Description
Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing
Learning Unit 1
12
Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing
Introduction 13
Study core 13
1 Reading Assignment: Business Intelligence en datawarehousing 13
13
Learning Unit 1
Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing
I N T R O D U C T I O N
This learning unit introduces this course with an overview of Business
Intelligence. We begin with a short, gentle, readable book about the
topic: Business Intelligence en datawarehousing.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this learning unit, you should be able to study the
Sharda book.
Study hint
The workload is about 7 to 8 hours.
S T U D Y C O R E
1 Reading Assignment: Business Intelligence en
datawarehousing
Read most of the course textbook Business Intelligence en datawarehousing
by Karien Verhagen.
The chapters you should read are
1 Bestuurlijke informatie: de vraag
2 Business Intelligence en de bedrijfsprocessen
3 Business Intelligence en datawarehousing
4 De voorkant van de BI-omgeving
5 De achterkant van de BI-omgeving
6 De binnenkant: de opslagstructuur
8 De zijkant van de BI-omgeving
9 ETL (algemeen)
12 Project- en programma-aanpak
The goal here is to get a comfortable introduction to the topic of Business
Intelligence as a whole. This will provide a broad conceptual foundation
for more rigorous study of more specific topics in the rest of this course.
Reading assignment
Learning Unit 2
14
Corporate social responsibility
Introduction 15
Study core 15
1 Introduction to sustainable IT 15
2 What is Green IT? 15
3 Environmental problems 16
3.1 Climate change 16
3.2 Waste 17
3.3 Hazardous waste 17
3.4 Exhaustion 17
3.5 Disturbance 18
3.6 Aridity 18
3.7 Acid rain 18
3.8 Eutrophication
3.9 Other methods to categorize environmental problems 18
3.10 Solving environmental problems 18
4 Greening from and by IT 19
5 Sustainable IT and Business Intelligence 19
6 Environmental management and BI 19
7 References 20
15
Learning Unit 2
Corporate Social Responsibility
I N T R O D U C T I O N
This learning unit will give you the highlights of sustainability of and by
IT. During task 1 you will describe an organization suitable for the Audit
for Business Intelligence. As one of the items in that description you
investigate if the company has a policy about sustainability, reports on
sustainability and makes use of an energy efficient data center.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this learning unit, you should be aware that
– the intensive use of IT such as during BI comes with environmental
impacts
– when you make choices, you have to consider the balance between
people, planet and profit
– IT can also be an enabler to make processes more sustainable.
Study hints
The workload is about 1 hour.
In this workload you are not required to read the references.
S T U D Y C O R E
1 Introduction to sustainable IT
It has been long assumed that the IT industry does not affect the
environment. Recently, however, people became aware of the high
energy consumption (comparable to the global aviation industry [1])
and the depletion of scarce metals the use of IT equipment brings.
Future IT professionals should understand the impact of the life cycle
of IT equipment on the environment and also be aware of how IT can
be used to enhance sustainability and reinforce the green economy.
2 What is Green IT?
In the literature both terms ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ are used. The
concept sustainable development was introduced in the Brundtland report
in 1987: ‘Sustainable development is a pattern of economic growth in
which resource use aims to meet human needs while preserving the
environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present,
but also for generations to come’.
Sustainable development has four dimensions: here and elsewhere in
the world; now and in the future. In the nineties of the last century,
organizations introduced the concept corporate social responsibility in
which the preservation and improvement of three kinds of capital are
important: the social, ecological and economic capital.
Brundtland report:
sustainable
development
Open Universiteit Business Intelligence
16
The social capital is about the well-being of employees, a company’s own
employees as well as the employees in the company’s supply chain.
The ecological capital is formed by the natural resources such as minerals,
forests, rivers and a clean environment.
The economic capital is how profitable the company is.
These three kinds of capital are referred to as ‘triple P’: People, Planet,
Profit.
In this course we conform to reference [1] and use ‘Green’ to describe
those situations where the impact on the environment is considered. We
use ‘Sustainable’ for situations which affect the ‘triple P’ People, Planet,
Profit, derived from the Brundtland definition and relating to corporate
social responsibility.
Sustainability is the act of striving for equilibrium in the triangle People,
Planet, Profit with the target of less ‘waste’. Balance with respect to Profit
and People in IT means having no waste of money or working hours by
failure of IT-projects; promotion of code reuse and code without failures.
