This document discusses how business intelligence (BI) is changing and the next generation of BI. It notes that the world is changing with expectations of always-on, interactive, real-time access to information from anywhere. It also discusses how organizations and how people interact are changing. It then summarizes some of the key points made in the document about how data volumes are impacting the need for new analysis techniques and visualization. It also discusses how user experience and usability will become more important drivers of BI tools as consumerization changes expectations.

1. The Next Generation of BI
How will it impact you?
Mark Madsen
October 13, 2010
www.ThirdNature.net

2. The world is changing
The world is changing
Always available
Always‐on
Everywhere
Interactive
Real‐time
How organizations and
individuals interact is
changing as well.

3. Welcome to the future of BI
Is it so much different today?

4. Delivering information visually is not so new
Some visualization books, 90‐100 years old

5. Change is the Only Constant
This was your father’s
Oldsmobile:
Computerized innovation
Greenbar!

6. Change is the Only Constant
Personal computerized
innovation: Greenbar…
on a screen!
aka, your Oldsmobile

7. Change is the Only Constant
The latest Oldsmobile:
Greenbar, on a screen…
in a browser!
Look how far we’ve come.

8. Change is the Only Constant
Let’s put it on a mobile phone!
Innovation through
reapplication of the same
idea eventually fails to pay
off because accumulated
differences in context are
meaningful.

9. Commoditization!
“There is no reason anyone
would want a computer in
their home.”
Ken Olson, CEO of DEC, 1977
“…by 2008 we will be producing
one billion transistors for every
man, woman and child on earth”
Semiconductor Industry Association, 2007
Meet your new
data warehouse

10. The consumerization of IT means innovation from
the outside, just like the 1980s.

11. Unexpected Consequences of Data Volumes

12. Unexpected Consequences of Data Volumes
This and commodity pressure are the real business
drivers for more advanced analysis techniques.

13. Clustering + Visualization + Query = Explanation

14. Mountains of data hiding signal, new UI
expectations and cheap cycles mean new visual
interfaces are both possible and expected.

15. Reality check: what’s the user experience here?

16. What does usability focus on?
We moved this
button to the
right because
it’s used most
often!

17. Reality, meet expectation.

18. “When technology
delivers basic needs,
user experience
dominates”
Don Norman

19. “Better experiences, not more features.”
Roland Rust

20. The problem:
The product is designed under the expectation
that it’s an important part of people’s work.
The reality is that most users spend less than 15
minutes per day using a BI tool, and more people
don’t use one at all.
Key design assumptions are wrong, and that it is
the real reason for the failure of self‐service BI.

21. Example: What’s the most common BI activity?

22. How Does BI Address Findability?
Taxonomies
aka
Categories
implemented as
Folders

23. Architecture of Participation, giving gets
Where are
my report
folders?

24. Social architectures in
web 2.0 are changing our
software like mobile
phones changed the
telephone industry.
Web 1.0
Web 2.0

25. The invisible Crowd
BI products are still rooted in timesharing design models

26. Findability and
collaborative /
interaction
features are the
most important
and most ignored
aspects of the BI
environment.
They are not
bolt‐on features.

27. Technology frames for BI
BI as reports
BI as ad‐hoc query
BI as power tools for analysis
BI as support for another analytical process
BI as exploratory tools
BI as a domain application
BI as alerting and exception detection
BI as information delivery (small data in context)
Many tools, not one. Use is dependent on the scenario.
These do not take the larger picture of collaboration and
interaction into account.

28. New BI design point: context and point of use
Information use is diverse
and varies based on context:
▪ Get a quick answer
▪ Solve a one-off problem
▪ Make repetitive decisions
▪ Use data in routine
processes
▪ Make complex decisions
▪ Choose a course of action
▪ Convince others to take
action
BI standardization is for IT, not
for the end user.

29. What’s Happening in the BI Industry?
The big stack / app vendors bought the top end of the market.
Very little innovative work has been done since then, nor was there
much from these vendors for several years prior to acquisition.

30. BI Tools Also Need New Capabilities
Embedding BI within
applications
▪ UI embedding
▪ Full embedding
Event‐based integration
Feeding BI data to
applications: services, not
SQL, may be desired
Custom UI code may be preferable
to a BI tool

31. Two BI usage models, one causes problems
Demand driven
• Users ask for current data
• Most BI tools work this way
• Harder to adapt these tools to
event-driven models
Event driven
• System takes action based on
data, e.g. alerts, rule engines
• May not have (or need) an end
user interface
• Need understanding of decision
& action process for this model

32. Different Data and Usage Patterns
Be prepared for changed
assumptions regarding BI:
• Strategy and practices change
more frequently, particularly
in marketing.
• This means data sources
change frequently, as well as
information needs.
• Much newer data use is like
experimental science, and
unlike the read‐only BI usage
model.

33. Old style New style
Standardized tool, 1 size Many tools, custom fit
Kitchen sink Specific functions
Big central applications Big central platform, small
distributed applications
Controlled process Get out of the way
Force users Attract users

34. Focus on the important features
BI is a mature market. Beware of feature creep.
User Productivty & Happiness
I’m kicking ass! Where’s the manual?
Why can’t I find that
transform option?
This tool is great!
I can’t believe this
*@%! cost a million
dollars.
Yay, they finally added a
feature I need!
It’s ok but kinda limited Despair
Number of Product Features
Third Nature, January 2008 Mark Madsen Slide 34

35. And now for something completely different

36. Creative Commons
Thanks to the people who made their images available via creative commons:
anne hathaway.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/barbaradoduk/177959197/
laptop face.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/sd/7746599/
teapot.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/joi/411403/
Girl on phone - http://flickr.com/photos/8024992@N06/986538717/
motionless in crowd.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/cactusmelba/1065738186/
well town hall - http://flickr.com/photos/tuinkabouter/1135560976/
cadillac ranch line.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/whatknot/179655095/
febo amsterdam.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/jshyun/1573065713/
sand_beach_tide2.jpg - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ccgd/100703045
baby birthday.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/yoshimov/19513076/
baby_with_lemon.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/pichichi/55381094/
March 2009 Mark R. Madsen Slide 36

37. About the Presenter
Mark Madsen is president of Third
Nature, a technology research and
consulting firm focused on business
intelligence, data integration and
data management. Mark is an
award-winning author, architect and
CTO whose work has been featured
in numerous industry publications.
Over the past ten years Mark
received awards for his work from
the American Productivity & Quality
Center, TDWI, and the Smithsonian
Institute. He is an international
speaker, a contributing editor at
Intelligent Enterprise, and manages
the open source channel at the
Business Intelligence Network. For
more information or to contact Mark,
visit http://ThirdNature.net.