Conceptual Architecture of Data Warehouses - A Transformation-Oriented View

A data warehouse (DWH) is an integrated collection of worthwhile data for management support. Unfortunately operational databases – the main source of feeding the DWH with internal data – only provide data with poor management value when no transformation has taken place. The paper deals with this topic. It concentrates on a conceptual architecture of a DWH, in which the transformation machine is the main constituent part of the architecture. This machine supports sub-processes of filtering, harmonization, aggregation and enrichment and is maintained by controller and technician interfaces. Furthermore an access, load and meta data administration handles the secure and documented loading and accessing of relevant data and guarantees technical and businessoriented documentation of all transformation activities

Business Intelligence in the Cloud?

Business Intelligence (BI) deals with integrated approaches to management support. In many cases, the integrated infrastructures that are subject to BI have become complex, costly, and inflexible. A possible remedy for these issues might arise on the horizon with “Cloud Computing” concepts that promise new options for a net based sourcing of hard- and software. Currently, there is still a dearth of concepts for defining, designing, and structuring a possible adaption of Cloud Computing to the domain of BI. This contribution combines results from the outsourcing and the BI literature and derives a framework for delineating “Cloud BI” approaches. This is the bases for the discussion of six possible scenarios – some of which within immediate reach today

Impact of service-oriented architectures (SOA) on business process standardization - Proposing a research model

Originally, Data Warehouses (DWH) were conceived to be components for the data support of controlling and management. From early on, this brought along the need to cope with extensive data preparation, integration, and distribution requirements. In the growing infrastructures for managerial support (“Business Intelligence”), the DWH turned into a central data hub for decision support. As the business environment and the underlying technical infrastructures are fostering an ever increasing degree of systems integration, the DWH has been recognized to be a pivotal component for all sorts of data transformation and data integration operations. Nowadays, the DWH is supposed to process both managerial and operational data – it becomes a transformation hub (TH). This article delineates the relevant motives that drive the trend towards THs and the resulting requirements. The logical composition of a TH is developed based on data transformation steps. Two case studies exemplify the application of the resulting architecture

REQUIREMENTS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION REGARDING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING – A QUANTITATIVE EXPLORATION

Additive Manufacturing differs in some characteristics from conventional manufacturing techniques. The core of additive techniques is a manufacturing process building up parts layer by layer. Further-more, it is possible to include functionality into monolithic parts, which are built up within one pro-cess without the need of assembly. The research objective of this paper is the identification of re-quirements that are induced by Additive Manufacturing, for Information Systems in the product devel-opment and the production phase. This interdisciplinary research field is less considered by Infor-mation Systems researchers yet. Therefore, an explorative quantitative study, based on assumptions, is chosen as an adequate research method to reach that objective. As a result, a conceptual approach for an improved exchange of product data is presented. This concept mainly addresses the request of en-terprises to satisfy the information demand in different industrial business processes. The following main requirements could be identified: improvement of Information Systems for customer participa-tion in industrial Additive Manufacturing fields; determination of all product defining data into Addi-tive Manufacturing product development phase; standardized, bidirectional data exchange between production and product development in context of Additive Manufacturing enterprises

Ubiquitous Computing – an Application Domain for Business Intelligence in the Cloud?

A number of IT providers have introduced web-based services for management support that are discussed under the label“Business Intelligence (BI) in the Cloud”. It has been argued that these Cloud products might become valuable complementsto on-premise enterprise BI infrastructures by allowing a flexible addition of sizeable components, tools or – in selected areas– complete solutions. In this publication, it is discussed in how far a Ubiquitous Computing setting based on technologies likeradio frequency identification (RFID) or sensor technology could become a relevant application domain for Cloud-BI”. Themain insights come from a literature review, a series of expert interviews on BI and Cloud Computing, and a case on spareparts logistics. The results indicate that the addressed domain indeed comes with business potential and highlight the need forfurther design oriented research

From data warehouses to transformation hubs - A conceptual architecture

Originally, Data Warehouses (DWH) were conceived to be components for the data support of controlling and management. From early on, this brought along the need to cope with extensive data preparation, integration, and distribution requirements. In the growing infrastructures for managerial support (“Business Intelligence”), the DWH turned into a central data hub for decision support. As the business environment and the underlying technical infrastructures are fostering an ever increasing degree of systems integration, the DWH has been recognized to be a pivotal component for all sorts of data transformation and data integration operations. Nowadays, the DWH is supposed to process both managerial and operational data – it becomes a transformation hub (TH). This article delineates the relevant motives that drive the trend towards THs and the resulting requirements. The logical composition of a TH is developed based on data transformation steps. Two case studies exemplify the application of the resulting architecture

The ICT convergence discourse in the information systems literature - A second-order observation

The growing relevance, scale, and complexity of Business Intelligence (BI) entails the need to find agile and efficient solutions for the coordination of maintenance and release processes – under consideration of the heterogeneity of the involved units on the IT and the business side. The finance industry with its mature BI infrastructures and its highly turbulent business environment is a forerunner for these developments. Based on a survey among BI users in the finance sector, relevant problem areas in the BI service provision are identified and structured. A series of qualitative interviews among banks and insurance companies is used to gain further insights into approaches for dealing with the related issues. The studies uncover several advantages of a central “BI Competency Centre” (BICC) as well as levers for effectively structuring the interfaces between BICC, IT, and user interface

Business Intelligence Center Concepts

The approach of Business Intelligence (BI) as a support function for management decisions is established in practice and theory. BI can not just be considered as a simple sequence of isolated single projects. Its coordination requires permanent efforts to keep the BI function and the business organization in alignment. In the context of the present empirical study, BI organizations have been analyzed for the diffusion of BI units and their distinct characteristics. Furthermore these organizations have been classified in different types of BI centers based on development and operational tasks. The results indicate a wide spread implementation of BI units in companies with a multifaceted range of duty. Thereby conclusions for the practical constitution of BI centers are deduced from the results

Mastering Business Intelligence Complexity - A Service-Based Approach as a Prerequisite for BI Governance

Integrated approaches to management support – Business Intelligence (BI) – have become widespread. The respective solutions have evolved to highly integrated, complex solutions that cannot be treated as sequences of isolated projects anymore and require central coordination and regulation. As a consequence, companies have begun to implement BI governance structures. However, these initiatives face the challenge that there is still a lack of insight into how to capture and track the underlying service landscape. Based on a framework for service delineation, two case studies are analyzed and discussed. As a result, a service oriented concept for supporting BI governance is derived. It complements the framework with aspects of solution composition and decomposition as well as for lifecycle management and thereby enables a holistic perspective in BI governance approaches