Balance between Profit and Planet means, among other things, energy
efficiency of hardware and software and careful e-waste. Balance be-
tween People and Planet means an attitude of respect for the planet
and knowledge of sustainability of and by IT.
3 Environmental problems
Even as early as 1972, the report of the ‘Club of Rome’ recognized that
the earth should be ‘handled with care’ because the earth is a closed system
in which the cycles should not be disturbed. The environmental policy
in the Netherlands reacted by a subdivision of the problems into eight
themes [2] to preserve the environment:
– climate change
– waste
– hazardous waste
– exhaustion
– disturbance
– aridity
– acid rain
– eutrophication.
The order of this list reflects the impact of IT on the environment.
3.1 CLIMATE CHANGE
Greenhouse gases trap the heat in the atmosphere and man-made green-
house gases are responsible for the enhanced greenhouse effect which is
supposed to be the cause of climate change. They are: water vapor – due
to natural evaporation of water and industrial processes; carbon dioxide –
produced by burning natural or synthetic organic substances (e.g. fossil
fuels, trees, etc.); methane – emitted by natural sources such as wetlands,
livestock, decay of organic waste, etc.; nitrous oxide–direct effect of
human activities such as agriculture, fossil fuel combustion, wastewater
management, and industrial processes; fluorinated gases (also known as
ozone depleting substances) -emitted from a variety of industrial
processes.
Social
Ecological
Economic
‘Triple P’: People,
Planet, Profit
Equilibrium
Earth: closed
system
Greenhouse gases:
enhanced
greenhouse effect
Corporate social responsibility
17
In the IT industry, the indirect production of carbon dioxide (CO
2
) is
the most important impact factor on the environment, caused by the
enormous energy consumption. Because most energy comes from the
combustion of fossil fuels, energy consumption is related to the weight
of CO
2
formed or the carbon footprint. But also when renewable energy
is used (and no net CO
2
is formed), people should be aware that energy
is never free!
A very simple, but chemically correct carbon cycle is shown in figure 2.1.
FIGURE 2.1 Carbon cycle
Plants can convert carbon dioxide and water by the energy from
sunlight to oxygen, O
2
, and carbohydrates (schematically represented by
[H-C-OH]). Men consume these plants and metabolize the carbohydrates
into carbon dioxide and water. Incompletely decomposed organisms
left underground for a long time turn into fossil fuels. These consist of
hydrocarbons, which are combusted to carbon dioxide. If more carbon
dioxide is formed then used the cycle is no longer closed and the content
of carbon dioxide increases. This causes the enhanced greenhouse effect,
which in turn causes climate change.
3.2 WASTE
E-waste is defined as ‘any refuse created by discarded electronic devices
and components as well as substances involved in their manufacture or
use’. Ways to reduce e-waste are: recovery, reuse and recycling.
3.3 HAZARDOUS WASTE
Examples of hazardous waste include most batteries that are used in
computer equipment. These contain hazardous compounds that are
harmful to the environment. When batteries are incinerated, the metals
they contain pollute the atmosphere and the incineration residues
pollute the soil. However, when batteries end up in landfills, the metals
can leach into the soil and water. Thus, the chemical substances in
batteries can cause atmospheric, soil, and water pollution.
Nuclear waste from nuclear power plants is another example. Most
nuclear waste remains radioactive for hundreds of years.
3.4 EXHAUSTION
Exhaustion means the depletion of substances. An IT-related example
is the depletion of scarce materials such as rare metals that are used in
touchscreens. The indium used is difficult to come by, expensive, and
difficult to handle. In addition, indium is politically difficult to obtain
because 97% of rare earths (to which indium belongs) are found in
China.
Discarded
electronic devices
Batteries
Nuclear waste
Depletion of scarce
materials
Open Universiteit Business Intelligence
18
Another IT-related example is deforestation, since paper made from wood
deforestation can be diminished by making fewer printouts.
3.5 DISTURBANCE
Under disturbance are categorized: heating (of water), noise and
noxious odors. An IT-related example is the disturbance (rise) of the
water temperature when water is used as cooling agent for data centers
and then not brought back to room temperature before it is discharged
into surface water.
