A framework for implementing a scalable business intelligence system 67 Several training sessions were held following the deployment of the BI system. These training sessions were videotaped and saved in XYZ consulting’s common repository, where all employees can access them. There is also a support ticket system in place where users may submit feature requests and report system defects.
In terms of system maintenance, in addition to the refresh icons, several flags were also added to the system to alert the user when something is wrong with the report. Furthermore, the BI system defines access roles in addition to flagging. A report has an owner as well as contributors. The report owner can change the report configurations, assign contributors, link the report to live views, publish a new revision, and delete the report.
Report contributors, on the other hand, can only publish a new revision. The .pbix file can be seen and downloaded by other users.
Monitoring systems were also added to monitor the memory and CPU use of the PowerBI gateway, which oversees refreshing the reports with data. Finally, data backups are required to ensure that the system is not jeopardised in the event of a data breach.
As a result, a mechanism exists to produce a daily backup of the data warehouse. This data is also utilised as development data by restoring it into the development database via the restore process. This enables continuous testing of the backup and restore functions.
A framework for implementing a scalable business intelligence system 68 Only about 25% of respondents have at least one subordinate, while the other 75% have no one reporting directly to them. 75% of the respondents have a bachelor’s degree and 25%
have a master’s degree as their highest qualification.
25% of respondents have been with XYZ consulting for less than a year, while 50% have been with the company for one to three years. The remaining respondents have worked at XYZ consultancy for more than three years. In addition, all respondents claimed that they use the BI system. 8.3% of respondents use the BI system to create reports, while 25% use it simply to view reports. 66% of respondents stated that they use the BI system for both producing and viewing BI reports.
Table 3-1 Survey respondents summary
Question Response
Gender Male 63.6%
Female 36.4%
Has Subordinates Yes 25%
No 75%
Highest Qualification
Bachelors 75%
Masters 25%
Doctorate 0%
Years with XYZ consulting
< 1 Year 25%
1 - 3 Years 50%
> 3 Years 25%
Main Use of BI System
Creating 8.3%
Viewing 25%
Both 66%
The rest of the survey results will validate that the developed BI system, utilising the framework suggested in this study, was able to achieve all the research objectives and, as a result, answer the research problem.
The first aspect to be validated is the BI system's information quality. The purpose of this validation is to ensure that the system outputs are accurate and relevant to the end-user, and that the outputs are delivered in the best way feasible. As a result, the content, accuracy, and format of information will be evaluated for this study.
This is done to validate the implemented BI system against the research objective provided in Section 1.3.2, which states that the implemented BI system must:
1. Provide accurate and relevant information
This will be accomplished by gathering results from the EUCS survey, specifically questions 1 through 6. Descriptive analysis will be performed on the responses to determine how the users feel about the system's information quality.
A framework for implementing a scalable business intelligence system 69 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
The first six questions in the EUCS survey are on user satisfaction with the system's information quality. The survey received 12 responses once more. Table 3-2 summarises the user responses to the various questions asked.
As in the preceding section, a 4 or 5 indicates that the user is pleased with the aspect. A 3 suggests that there is still a lot of potential for development, while anything less shows that the user is completely dissatisfied with the quality.
Table 3-2 Responses for user satisfaction with information quality
No. Questions Responses
Q1 Does the BI system provide the precise information you need? 5 25%
4 41.67%
3 33.33%
2 0%
1 0%
Q2 Does the data provided by the BI system meet your needs? 5 25%
4 58.33%
3 16.67%
2 0%
1 0%
Q3 Does the BI system allow you to create reports that seem to be exactly what you need?
5 8.33%
4 33.33%
3 41.67%
2 0%
1 16.67%
Q4 Do the BI system provide sufficient information? 5 33.33%
4 33.33%
3 16.67%
2 16.67%
1 0%
Q5 Are you satisfied with the accuracy provided by the BI system? 5 58.33%
4 25%
3 0%
2 16.67%
1 0%
Q6 Do you think the data provided by the BI system is presented in a useful format?
5 50%
4 41.67%
3 8.33%
2 0%
1 0%
According to the replies in Table 3-2, 66.67% of respondents believe the BI system offers precise information. The remaining 33.33% claim that the BI system only provides them with the precise information they require half of the time. This is another good case for user-centred
A framework for implementing a scalable business intelligence system 70 maintenance and support. There is most likely data that the user anticipates but does not obtain from the BI system.
Understanding which data, the users require will assist the development team in incorporating that specific data into the system, thus increasing user satisfaction with the overall precision of information. Furthermore, 83.33% of respondents answered that the BI system met practically all their data demands, with only 16.67% indicating that this aspect, like the prior question, can be improved.
Unfortunately, just 41.66% of respondents said that the BI system allows them to develop the exact reports they require. 41.67% thought that this aspect could be improved, while 16.67%
were completely dissatisfied with it. The low number of satisfied respondents could indicate that many of the respondents are not PowerBI experts, and thus offering training on PowerBI features could allow users to build far more customised reports than they currently can.
66.66% of respondents believe that the BI system provides them with enough information, whereas 33.34% are dissatisfied with the amount of information offered by the BI system. This may signal a need for more data, therefore talking to users and learning what other data they require may increase user satisfaction with the amount of information provided by the BI system.
Furthermore, 83.33% of respondents are satisfied with the accuracy of the system outputs, with only 16.67% dissatisfied. The low percentage of dissatisfied users may suggest that the user does not grasp the current format of the information; therefore, a training session may address scenarios where users expect something other than what the system really gives.
Lastly, 91.67% of respondents are satisfied with the way in which the data is presented, with only 8.33% believing that the format may be enhanced more. Except for the instance of making customised reports, users appear to be generally satisfied with the BI system's information quality aspects.
Figure 3-17 depicts the average rating of user satisfaction. Figure 3-17 further illustrates that the overall rating with the precision, data requirements, volume of information, accuracy, and format of the information is more than 3.5 which is good. The ability to create custom reports was the only aspect that received less than a 3.5 satisfaction rating.
A framework for implementing a scalable business intelligence system 71
Figure 3-17 User satisfaction with information quality
However, this suggests that training end-users on the possibilities of PowerBI may boost user satisfaction when it comes to creating customised reports. Overall, the results show that the implemented BI system provides accurate and relevant information to the user thus handling the success factor of information quality very well.
The next aspect to be validated is the system's quality. The purpose of this validation is to assess the technical system's quality. When analysing system quality, numerous elements are considered. Thus, for this study, system reliability and turnaround time will be examined in relation to the implemented BI system.
This will be done to validate the implemented BI system in terms of the following research objective specified in Section 1.3.2, which stipulates that the implemented BI system must:
1. Be reliable and responsive, by providing up to date information in a timely manner.
2. Be easy to use by providing user friendly functionality.
The system's reliability will be assessed by comparing the number of times a BI report fails to refresh with the number of times it succeeds. This is a critical aspect since report refreshes ensure that the report always has the most up-to-date and accurate data. A report may fail to refresh because of system failure, such as the system consuming too much memory, network failures, and concurrent processing issues, to name a few.
On the other hand, how long it takes for the report to refresh when new data is available is an important factor to consider. This is because managers, clients, and regular company users all want to obtain their reports and gain insights promptly. If a report takes a long time to update
0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6
Rating