Chapter 2. Mapping Typical Business Needs
What is the best way to start to using the MicroStrategy platform? In this chapter will answer that question.
At first, we need to have our business needs clearly identified in order to design the solution to leverage the platform (the response we are looking for, the location of the data, the issue that we need to solve, the person responsible taking decisions with the information, and so on).
But prior to that, we need to understand what a BI solution is. According to Forrester Research:
"Business Intelligence is a set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-making"
When we use this definition, a BI solution also includes technologies such as transactional-source data systems, data transfer process, data repositories, final-user tools, and information distribution and control. But...
Understanding the business needs
Let's assume for a moment that you are the commercial director of a retail chain with a massive growth during the last two years, and we need to identify our top five / bottom five stores in terms of revenue, cash flow, and sales representative's rotation, and totalize the profit, operative and net income, and most importantly, determine what is the rationale for identifying the top and bottom performers.
You need this information as soon as possible as your Regional VP is asking for those reports, and you can't wait for your IT fellows or consultants to deliver the reports because your institutional BI platform is under construction or definition, and you do not have any platform in your company for BI or is already in production but requires several processes, documents, testing, and validation in order to meet your requirement.
The business need is already defined, the question to answer is set by your Regional VP, and you have already enabled the MicroStrategy...
We understood what a BI solution is and its components. We laid out a strategy to solve a business issue that requires a BI platform. We also loaded our data onto the platform to start designing our reports and dashboards without any IT-support personnel or complex software usage, in a self-service, do-it-yourself approach.
It was similar to accessing our preferred social network or the Internet navigation on our smart TV but is now more business-oriented and focalized to solve a business issue and makes better decisions to leverage Cloud-innovative solutions, such as MicroStrategy.
