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While every attempt has been made to ensure that the information in this document is accurate and complete, some typographical errors or technical inaccuracies may exist.
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Collaborative Business Intelligence
Collaborative Business Intelligence
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Contents
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Discussion .............................................................................................................................................. 6
Report centric discussion .................................................................................................................... 6
Annotations ......................................................................................................................................... 7
General discussion topics ................................................................................................................... 8
Limitations of traditional note taking .................................................................................................... 9
Sharing ................................................................................................................................................. 11
Tagging, Cataloging: Creating a searchable history ......................................................................... 12
Distributing: Exporting and direct links .............................................................................................. 12
Embedding ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Deciding: The difference between social media and enterprise collaboration platforms ...................... 15
Crucial technological components of a CDM platform .......................................................................... 16
Enabling Collaborative BI: A culture of collaboration ............................................................................ 17
Yellowfin: A complete Social and Collaborative BI solution .................................................................. 18
Summary .............................................................................................................................................. 18
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This document version published March 2012 Copyright ©2012 Yellowfin International Pty Ltd.
Collaborative Business Intelligence
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Overview
Today, a younger social media savvy generation is entering the workforce, bringing with them new
skills and expectations regarding the delivery of information.
A recent joint Unisys and IDC study has found that these younger information workers will drive
changes in the way in which corporate interaction and communication takes place. The study expects
that, in corporations with more than 500 employees, the number of information workers using social
networking platforms will almost double between 2009 and 2014. The same research report predicts
that the number of business interactions will grow four-fold, from 3.5 trillion in 2010, to 12.7 trillion by
2013.
i
Naturally, businesses are searching for more efficient methods of communication to deal with
expanding information volumes and the necessary business interactions that accompany that trend.
Enterprise collaboration technologies will be crucial in addressing and facilitating this swell in
information exchange, by boosting workforce productivity.
To achieve this collaborative decision-making (CDM) environment, Business Intelligence (BI) software
is beginning to merge with Web 2.0 technologies, harnessing their rich, open-access, easy-to-use
functionality that users have come to expect. The merging of BI and Web 2.0 technologies has given
rise to the new concept of Collaborative BI – a type of CDM platform. This platform, like social Web
2.0 technologies, is designed around the premise that anyone should be able to share content and
contribute to discussion; anywhere and anytime.
The trend of embedding social media-style features into BI solutions is set to make its mark – virtually
all types of business applications are undergoing fundamental transformations to facilitate social and
collaborative interaction. According to BI industry thought leader, Wayne Eckerson, Collaborative BI
is now moving from a niche-nice-to-have capability, to an industry-defining component of leading BI
solutions: “Most people don't make decisions in a vacuum; they share ideas, options, and
perspectives with others. Nor do they analyze data in a vacuum, at least anomalies or variances that
require further attention. When people exchange ideas on a topic, they refine each other's
knowledge, fill in missing gaps, and challenge assumptions. The result is a more comprehensive
understanding of a situation and a better course of action.”
IDC, along with many other analytics firms, also believes the emerging CDM software market will
grow quickly, forecasting revenues of nearly $2 billion by 2014, with a compound annual growth rate
of 38.2 percent between 2009 and 2014.
ii
This re-design of the corporate communications process – enterprise eagerness and willingness to
embed social business technologies (made famous by Facebook et al) throughout operational
processes and functional workflows – has even been touched on by global computing icon, Bill Gates,
with the ICT pioneer stating that: “social networking-type applications will become as ubiquitous in the
workplace as Microsoft Office tools and will likely replace email as the dominant form of corporate
communications”.
Collaborative BI: Benefits and potential
But most significantly, the concept of Collaborative BI has been hailed by many as the answer to the
persistent problem that, despite increasing amounts of money being spent on BI, many organizations
are failing to utilize reporting and analytics effectively and continue to make poor business decisions.
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Despite the improvement in BI reporting and analytics capabilities, inadequate decision-making
processes mean that organizations are still failing to harness the true power of their BI tools.
Integrated CDM platforms will stimulate a new approach to complex decision-making by linking the
information and reports gleaned from BI software with the latest collaborative functionality inherent in
social media platforms. This new technology will minimize the cost and lag in the decision-making
process, leading to improved productivity, operational efficiencies and ultimately, better, more timely
decisions.
Collaborative BI has empowered Yellowfin’s clients to analyze, understand and use information
garnered from data analysis more efficiently and effectively, and move from discussion to action in
significantly reduced timeliness. Collaborative BI facilitates organizational CDM, and a better
understanding of data, by linking discussion directly to reports and visualizations.
We’ve found that clients who embrace Collaborative BI have the ability to improve productivity and
visibility across the breadth of organizational operations via enhanced knowledge sharing.
Factors driving demand for Collaborative BI within the enterprise include:
1. The increased demand for real-time information, in conjunction with the rapid expansion of
corporate data assets, means that organizations are searching for faster methods to share
and derive actionable meaning from reporting and analytics
2. Increasingly dispersed workforces have heightened the need for, and benefit of, fast
information sharing and collaborative decision-making
3. The need to provide context to actionable information to underpin accurate fact-based
decision-making
4. Reduced timeframe to complete key business processes
Key benefits of adopting and embracing Collaborative BI capabilities include:
• The ability to facilitate cross functional and departmental knowledge sharing and building
• The ability to derive amplified value from data assets
• The ability to make faster, better, more cohesive fact-based decisions
• Improved external stakeholder collaboration
• The ability to respond to business threats and complete key projects faster
• Decreased timelines for crucial business process and time to market for new products or
services
• Improved employee satisfaction stemming from heightened sense of voice
The potential is exciting and nothing short of transformational.
Collaborative BI still in its infancy
However, Collaborative BI and CDM software is still in its infancy, according to Gartner, and remains
underutilized.
iii
Many business decision-makers still have limited capacity to share and discuss
reporting and analytics.
This infancy is evidenced by an Accenture survey of 250 IT executives demonstrating that BI still has
limited reach within many organizations. Whilst those companies interviewed in the Competing
Through Analytics study have some form of business analytics in place, respondents indicated that
around 40 percent of major business decisions are not based on information generated from reporting
and analytics
iv
– there is limited capacity for business decision-makers to share and discuss reporting
and analytics. TDWI research has suggested that BI tools only reach around eight percent of users
within an organization.
v
So what are the crucial components that make up a true and complete Collaborative BI platform
(CDM module) that facilitates pervasive sharing, discussion and fact-based decision-making?
Collaborative Business Intelligence
5 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
And how can organizations position themselves to maximize its decision-making capabilities?
This paper identifies three major functions that combine to enable effective enterprise collaboration
and networking, based on reporting and analytics, and form the basis of a CDM platform. These are
the ability to:
1. Discuss and overlay knowledge on business data
2. Share knowledge and content
3. Collectively decide the best course of action
CDM software and the concept of Collaborative BI is about harnessing and applying the functions and
features of social media to the enterprise, to enable better CDM processes, and bridge the gap
between insight and action.
