Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence: Comparative Analysis of Olap tools

Data Warehouse applications are designed basically to provide the business communities with accurate and consolidated information. The objective of Data Warehousing applications are not just for collecting data and reporting, but rather for analyzing, it requires technical and business expertise tools. To achieve business intelligence it requires proper tools to be selected. The most commonly used Business intelligence (BI) technologies are Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Reporting tools for analyzing the data and to make tactical decision for the better performance of the organization, and more over to provide quick and fast access to end user request. This study will review data warehouse environment and architecture, business intelligence concepts, OLAP and the related theories involved on it. As well as the concept of data warehouse and OLAP, this study will also present comparative analysis of commonly used OLAP tools in Organization

Integrated Project Support Study Group : findings

The challenges of the LHC project have lead CERN to produce a comprehensive set of project management tools covering engineering data management, project scheduling and costing, event management and document management. Each of these tools represents a significant and world-recognised advance in their respective domains. Reviewing the offering on the eve of LHC commissioning one can identify three major challenges: 1. How to integrate the tools to provide a uniform and integrated full-product lifecycle solution 2. How to evolve the functionality in certain areas to address weaknesses identified with our experience in constructing the LHC and integrate emerging industry best practices 3. How to coherently package the offering not just for future projects in CERN, but moreover in the context of providing a centre of excellence for worldwide collaboration in future HEP projects

Microsoft sharepoint server 2010 : a case study of corporate governance guiding its selection, deployment and commissioning at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.Organizations typically have a reason for deciding to implement a particular business application, for example an Enterprise Resources Planning or a Human Resources management system. The reasons run the entire gamut from wanting to be the first (thus gaining a competitive edge) to playing catch-up (herd mentality perhaps) if everyone is deploying the solution. In between these extremes, there are organizations which take a technology agnostic view and thus set out to garner a good understanding of business challenges, opportunities, threats and risks to mitigate before seeking to deploy a particular solution. The objective of this study was to understand the business drivers and thought processes that the University of KwaZulu-Natal followed in selecting Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 technology. It was also the objective of the study to understand the deployment model chosen as well as understanding the attendant corporate governance put in place as well as the usage patterns once operational. The study followed a qualitative research format primarily using case study as the research design. Qualitative research was chosen because it is amenable to the collection, analysis and interpretation of data that cannot be easily or meaningfully quantified and summarized in the form of numbers. The case study research design was chosen because it allows the researcher to focus on one instance of a ‘thing’ to be investigated which then becomes the subject of an in-depth study using interviews and observation as a primary tool for data generation. A major finding of the study was that the University of KwaZulu-Natal followed an organic bottom-up approach which typically starts by providing collaborative sites and, as users find values in these sites, the implementation grows organically over a period of time. Another major finding was the absence of a formal documented corporate governance model that would include a SharePoint Delivery Plan for the organization. Consequently, of the four colleges within the university, only one college uses SharePoint technology. The adoption rate at the cluster or support services level is also markedly low

Internship Portfolio

My one-year internship program work was with Mayo Clinic, Rochester. I was involved in the software development as part of a work term, all of which will be outlined in this report. The report will cover some background information on the projects I was involved in, as well as details on how the projects were developed. The report also states how and what academic courses and projects helped me in overall internship experience so far. At the beginning of the internship, I formulated serval learning goals, which I wanted to achieve: To understand the functioning and working conditions of the organization; To explore working in a professional environment; To explore the work environment for the possibility of a future career; To utilize my gained skills and knowledge; To find skills and knowledge I still need to work in a professional environment; To learn about software development life cycle; To learn about the development methodologies; To obtain fieldwork experience/collect data in an environment unknown for me; To obtain experience working in multicultural and diverse environment; To enhance my interpersonal and technical skills; To network with professionals in the industry. There are five major projects that I had a significant role in. The first project was Space Tools, involved gaining a good understanding of a javascript framework called Angular. My task was to study its working, develop wireframes from the view point of developing an application using that technology. My task was to Understand working with Angular framework, Understand working with Git, Develop wireframes. As this was my first project with Mayo Clinic, particularly at Development Shared Services (DSS) as a team project, I also had a large scope of understanding Agile Methodology - Scrum Process in particular. The second project was BAMS which was a rewrite of existing application in Windows Presentation Framework(WPF) and .Net backend. In this project my tasks were Understand using WinForms and WPF, Develop pages using WPF- MVVM Framework. The third project was DSA, where I acquired knowledge of working on Angular4 and frontend Unit testing in Karma using Mocha and Chai frameworks. The fourth project is MML Notification and Delivery, which started with an analysis phase in which were asked to analyze the data flow and system integrations the current Mayo Access and Mayo Link (MML Internal Operations) are dependent upon. We are to provide a new functionality to Mayo Access users of Notification and Delivery of tests results. The current project that I’m working on now is “MML Database Analysis”. This project is in the analysis phase. We were given a task to analyze MML databases to write an API instead of frontend calls to the database. I acquired many new technical skills throughout my work. I acquired new knowledge in Front-end development using various versions of Angular framework and Unit testing using Mocha and Chai framework in Karma. I also brushed my HTML/HTML5, CSS/CSS3, Javascript, Java, C# skills while working on various projects. Then I was introduced to the area of research and analysis and how to approach it. Most importantly, the work included good fellowship, cooperative teamwork and accepting responsibilities. Although I spent much time as a learning curve, I found that I was well trained in certain areas that helped me substantially in my projects. Many programming skills and Software Development Life Cycle understanding that I used in my internship, such as programming style and design, were the skills that I had acquired during my studies in Computer Science. This report also includes advantages of using Angular framework over other Javascript frameworks. The report concludes with my overall impressions of my work experience as well as my opinion of the Industrial Internship Program in general

