the previous day or extreme detail of transactions are available.  There’s no analysis going on, simply reporting.  These are the types of reports we all get when we log into an online store and take a peek at our order history.

Generation Three
There’s a big leap between Gen 2 and Gen 3.  At Generation 3 we now have moved away from the transactional system and are getting our data from a data mart or data warehouse.  These reports are essentially the same Gen 1 and Gen 2 reports, only now you consistently get them “on-demand” and can perform some simple analysis on the data sets you receive.   The reports are very close to real-time, typically within a day or a week at most.  

Generation Four
Here’s where the fun begins!  Reports are coming from a data warehouse, only now you have a BI tool that is providing you analysis on the data.  No longer are you getting long, cumbersome data sets, now you receive concise bits of data that provide you with actionable information.  This is where your Scorecard exists as well as grid reports with red, yellow and green “traffic” symbols.    You might also be getting operational data in real-time.  This is when you are monitoring transactions and receiving alerts to your Blackberry.   Gen 4 reports provide pretty sophisticated analytics that do all the thinking for you, and send you only the information you need.

Generation Five
Some may consider this to be the same as Gen 4, but I consider visual dashboards and other data visualization techniques as Gen 5.  At this level, you are receiving volumes of complex data analysis in very easy to digest visualizations.  When you look at a visual dashboard, the action you need to take and reason why are immediately apparent.  

So, those are my Five Generations of Business Intelligence reporting.   Share with me your thoughts on the topic!