3.6 ARIDITY
The proper humidity for soil is important not only for the growth of
vegetation but also for the stability of buildings. A modern way to cool
and heat buildings (and also to cool data centers) is through the use of
thermal energy storage. Using this technique, one must note the amount
of water (aridity), the temperature of the groundwater (disturbance), and
the possible pollution if the installations fail (hazardous waste).
3.7 ACID RAIN
Acid rain is caused by sulphur dioxide, SO
2
, nitrous gases, NO
x
, and
ammonia, NH
3
. The first two originate from combustion from brown coal
and incomplete combustion, the third from animal farming. Thus, the
first two can be related to IT use.
3.8 EUTROPHICATION
Eutrophication is caused by the addition of artificial or natural
substances, mainly phosphates, through detergents, fertilizers, or
sewage, or nitrates to an aquatic system. One result is the ‘bloom’ or
great increase of phytoplankton in the water as a response to increased
levels of nutrients. This problem is not IT-related.
3.9 OTHER METHODS TO CATEGORIZE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
Apart from the above mentioned thematically classification, human
interventions into the environment can also be classified according to
the type [3, 4]: pollution, exhaustion or degradation.
Pollution is the introduction in the environment of chemical substances
of physical phenomena in amounts that are larger than what is naturally
present such that it causes damage.
Exhaustion means that the exploitation of a component is faster or larger
than can be renewed.
Degradation is a change in structure of the environment by which the
landscape and/or the ecological equilibrium is disturbed and thereby
the quality of the environment is diminished.
3.10 SOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
Environmental problems can be solved by a combination of behavior and
technology. Examples of technology are energy saving, dematerialization
(use as little material as possible) and closed loops.
Deforestation
Water temperature
Pollution
Exhaustion
Degradation
Behavior
Technology
Corporate social responsibility
19
The first step in the change of behavior is to make people aware of the
problem so that IT professionals become aware of their impact on the
environment.
Examples of technologies used in green IT are energy efficient hardware,
software and services, new cooling techniques for data centers and
techniques for non-carbon energy production. Material loops are closed
when equipment can be recycled by separating it into components that
can be reused in new equipment. A paperless office is an example of
dematerialization.
4 Greening from and by IT
The approaches can be grouped into two categories:
– Greening of IT – aims to mitigate the environmental impact of ICT itself.
This encompasses energy efficient and environmental sustainable
designs, operations, use and disposal of ICT equipment, infrastructure
and systems. Sustainability becomes a quality requirement.
– Greening by IT –aims to harness IT (via ICT-enabled solutions) to miti-
gate the environmental impact of other sectors. In SMARTer2020 [1], the
named sectors are: power, transportation, manufacturing, agricultural,
building, service and consumer. This addresses applying ICT to create
energy-efficient and environmental sustainable operations, processes,
practices, etc. Traditional business intelligence can play an important
role to control these smart processes.
Greening of IT is a subject of scientific literature and whitepapers since
about 2007; greening by IT since about 2009.
5 Sustainable IT and Business Intelligence
On applying Business Intelligence sustainability of and by IT can both be
important.
BI and especially Data discovery BI (Sharda book chapters 4 and 5) use
much data center capacity, so it goes hand in hand with high energy
consumption. Questions that may be asked related to sustainability of
IT, are: ‘Is the application indeed necessary?’ and ‘Is the energy
consumption of the data center as low as possible?’
An example of sustainability by IT is the application of traditional BI
(Sharda book chapter 3) for data center infrastructure management [5].
6 Environmental management and BI
Corporate social responsibility is based on ‘triple P’ and can be
associated with the introduction of an environmental management
system [6]. The components of which are:
– policy for sustainability by the board
– sustainability plan (which activities)
– integration of sustainability in the company operations
– measurement and registration
– reports (internal and external)
– training and education of personal
– inspections (internal)
– regular audits of the environmental management system.
Measurement and reporting can be supported by BI [7].
Greening of IT
Quality
requirement
Greening by IT
Open Universiteit Business Intelligence
20
7 References
[1] Pattinson, C. and Kor, A. (2014) Chapter, 1 Introduction to green IT, in
Pattinson, C., Slaidins, I. and Counotte, A. (eds.), Green Sustainable
Data Centres,http://portal.ou.nl/web/green-sustainable-data-centres,
and references therein.