A study into the user satisfaction with the enterprise resource planning system at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Master’s degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, DurbanA study into the user satisfaction with the Enterprise Resource Planning system at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. This research study sought to establish if the administrative support staff using the back-office component of the enterprise resource planning system at the University of KwaZulu-Natal are satisfied with the functionality of the enterprise resource planning system. The research approach was a qualitative explorative study. The research instrument used was a face-to-face structured interview schedule with nine participants, of which all nine of them responded and agreed to participate. The support staff in the human resources, finance and student academic administration sections were targeted due to their interaction with the enterprise resource planning system for conducting business operations of the university. It was established that the administrative staff are marginally satisfied with the enterprise resource planning system. There were several critical business issues identified with the system; the reporting services of the system gave the users the most dissatisfaction. The reporting component has to be updated and provide benefit to the organisation so that efficiencies can be realised. It materialised as a theme in each of the categories

Microsoft or Google Web 2.0 Tools for Course Management

While Web 2.0 has no universal definition, it always refers to online interactions in which user groups both provide and receive content with the aim of collective intelligence. Since 2005, online software has provided Web 2.0 collaboration technologies, for little or no charge, that were formerly available only to wealthy organizations. Academic institutions at all levels are experimenting with these technologies to improve student learning experiences, and prepare them for a world in which work can be effectively accomplished through collaboration over the Internet, and geographic and time differences become increasingly irrelevant in sharing knowledge. Web 2.0 technologies are not limited to enriching course content. They can also be incorporated into the management and the delivery of college courses as well as the coordination of virtual teams. Detailed comparisons of the two most popular Web 2.0 office technologies from Google and Microsoft are provided in this teaching tip with examples of ways that Google online applications are used in support of managing a large college-wide computing introductory course

Intranet of the future: functional study, comparison of products and practical implementation

Future intranet: functional study, comparison of products and practical implementation 1. Introduction The project has fulfilled three goals: 1) To perform a study of the functionalities which have to be covered in a modern intranet (web 2.0, unified communication, collaboration, etc) 2) To perform a comparison of tools of the market which can be used to implement intranets (commercial and open source products) 3) To test three of these tools (Oracle WebCenter, Liferay Portal and Microsoft SharePoint) and develop a prototype with Oracle WebCenter. In addition, it includes a research about the evolution of the Intranets among the time, as well as a work to discover the current state of this kind of platforms over the entire world. In this introductory research it is also convenient to include other topics which are not strictly technical involving the use of this Intranet. To be more concrete, there is an analysis of the importance of the human role and management of the Intranet, the process of deploying a new Intranet in an organization and methods to evaluate the performance of this new system.   2. Functional study The approach taken to fulfil this goal is to develop a theoretical model describing the relationship between the Intranet and its users, and a complete set of functionalities which could be covered in the Intranet of the future. These functionalities are categorized in groups. The project describes these groups and the functionalities included on them. 3. Comparison of products The project will describe and compare several technologies which can be used to develop an Intranet that we have previously modelled. The purpose here is to discover the strong points and weaknesses of each technology if it was used to develop the Intranet we desire. After having done such a review, the project focuses on three technologies and performs an extensive evaluation of them. Finally, an extensive comparison between these three technologies is done, highlighting where they offer better solutions and performance compared to the other possibilities. 4. Practical implementation The project focuses on three technologies: Oracle WebCenter, Liferay Portal and Microsoft SharePoint. Then, a prototype which covers a set of functionalities of the modelled Intranet has been built with Oracle WebCenter

How can SMEs benefit from big data? Challenges and a path forward

Big data is big news, and large companies in all sectors are making significant advances in their customer relations, product selection and development and consequent profitability through using this valuable commodity. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have proved themselves to be slow adopters of the new technology of big data analytics and are in danger of being left behind. In Europe, SMEs are a vital part of the economy, and the challenges they encounter need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. This paper identifies barriers to SME uptake of big data analytics and recognises their complex challenge to all stakeholders, including national and international policy makers, IT, business management and data science communities. The paper proposes a big data maturity model for SMEs as a first step towards an SME roadmap to data analytics. It considers the ‘state-of-the-art’ of IT with respect to usability and usefulness for SMEs and discusses how SMEs can overcome the barriers preventing them from adopting existing solutions. The paper then considers management perspectives and the role of maturity models in enhancing and structuring the adoption of data analytics in an organisation. The history of total quality management is reviewed to inform the core aspects of implanting a new paradigm. The paper concludes with recommendations to help SMEs develop their big data capability and enable them to continue as the engines of European industrial and business success. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft