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as input historical data (e.g. operational details) that is then treated in three different
phases globally designated by ETL, which means: data extraction, transformation and
cleaning, and transfer and load. As a result, all the relevant information is stored into
internal a general-purpose database and then into multi-dimensional (specific-data)
cubes, allowing a fast execution of dashboards, analysis and reports which is (ideally)
triggered “on-the-fly” by a simple mouse click - this is the analytical environment
part of the BI, which is powered by statistical, OR (e.g. forecasting) and artificial
intelligence (e.g. data-mining) techniques.
Fig. 1. Business intelligence components
The main features of a BI solution is therefore the creation of reports, the explora-
tion and analysis of data and the creation of dashboards, which provide information
on the overall system performance in a simplified form. The use of BI solutions are
intended to provide managers and agents responsible for decision making in an or-
ganization, timely and accurate critical information about the (overview) performance
of the system, so that they can make better decisions to improve such performance.
Organizations that have deployed BI solutions cite many tangible and intangible
benefits. Although it is difficult to associate a concrete return of investment (ROI)
resulting from these benefits, most enlightened executives place huge value on having
a “single version of the truth”, better information for strategic and tactical decision
making and more efficient processes [12]. The most common benefits cited in the
literature are the followings: time savings, “single version of truth”, better strategic
and plans, better tactics and decisions, more efficient processes, cost savings, greater
customer and supplier satisfaction, greater employee satisfaction, return of invest-
ment, new revenues, total cost of ownership, and shareholder value.
3
Proposed What-If Simulation and BI Conceptual Framework
The cornerstone module of this new integrated model or tool will be the “so-called BI
what-if component”. The idea for this component is to provide it with properly de-
signed wizards in order to create (new) scenarios that can be simultaneously
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