[2] Nelissen, N.J.M. in Glasbergen, P. (ed) (1994) Milieubeleid, een
beleidswetenschappelijke inleiding, chapter 3: Het themagerichte
milieubeleid.’s Gravenhage,VUGA uitgeverij b.v.
[3] Cörvers, R.J.M. et al. (2004). Milieuproblemen en duurzame ontwikkeling,
part 1, page 22.. Heerlen, Open Universiteit.
[4] Boersema, J.J. e.a. (ed) (1986). Basisboek milieukunde. chapter 1. .
Meppel, Boom b.v.
[5] Dalton, D. (2014) Chapter 6, Data Centre Infrastructure Management,
in Pattinson, C., Slaidins, I. and Counotte, A. (eds.), Green Sustainable
Data Centres,http://portal.ou.nl/web/green-sustainable-data-centres,
and references therein
[6] Glasbergen, P. e.a. (1991), Milieumanagement in bedrijven. Heerlen,
Open Universiteit Nederland.
[7] Carreira, P. and Silva, C.A. (2014), Chapter 8, Greening by IT, in
Pattinson, C., Slaidins, I. and Counotte, A. (eds.), Green Sustainable
Data Centres,http://portal.ou.nl/web/green-sustainable-data-centres,
and references therein.
Learning Unit 3
22
Assignment Overview
Introduction 23
Study core 23
1 Browse Assignment: Information Audit for Business Intelligence (IA4BI) 23
23
Learning Unit 3
Assignment Overview
I N T R O D U C T I O N
In this learning unit you browse through the assignment bundle. The
intention is that, before you start with the Sharda book, you first have an
impression of the final goal of the course: the Audit of the present BI of
an organization and recommendations for future BI, based on the know-
ledge of this course. In learning unit 10 and during the first face to face
tutoring session you will learn more about the assignment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this learning unit, you are aware of which questions you
should study the Sharda book.
Study hint
The workload is 1 hour
S T U D Y C O R E
1 Browse Assignment: Information Audit for Business
Intelligence (IA4BI)
Browse the Assignment bundle: Audit for Business Intelligence (IA4BI)
Browse assignment
Learning Unit 4
24
Business Intelligence Overview
Introduction 25
Study core 25
1 Reading Assignment: Business Intelligence Overview 25
25
Learning Unit 4
Business Intelligence Overview
I N T R O D U C T I O N
This learning unit gets us started with this course’s main textbook:
“An Overview of Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Decision Support”.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Here we follow the learning objectives of the Sharda book.
Study hints
You will experience that the book provides:
– Learning objectives
– Overview of the chapter
– Opening vignette
– Content
– (Section) review questions
– Application cases
– Resources, links, and Teradata University network connections
– Chapter highlights
– Key terms
– Question for discussions
– Exercises
– References.
You should study the Learning objectives, Content and the Chapter
highlights.
You should read the Opening vignette and the Application cases.
You should be aware that the book provides the other items in case you
need some details.
The workload is about 2 to 3 hours.
S T U D Y C O R E
1 Reading Assignment: Business Intelligence Overview
Study the first chapter An Overview of Business Intelligence, Analytics, and
Decision Support from the Sharda book Business Intelligence: A Managerial
Perspective on Analytics to get a broad view of Business Intelligence from
the perspective of this course’s main textbook.
Study
Read
Be aware
Reading assignment
Learning Unit 5
26
Data Warehousing
Introduction 27
Study core 27
1 Reading Assignment: Data Warehousing 27
27
Learning Unit 5
Data Warehousing
I N T R O D U C T I O N
The previous learning unit provided a general introduction to Business
Intelligence as a whole. Now we focus on one of the core topics in BI:
data warehousing. With this topic, we learn how to manage the vast
amount of data and data sources that Business Intelligence utilized.
Then the rest of this course describes different aspects of exploiting the
enormous repositories of information that data warehouses provide.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Here we follow the learning objectives of the Sharda book.
Study hint
The workload is about 4 to 5 hours.
S T U D Y C O R E
1 Reading Assignment: Data Warehousing
Read chapter 2 Data Warehousing from the Sharda textbook to become
familiar with this fundamental topic in Business Intelligence.
