Technology Evaluation Centers
How to Integrate BI and ERP
—and Why You Should Do It
Jorge García. Sr. Analyst
BI and Data Management
MSDynamicsWorld.com, April 2013
www.technologyevaluation.com
Technology Evaluation Centers
Outline
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap
4. Challenges and opportunities
5. Conclusion: a call to action
6. Q&A
Technology Evaluation Centers
Outline
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap
4. Challenges and opportunities
5. Conclusion: a call to action
6. Q&A
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
It is very common to find that the data to support many of
the business information needs is simply not available at
the levels required, or that it is of such bad quality that it is
impossible to use. Resolution of these types of issues often
requires fundamental changes to business processes
Alison Newell
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Source: Technology Evaluation Centers, 2012
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Source: Technology Evaluation Centers, 2012
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Most ERP users look for BI and Analytics to improve their:
• Decision-making process (Strategy)
And also to achieve:
• Operational efficiency (Operations)
• Better business performance (S and Op)
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Business Intelligence
“Concepts and methodologies for improvement of business
decisions using facts and information from supporting
systems.” (Howard Dresner, 2007)
“Business Intelligence is the capability of the organization or
company to explain, plan, predict, solve problems, think in an
abstract way, understand, invent, and learn in order to
increase organizational knowledge, provide information to the
decision process, enable effective actions, and support
establishing and achieving business goals.” (Wells 2008)
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
BI is not just…
BI is NOT just reporting
BI is NOT just a data warehouse
BI is NOT just about OLAP
BI is NOT just a dashboard
BI is NOT just for executives
BI is NOT just for large companies
BI is NOT just about technology
BI is a combination of People-Process-Technology that can
add value to an organization
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Understanding how data becomes information, and how information can then be
transformed into intelligence, presented in a manner to support the decision making
process.
Transforming information into intelligence:
Collection
Reporting
Analytics
Visualization
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Source: Technology Evaluation Centers, 2012
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Source: Technology Evaluation Centers, 2012
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Source: Technology Evaluation Centers, 2012
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Source: Technology Evaluation Centers, 2012
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Data and
Process
Integration !!
Source: Technology Evaluation Centers, 2012
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Source: Technology Evaluation Centers, 2012
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Source: Technology Evaluation Centers, 2012
Technology Evaluation Centers
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
Food for thought:
• 53% of BI implementers cite end user
adoption as a challenge.
• 37% of BI implementations run over their
projected budgets.
• For 74% of organizations, data that is
manually assembled and reconciled from
various sources used for enterprise reporting
negatively affects daily operations.
(Source: Info-Tech)
Technology Evaluation Centers
Outline
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap
4. Challenges and opportunities
5. Conclusion: a call to action
6. Q&A
Technology Evaluation Centers
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data.
Daniel Keys Moran
Technology Evaluation Centers
2 ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
Technology Evaluation Centers
2 ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
Technology Evaluation Centers
2 ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
Technology Evaluation Centers
2 ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
Technology Evaluation Centers
2 ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
Technology Evaluation Centers
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
Application Operational Decision Support Systems, Business
ERP, CRM, legacy apps, ... Intelligence
Typical users Staff Managers, Executives
Purpose Transaction registry Analysis
Refresh Immediate Periodic
Data model Entity-relationship Multi-dimensional
Schema Normalized Not normalized
Emphasis Update Retrieval
Technology Evaluation Centers
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
Technology Evaluation Centers
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
-Reporting
-Dashboarding
Technology Evaluation Centers
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
-Reporting
-Dashboarding 1. Diversity. Data is being generated from
different channels and its nature has
changed.
2. Volume. The increase in the number of data
sources and the globalization and
diversification of businesses have led to the
exponential growth of data.
3. Velocity. As data volume increases, so must
the speed at which data is captured and
transformed into its final form.
4. Sophistication. With the increasing
complexity of data, high data quality and
security are required to enable data
collection, transformation, and analysis to
achieve expedient decision making.
5. Applicability. These aforementioned factors
can compromise the applicability of the data
to business process and performance
improvements.
Technology Evaluation Centers
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
1. Diversity. Data is being generated from
different channels and its nature has
changed.
2. Volume. The increase in the number of data
sources and the globalization and
diversification of businesses have led to the
exponential growth of data.
