Lecture 2: What is BI?

Well, i had to change the format of my heading, i really like the "Friends" tv show title like heading. But anyways, Last week Dr. Ram talked about What is BI?KPI?Metrics?Goals?

Well before we begin, a lot of my fellow classmates have tried to answer the question what is BI or Why BI?
My question is different. I am asking are you using you knowlege to focus on usage of the information?This is the question every company has to ask:
Following is a link to video that i found very helpful:

So what is BI?
Ans: how to make use of data to achieve intelligence. It encompasses everything from collection, measurement, understanding, analysis, prediction and management.
BI is set of tools, technologies and techniques used for the all of the above processes.

Key Performance Index(KPI): These are the goals(quantifiable) of an organization. eg if i am a company like Instant Noodles. My goal is to increase the sales by atleast 10% over a year. So yhis can be my KPI. But i have to move on once i have achieved this goal.
Well i found a video which teels us that we should have a common KPI throughout the world so that the businesses are able to compare their performance with others.

Well, there is another interesting term that came up in the class called Paradigm Shift i.e companies are not only interested in their internal data but also in the external data from mobile devices, social networking websites etc.

so internal + external data = BIG data? Yea, you can say that. Watch this interesting video:



 More info on Google analytics next time .

Chapter 3: The one with Google Analytics

Hi Folks,

Well on 16th Jan i embedded Google Analytics Code in my website. So here are some of the results that i found out.

In General, when i posted the link on the Business Intelligence group:

So the number of users went up on Jan 16. 

But on Jan 17 more people visited my blog. Maybe it's because of the "rap" song that i posted.

This tells us people in this batch love rap song :)

Let's talk about the reach of my blog :

Well my blog is pretty popular in Tucson as you can see.

The browser from which people accessed my blog:

So many people use Chrome and Firefox it seems .

What internet connections people are using ?

Most of them use Cox communications. But it's strange that most of the people are on UofA network. I guess people like to surf my blog more while they are in school.

Do people access my blog using a mobile browser?

Hell, yeah!

Conclusion:  My blog readers use chrome,are from tucson and are using cox communication as their ISP. And Ofcourse, thay like "rap".

Chapter 2: The one with the Rapper

Hi folks, i found a very interesting rap on Business Intelligence. It says "Everyone's convinced , You need Business Intelligence".

Here are the lyrics :


Lyrics:
This recessionary period ain’t messin’ around
I got depression-era economics gettin me down
The internet it ain’t immune, man, everybody’s gettin’ screwed
And yeah it’s true you know, web two-dot-oh is dead in the ground

VC’s drying up, M&A? outta luck
And the rub is you’ll be strugglin’ if your company sucks
Stuck scratchin your head? You’ll be dead in the water
Here’s a couple signs that you’re gonna get slaughtered:

Your six-month peak was a TechCrunch mention
Your churn rate’s deep, you got no retention
You join AdSense and declare success
But your cloud tag’s only got one word: “test”

You built a couple widgets and a wiki that scales
And then you paid your people double cause they did it in rails
But, how you doin’ in sales? I know it’s probably slow, yo
‘Cause I need some aviators just to look at your logo

You got no revenue
Burnin’ cash is all you do
You raised your Series A
Twice-preferred, participating
You’re throwin staff retreats
Better check your balance sheet
Everyone’s convinced
You need business intelligence

See you lata, public beta, do a real release
The whole long tail couldn’t even save this piece
Got a social app? Well, it’s a disgrace, look
‘Cause Facebook can’t even make money on Facebook

You got a podcast, but the point you’re missin’s
Your vision’s so weak, ain’t no one listenin’
SecondLife sales? Man, that plan is the worst
I think you shoulda made a dollar in your first life first

Meet-Ups every day, when you go, pros scatter
You’re LinkedIn to 500+ but none matter
Tryin’ to be distributed, you wanna unbound
But you know nothin’ bout computing, get your head out the cloud