Adding new social media-style and networking capabilities to BI, supports better and faster
information sharing and decision-making, resulting in more rapid, smarter actions.
This paper discusses and analyzes those components and functions that effectively leverage
reporting and analytics via enterprise collaboration and networking.
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6 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
Discussion
Most analytics-based decision-making occurs outside organizational BI platforms, opening a gap
between human insight and business data. Decision-making remains isolated from the data that
should drive and underpin the decision-making process. New generation BI tools, with fully-integrated
CDM modules, address that problem.
An integrated CDM platform empowers BI users to discuss the results of data analysis by connecting
the right people with the right data and supporting a culture of organization-wide information sharing
and data access. This knowledge-sharing framework breaks down departmental knowledge silos,
enabling faster, better and more effective decision-making. Discussion platforms allow users to
overlay human knowledge, insight and provide context to the data in reports.
Business decisions are able to be made alongside business data to ensure steadfast, fact-based
decision-making. On a unified discussion platform, users can discuss and share content in three
ways, via:
1. Report centric discussion
2. Annotations
3. General discussion topics
Report centric discussion
A true CDM platform allows BI users to initiate and participate in a documented discussion concerning
a particular report. All relevant stakeholders can participate in the analysis and conversation in full
view of the data.
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A collaborative layer within a BI solution improves the efficiency of business interaction and
conversation regarding reporting and analytics compared to traditional avenues of communication,
such as faxes, phone calls and face-to-face meetings. It improves efficiency by:
• Being recordable: Conversations are automatically recorded, creating a searchable history
of all interaction, eliminating the unnecessary revisiting of points previously made
• Eliminating logistical hurdles: The need for complex and costly travel arrangements is
significantly reduced, with geographically dispersed stakeholders able to participate in the
exchange of information faster
• Enabling all relevant stakeholders to participate: All relevant stakeholders can contribute
to discussion at their convenience
Let’s use an example to illustrate. The executive team of a large retailer, Mega Business, is due to
discuss the advertising budgets for each department. They initiate the process by analyzing a line
chart representing total sales for last financial year. The conversation builds as each person records
their individual ideas and expertise
Annotations
Annotations allow users to overlay knowledge onto a report, pinpointing specific dates, to help explain
the actual events that gave rise to a particular trend in the data.
The Google Finance line chart below has lettered annotations superimposed over the graph to link
changes in the chart to actual real-world events.
The ability to annotate reports adds context to data, enabling quantitative figures to be explained and
given real-world significance. In the example below, we can see the impact of a new marketing
campaign on book sales.
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Let’s head back to Mega Business’ executive team. They have initiated a report-centric discussion in
their CDM platform based on a line chart representing total sales for last financial year. They are
attempting to allocate an advertising budget for the coming financial year. The peaks and troughs on
the chart hold little value or significance on their own. Why was there a spike in sales in J anuary last
year? Who can remember? Silence.
However, if the chart was annotated, everyone could see, at a glance, that J anuary’s boost coincided
with the sponsorship of a high profile sporting event. Suddenly the data makes sense. They decide
to allocate additional sponsorship budget for the same event this year. Annotations make good data
useful, and help to underpin future planning.
General discussion topics
Collaboration based on discussion topics allows users to drive analysis and decision-making across
broad issues by sharing insight from multiple reports simultaneously. General discussion topics are
like the dashboard of discussion; mixing together multiple reports for analysis and debate.
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In the context of business reporting and analytics, users need to be able to collaborate around whole
topics – such as why sales are down in Europe – and include the multiple reports needed to facilitate
an appropriately detailed and contextualized discussion and analysis.
The Mega Business executive team has decided that to accurately and effectively allocate their
advertising budget, greater insight is needed. To aid this process, they create a discussion topic that
includes additional reports detailing individual departmental revenues and advertising spends.
General discussion topics give users the ability to collaborate at the level of detail required, and gain
the necessary perspective, to make informed and effective business decisions.
Limitations of traditional note taking
Documenting discussion within a BI tool, on a single open-access CDM platform, eliminates many of
the shortfalls of traditional discussion and information sharing.
Traditional meetings and individual note taking inhibit the ability to conduct fast and accurate
information sharing, knowledge building and decision-making due to its awkward, error-prone nature.
Using traditional techniques, human analysis and discussion is recorded separately on individual
laptops and note pads; or worst of all, never recorded at all. This risk associated with individually
stored information is obvious. If insights, ideas and knowledge are partitioned and individualized, its
potential may never be realized. If notes are lost, computers damaged, or if individuals leave an
organization, so too does the knowledge.
Further, notes taken during a meeting or discussion, and viewed at a later date, are out of context.
The significance of certain points can be easily lost. As we take notes, they are influenced by, and
reflective of, our interpretation of the information at the time of delivery, rather than an accurate re-
presentation of the original message. The notes are time-bound – we subconsciously record the
pieces of information we interpret as being the most relevant at the time, whilst discarding what may
prove vital for later discussion and analysis.
Benefits of documenting discussion on a single open-access platform
Providing a social media-style forum within the BI tool itself, for the discussion and dissemination of
ideas surrounding reporting and analytics, creates a knowledge-sharing network that improves the
reach of information and analysis throughout an organization and across departmental lines.
The ability to record comments, share ideas, data, documents, and facilitate discussion on a single
uniform platform, means:
• The conversation can be saved and referred back to for future use to avoid unnecessary
rework and the revisiting of questions, comments and decisions previously covered
• Ensures that comments are interpreted in their original context to avoid misunderstanding
• Provides a system of transparency and accountability for team decision-making, establishing
a clear link between discussion and decision
• Ensures all the relevant people and information are involved in the decision-making process
• Provides context to data and enables better alignment of data analysis with organizational
strategy
• Reduces the time and resources spent on gathering intelligence and reaching consensus
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Integrating social networking capabilities into existing BI applications allows users to undertake
discussion, analysis and CDM in full-view of their data, within a uniform environment.
Without a single easy-access forum to facilitate ordered discussion and record comments, the
decision-making process becomes burdensome, unrepeatable for future planning, and so labor
intensive that more resources are spent making a decision than acting on it.
A single open-access forum within a BI tool connects knowledge with data, and makes for a more
efficient decision-making process, leading to better and faster decisions.
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Sharing
The digital era is often described as the Information Age. Information is the new global currency. But
the value of information resides in its ability to be shared.
Popular social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, are designed around the concept of
sharing content across networks. Socially, these networks may be based around friendship groups or
topics of interest. In the enterprise, business insights can be shared between and across
departments to facilitate an understanding of operational factors, and form a basis for strategic
planning.
