Semantic layer technology reduces value of BI investments

February 26, 2012 1:24 am 0 comments Views: 16

Share this Article

  • TwitterTwitter
  • Facebook
  • DeliciousDelicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleuponStumble
  • RedditReddit
  • Follow Me on PinterestPinterest
  • Google+

Tags:

emerging trends

Author:

 Sanjay Mehta

Source:

 

A semantic layer will be able to create technically sophisticated SQL and in many instances may need to generate multiple SQL statements in order to return the correct results (chasm trap/fan trap). The semantic layer must understand how to deal with database loops, complex objects, complex sets (union, intersect, minus), aggregate table navigation and shortcut joins.

This results into huge investments both in time to market and maintenance. Technical expertise and costly resources are deployed to build this semantic layer. Traditional BI semantic layer takes time to build and slows down deployment of a BI solution. It must be kept in sync with any database changes that occur.

Hence use of semantic layer is being experts few in any organization and adoption becomes a challenge. As a result of this intensive workload, user requests for new queries and reports can accumulate in a long queue, leading to user frustration and reducing the value the organization gets from its BI investments.

With 1KEY BI which is fully self-service consumed BI, which is all the rage today. It would serve over 80% of most BI users who are the critical masses. The self-service consumed BI requirements of “casual users” are easily fulfilled using parameterized reports or interactive dashboards which do not require semantic layers to build or deploy.

The other point was that you can use database constructs such as database views or stored procedures to accomplish much of what the semantic layer provides with 1KEY BI with quick time to market and easily deployable with zero or no special training.

The final disadvantage to the semantic layer or at least the semantic layer of traditional BI tool was that it could only connect to one database at a time. In other words, if you had data in MS SQL Server and Oracle, you needed a semantic layer for both whereas in 1KEY with 1KEY View module it can couple queries from two different servers-databases and provide in single presentation layer reports with simple SQL statements.

After seeing 1KEY create a data source, add a hierarchy on the fly, rename several dimensions, add comments to those reports to clearly identify what was presented, drag a measure field to become a dimension field, hide a few fields, and then publish the data source with the metadata changes so it could be shared across his team, the customers have reacted with wow and called it “powerful with 1KEY”. Information delivery is the most successful aspect of 1KEY which would cover Reporting, Dashboards, Ad Hoc Query, Microsoft Office type UI and Outlook Integration where it covers requirements of mass user base of any enterprise. One of the major advantages of using 1KEY BI is it does not require database which saves money and very well skilled human resource.

With no data warehouse required 1KEY can be implemented in a couple of weeks saving a lot of TIME, MONEY AND RESOURCES. This technology overcomes the efforts and time required to build data warehouse, normalization, schema writing, creation of cubes and building semantic layer.  With 1KEY BI it’s about providing data access and analysis to individuals and groups, and letting them get what they need more rapidly and precisely than ever before.

By Sanjay Mehta, from: http://blog.maia-intelligence.com/2012/01/02/semantic-layer-technology-reduces-value-of-bi-investments/

Leave a Reply



eight + = 10

Latest News

  • EPM Marketing and Sales Analytics Strategy

    How to Deal With Chaos: Grow Up

    “We have what we call rainmakers and implementers,” [CEO of W.L. Gore, Terry] Kelly explains. “Rainmakers come up with wild ideas, implementers make them real. The two drive each other crazy. If you’re not careful, control will gravitate to the implementers. So we try to protect the rainmakers. That means we have to be comfortable with more chaos.”

    Read more →
  • Economy EPM Featured FYI Strategy How Does The Cleanliness of Money Affect Our Spending?

    How Does The Cleanliness of Money Affect Our Spending?

    New study shows when dirty money is more likely to stay in your pocket.

    With the rise of credit cards, PayPal and other ways of transferring cash electronically, real cash-money is in decline. Like CDs and books before it, the folding stuff looks certain to be another victim of technological advances.

    But not just yet.

    Read more →
  • EPM Featured Management Strategy What Leaders Can Learn from Wild Animal Trainers

    What Leaders Can Learn from Wild Animal Trainers

    A command and control leadership style may have its time and place. But at the negotiation table? You may find concession-making skills will work more in your favor. When I last spoke with negotiation expert George Kohlrieser, he eloquently compared the delicate dance between an animal trainer and animal to managing concessions during negotiations. Concession making can be material or it can be in the relationship. If we’re in a heated debate in negotiation and you suddenly answer my question or [...]

    Read more →
  • Careers EPM Featured Management History’s Most Famous Serial Career Changers

    History’s Most Famous Serial Career Changers

    The average worker today will change jobs about seven times over the course of their career, but few will go so far as to change their line of work entirely. Historically, people have been even less inclined to take the risk of a complete career revamp, often working one job their entire lives. But some of history’s boldest and most dynamic figures shared a common willingness to abandon one career after another, either in the search for their true calling or a simple inability to focus their interests on one particular area. Such famous people are proof that there’s no shame in being a perpetual career changer.

    Who are these top serial career changers you ask? …

    Read more →
  • EPM Management Strategy 5 Ways to Send Productivity Through the Roof

    5 Ways to Send Productivity Through the Roof

    Want to dramatically improve your employees’ performance without spending any money?

    Want to dramatically improve your own performance without taking classes, attending seminars, or buying cool new gadgets that promise lots but deliver little?

    It’s easier than you think. See how.

    Read more →
  • Economy EPM Featured Management Strategy From Ox Cart to WalMart: 4 Keys To Reaching Emerging Market Consumers

    From Ox Cart to WalMart: 4 Keys To Reaching Emerging Market Consumers

    To get products to customers in emerging markets, global manufacturers need strategies for navigating both the traditional and the modern retail landscapes. In emerging markets the world over, multinationals struggling to get their products to consumers confront a bewildering kaleidoscope of strategic and operational challenges. At one extreme, they must grapple with traditional retailers: the chaotic array of shops, kiosks, street vendors, and other small proprietors who seem to offer neighborhood customers a little of everything, whether it be groceries or [...]

    Read more →
  • Biz Intelligence Featured Strategy Tech Game On!  A TV Game Show for IT and Analysts?

    Game On! A TV Game Show for IT and Analysts?

    Imagine a game show featuring three competing teams of contestants who are given a business problem involving choices. They get one week to design and test their hypotheses through experiments and return to the show with their answers. A panel of CEOs would judge the winning team.

    Why not provide analysts, and the important role they perform, more visibility to the public? Make it fun. The popular TV show “The Big Bang Theory” highlights physicists. So why not have a TV game show for analysts and IT specialists to show off their investigative and discovery skills? We might call it “The Big Data Theory!”

    Read more →
  • Biz Intelligence EPM Featured FYI Grace Hopper, b.1906.First Data Scientist?

    Grace Hopper, b.1906.First Data Scientist?

    Grace Hopper, U.S. Naval Rear Admiral and the oldest active-duty officer in the U.S., was also a computer scientist who developed the first working compiler in 1952, and led the effort in the 1960s to develop COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) a programming language still in use.

    However, she was also probably the world’s first data scientist.

    Read more →