3. Velocity. As data volume increases, so must
the speed at which data is captured and
transformed into its final form.
4. Sophistication. With the increasing
complexity of data, high data quality and
security are required to enable data
collection, transformation, and analysis to
achieve expedient decision making.
5. Applicability. These aforementioned factors
can compromise the applicability of the data
to business process and performance
improvements.
Technology Evaluation Centers
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
1. Diversity. Data is being generated from
different channels and its nature has
changed.
2. Volume. The increase in the number of data
sources and the globalization and
diversification of businesses have led to the
exponential growth of data.
3. Velocity. As data volume increases, so must
the speed at which data is captured and
transformed into its final form.
4. Sophistication. With the increasing
complexity of data, high data quality and
security are required to enable data
collection, transformation, and analysis to
achieve expedient decision making.
5. Applicability. These aforementioned factors
can compromise the applicability of the data
to business process and performance
improvements.
Technology Evaluation Centers
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
Operational BI
Analytics
- Predictive Analytics
Business Performance Management
-Strategy
-Goals
-Metrics
Business Intelligence
-Reports
-Dashboards
-OLAP
ERP / Bus Proc Man
-Events
-Processes
-Data
Historical Real Time Future
Technology Evaluation Centers
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
Integration
Technical
- data consolidation
- application integration
Challenges:
Business
- effective data usage
- process, execution, and decision alignment
- effective return on investment (ROI)
Technology Evaluation Centers
Outline
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap
4. Challenges and opportunities
5. Conclusion: a call to action
6. Q&A
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap
…any given application can function perfectly well, even
when the data behind it is bad. It is only when we attempt
to reuse that data for another purpose that we discover
how inaccurate, outdated or irrelevant it is, and by then it
is usually too late
Larry Burns
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap
Why:
Data Integration Data Consolidation
• Many private databases and excel spreadsheets allow
Consolidation (ETL) departments to manipulate and produce their own numbers.
• The same reports are produced in different departments and
levels and give significantly different numbers (e.g. sales and
Federation (EII) finance departments are looking at different numbers).
• The same KPIs to compare business units against each other
Delivery are calculated in different ways.
Process Integration • The authority for initiating report requests is not centralized.
There is no distinction between business and IT.
Application (EAI)
• Lack of upstream interest for downstream effort, no feedback
from the recipients.
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap
Why:
Data Integration
Consolidation (ETL)
Process Consolidation
• No harmonized processes
Federation (EII)
• Common business language (definitions)
Delivery
• No harmonized KPIs
Process Integration
• Management routines are often not formally
defined Application (EAI)
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap
Why:
Decision Consolidation
Data Integration • Management can follow the reporting and
monitoring of key, balanced performance
Consolidation (ETL) measures that reflect desired results of the
strategic plan. Management can communicate the
results of corporate and functional scorecards
Federation (EII) throughout the organization.
• It enables multidimensional analysis of
Delivery performance measurement GAPs and ad hoc
analysis. Also allows the monitoring of operational
Process Integration progress against initiatives.
Application (EAI)
• At the operational level we are monitoring
operations, e.g. logistics, inventories, outstanding
deliveries, and invoices.
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap
How:
Establishing an integration strategy at different levels
• Data
- Using a third-party data integration tool
- Using a pre-configured tool within the BI app
• Application
- Using an enterprise application integration app
- Taking advantage of the ERP’s integration offering
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap (Data Integration)
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap (Data Integration)
Data Integration. Applications that enable users to design processes to extract, transform,
and load data from one or more sources to a target data repository
Advantages: Disadvantages:
Retention of metadata. Analytical applications are Cost. Costly, with large technology and space
highly dependent on proper understanding of metadata. requirements.
Ease of use. Most ETL tools - GUI-based, repositories; Complexity. ETL tools may have difficulty with
increased ease of use and ease of modification. very complex transformation logic and complex
Built-ins. Built-in objects to handle recurring tasks such staging requirements.
as aggregation; therefore they do not need to be coded Performance. Generic and interpretive; can be
and recoded. performance issues over SQL, for
Skill. Due to above factors, skill level requirements for transformations.
ETL tools less than with SQL.
Support. Large experience base to fall back on including
customer experience and vendor support.