Sharing knowledge is the primary aim of any collaborative endeavor. In the enterprise, this provides a
cross-departmental bridge to eliminate organizational knowledge silos and close the gap between
technical experts and business decision-makers. A Collaborative BI platform supports the ability to
share data and insights wherever they are required, and in a manner that suits individual
circumstance. The point of sharing information is this: The multi-perspective and multi-expertise
nature of group discussion and decision is far superior to individual conclusion – socially or
professionally.
Good decisions are not made in isolation in response to an individual’s idea or individual piece of
data. Good decisions require shared knowledge and analysis of a combination of different pieces of
information.
But how do we share? Sharing has changed over time.
Email: Initially, sharing was conducted via email. A user created a report in a spreadsheet
and then emailed that report to all required recipients.
Links: Subsequent to emailing, the ability for users to access a common portal meant that
links could be emailed to reports stored within that portal.
Tagging: Initially, reporting portals were set up on a file-based system. Reports were stored in
folders. This system, whilst useful, meant that the categorization of reports was
limited to a single folder structure. The ability to tag reports frees users from this
constraint – users can categorize content into multiple areas, facilitating the sharing
and search functions that modern enterprises require.
Embedding: The ability to embed content represents a major shift in information sharing. Now,
users can embed BI content into third-party Web-based platforms and applications.
For example, instead of having to log into a reporting portal to access financial
reports, users can place those reports into the budget wiki they use for day-to-day
budgetary management.
Corporations should be able to share information relating to reporting and analytics via their
Collaborative BI module in three ways, by:
1. Cataloguing
2. Distributing
3. Embedding
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Tagging, Cataloging: Creating a searchable history
A social layer within a BI solution allows users to create a searchable history by tagging and
cataloging past discussions and reports within shared folders inside the BI portal.
Tagging allows users to quickly and easily file report, annotation and discussion content under
multiple categories for quick and easy retrieval.
Tagging allows users to categorize content in a way that makes it easily searchable for them, and
other users like them.
Distributing: Exporting and direct links
The ability to distribute information from a centralized location allows it to be shared across platforms
to enable geographically dispersed stakeholders, and/or those positioned outside internal/private
networks, to keep up-to-date.
For a BI tool’s CDM platform to be an effective mechanism for enterprise information sharing, it must
be contain features and functionality that facilitate the distribution of corporate data and associated
information to dispersed (external) stakeholders – those personnel unable to actively participate within
the BI tool’s CDM platform..
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The ability to export entire files/reports from the BI portal, is critical for keeping all relevant decision-
makers properly informed.
Likewise, not all relevant information will be included, or available, within the CDM platform and BI
portal. The ability to share direct links to external information in a threaded discussion within the CDM
platform is critical for adding necessary detail, context and perspective to discussion.
Embedding
However, with the influence of social media platforms, sharing information socially has moved well
beyond the basic capacity to email materials or direct links. People are able to share knowledge and
insights by embedding content (documents, videos, etc) into blogs, wiki’s – wherever the information
is required. Business personnel now rightly expect to be able to share information with the same
ease and fluidity in professional contexts.
CDM platforms need to support the ability to share content across platforms – wherever it’s needed
for decision-making. To support syndicated content – the capacity to embed a report or dashboard in
platforms or applications outside the BI solution, such as a wiki, blog or Web page – the CDM layer
within a BI tool should allow users to embed BI content in two ways:
1. Within the BI tool’s social layer or enterprise portals (intranet system) via a web services
application programming interface (API)
2. Outside the enterprise, on any platform, via YouTube-style J ava script export – users can
embed live interactive reports or other information by simply copying the J ava script fragment
of a report or dashboard into any HTML page
SlideShare is a Web-based sharing platform that provides a good case in point. Not only can
registered users upload presentations, documents, videos and catalogue them for sharing across the
SlideShare network, information can be distributed to other interested parties and stakeholders
outside the SlideShare platform by direct link, email or direct download. But most advanced, is the
ability to embed a presentation or document for discussion on any platform, by placing a customized
J ava script code into any third-party Web-based platform or application.
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The ability to embed information allows multiple people to view that information, discuss it and
contribute their own, in an accessible, convenient environment. Embedding information eliminates
the need to distribute information to individual stakeholders. Everyone can remain directly involved in
the conversation – information is not consumed in isolation (via direct links or exports/downloads).
The ability to embed BI content into third-party platforms marks a significant shift in the way people
consume, discuss and disseminate reporting and analytics. The ability to perform content syndication
helps customers derive the best value possible from their business data by transforming BI from an
application centric, to an information centric model.
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Deciding: The difference between social media and enterprise collaboration
platforms
Corporate collaboration and knowledge-sharing platforms borrow many of their components from
popular social networking platforms, such as Facebook or MySpace, allowing participation in recorded
threads and discussions, as well as the embedding of external content and links. Although, there is
one important difference.
Collaborative or ‘Enterprise 2.0’ platforms, such as J ive and Cubetree, have helped assist collective
and unified conversation, by letting people work together on projects. However, their failing is that
they usually don’t directly support goal-oriented decision-making – there is no function to assist users
to make collective decisions. There is no bridge between insight and action.
Most social media platforms are designed around the individual, allowing for individual knowledge
sharing and participation. They are not designed for, and do not facilitate, consensus and CDM.
The usefulness of networking at the enterprise level rests on the ability to reach appropriate and
timely decisions. For corporate discussion forums to be successful, they must include a mechanism
for deciding action, such as voting or polling, to help push conversation towards a specific,
measurable and desirable course of action.
Achieving ROI is the overriding goal and aim of any BI project. To realize this goal, users must be
able to make meaningful business decisions based on the data analysis generated from their BI tool.
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Crucial technological components of a CDM platform
To facilitate effective enterprise CDM, using the information generated by reporting and analytics, a
Collaborative BI platform needs to be:
1. Easy to use
2. Fully integrated
3. Web-based
1. Easy to use: Stimulate high user adoption
CDM software must follow the Web 2.0 self-service mindset – help yourself and each other.
vi
The collaborative component(s) within the BI solution must cater for a diversity of user ability
and skill levels to enable people with varying technical capabilities, from across different
departments, to share their insights. If only select users are comfortable and capable of using
the collaborative functionality, knowledge and insight will remain siloed and departmentalized
– defeating the purpose of a CDM module. However, the tool’s ease-of-use cannot come at
the expense its usefulness. The collaborative components must be both highly intuitive and
functionally rich, facilitating the ability to discuss, share and decide.
2. Fully integrated
Users must be able to discuss their queries regarding reporting and analytics within the BI
tool itself in a single uniform, Google Wave like, environment.
As a concept, Google Wave was ingenious. Google Wave provided a shared space on the
Web for people to communicate, share documentation and collaborate in real-time.
