Alicornio Africa

12/05/2023

Overcoming Fear of Business Intelligence

Are you afraid of Business Intelligence (BI)? It is understandable, as delving into the muddled world of data can be overwhelming. But just like an amusement park with its roller coasters, BI can be thrilling and exhilarating if approached with the right mindset and armed with sufficient knowledge about Business Intelligence on the whole.
In my previous post, I drew parallels between BI and amusement parks, highlighting the importance of thorough planning and access control in both. Just like choosing which ride to go on, selecting a BI solution can be a daunting task with many options to choose from. It is crucial to have a clear understanding of the available rides (data sources), duration (data freshness), cost (implementation and maintenance), and safety assurance certificate (data security and privacy).

As with a roller coaster ride, a BI project are full of ups and downs.

Data quality issues, access restrictions, and inefficient reporting can create frustration and concern for business users. That is where the BI BOOSTER initiative comes in.

Our initiative aims to even out the highs and lows of your BI journey, regardless of the technology used. We provide a comprehensive overview on how to optimize your data in terms of a BI solution. From data cleansing and integration to dashboard design and user training.

We understand that each business have unique BI information needs and after taking this course, you will have the knowledge to tailor a solution that is fit for the analytic requirements of your organization.

So, don't let fear hold you back from realizing the full potential of BI. Embrace the thrill and excitement of the data-driven world with BI BOOSTER. 

Connect with me to learn more about our initiative and how we can help your business thrive.

05/05/2023

When was the last time you visited an amusement park and experienced the thrill of a roller coaster ride? The rush of adrenaline that comes with whirling, twirling, and dipping at high speeds can be both exhilarating and terrifying.

Embarking on a Business Intelligence (BI) project can also conjure up similar feelings of excitement coupled with trepidation.

As soon as you are strapped in and ready to go, you realize that there is no turning back, and you might as well enjoy the ride. Just like in an amusement park, there are plenty of options when it comes to BI solutions. You can stick with what you are familiar with (your excel spreadsheets?), or you can be brave and try the next exciting and newest big BI roller coaster rides.

Choosing a BI solution can be overwhelming, especially if you're not familiar with all the facets of Business Intelligence, let alone the plethora of BI technologies. Once you make a choice, you must stick with it and see it through, much like riding a roller coaster.

Interestingly, there are other similarities between amusement parks and BI solutions.

For example: Access control is important in both amusement parks and for your secure bastion of central information (the Data Warehouse). Gun-wielding amusement park visitors can create havoc and panic and must be prevented from entering. Similarly, only authorised and responsible business users should have access to business data, to avoid data misuse and security breaches.

Visitors to an amusement park may complain about high prices and access restrictions, while users of BI solutions may have concerns about costs, access to sensitive data, and data quality. Therefore, BI experts should address these concerns when planning and rolling out a data warehouse as the cornerstone for a BI project. Data should be correct, easy to navigate, and free from unnecessary, duplicated, dirty, or unwanted data.

Draw the correlation – groups, themes and access:
Amusement parks feature different types of rides and games, grouped according to themes. Business Intelligence solutions too, address the diverse needs of users by grouping and structuring data (think Extended Data Warehouse, Data Marts, Data Lakes) based on business requirements with a heavier focus on intricately-designed themes that revolve around subject areas (business processes). Furthermore, various BI access methods (such as reports or statistical analysis) can be compared to the different types of rides in the amusement park.

It is important to take the time to make the right choice, plan carefully, and address user concerns to ensure a successful BI solution.

So, let’s buckle up, enjoy the BI ride, and have some fun! To be continued…

14/04/2023

Bottoms up BOT – Business Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence

Are you a fan of Bottoms up? No, in this case it is not the drinking game, but rather the intersection of Business Intelligence (BI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). While the two might seem unrelated at first, it turns out that BI actually forms a firm part of the AI foundation.

Just as you need a sturdy base in order to build a towering structure, AI needs a solid foundation of data and insights to build on. That is where BI comes in - it's all about collecting, analyzing, and making sense of data to inform decision making.

Think of BI as the bartender, collecting data from different sources and mixing them together to create a valuable cocktail of insights.

An in-tune bartender can read their customers and mix the perfect drink to fit their tastes, BI professionals can use their skills to analyze data and identify trends and patterns that can inform business decisions.

Once you have that solid base of data and insights, you can start building on it with AI. A worthy mixologist can take a basic cocktail and add new flavours and ingredients to make it punchier, AI can take the data and insights gathered by BI and use them to create predictive models, automate processes, and make intelligent decisions.

Make sure to appreciate the importance of BI as an essential part of the foundation for AI: a delicious cocktail needs a solid base to build on and AI needs the insights and data provided by BI to reach its full potential.

Bottoms Up BOT. Cheers to that!

Photo by Andriyko Podilnyk on Unsplash

14/01/2019

Beating Business Intelligence Blues

Melancholy and having a bout of BI Blues is often a side effect of business users who need to interact with their data but finding it difficult, for a variety of reasons, leading to frustration over not being able to achieve their information related goals.

BB King - How Blue Can You Get https://youtu.be/6jCNXASjzMY

Blues is a music genre that probably originated with the 17th-century English expression “the blue devils,” for the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. Shortened over time to “the blues,” it came to mean a state of agitation or depression.

The inability to react to the multitude of analytical requests in the most optimal and timely fashion, is likely a contributing factor of low morale of BI Teams in enterprises suffocating under the chaotic overload of all types of information.

The rapid rate of change in this industry of first collecting, processing, storing then dissecting, dissimilating and finally analysing data - conjures extraordinary measures to fulfil high expectation of data consumers.

