Software or Hardware

Often when I introduce myself to someone else, people ask about what I do for a living. More often than not, I don't think the people I am talking with have any clue about what I really do, especially when I say that I work in "Business Intelligence." So more often than not, I just say, I work in IT (Information Technology) or I work with computers. While these statements are true, the connotation is far from the truth.

I think that most people would say that someone who works in IT spends their day in a cold server room fiddling around with servers or typing code all day or working behind the scenes of a computer network. When I really started looking into IT I had to decide whether I wanted to get into the hardware side or the software side. At one point I studied for and took one of the two exams to become A+ certified (a test about all of the parts and components of computers, printers, networks, etc). I learned a ton about the different components of a computer. But I also learned that I really don't like dealing with the hardware (except as a hobby) side of IT. So I turned to software.

As I continued to feel around the software side of things, I discovered the many different kinds of opportunities. I had to decide. What part of the software side of IT do I want to work in?

I didn't want to be stuck managing systems or performing system maintenance. I did not want to be a system administrator. In large part I found that I understand how business practices can benefit from technology. The year I spent as a consultant taught me that my greatest talents are found in system design. Had I remained in my job as a consultant, much of my time would have been spent on projects analyzing and designing systems. A quasi IT position, a skill looked down upon by many in IT (including my current employer) but I've never considered myself an all-out techno-geek. I think it is best stated that I am a systems designer or business analyst at heart (who happens to be in a job which is a system administrator role! -- anyone know of a job opening? ;->).

The next question I needed to answer was what kind of systems do I want to work with. Someone I attended school with was starting his own gaming company. Another enjoyed coding operating systems and database systems. There are other systems in marketing, human resources, finance, web systems, database systems, and many more. Lucky for me I was able to answer the question early in my search. I found the concept of Business Intelligence systems early in my graduate studies and knew it was for me.

Business Intelligence is an interesting term. Most businesses aren't that intelligent. And most business systems aren't either. Historically this term was branded as Executive Support Systems, Decision Support Systems and in early mainframe applications as reporting systems. Early systems were developed to print everything from your monthly phone bill to the month end finance report. A Wikipedia article defines business intelligence as "a set of concepts and methods to improve business decision making by using fact-based support systems."

For simplicity sake, BI comes in three flavors: (1) reports, (2) data analysis tools, and (3) dashboards.

Reports come in many shapes and sizes. In the past they were generally printed out. Today, they are just as often saved in PDF or HTML files. Every bill you received last month was printed by some type of BI system. Your paycheck was likely printed by a financial or HR reporting system. Think of reports as static data. Once they are created they don't change.

Reporting systems evolved into data analysis tools. Reports were static snapshots of data, analysis reports are powerful interactive query and analysis reporting tools. Combined with well designed reporting data marts (or databases designed for reporting and analysis) these tools allow users to drill in and out, up and down through data sets to look for useful information which answers specific business questions. Well designed BI analysis reports/systems are designed by carefully analyzing business processes and placing only the needed information in the data marts.

Finally, the image shown here is a decent example of a dashboard. A dashboard is generally intended as a summary of data. Dashboards are intended for upper management types and those who need to see the overview of what is happening within the organization. Many times they use "stop-lighting" [the art of turning things red, yellow, or green depending on their status] or graphics to indicate the status of a component of the organization. The dashboard usually allows the user to perform some drilling into summarized details. These systems rarely have detailed data. The dashboard is a one-stop shop for how the business is doing.

So today, I have about four years experience all three types of reports mentioned above. I have spent most of the past four years working with Hyperion BI tools (recently purchased by Oracle). I am currently working mostly as a Hyperion system administrator, but I also build reports, teach/mentor new report creators, create dashboards, and generally do everything related to Hyperion/Oracle's System 9 BI+ reporting system.

Well, I never intended for this blog to be so long. If you made it to this last paragraph, thank you. I want to give a challenge. Please let me know what you think I do for a living. Help me create a new "introduction."






Hyperion - (Greek mythology) a Titan who was the son of Gaea and Uranus and the father of Helios and Selene and Eos in ancient mythology