For technologists, SQL Server 2012 is a treasure trove of technical goodies. There are a number of blogs describing these technical features, including the Magenic BI blog. A quick review of these blogs makes it clear that Business Intelligence (aka BI) is a major focus of SQL Server’s latest result, including features such as:
- Rapid data discovery with Power View and PowerPivot
- Managed Self-Service BI with SharePoint and BI Semantic Model
- Credible, consistent data with Data Quality Services
- Robust Data Warehouse solutions with Parallel Data Warehouse and Reference Architectures
But this blog isn't intended for technologists; rather, it is for those in the business community who ask the question: "What's in SQL Server 2012 for me?" In a nutshell, SQL Server 2012 delivers built-in advanced BI through self-service analytics accessible via SharePoint. Business users can quickly and easily gain insights hidden within hundreds of millions of rows of data using trusty Excel and the powerful new PowerView to create visually stunning, interactive data analytics within a web browser. And to be clear, these tools are designed for real business users (not just over-achieving, tech savvy power users) to answer their own business questions. Business folks have an insatiable appetite for information; the answer to one question typically leads to even more questions.
Businesses have learned the hard way that it's not feasible for traditional IT departments to answer this ever-expanding universe of business questions. It takes too long and costs too much because of the excessive overhead. As a result, key insights within the vastness of an organization's data 'ocean' are hidden from view and are waiting to be discovered. SQL Server 2012 gives business users the tools and ability to discover these gems of information in their data that are currently difficult and expensive to find. Here's a common scenario:
Organic growth of business systems shadowed the organization's growth through the years. These business systems were often not integrated but rather stood as independent silos of business applications and supporting data. Given that these systems were typically not designed or built to be integrated with others , it was difficult to glean valuable insights from the wealth of data across these disparate systems. IT departments emerged as the sole provider of reporting and analytics across these systems given the complexity of knitting together the data within. Turn-around time to produce reporting is impacted with other IT priorities, which traditionally runs slower than the pace of business. While reports were reasonably effective at answering the original business questions, business users often responded with requests for additional reporting: "Now that we know this, we have more questions ." As a result, IT departments are caught in a cycle that requires ever more resources to respond to expanding and legitimate business requests for information.
Given the challenges that IT has in providing information, business users often cobble together their own workarounds. At the core of these solutions is Excel, which poses its own challenges:
- Difficult to gain access to data across multiple business systems
- People see different results in the same data
- Changes to data are not propagated to all business systems
- Manual data re-entry for analysis is tedious and subject to errors
- Restricted ability to perform deeper analysis
SQL Server 2012 to the rescue!
SQL Server 2012 builds on features introduced in previous versions of SQL Server and introduces powerful new capabilities:
- Rapid data discovery with Power View and PowerPivot
- Managed Self-Service BI with SharePoint and BI Semantic Model
- Credible, consistent data with Data Quality Services
- Robust Data Warehouse solutions with Parallel Data Warehouse and Reference Architectures
Power View is a Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise edition. PowerView provides business users with an interactive data exploration, visualization, and presentation experience. Using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, business users can easily create and interact with data in PowerPivot workbooks and Analysis Services data cubes. Because Power View is browser-based, users can present and share insights with others in their organization through interactive presentations.
You can also test drive Power View.
PowerPivot is an Excel add-in that enables business users to build relationships between different data sources by mapping columns that contain similar or identical data. These data sources can come in the form of a data cube, a data warehouse, existing spreadsheets, text files or even existing reports. These relationships create something entirely new in Excel that can be used by other BI tools such as PowerView. The ability for business users to create their own data relationships and use tools to analyze data represents a paradigm shift: breaking the absolute dependency on IT to create these relationships, reports and analysis. For many organizations, the need for third party tools is eliminated and replaced by a solution that can be utilized across the organization.
The intention of Power View and PowerPivot is to equip business users with tools to explore their own data and create analysis that can be easily shared both internally and externally. Further enabling this strategy is the BI Semantic Model, which is a new feature in SQL Server 2012. The BI Semantic Model provides both Multi-Dimensional and Tabular models; the new Tabular model is like a server version of PowerPivot but without needing Excel or SharePoint, while the existing Multi-Dimensional model provides the data cubes.
An essential part of any data-based solution is to ensure that the data itself is accurate and complete. SQL Server 2012 takes a giant stride forward in making it easier for data stewards to manage data with the new Master Data Services (MDS) Add-in for Excel. Excel provides a familiar interface for end users to maintain and manage business data. Any user that struggled with managing data MDS in SQL Server 2008 R2 will appreciate the ease of using Excel, especially for updating data. SQL Server 2012 also introduces Data Quality Services, which improves data quality by using organizational knowledge and third party reference data providers to reliably profile, cleanse, and match data. The end result is more accurate reporting and deeper analysis.
Bottom Line
When you distill down all of the new and enhanced BI capabilities provided in SQL Server 2012, the essence from a business standpoint is that you will be able to broaden and deepen your understanding of your business. To speak plainly: without BI, you are only seeing parts of your business - it simply is too expensive, difficult and time consuming to deliver deeper analytics. With the advanced BI capabilities in SQL Server 2012, you'll be able to see a broader spectrum of your business. You will be able to discover relationships within and across business systems that are the core drivers of business results (good and bad). The ability to glean valuable business insight that was previously hidden from view is the fuel that powers innovation.
There are several well-known stories (maybe even urban legends) that illustrate how identifying relationships, correlations and patterns within seemingly disparate data drives innovation. A recent example is how Target was able to mine customer data to send targeted advertising to expecting mothers, while the Diapers and Beer urban legend illustrates how a drug store chain changed their business based on BI. The lesson learned is that BI enhances precision in making strategic business decisions and the tactical day-to-activities that support the strategy.
Deep insight drives innovation, innovation drives strategic business planning, strategic business planning drives tactical planning, tactical planning drives daily activities that are aligned with and support innovation.
Achieve Breakthrough Results
Innovation is the catalyst for taking action that connects business strategy to business activity in 'unique' and unprecedented fashion. Breaking down core business elements into key components and understanding the impact these have on each other makes up the foundation upon which to build previously out-of-reach business solutions.