Participants could also embed information – such as formatted text, videos, photos and maps
– into the forum for discussion, or give context to existing discussions. Google Wave
incorporated many of the features and functionality required in successful CDM platforms.
However, Google Wave failed to achieve high levels of success because it was a
collaborative engine without a problem. By integrating an enterprise-wide collaborative
platform within a BI tool itself, users are able to collaborate in full view of the information and
problem (BI content). Users don’t have to search for content to discuss an issue. All they
have to do is begin the conversation.
Picture this scenario: You’re using your BI tool to search for data on last month’s sales
results from the Americas. You find a startling anomaly – sales have skyrocketed compared
to previous months. Why? What has been done differently? How can you replicate the
results? If your BI tool has an integrated CDM platform, you can immediately start the
investigation, inviting others into the conversation in full view of the data. There’s no need to
set up meetings and discussions in isolation from your data set. The collaborative process
remains clearly documented in a single open-access space, and discussion remains on topic
– the underlying information (data) is right there. To enable successful CDM, both your
collaborative platform and information should be in the one place.
3. Web-based
The collaborative platform must be entirely Web-based to enable true enterprise-wide
knowledge sharing. Being Web-based allows information to be accessed and added both
internally and externally in real-time, anywhere, anytime. Social networking giant Facebook
has only proved so explosively popular because they offer people the ability to
instantaneously connect and contribute to discussion as it unfolds, no matter their locality,
time difference or the device used.
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Enabling Collaborative BI: A culture of collaboration
Without a willingness to fully engage with, and take advantage of, the CDM technology, organizations
will not be able to realize its full potential. Effective CDM requires the right mindset, not just the right
tools.
If you fail to establish a corporate environment conducive to collaboration, how will you extract the
best value from your CDM software?
To ensure your CDM platform is fully optimized, follow these three cultural enablers:
• Senior executives lead the way: Management needs to set the tone and lead by example.
To ensure the effectiveness of CDM technologies, collaborative processes must be
established and followed as normal business practice. If senior leaders adopt collaboration as
routine best practice, others will too.
• Anti-hierarchical culture: True collaboration requires organizations to foster a culture of
interactivity between business groups, departments and down hierarchies. All relevant
parties must be able to participate equally in the information sharing, discussion and decision-
making processes – uninhibited by vertical business structures (role or seniority). Within the
CDM platform itself this means not only allowing, but encouraging, all users to respond to and
generate new discussions.
• HR to include team-building skills early on: An organization’s Human Resources
department has a key role to play in maximizing its ability to collaborate. Learning and
development programs should incorporate relationship-building modules and HR policies
should be designed to support online social interaction.
The right technology alone isn’t enough to ensure great performance. The environment must be right
too. After all, it’s not the technology itself, but what you do with it that drives performance and ROI.
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Yellowfin: A complete Social and Collaborative BI solution
Yellowfin is currently the only BI solution on the market that offers a complete CDM module straight
‘out-of-the-box’. Yellowfin’s Collaborative BI components facilitate better, faster, less labor-intensive
organization-wide CDM.
Yellowfin Collaboration – a Web-based discussion forum within Yellowfin itself – allows users to
create and participate in real-time threaded conversations around reporting and analytics from inside
or outside the company. Users can embed reports and other contextual information in threaded
conversations, and add annotations, to further explain patterns and trends in the data. Conversations
can be centered on a single report or entire discussion topic.
Yellowfin Connect – a YouTube style embeddable widget – enables fully interactive reports and
dashboards to be shared across platforms, anywhere and anytime – wherever the content is needed
for discussion and decision-making.
Finally, Yellowfin supports the transition between discussion and decision with decision widgets for
voting and polling on a particular course of action.
The collaborative components within Yellowfin are designed to help organizations spread fact-based
decision-making throughout the enterprise. Yellowfin creates a business environment that empowers
all relevant decision makers with the ability to use the insights generated through reporting and
analytics accurately, maximizing its potential to underpin better, faster decisions and support
operational objectives.
Summary
This paper has defined Collaborative BI as the merging of BI with social networking and Web 2.0
technologies.
To facilitate enterprise CDM based on reporting and analytics, three essential features of a
Collaborative BI platform have been identified. BI users need to be able to discuss and overlay
knowledge on business data; share knowledge and content; and collectively decide the best course of
action.
Effective collective discussion and analysis of BI content necessitates that users are able to: Discuss
and analyze data within an individual report; Add context and meaning via annotations; Create
general discussion topics (by including multiple reports in a single discussion) to enable users to
collaborate at the level of detail required, and gain the necessary perspective, to make informed and
effective business decisions.
Documenting discussion on a single open-access CDM platform within the BI tool has been argued to
overcome many of the shortfalls of traditional discussion and information sharing by being:
Recordable; Eliminating logistical hurdles; Enabling all relevant stakeholders to participate.
Corporations should be able to share information relating to reporting and analytics via their CDM
platform in three evolutionary ways, by: Cataloguing; Distributing; and Embedding information.
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19 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
The ability to help reach timely decisions based on the discussion and sharing of knowledge,
contextual information and business data, has been recognized as the most important characteristic
of a CDM platform. Without a decision, there is no ROI for a BI solution. To ensure the success of a
CDM platform, it must include a mechanism, such as voting or polling, for transforming discussion into
action.
A CDM platform requires three fundamental technological factors. It should be: Easy-to-use to
stimulate high user adoption and BI reach throughout the organization; Fully integrated so that
discussion is recorded and undertaken in full view of the business data used to underpin action and
decision-making; Entirely Web-based to allow information to be accessed and added both internally
and externally in real-time, anywhere, any time.
For CDM technology to be successful, organizations must adopt three cultural enablers. Culturally, it
is imperative that: Senior executives lead the way to ensure that collaborative processes are adopted
as routine best practice; An anti-hierarchical approach to information sharing and discussion is
encouraged to enable all relevant parties to participate in the decision-making process; HR
incorporates team-building modules in company learning and development programs.
A true CDM platform delivers faster, better and more efficient analytics-based collaboration and
collective decision-making. Collaborative BI bridges the gap between insight and action.
Find out more
Contact Yellowfin at www.yellowfinbi.com
and ask for our proven roadmap to assist you
to successfully implement Yellowfin’s Social
and Collaborative BI solution into your
organization.
References:
i
Unisys Consumerization of IT Benchmark Study, Unisys, 2010
ii
Determining the Value of Social Business ROI: Myths, Facts, and Potentially High Returns, IDC report, 2010
iii
Gartner, April 9, 2009
iv
Competing Through Analytics, Accenture, 2009
v
Report Debunks BI Usage Myth, TDWI News, May 20, 2009
vi
Self-service Goes Mainstream, Allen Bonde, DestinationCRM.com, February 23, 2009
doc_661066860.pdf
While every attempt has been made to ensure that the information in this document is accurate and complete, some typographical errors or technical inaccuracies may exist.
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Collaborative Business Intelligence
Collaborative Business Intelligence
2 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
Contents
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Discussion .............................................................................................................................................. 6
Report centric discussion .................................................................................................................... 6
Annotations ......................................................................................................................................... 7
General discussion topics ................................................................................................................... 8
Limitations of traditional note taking .................................................................................................... 9
Sharing ................................................................................................................................................. 11
Tagging, Cataloging: Creating a searchable history ......................................................................... 12
Distributing: Exporting and direct links .............................................................................................. 12
Embedding ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Deciding: The difference between social media and enterprise collaboration platforms ...................... 15
Crucial technological components of a CDM platform .......................................................................... 16
Enabling Collaborative BI: A culture of collaboration ............................................................................ 17
Yellowfin: A complete Social and Collaborative BI solution .................................................................. 18
Summary .............................................................................................................................................. 18
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This document version published March 2012 Copyright ©2012 Yellowfin International Pty Ltd.
Collaborative Business Intelligence
3 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
Overview
Today, a younger social media savvy generation is entering the workforce, bringing with them new
skills and expectations regarding the delivery of information.
A recent joint Unisys and IDC study has found that these younger information workers will drive
changes in the way in which corporate interaction and communication takes place. The study expects
that, in corporations with more than 500 employees, the number of information workers using social
networking platforms will almost double between 2009 and 2014. The same research report predicts
that the number of business interactions will grow four-fold, from 3.5 trillion in 2010, to 12.7 trillion by
2013.
i
Naturally, businesses are searching for more efficient methods of communication to deal with
expanding information volumes and the necessary business interactions that accompany that trend.
Enterprise collaboration technologies will be crucial in addressing and facilitating this swell in
information exchange, by boosting workforce productivity.
To achieve this collaborative decision-making (CDM) environment, Business Intelligence (BI) software
is beginning to merge with Web 2.0 technologies, harnessing their rich, open-access, easy-to-use
functionality that users have come to expect. The merging of BI and Web 2.0 technologies has given
rise to the new concept of Collaborative BI – a type of CDM platform. This platform, like social Web
2.0 technologies, is designed around the premise that anyone should be able to share content and
contribute to discussion; anywhere and anytime.
The trend of embedding social media-style features into BI solutions is set to make its mark – virtually
all types of business applications are undergoing fundamental transformations to facilitate social and
collaborative interaction. According to BI industry thought leader, Wayne Eckerson, Collaborative BI
is now moving from a niche-nice-to-have capability, to an industry-defining component of leading BI
solutions: “Most people don't make decisions in a vacuum; they share ideas, options, and
perspectives with others. Nor do they analyze data in a vacuum, at least anomalies or variances that
require further attention. When people exchange ideas on a topic, they refine each other's
knowledge, fill in missing gaps, and challenge assumptions. The result is a more comprehensive
understanding of a situation and a better course of action.”
IDC, along with many other analytics firms, also believes the emerging CDM software market will
grow quickly, forecasting revenues of nearly $2 billion by 2014, with a compound annual growth rate
of 38.2 percent between 2009 and 2014.
ii
This re-design of the corporate communications process – enterprise eagerness and willingness to
embed social business technologies (made famous by Facebook et al) throughout operational
processes and functional workflows – has even been touched on by global computing icon, Bill Gates,
with the ICT pioneer stating that: “social networking-type applications will become as ubiquitous in the
workplace as Microsoft Office tools and will likely replace email as the dominant form of corporate
communications”.
Collaborative BI: Benefits and potential
But most significantly, the concept of Collaborative BI has been hailed by many as the answer to the
persistent problem that, despite increasing amounts of money being spent on BI, many organizations
are failing to utilize reporting and analytics effectively and continue to make poor business decisions.
Collaborative Business Intelligence
4 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
Despite the improvement in BI reporting and analytics capabilities, inadequate decision-making
processes mean that organizations are still failing to harness the true power of their BI tools.
Integrated CDM platforms will stimulate a new approach to complex decision-making by linking the
information and reports gleaned from BI software with the latest collaborative functionality inherent in
social media platforms. This new technology will minimize the cost and lag in the decision-making
process, leading to improved productivity, operational efficiencies and ultimately, better, more timely
decisions.
Collaborative BI has empowered Yellowfin’s clients to analyze, understand and use information
garnered from data analysis more efficiently and effectively, and move from discussion to action in
significantly reduced timeliness. Collaborative BI facilitates organizational CDM, and a better
understanding of data, by linking discussion directly to reports and visualizations.
We’ve found that clients who embrace Collaborative BI have the ability to improve productivity and
visibility across the breadth of organizational operations via enhanced knowledge sharing.
Factors driving demand for Collaborative BI within the enterprise include:
1. The increased demand for real-time information, in conjunction with the rapid expansion of
corporate data assets, means that organizations are searching for faster methods to share
and derive actionable meaning from reporting and analytics
2. Increasingly dispersed workforces have heightened the need for, and benefit of, fast
information sharing and collaborative decision-making
3. The need to provide context to actionable information to underpin accurate fact-based
decision-making
4. Reduced timeframe to complete key business processes
Key benefits of adopting and embracing Collaborative BI capabilities include:
• The ability to facilitate cross functional and departmental knowledge sharing and building
• The ability to derive amplified value from data assets
• The ability to make faster, better, more cohesive fact-based decisions
• Improved external stakeholder collaboration
• The ability to respond to business threats and complete key projects faster
• Decreased timelines for crucial business process and time to market for new products or
services
• Improved employee satisfaction stemming from heightened sense of voice
The potential is exciting and nothing short of transformational.
Collaborative BI still in its infancy
However, Collaborative BI and CDM software is still in its infancy, according to Gartner, and remains
underutilized.
iii
Many business decision-makers still have limited capacity to share and discuss
reporting and analytics.
This infancy is evidenced by an Accenture survey of 250 IT executives demonstrating that BI still has
limited reach within many organizations. Whilst those companies interviewed in the Competing
Through Analytics study have some form of business analytics in place, respondents indicated that
around 40 percent of major business decisions are not based on information generated from reporting
and analytics
iv
– there is limited capacity for business decision-makers to share and discuss reporting
and analytics. TDWI research has suggested that BI tools only reach around eight percent of users
within an organization.
v
So what are the crucial components that make up a true and complete Collaborative BI platform
(CDM module) that facilitates pervasive sharing, discussion and fact-based decision-making?
Collaborative Business Intelligence
5 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
And how can organizations position themselves to maximize its decision-making capabilities?
This paper identifies three major functions that combine to enable effective enterprise collaboration
and networking, based on reporting and analytics, and form the basis of a CDM platform. These are
the ability to:
1. Discuss and overlay knowledge on business data
2. Share knowledge and content
3. Collectively decide the best course of action
CDM software and the concept of Collaborative BI is about harnessing and applying the functions and
features of social media to the enterprise, to enable better CDM processes, and bridge the gap
between insight and action.
