OASIS 'One Agilysys' Standardized Information Solution Oracle BI Application Implementation Yuri Markovich Data Architect Jennifer Frey Sr. Business Analyst 15 February 2012
About Agilysys Agilysys is a leading provider of innovative IT solutions to corporate and public-sector customers, with special expertise in select markets, including retail and hospitality. The company uses technology including hardware, software and services to help customers resolve their most complicated IT needs. Different Business Units under the same umbrella Headquartered in Cleveland, Agilysys operates extensively throughout North America, with additional sales offices in the United Kingdom, Singapore and Hong Kong. 2
BI Initiative Replaced Legacy Operational System with Oracle EBS 12.1 OBIEE was naturally chosen Purchased Analytics: Order Management Procurement and Spent Projects Financial (AR,AP,GL) ERP Go-live date: 01-APR-2010 When to start BI Project? When to go-live with the OBIEE tool? Pilot Financial Analytics Simultaneously with ERP deployment 3-4 months after ERP go-live date 3
BI Implementation Gap analysis No single out-of-the-box analytic satisfied top-priority business needs Define a project scope for Phase I Financial Sales Analysis Financial and Operational point of view Sales, Cost, Profit By Business Unit, Sales Group, Sales Rep, Manufacturer, Customer, Supplier Tax data Audience: Upper and mid-level management, financial analysts Reports for Compensation and Tax Departments 4
OASIS - Design Leverage out-of-the-box table structures as much as possible Extend and synchronize them with additional data Three main tables out-of-the-box with extra fields Invoice Fact Revenue Fact COGS Fact One custom table: Invoice SalesRep Fact Extra Dimension: Sales Reps / Sales Groups 5
OASIS - Design EBS OBAW OM Invoice Fact & Invoice Salesrep Fact AR Revenue Fact Projects COGS Fact Inventory GL Metrix 6
OASIS Project Team Agilysys: Project Lead / Data Architect / EBS resource / RPD Business Analyst / QA / Dashboard Developer KPI: Project Lead / Architect 2 ETL Developers OBIEE Developer Timeframe: March 2010 July 2010 7
Post-Implementation - Lessons learned Challenges: Newly implemented EBS system was not stable enough Resource availability and obtaining formal sign-offs User acceptance Lessons learned BI team needs to be involved in ERP implementation (or any business process changes) as early as possible Define audience at the beginning of BI project Staying focused on defined scope Different requirement gathering process than for traditional IT projects Support of Upper Management Testing! Testing! Testing! Training 8
Future Plans Overall IT goal: Make OASIS a portal for the majority of company reporting needs Business goals: Real-time forecasting Single point of truth Phase II (December February 2011) Projects Analytics Future AR Analytics AP, GL Analytics Order Management Analytics Procurement and Spent Sales Analytics (based on Oracle CRM On-Demand; possible custom) Historical data Upgrade to 11g 9
BI Triangle Source Type Audience Dashboards Knowledge Executives Data Warehouse Answers Information Managers Analysts E-Business Suite Data Front End Users (AE)
What is a dashboard? A dashboard is a visual [graphical] display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance. [Alexander Chiang, Dashboard Insight] It is more than just a beautification tool. Who should have a dashboard? Why are dashboards necessary for top executives? Business dashboards are decision enablers for top executives Having a dashboard is not necessary for top executives Crafting well designed dashboards is not as easy as one would think. Dashboards require thoughtful design. 11
BI Project Management Why are so many BI/DW projects running out of control? Specificities: Business goals. ROI. What are benefits of BI project? Scope is often not clear at the beginning and changes during a project. Two typical causes of failure: Users lose interest in the project due to lengthy development time A mismatch exists between the delivered products and user expectations Data is the biggest risk factor (less predictable data issues occur more frequently than for other project types) Waterfall methodology does not work; A spiral development model fits better (breaking a project into smaller segments, using an iterative approach, involving users at all stages) 12