Acronyms such as DW, DM, HTAP, LLAP, GEPOF, IoT, NAT, PIM to name only a few continue to sprout up. You must know your ABR (Automatic Baud Rate detection) from your ZNA (Zero Network Administration) in order to keep track of the latest developments. Meanwhile the lack of sufficiently trained workforce, low staff retention and vendors with hidden agendas, who promote technological driven solution which supposedly require little or NO planning, rushes ahead towards the next round of “that did not work and it is IT’s fault” Business Intelligence projects.

Even absurd HR roles are being invented to introduce more resources into BI teams attempting to solve the crisis. Aspirations to become a Citizen Analyst, Data Scientist, Dashboard Evangelist or Data Storyteller are running high. Everybody wants to be an Information Rock Star!

Understand what should be fuelling the greed for data; it should be driven by true Business goals, are we generating more data so that we can predict and ultimately exercise more control over our customer’s behaviour? Or is it simply a matter of believing, that by making all the data available, it will satisfy whatever data related request hits the playlist…. somewhere in the near future

Business Intelligence projects typically involve in-depth requirements analysis which will form the cornerstone of the Business Intelligence Strategy.
Careful planning, project management, specialized design techniques plus orchestration of a potentially complex implementation necessitate thorough understanding of the aforementioned aspects.

If left undiagnosed or untreated BI Blues could have serious Business health implications. Perhaps it is time to change the BI Blues tune to a more upbeat rhythm!

Curb feeling disconnected and perhaps even depressed about your BI project:
Learn how to complement and extend the lifespan of your EDW, DW and to discuss the roles of Data Lakes, Hadoop, HTAP, Hive, LLAP, Spark SQL and whether or not to ETL / ELT ...Attend the ever popular technology independent course
Concepts, Design and Modelling for Extended Data Warehousing
that teaches sound principles to be applied no matter what technology is used.
Register HERE

Written by Susan Andrè
For more information:
Visit: www.alicornio.co.za
Email: [email protected]
Office: 011 513 4083
http://www.businessessentials.co.za/2018/10/19/beating-business-intelligence-blues/

10/10/2018

HOW SHOULD I STORE MY DATA
Today companies have to capture, organise, access and store an overwhelming amount of data.

Even organisations whose products and services are not based in the digital arena need to properly store information.

“There are many systems that enable users to effectively manage crucial data, but selecting the right one is not always easy. “

Alicornio Africa, specialists in data warehousing and business intelligence, offers some insight into two popular integration systems and the challenges that may arise in either.

https://www.skillsportal.co.za/content/how-should-i-store-my-data (written by Cindy Payle)

Today companies have to capture, organise, access and store an overwhelming amount of data. Even organisations whose products and services are not based in the digital arena need to properly store information. [pullquote]There are many systems that enable users to effectively manage crucial data[/pu...

27/09/2018

What we are all about

Business Essentials

20/09/2018

To learn how to complement and extend the lifespan of your Enterprise Data Warehouse/Data Warehouse and to discuss the roles of Data Lakes, Hadoop, HTAP, Hive, LLAP, Spark SQL and whether or not to ETL / ELT …do attend the ever popular updated technology independent course:
Concepts, Design and Modelling for Extended Data Warehousing
Capetown from 19th to 22nd November 2018
Johannesburg from 26th to 29th November 2018
Contact [email protected] for more info

12/09/2018

http://www.alicornio.co.za/catalogue-calamity/

Imagine walking into a library intending to borrow a specific book or books on a specific topic. Where will you start? Probably by consulting the Library Catalogue that contains an inventory of all books. This…

12/09/2018

Catalogue Calamity!
http://www.alicornio.co.za/catalogue-calamity/

12/09/2018

Catalogue Calamity ....
http://www.alicornio.co.za/catalogue-calamity/Imagine walking into a library intending to borrow a specific book or books on a specific topic. Where will you start? Probably by consulting the Library Catalogue that contains an inventory of all books. This inventory is prepared based on specific rules to ensure that each individual item can be found. The most obvious and useful sort sequence will include Title and Author. Depending on how flexible the Catalogue is it might allow you to search on Categories, Year of Publication, ISBN number and it could comprise details about Isle and Shelve numbers and more. If the Catalogue is in disarray (or non-existent) it will be almost impossible to retrieve books. No more subscribers for a defunct library!

Book Loads of Information

One of the biggest frustrations for data users is finding pertinent information amidst the ever increasing volumes of data. How can already scant on attention Business Users be helped to find the relevant data / reports/ dashboards / any-piece-of-information-needed in their businesses data libraries more effectively?

Imagine walking into a library intending to borrow a specific book or books on a specific topic. Where will you start? Probably by consulting the Library Catalogue that contains an inventory of all books. This…

28/08/2018

BREAKING BAD: Much like Walter White in the TV series, the struggling data Analyst might be willing as well to turn to bad practices in order to deliver information for their business’s BI requirements. Data providers and data users alike are exposed to the data underworld.

To be in the driver seat steering Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse projects, could either feel like being in the slow lane or perhaps being in the fast lane but out of control. Most businesses aspire to be in the fast lane while being in control.

Yet an upsurge of “data anxiety” prompts those responsible to forge along without necessarily applying best practices in attempting to deliver the most appropriate data in an exact format... ..

Breaking Bad (to raise hell) means to cause a considerable disturbance. Breaking down existing data silos may initially evoke substantial disturbance too. In the American crime drama TV series Breaking Bad, a struggling high school…

28/08/2018