Adding new social media-style and networking capabilities to BI, supports better and faster
information sharing and decision-making, resulting in more rapid, smarter actions.
This paper discusses and analyzes those components and functions that effectively leverage
reporting and analytics via enterprise collaboration and networking.
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6 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
Discussion
Most analytics-based decision-making occurs outside organizational BI platforms, opening a gap
between human insight and business data. Decision-making remains isolated from the data that
should drive and underpin the decision-making process. New generation BI tools, with fully-integrated
CDM modules, address that problem.
An integrated CDM platform empowers BI users to discuss the results of data analysis by connecting
the right people with the right data and supporting a culture of organization-wide information sharing
and data access. This knowledge-sharing framework breaks down departmental knowledge silos,
enabling faster, better and more effective decision-making. Discussion platforms allow users to
overlay human knowledge, insight and provide context to the data in reports.
Business decisions are able to be made alongside business data to ensure steadfast, fact-based
decision-making. On a unified discussion platform, users can discuss and share content in three
ways, via:
1. Report centric discussion
2. Annotations
3. General discussion topics
Report centric discussion
A true CDM platform allows BI users to initiate and participate in a documented discussion concerning
a particular report. All relevant stakeholders can participate in the analysis and conversation in full
view of the data.
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7 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
A collaborative layer within a BI solution improves the efficiency of business interaction and
conversation regarding reporting and analytics compared to traditional avenues of communication,
such as faxes, phone calls and face-to-face meetings. It improves efficiency by:
• Being recordable: Conversations are automatically recorded, creating a searchable history
of all interaction, eliminating the unnecessary revisiting of points previously made
• Eliminating logistical hurdles: The need for complex and costly travel arrangements is
significantly reduced, with geographically dispersed stakeholders able to participate in the
exchange of information faster
• Enabling all relevant stakeholders to participate: All relevant stakeholders can contribute
to discussion at their convenience
Let’s use an example to illustrate. The executive team of a large retailer, Mega Business, is due to
discuss the advertising budgets for each department. They initiate the process by analyzing a line
chart representing total sales for last financial year. The conversation builds as each person records
their individual ideas and expertise
Annotations
Annotations allow users to overlay knowledge onto a report, pinpointing specific dates, to help explain
the actual events that gave rise to a particular trend in the data.
The Google Finance line chart below has lettered annotations superimposed over the graph to link
changes in the chart to actual real-world events.
The ability to annotate reports adds context to data, enabling quantitative figures to be explained and
given real-world significance. In the example below, we can see the impact of a new marketing
campaign on book sales.
Collaborative Business Intelligence
8 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
Let’s head back to Mega Business’ executive team. They have initiated a report-centric discussion in
their CDM platform based on a line chart representing total sales for last financial year. They are
attempting to allocate an advertising budget for the coming financial year. The peaks and troughs on
the chart hold little value or significance on their own. Why was there a spike in sales in J anuary last
year? Who can remember? Silence.
However, if the chart was annotated, everyone could see, at a glance, that J anuary’s boost coincided
with the sponsorship of a high profile sporting event. Suddenly the data makes sense. They decide
to allocate additional sponsorship budget for the same event this year. Annotations make good data
useful, and help to underpin future planning.
General discussion topics
Collaboration based on discussion topics allows users to drive analysis and decision-making across
broad issues by sharing insight from multiple reports simultaneously. General discussion topics are
like the dashboard of discussion; mixing together multiple reports for analysis and debate.
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9 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
In the context of business reporting and analytics, users need to be able to collaborate around whole
topics – such as why sales are down in Europe – and include the multiple reports needed to facilitate
an appropriately detailed and contextualized discussion and analysis.
The Mega Business executive team has decided that to accurately and effectively allocate their
advertising budget, greater insight is needed. To aid this process, they create a discussion topic that
includes additional reports detailing individual departmental revenues and advertising spends.
General discussion topics give users the ability to collaborate at the level of detail required, and gain
the necessary perspective, to make informed and effective business decisions.
Limitations of traditional note taking
Documenting discussion within a BI tool, on a single open-access CDM platform, eliminates many of
the shortfalls of traditional discussion and information sharing.
Traditional meetings and individual note taking inhibit the ability to conduct fast and accurate
information sharing, knowledge building and decision-making due to its awkward, error-prone nature.
Using traditional techniques, human analysis and discussion is recorded separately on individual
laptops and note pads; or worst of all, never recorded at all. This risk associated with individually
stored information is obvious. If insights, ideas and knowledge are partitioned and individualized, its
potential may never be realized. If notes are lost, computers damaged, or if individuals leave an
organization, so too does the knowledge.
Further, notes taken during a meeting or discussion, and viewed at a later date, are out of context.
The significance of certain points can be easily lost. As we take notes, they are influenced by, and
reflective of, our interpretation of the information at the time of delivery, rather than an accurate re-
presentation of the original message. The notes are time-bound – we subconsciously record the
pieces of information we interpret as being the most relevant at the time, whilst discarding what may
prove vital for later discussion and analysis.
Benefits of documenting discussion on a single open-access platform
Providing a social media-style forum within the BI tool itself, for the discussion and dissemination of
ideas surrounding reporting and analytics, creates a knowledge-sharing network that improves the
reach of information and analysis throughout an organization and across departmental lines.
The ability to record comments, share ideas, data, documents, and facilitate discussion on a single
uniform platform, means:
• The conversation can be saved and referred back to for future use to avoid unnecessary
rework and the revisiting of questions, comments and decisions previously covered
• Ensures that comments are interpreted in their original context to avoid misunderstanding
• Provides a system of transparency and accountability for team decision-making, establishing
a clear link between discussion and decision
• Ensures all the relevant people and information are involved in the decision-making process
• Provides context to data and enables better alignment of data analysis with organizational
strategy
• Reduces the time and resources spent on gathering intelligence and reaching consensus
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10 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
Integrating social networking capabilities into existing BI applications allows users to undertake
discussion, analysis and CDM in full-view of their data, within a uniform environment.
Without a single easy-access forum to facilitate ordered discussion and record comments, the
decision-making process becomes burdensome, unrepeatable for future planning, and so labor
intensive that more resources are spent making a decision than acting on it.
A single open-access forum within a BI tool connects knowledge with data, and makes for a more
efficient decision-making process, leading to better and faster decisions.
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11 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
Sharing
The digital era is often described as the Information Age. Information is the new global currency. But
the value of information resides in its ability to be shared.
Popular social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, are designed around the concept of
sharing content across networks. Socially, these networks may be based around friendship groups or
topics of interest. In the enterprise, business insights can be shared between and across
departments to facilitate an understanding of operational factors, and form a basis for strategic
planning.
Sharing knowledge is the primary aim of any collaborative endeavor. In the enterprise, this provides a
cross-departmental bridge to eliminate organizational knowledge silos and close the gap between
technical experts and business decision-makers. A Collaborative BI platform supports the ability to
share data and insights wherever they are required, and in a manner that suits individual
circumstance. The point of sharing information is this: The multi-perspective and multi-expertise
nature of group discussion and decision is far superior to individual conclusion – socially or
professionally.
Good decisions are not made in isolation in response to an individual’s idea or individual piece of
data. Good decisions require shared knowledge and analysis of a combination of different pieces of
information.
But how do we share? Sharing has changed over time.
Email: Initially, sharing was conducted via email. A user created a report in a spreadsheet
and then emailed that report to all required recipients.
Links: Subsequent to emailing, the ability for users to access a common portal meant that
links could be emailed to reports stored within that portal.
Tagging: Initially, reporting portals were set up on a file-based system. Reports were stored in
folders. This system, whilst useful, meant that the categorization of reports was
limited to a single folder structure. The ability to tag reports frees users from this
constraint – users can categorize content into multiple areas, facilitating the sharing
and search functions that modern enterprises require.
Embedding: The ability to embed content represents a major shift in information sharing. Now,
users can embed BI content into third-party Web-based platforms and applications.
For example, instead of having to log into a reporting portal to access financial
reports, users can place those reports into the budget wiki they use for day-to-day
budgetary management.
Corporations should be able to share information relating to reporting and analytics via their
Collaborative BI module in three ways, by:
1. Cataloguing
2. Distributing
3. Embedding
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12 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
Tagging, Cataloging: Creating a searchable history
A social layer within a BI solution allows users to create a searchable history by tagging and
cataloging past discussions and reports within shared folders inside the BI portal.
Tagging allows users to quickly and easily file report, annotation and discussion content under
multiple categories for quick and easy retrieval.
Tagging allows users to categorize content in a way that makes it easily searchable for them, and
other users like them.
Distributing: Exporting and direct links
The ability to distribute information from a centralized location allows it to be shared across platforms
to enable geographically dispersed stakeholders, and/or those positioned outside internal/private
networks, to keep up-to-date.
For a BI tool’s CDM platform to be an effective mechanism for enterprise information sharing, it must
be contain features and functionality that facilitate the distribution of corporate data and associated
information to dispersed (external) stakeholders – those personnel unable to actively participate within
the BI tool’s CDM platform..
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13 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
The ability to export entire files/reports from the BI portal, is critical for keeping all relevant decision-
makers properly informed.
Likewise, not all relevant information will be included, or available, within the CDM platform and BI
portal. The ability to share direct links to external information in a threaded discussion within the CDM
platform is critical for adding necessary detail, context and perspective to discussion.
Embedding
However, with the influence of social media platforms, sharing information socially has moved well
beyond the basic capacity to email materials or direct links. People are able to share knowledge and
insights by embedding content (documents, videos, etc) into blogs, wiki’s – wherever the information
is required. Business personnel now rightly expect to be able to share information with the same
ease and fluidity in professional contexts.
CDM platforms need to support the ability to share content across platforms – wherever it’s needed
for decision-making. To support syndicated content – the capacity to embed a report or dashboard in
platforms or applications outside the BI solution, such as a wiki, blog or Web page – the CDM layer
within a BI tool should allow users to embed BI content in two ways:
1. Within the BI tool’s social layer or enterprise portals (intranet system) via a web services
application programming interface (API)
2. Outside the enterprise, on any platform, via YouTube-style J ava script export – users can
embed live interactive reports or other information by simply copying the J ava script fragment
of a report or dashboard into any HTML page
SlideShare is a Web-based sharing platform that provides a good case in point. Not only can
registered users upload presentations, documents, videos and catalogue them for sharing across the
SlideShare network, information can be distributed to other interested parties and stakeholders
outside the SlideShare platform by direct link, email or direct download. But most advanced, is the
ability to embed a presentation or document for discussion on any platform, by placing a customized
J ava script code into any third-party Web-based platform or application.
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The ability to embed information allows multiple people to view that information, discuss it and
contribute their own, in an accessible, convenient environment. Embedding information eliminates
the need to distribute information to individual stakeholders. Everyone can remain directly involved in
the conversation – information is not consumed in isolation (via direct links or exports/downloads).
The ability to embed BI content into third-party platforms marks a significant shift in the way people
consume, discuss and disseminate reporting and analytics. The ability to perform content syndication
helps customers derive the best value possible from their business data by transforming BI from an
application centric, to an information centric model.
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15 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
Deciding: The difference between social media and enterprise collaboration
platforms
Corporate collaboration and knowledge-sharing platforms borrow many of their components from
popular social networking platforms, such as Facebook or MySpace, allowing participation in recorded
threads and discussions, as well as the embedding of external content and links. Although, there is
one important difference.
Collaborative or ‘Enterprise 2.0’ platforms, such as J ive and Cubetree, have helped assist collective
and unified conversation, by letting people work together on projects. However, their failing is that
they usually don’t directly support goal-oriented decision-making – there is no function to assist users
to make collective decisions. There is no bridge between insight and action.
Most social media platforms are designed around the individual, allowing for individual knowledge
sharing and participation. They are not designed for, and do not facilitate, consensus and CDM.
The usefulness of networking at the enterprise level rests on the ability to reach appropriate and
timely decisions. For corporate discussion forums to be successful, they must include a mechanism
for deciding action, such as voting or polling, to help push conversation towards a specific,
measurable and desirable course of action.
Achieving ROI is the overriding goal and aim of any BI project. To realize this goal, users must be
able to make meaningful business decisions based on the data analysis generated from their BI tool.
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Crucial technological components of a CDM platform
To facilitate effective enterprise CDM, using the information generated by reporting and analytics, a
Collaborative BI platform needs to be:
1. Easy to use
2. Fully integrated
3. Web-based
1. Easy to use: Stimulate high user adoption
CDM software must follow the Web 2.0 self-service mindset – help yourself and each other.
vi
The collaborative component(s) within the BI solution must cater for a diversity of user ability
and skill levels to enable people with varying technical capabilities, from across different
departments, to share their insights. If only select users are comfortable and capable of using
the collaborative functionality, knowledge and insight will remain siloed and departmentalized
– defeating the purpose of a CDM module. However, the tool’s ease-of-use cannot come at
the expense its usefulness. The collaborative components must be both highly intuitive and
functionally rich, facilitating the ability to discuss, share and decide.
2. Fully integrated
Users must be able to discuss their queries regarding reporting and analytics within the BI
tool itself in a single uniform, Google Wave like, environment.
As a concept, Google Wave was ingenious. Google Wave provided a shared space on the
Web for people to communicate, share documentation and collaborate in real-time.