Reading assignment
doc_971777497.pdf
Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing
Learning Unit 1
12
Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing
Introduction 13
Study core 13
1 Reading Assignment: Business Intelligence en datawarehousing 13
13
Learning Unit 1
Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing
I N T R O D U C T I O N
This learning unit introduces this course with an overview of Business
Intelligence. We begin with a short, gentle, readable book about the
topic: Business Intelligence en datawarehousing.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this learning unit, you should be able to study the
Sharda book.
Study hint
The workload is about 7 to 8 hours.
S T U D Y C O R E
1 Reading Assignment: Business Intelligence en
datawarehousing
Read most of the course textbook Business Intelligence en datawarehousing
by Karien Verhagen.
The chapters you should read are
1 Bestuurlijke informatie: de vraag
2 Business Intelligence en de bedrijfsprocessen
3 Business Intelligence en datawarehousing
4 De voorkant van de BI-omgeving
5 De achterkant van de BI-omgeving
6 De binnenkant: de opslagstructuur
8 De zijkant van de BI-omgeving
9 ETL (algemeen)
12 Project- en programma-aanpak
The goal here is to get a comfortable introduction to the topic of Business
Intelligence as a whole. This will provide a broad conceptual foundation
for more rigorous study of more specific topics in the rest of this course.
Reading assignment
Learning Unit 2
14
Corporate social responsibility
Introduction 15
Study core 15
1 Introduction to sustainable IT 15
2 What is Green IT? 15
3 Environmental problems 16
3.1 Climate change 16
3.2 Waste 17
3.3 Hazardous waste 17
3.4 Exhaustion 17
3.5 Disturbance 18
3.6 Aridity 18
3.7 Acid rain 18
3.8 Eutrophication
3.9 Other methods to categorize environmental problems 18
3.10 Solving environmental problems 18
4 Greening from and by IT 19
5 Sustainable IT and Business Intelligence 19
6 Environmental management and BI 19
7 References 20
15
Learning Unit 2
Corporate Social Responsibility
I N T R O D U C T I O N
This learning unit will give you the highlights of sustainability of and by
IT. During task 1 you will describe an organization suitable for the Audit
for Business Intelligence. As one of the items in that description you
investigate if the company has a policy about sustainability, reports on
sustainability and makes use of an energy efficient data center.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this learning unit, you should be aware that
– the intensive use of IT such as during BI comes with environmental
impacts
– when you make choices, you have to consider the balance between
people, planet and profit
– IT can also be an enabler to make processes more sustainable.
Study hints
The workload is about 1 hour.
In this workload you are not required to read the references.
S T U D Y C O R E
1 Introduction to sustainable IT
It has been long assumed that the IT industry does not affect the
environment. Recently, however, people became aware of the high
energy consumption (comparable to the global aviation industry [1])
and the depletion of scarce metals the use of IT equipment brings.
Future IT professionals should understand the impact of the life cycle
of IT equipment on the environment and also be aware of how IT can
be used to enhance sustainability and reinforce the green economy.
2 What is Green IT?
In the literature both terms ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ are used. The
concept sustainable development was introduced in the Brundtland report
in 1987: ‘Sustainable development is a pattern of economic growth in
which resource use aims to meet human needs while preserving the
environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present,
but also for generations to come’.
Sustainable development has four dimensions: here and elsewhere in
the world; now and in the future. In the nineties of the last century,
organizations introduced the concept corporate social responsibility in
which the preservation and improvement of three kinds of capital are
important: the social, ecological and economic capital.
Brundtland report:
sustainable
development
Open Universiteit Business Intelligence
16
The social capital is about the well-being of employees, a company’s own
employees as well as the employees in the company’s supply chain.
The ecological capital is formed by the natural resources such as minerals,
forests, rivers and a clean environment.
The economic capital is how profitable the company is.
These three kinds of capital are referred to as ‘triple P’: People, Planet,
Profit.
In this course we conform to reference [1] and use ‘Green’ to describe
those situations where the impact on the environment is considered. We
use ‘Sustainable’ for situations which affect the ‘triple P’ People, Planet,
Profit, derived from the Brundtland definition and relating to corporate
social responsibility.
Sustainability is the act of striving for equilibrium in the triangle People,
Planet, Profit with the target of less ‘waste’. Balance with respect to Profit
and People in IT means having no waste of money or working hours by
failure of IT-projects; promotion of code reuse and code without failures.