Your API’s slow, it’s a bit too RESTful
Quit tryin’ to grow at a clip, was too stressful
Debt breakin’ covenants, they’re rollin’ it back
Yeah you got all of your investor’s tryin’ to call in a MAC

Not grabbing market share
Market isn’t even there
You think you’re doin’ fine
In stealth mode since ‘99
You’re tweeting constantly
LOL @bankruptcy
You don’t know SEO
You paid for links but they’re nofollowed

Had millions in the bank
Still have no Alexa Rank
Burn out or get acquired
Either way you’re gettin’ fired
Your angel round is gone
Blew it on a favicon
Everyone’s convinced
You need business intelligence

You signed a 10-year lease
I wouldn’t give you 10 weeks
You Loved “Who Moved My Cheese?”
Retire, please

Your dedicated server farm is bladed, thats slick
Although you probably woulda made it on an 386
Because your invite-only system, dude it’s hurtin’, it’s flawed
See, all those people you invited ain’t returnin your calls

And it’s only 9-to-5ers who surround your scene
Because Adultfriendfinder’s where you found your team
Tried to hire talent but you screwed it up, didn’tcha
‘Cause your wanted add said you were hirin’ ninjas

Yeah we know we’re hypocrites for doin this song
And then promotin’ it by posting on the company blog
But a new day is dawnin’, the strong they can sense it
Darwin is comin’ to the ‘net with a vengeance

If you’re sittin on a winner, yo, you wanna be strapped
So if you want to push it harder, best be trackin your stats
And I ain’t talkin’ bout your traffic, man I’m way past that
Wanna fatten up your stacks? Let’s chat…
Business Intelligence… (repeat)

Source:

http://info.rjmetrics.com/blog/bid/44953/Business-Intelligence-Rap-Video

Chapter 1: The One with Introduction

Well, the first lecture was about going through the syllabus and Google AdWords Competition. The class was at 8 am in the morning but Dr. Ram made it pretty interesting. I think the class is pretty interesting one because of the social media component and of course Google AdWords Competition. So we got the class started by just briefly going through the Google Online Marketing challenge.

I went through the Google adwords website and found this video:

                                                    

So what is this "Google AdWords"?

So, it works likes this :" whenever you search something in Google, you enter something in the search box, that something is called keyword. So, there are various businesses who set up different keywords so that their ad may pop up alongside the Google searches"

Before we get into how this can help our businesses, we should really understand what Google Analytics does.

So, Google Analytics gives you information about how many people visited your blog/website in relation to a variety of things. e.g. it can tell you after you blogged about "Paris Hilton" more people visited your blog. So, if you want more people to visit your blog, may be blog more about "Paris Hilton".
So i guess you know what i am saying.

Now the question comes how is Google Analytics and Adwords related?

Well, in Google AdWords you have to set certain "keywords". Like in the cartoon above this guy must have kept "bottled tiger blood" as on of the keywords. So when any person typed that keyword in Google search, he/she would have got this guy's add on the left hand side of the results. So, Google Analytics tells you that because of this keyword 2 visitors landed up on your website. Isn't that cool?

As interesting this competition seems, its not that easy. Designing good keywords is important cause we need to think from a customer point of view, what would the customers type in so that we can direct them to our website?

Google has variety of tutorials on how to get started. I went through the documents and it seems we need to have a client first before we start working on those documents and coming up with a strategy.Here is the link : http://www.google.com/ads/learn/starting-business.html

We made our Team and named it Eller Analytics.

So far we contacted 3 potential clients and one is 100% confirmed but we are awaiting replies from others.More info on that later.

Still wondering what is BI and how Does it help?


Well this company used it and here's what they found :

Note: i would like to design my blogs to whatever has been taught in the the class, so that they are much more organized according to the class structure.



Disclaimer:  All these pictures are not my property and are being used just for "Business Intelligence" course.