Participants could also embed information – such as formatted text, videos, photos and maps
– into the forum for discussion, or give context to existing discussions. Google Wave
incorporated many of the features and functionality required in successful CDM platforms.
However, Google Wave failed to achieve high levels of success because it was a
collaborative engine without a problem. By integrating an enterprise-wide collaborative
platform within a BI tool itself, users are able to collaborate in full view of the information and
problem (BI content). Users don’t have to search for content to discuss an issue. All they
have to do is begin the conversation.
Picture this scenario: You’re using your BI tool to search for data on last month’s sales
results from the Americas. You find a startling anomaly – sales have skyrocketed compared
to previous months. Why? What has been done differently? How can you replicate the
results? If your BI tool has an integrated CDM platform, you can immediately start the
investigation, inviting others into the conversation in full view of the data. There’s no need to
set up meetings and discussions in isolation from your data set. The collaborative process
remains clearly documented in a single open-access space, and discussion remains on topic
– the underlying information (data) is right there. To enable successful CDM, both your
collaborative platform and information should be in the one place.
3. Web-based
The collaborative platform must be entirely Web-based to enable true enterprise-wide
knowledge sharing. Being Web-based allows information to be accessed and added both
internally and externally in real-time, anywhere, anytime. Social networking giant Facebook
has only proved so explosively popular because they offer people the ability to
instantaneously connect and contribute to discussion as it unfolds, no matter their locality,
time difference or the device used.
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Enabling Collaborative BI: A culture of collaboration
Without a willingness to fully engage with, and take advantage of, the CDM technology, organizations
will not be able to realize its full potential. Effective CDM requires the right mindset, not just the right
tools.
If you fail to establish a corporate environment conducive to collaboration, how will you extract the
best value from your CDM software?
To ensure your CDM platform is fully optimized, follow these three cultural enablers:
• Senior executives lead the way: Management needs to set the tone and lead by example.
To ensure the effectiveness of CDM technologies, collaborative processes must be
established and followed as normal business practice. If senior leaders adopt collaboration as
routine best practice, others will too.
• Anti-hierarchical culture: True collaboration requires organizations to foster a culture of
interactivity between business groups, departments and down hierarchies. All relevant
parties must be able to participate equally in the information sharing, discussion and decision-
making processes – uninhibited by vertical business structures (role or seniority). Within the
CDM platform itself this means not only allowing, but encouraging, all users to respond to and
generate new discussions.
• HR to include team-building skills early on: An organization’s Human Resources
department has a key role to play in maximizing its ability to collaborate. Learning and
development programs should incorporate relationship-building modules and HR policies
should be designed to support online social interaction.
The right technology alone isn’t enough to ensure great performance. The environment must be right
too. After all, it’s not the technology itself, but what you do with it that drives performance and ROI.
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Yellowfin: A complete Social and Collaborative BI solution
Yellowfin is currently the only BI solution on the market that offers a complete CDM module straight
‘out-of-the-box’. Yellowfin’s Collaborative BI components facilitate better, faster, less labor-intensive
organization-wide CDM.
Yellowfin Collaboration – a Web-based discussion forum within Yellowfin itself – allows users to
create and participate in real-time threaded conversations around reporting and analytics from inside
or outside the company. Users can embed reports and other contextual information in threaded
conversations, and add annotations, to further explain patterns and trends in the data. Conversations
can be centered on a single report or entire discussion topic.
Yellowfin Connect – a YouTube style embeddable widget – enables fully interactive reports and
dashboards to be shared across platforms, anywhere and anytime – wherever the content is needed
for discussion and decision-making.
Finally, Yellowfin supports the transition between discussion and decision with decision widgets for
voting and polling on a particular course of action.
The collaborative components within Yellowfin are designed to help organizations spread fact-based
decision-making throughout the enterprise. Yellowfin creates a business environment that empowers
all relevant decision makers with the ability to use the insights generated through reporting and
analytics accurately, maximizing its potential to underpin better, faster decisions and support
operational objectives.
Summary
This paper has defined Collaborative BI as the merging of BI with social networking and Web 2.0
technologies.
To facilitate enterprise CDM based on reporting and analytics, three essential features of a
Collaborative BI platform have been identified. BI users need to be able to discuss and overlay
knowledge on business data; share knowledge and content; and collectively decide the best course of
action.
Effective collective discussion and analysis of BI content necessitates that users are able to: Discuss
and analyze data within an individual report; Add context and meaning via annotations; Create
general discussion topics (by including multiple reports in a single discussion) to enable users to
collaborate at the level of detail required, and gain the necessary perspective, to make informed and
effective business decisions.
Documenting discussion on a single open-access CDM platform within the BI tool has been argued to
overcome many of the shortfalls of traditional discussion and information sharing by being:
Recordable; Eliminating logistical hurdles; Enabling all relevant stakeholders to participate.
Corporations should be able to share information relating to reporting and analytics via their CDM
platform in three evolutionary ways, by: Cataloguing; Distributing; and Embedding information.
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19 Copyright ©Yellowfin International 2012
The ability to help reach timely decisions based on the discussion and sharing of knowledge,
contextual information and business data, has been recognized as the most important characteristic
of a CDM platform. Without a decision, there is no ROI for a BI solution. To ensure the success of a
CDM platform, it must include a mechanism, such as voting or polling, for transforming discussion into
action.
A CDM platform requires three fundamental technological factors. It should be: Easy-to-use to
stimulate high user adoption and BI reach throughout the organization; Fully integrated so that
discussion is recorded and undertaken in full view of the business data used to underpin action and
decision-making; Entirely Web-based to allow information to be accessed and added both internally
and externally in real-time, anywhere, any time.
For CDM technology to be successful, organizations must adopt three cultural enablers. Culturally, it
is imperative that: Senior executives lead the way to ensure that collaborative processes are adopted
as routine best practice; An anti-hierarchical approach to information sharing and discussion is
encouraged to enable all relevant parties to participate in the decision-making process; HR
incorporates team-building modules in company learning and development programs.
A true CDM platform delivers faster, better and more efficient analytics-based collaboration and
collective decision-making. Collaborative BI bridges the gap between insight and action.
Find out more
Contact Yellowfin at www.yellowfinbi.com
and ask for our proven roadmap to assist you
to successfully implement Yellowfin’s Social
and Collaborative BI solution into your
organization.
References:
i
Unisys Consumerization of IT Benchmark Study, Unisys, 2010
ii
Determining the Value of Social Business ROI: Myths, Facts, and Potentially High Returns, IDC report, 2010
iii
Gartner, April 9, 2009
iv
Competing Through Analytics, Accenture, 2009
v
Report Debunks BI Usage Myth, TDWI News, May 20, 2009
vi
Self-service Goes Mainstream, Allen Bonde, DestinationCRM.com, February 23, 2009
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