Balance between Profit and Planet means, among other things, energy
efficiency of hardware and software and careful e-waste. Balance be-
tween People and Planet means an attitude of respect for the planet
and knowledge of sustainability of and by IT.
3 Environmental problems
Even as early as 1972, the report of the ‘Club of Rome’ recognized that
the earth should be ‘handled with care’ because the earth is a closed system
in which the cycles should not be disturbed. The environmental policy
in the Netherlands reacted by a subdivision of the problems into eight
themes [2] to preserve the environment:
– climate change
– waste
– hazardous waste
– exhaustion
– disturbance
– aridity
– acid rain
– eutrophication.
The order of this list reflects the impact of IT on the environment.
3.1 CLIMATE CHANGE
Greenhouse gases trap the heat in the atmosphere and man-made green-
house gases are responsible for the enhanced greenhouse effect which is
supposed to be the cause of climate change. They are: water vapor – due
to natural evaporation of water and industrial processes; carbon dioxide –
produced by burning natural or synthetic organic substances (e.g. fossil
fuels, trees, etc.); methane – emitted by natural sources such as wetlands,
livestock, decay of organic waste, etc.; nitrous oxide–direct effect of
human activities such as agriculture, fossil fuel combustion, wastewater
management, and industrial processes; fluorinated gases (also known as
ozone depleting substances) -emitted from a variety of industrial
processes.
Social
Ecological
Economic
‘Triple P’: People,
Planet, Profit
Equilibrium
Earth: closed
system
Greenhouse gases:
enhanced
greenhouse effect
Corporate social responsibility
17
In the IT industry, the indirect production of carbon dioxide (CO
2
) is
the most important impact factor on the environment, caused by the
enormous energy consumption. Because most energy comes from the
combustion of fossil fuels, energy consumption is related to the weight
of CO
2
formed or the carbon footprint. But also when renewable energy
is used (and no net CO
2
is formed), people should be aware that energy
is never free!
A very simple, but chemically correct carbon cycle is shown in figure 2.1.
FIGURE 2.1 Carbon cycle
Plants can convert carbon dioxide and water by the energy from
sunlight to oxygen, O
2
, and carbohydrates (schematically represented by
[H-C-OH]). Men consume these plants and metabolize the carbohydrates
into carbon dioxide and water. Incompletely decomposed organisms
left underground for a long time turn into fossil fuels. These consist of
hydrocarbons, which are combusted to carbon dioxide. If more carbon
dioxide is formed then used the cycle is no longer closed and the content
of carbon dioxide increases. This causes the enhanced greenhouse effect,
which in turn causes climate change.
3.2 WASTE
E-waste is defined as ‘any refuse created by discarded electronic devices
and components as well as substances involved in their manufacture or
use’. Ways to reduce e-waste are: recovery, reuse and recycling.
3.3 HAZARDOUS WASTE
Examples of hazardous waste include most batteries that are used in
computer equipment. These contain hazardous compounds that are
harmful to the environment. When batteries are incinerated, the metals
they contain pollute the atmosphere and the incineration residues
pollute the soil. However, when batteries end up in landfills, the metals
can leach into the soil and water. Thus, the chemical substances in
batteries can cause atmospheric, soil, and water pollution.
Nuclear waste from nuclear power plants is another example. Most
nuclear waste remains radioactive for hundreds of years.
3.4 EXHAUSTION
Exhaustion means the depletion of substances. An IT-related example
is the depletion of scarce materials such as rare metals that are used in
touchscreens. The indium used is difficult to come by, expensive, and
difficult to handle. In addition, indium is politically difficult to obtain
because 97% of rare earths (to which indium belongs) are found in
China.
Discarded
electronic devices
Batteries
Nuclear waste
Depletion of scarce
materials
Open Universiteit Business Intelligence
18
Another IT-related example is deforestation, since paper made from wood
deforestation can be diminished by making fewer printouts.
3.5 DISTURBANCE
Under disturbance are categorized: heating (of water), noise and
noxious odors. An IT-related example is the disturbance (rise) of the
water temperature when water is used as cooling agent for data centers
and then not brought back to room temperature before it is discharged
into surface water.