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap (Data Integration)
Main Players:
• Informatica
• Pervasive Software
• iWay Software
• SAP
• Oracle
• Microsoft
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap (Data Integration)
An increasing number of BI vendors are incorporating specific technical and business
approaches for performing data integration within specific ERP offerings, such as for the
Microsoft Dynamics family
Advantages:
• Native connectors
• Data Integration Templates
• Ease of use
• Built-in functionality and data mappings
Providing a combination of People-Process-Technology that can
add value to an organization
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap (Application Integration)
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap (Application Integration)
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is a process of data and application integration
technologies which focuses on linking applications together, typically in real time.
Advantages: Disadvantages:
• Real-time access to information among various systems • High cost
• Information Integrity across various systems • EAI implementations are very time consuming
and resource intensive at times
• Streamlines business processes, thus increasing
organizational efficiency
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap (Application Integration)
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is a process of data and application integration
technologies which focuses on linking applications together, typically in real time.
Main Players:
• Oracle
• Tibco
• Microsoft
• Webmethods
• GXS
• IBM
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap (Technology plus the right business approach)
Through a middleware solution, a couple of samples:
SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence and Enterprise Editions
- BI Semantic Model
- Master Data Services
- SQL Server EIM services
Oracle Fusion
- Semantic Layer
- Modular design
- A set of pre-built Applications (Oracle BI Suite)
Infor ION
- Semantic Layer
- Event and messaging system
- Third party integration
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap (What to select)
Application Integration Data Integration
Strengths • Reliability • Metadata-driven approach
• Enables real-time business decisions • GUI tools for most tasks (not much
• Out-of-box adapters for many enterprise coding)
systems • Extremely efficient for large data
volumes
Weaknesses • High upfront cost • High upfront costs
• Relatively complex design patterns • Complexity of tool
• Batch-oriented
Best for… • Most suitable for real-time data needs • Suitable for large volumes of data
• High-volume, low-footprint data • Generally used to move data between
exchange two or more databases/data repositories
• Many consumers of the same data
Products • Microsoft BizTalk • SQL Server Integration Services
Technology Evaluation Centers
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap (Technology plus the right business approach)
Integration means using a combination of People-Process-
Technology that can add value to an organization
It is important to have a
combination of the right business
and technical expertise for
achieving effective and agile ERP–
BI integration.
Nowadays many BI vendors offer predefined
content or packaged solutions for the most
important processes, Sales and marketing,
procurement, finance and
operations,... Easing the burden of
developing complex integration solutions.
Technology Evaluation Centers
Outline
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap
4. Challenges and opportunities
5. Conclusion: a call to action
6. Q&A
Technology Evaluation Centers
4. Challenges and opportunities
Challenges:
• Agreeing on what data/information is relevant
• Applying the right technology to manage the data
• Ensuring conversion of data to information
• Discovering what integration points exist
• Discovering the many complex data relationships
Technology Evaluation Centers
4. Challenges and opportunities
Benefits:
• Streamlined, accelerated and standardized business processes
• Complete visibility across all functions and all departments
• Business alignment
• Set the basis for master data management
• Cost savings
• Improved ROI
Technology Evaluation Centers
Outline
1. What ERP users want from a BI solution
2. ERP and BI, an overview of different worlds
3. Closing the ERP-BI gap
4. Challenges and opportunities
5. Conclusion: a call to action
6. Q&A
Technology Evaluation Centers
5. Conclusion: a call to action
• Define clear sponsorship of the integration strategy at senior management level
• Close the gap between operational, tactical, and strategic levels
• Iterative development approach
• Make integration initiatives a priority
• Consider integration initiatives as part of full scope data management initiatives
• Understand integration initiatives must be properly planned and chartered
• Ensure commitment from the both business and technical sides
Technology Evaluation Centers
5. Conclusion: Questions?
In the Age of Analytics, as products and services become ‘lighter’ (i.e., less physical and more
digital), manufacturing and distribution costs—while still important—will be augmented
with new metrics—the costs of know, the flow of know, and the costs of not knowing.
Thornton May, Futurist, Executive Director and Dean, IT Leadership Academy
Technology Evaluation Centers
Thank You
Jorge García, Sr. Analyst, BI and Data Management
[email protected] Twitter: @jgptec
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgeogarcia
www.technologyevaluation.com
