Page 404 - Using MIS

372 Chapter 9 Business Intelligence Systems

attachment (or URL to the collaboration tool) and sends it to the users known to be interested
in that report. For Web servers and SharePoint, users can create alerts and RSS feeds to have
the server push content to them when the content is created or changed, with the expiration of
a given amount of time, or at particular intervals. SharePoint workflows can also push content.
A BI server extends alert/RSS functionality to support user subscriptions, which are user re-
quests for particular BI results on a particular schedule or in response to particular events. For ex-
ample, a user can subscribe to a daily sales report, requesting that it be delivered each morning. Or
the user might request that RFM analyses be delivered whenever a new result is posted on the server,
or a sales manager might subscribe to receive a sales report whenever sales in his region exceed $1
million during the week. We explain the two major functions of a BI server in the next section.
The skills needed to create a publishing application are either low or high. For static content,
little skill is needed. The BI author creates the content, and the publisher (usually the same per-
son) attaches it to an email or puts it on the Web or a SharePoint site, and that’s it. Publishing dy-
namic BI is more difficult; it requires the publisher to set up database access when documents are
consumed. In the case of a Web server, the publisher will need to develop or have a programmer
write code for this purpose. In the case of SharePoint and BI servers, program code is not neces-
sarily needed, but dynamic data connections need to be created, and this task is not for the techni-
cally faint of heart. You’ll need knowledge beyond the scope of this class to develop dynamic BI
solutions. You should be able to do this, however, if you take a few more IS courses or major in IS.

What Are the Two Functions of a BI Server?

A BI server is a Web server application that is purpose-built for the publishing of business in-
telligence. The Microsoft SQL Server Report manager (part of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting
Services) is the most popular such product today, but there are other products as well.
BI servers provide two major functions: management and delivery. The management func-
tion maintains metadata about the authorized allocation of BI results to users. The BI server
tracks what results are available, what users are authorized to view those results, and the sched-
ule upon which the results are provided to the authorized users. It adjusts allocations as avail-
able results change and users come and go.
As shown in Figure 9-29, all management data needed by any of the BI servers is stored in
metadata. The amount and complexity of such data depends, of course, on the functionality of
the BI server.
BI servers use metadata to determine what results to send to which users and, possibly,
on which schedule. Today, the expectation is that BI results can be delivered to “any” device.
In practice, any is interpreted to mean computers, smartphones, tablets, applications such as
Microsoft Office, and SOA Web services.

Q9 2025?

BI systems truly add value. As described in the Guide on pages 376–377, not every system is a
success, but simple ones like RFM and OLAP often are, and even complicated and expensive
data mining applications can generate tremendous return if they are applied to appropriate
problems and are well designed and implemented.
For example, suppose you never buy expensive jewelry on your credit card. If you travel to South
America and attempt to buy a $5,000 diamond bracelet using that credit card, watch what happens!
Especially if you make the attempt on a credit card other than the one for which you paid for the
travel. A data mining application integrated into the credit card agency’s purchase-approval process
will detect the unusual pattern, on the spot, and require you to personally verify the purchase on the
telephone or in some other way before it will accept the charge. Such applications are exceedingly
accurate because they are well designed and implemented by some of the world’s best data miners.