3.6 ARIDITY
The proper humidity for soil is important not only for the growth of
vegetation but also for the stability of buildings. A modern way to cool
and heat buildings (and also to cool data centers) is through the use of
thermal energy storage. Using this technique, one must note the amount
of water (aridity), the temperature of the groundwater (disturbance), and
the possible pollution if the installations fail (hazardous waste).
3.7 ACID RAIN
Acid rain is caused by sulphur dioxide, SO
2
, nitrous gases, NO
x
, and
ammonia, NH
3
. The first two originate from combustion from brown coal
and incomplete combustion, the third from animal farming. Thus, the
first two can be related to IT use.
3.8 EUTROPHICATION
Eutrophication is caused by the addition of artificial or natural
substances, mainly phosphates, through detergents, fertilizers, or
sewage, or nitrates to an aquatic system. One result is the ‘bloom’ or
great increase of phytoplankton in the water as a response to increased
levels of nutrients. This problem is not IT-related.
3.9 OTHER METHODS TO CATEGORIZE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
Apart from the above mentioned thematically classification, human
interventions into the environment can also be classified according to
the type [3, 4]: pollution, exhaustion or degradation.
Pollution is the introduction in the environment of chemical substances
of physical phenomena in amounts that are larger than what is naturally
present such that it causes damage.
Exhaustion means that the exploitation of a component is faster or larger
than can be renewed.
Degradation is a change in structure of the environment by which the
landscape and/or the ecological equilibrium is disturbed and thereby
the quality of the environment is diminished.
3.10 SOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
Environmental problems can be solved by a combination of behavior and
technology. Examples of technology are energy saving, dematerialization
(use as little material as possible) and closed loops.
Deforestation
Water temperature
Pollution
Exhaustion
Degradation
Behavior
Technology
Corporate social responsibility
19
The first step in the change of behavior is to make people aware of the
problem so that IT professionals become aware of their impact on the
environment.
Examples of technologies used in green IT are energy efficient hardware,
software and services, new cooling techniques for data centers and
techniques for non-carbon energy production. Material loops are closed
when equipment can be recycled by separating it into components that
can be reused in new equipment. A paperless office is an example of
dematerialization.
4 Greening from and by IT
The approaches can be grouped into two categories:
– Greening of IT – aims to mitigate the environmental impact of ICT itself.
This encompasses energy efficient and environmental sustainable
designs, operations, use and disposal of ICT equipment, infrastructure
and systems. Sustainability becomes a quality requirement.
– Greening by IT –aims to harness IT (via ICT-enabled solutions) to miti-
gate the environmental impact of other sectors. In SMARTer2020 [1], the
named sectors are: power, transportation, manufacturing, agricultural,
building, service and consumer. This addresses applying ICT to create
energy-efficient and environmental sustainable operations, processes,
practices, etc. Traditional business intelligence can play an important
role to control these smart processes.
Greening of IT is a subject of scientific literature and whitepapers since
about 2007; greening by IT since about 2009.
5 Sustainable IT and Business Intelligence
On applying Business Intelligence sustainability of and by IT can both be
important.
BI and especially Data discovery BI (Sharda book chapters 4 and 5) use
much data center capacity, so it goes hand in hand with high energy
consumption. Questions that may be asked related to sustainability of
IT, are: ‘Is the application indeed necessary?’ and ‘Is the energy
consumption of the data center as low as possible?’
An example of sustainability by IT is the application of traditional BI
(Sharda book chapter 3) for data center infrastructure management [5].
6 Environmental management and BI
Corporate social responsibility is based on ‘triple P’ and can be
associated with the introduction of an environmental management
system [6]. The components of which are:
– policy for sustainability by the board
– sustainability plan (which activities)
– integration of sustainability in the company operations
– measurement and registration
– reports (internal and external)
– training and education of personal
– inspections (internal)
– regular audits of the environmental management system.
Measurement and reporting can be supported by BI [7].
Greening of IT
Quality
requirement
Greening by IT
Open Universiteit Business Intelligence
20
7 References
[1] Pattinson, C. and Kor, A. (2014) Chapter, 1 Introduction to green IT, in
Pattinson, C., Slaidins, I. and Counotte, A. (eds.), Green Sustainable
Data Centres,http://portal.ou.nl/web/green-sustainable-data-centres,
and references therein.
[2] Nelissen, N.J.M. in Glasbergen, P. (ed) (1994) Milieubeleid, een
beleidswetenschappelijke inleiding, chapter 3: Het themagerichte
milieubeleid.’s Gravenhage,VUGA uitgeverij b.v.
[3] Cörvers, R.J.M. et al. (2004). Milieuproblemen en duurzame ontwikkeling,
part 1, page 22.. Heerlen, Open Universiteit.
[4] Boersema, J.J. e.a. (ed) (1986). Basisboek milieukunde. chapter 1. .
Meppel, Boom b.v.
[5] Dalton, D. (2014) Chapter 6, Data Centre Infrastructure Management,
in Pattinson, C., Slaidins, I. and Counotte, A. (eds.), Green Sustainable
Data Centres,http://portal.ou.nl/web/green-sustainable-data-centres,
and references therein
[6] Glasbergen, P. e.a. (1991), Milieumanagement in bedrijven. Heerlen,
Open Universiteit Nederland.
[7] Carreira, P. and Silva, C.A. (2014), Chapter 8, Greening by IT, in
Pattinson, C., Slaidins, I. and Counotte, A. (eds.), Green Sustainable
Data Centres,http://portal.ou.nl/web/green-sustainable-data-centres,
and references therein.
Learning Unit 3
22
Assignment Overview
Introduction 23
Study core 23
1 Browse Assignment: Information Audit for Business Intelligence (IA4BI) 23
23
Learning Unit 3
Assignment Overview
I N T R O D U C T I O N
In this learning unit you browse through the assignment bundle. The
intention is that, before you start with the Sharda book, you first have an
impression of the final goal of the course: the Audit of the present BI of
an organization and recommendations for future BI, based on the know-
ledge of this course. In learning unit 10 and during the first face to face
tutoring session you will learn more about the assignment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this learning unit, you are aware of which questions you
should study the Sharda book.
Study hint
The workload is 1 hour
S T U D Y C O R E
1 Browse Assignment: Information Audit for Business
Intelligence (IA4BI)
Browse the Assignment bundle: Audit for Business Intelligence (IA4BI)
Browse assignment
Learning Unit 4
24
Business Intelligence Overview
Introduction 25
Study core 25
1 Reading Assignment: Business Intelligence Overview 25
25
Learning Unit 4
Business Intelligence Overview
I N T R O D U C T I O N
This learning unit gets us started with this course’s main textbook:
“An Overview of Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Decision Support”.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Here we follow the learning objectives of the Sharda book.
Study hints
You will experience that the book provides:
– Learning objectives
– Overview of the chapter
– Opening vignette
– Content
– (Section) review questions
– Application cases
– Resources, links, and Teradata University network connections
– Chapter highlights
– Key terms
– Question for discussions
– Exercises
– References.
You should study the Learning objectives, Content and the Chapter
highlights.
You should read the Opening vignette and the Application cases.
You should be aware that the book provides the other items in case you
need some details.
The workload is about 2 to 3 hours.
S T U D Y C O R E
1 Reading Assignment: Business Intelligence Overview
Study the first chapter An Overview of Business Intelligence, Analytics, and
Decision Support from the Sharda book Business Intelligence: A Managerial
Perspective on Analytics to get a broad view of Business Intelligence from
the perspective of this course’s main textbook.
Study
Read
Be aware
Reading assignment
Learning Unit 5
26
Data Warehousing
Introduction 27
Study core 27
1 Reading Assignment: Data Warehousing 27
27
Learning Unit 5
Data Warehousing
I N T R O D U C T I O N
The previous learning unit provided a general introduction to Business
Intelligence as a whole. Now we focus on one of the core topics in BI:
data warehousing. With this topic, we learn how to manage the vast
amount of data and data sources that Business Intelligence utilized.
Then the rest of this course describes different aspects of exploiting the
enormous repositories of information that data warehouses provide.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Here we follow the learning objectives of the Sharda book.
Study hint
The workload is about 4 to 5 hours.
S T U D Y C O R E
1 Reading Assignment: Data Warehousing
Read chapter 2 Data Warehousing from the Sharda textbook to become
familiar with this fundamental topic in Business Intelligence.
Reading assignment
doc_971777497.pdf