Glossary
In analytics it is a query made solely in response to a specific situation or request without considering the wider or long-term repeatability issues. It is considered a reactive way to practice fact-based decision making.
adaptability
The organization's acceptance of or resistance to change.
alignment
In the context of organization maturity, it is the act of the organization to match the capabilities of the four organizational pillars (people, processes, technology, and culture) to support the organization's business priorities and objectives.
analytics
A suite of technical solutions that uses mathematical and statistical methods. The solutions are applied to data to generate insight to help organizations understand historical business performance as well as forecast and plan for future decisions.
big data
Information (both structured and unstructured) of a size and complexity that challenges or exceeds the capacity of an organization to handle, store, and analyze it.
business experts
Nontechnical users of data and information, whose input is needed to develop analytics, select key performance indicators, and use information for decision making.
business intelligence
A broad category of applications and technologies for reporting, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. BI applications include the activities of decision support systems, query and reporting, and online analytical processing (OLAP).
The defined method for a range of activities that organizations perform. A business process can include anything from the steps needed to make a product to how a supply is ordered or how a decision is made.
business rule
A statement of business logic that specifies conditions to be evaluated and actions to be taken if those conditions are satisfied.
business users
Non-technical individuals who use data for decision making.
Center of Excellence (CoE)
Typically a permanent, formal organizational structure consisting of representatives from both business and IT that seeks to advance and promote the proper and effective use of technology and analytics to support the organization's business strategy. Sometimes known as a Competency Center.
change agent
An organization or group of individuals tasked with introducing change in the way the organization is currently operating.
change management
The organization's effort to control and manage the introduction of new changes to the current operating model to ensure gradual and successful adoption.
cloud computing
A model for network access in which large, scalable resources are provided via the Internet as a shared service to requesting users. Access, computing, and storage services can be obtained by users without the need to understand or control the location and configuration of the system. Users consume resources as a service, and pay only for the resources that are used.
collaboration
The ability of individuals to interact effectively to support organizational goals.
cultural driver
A business leader, likely at the executive level, able to influence an organization's culture.
culture
The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize a company or an organization.
The measure of the long-term economic value of a customer. It is the sum of all the profits from a given customer over the lifetime of his or her relationship with your business.
dashboard
A view that displays ranges of data in a graphical format. Key performance indicators (KPIs) or any element can be displayed in a dashboard. Each element is represented by a gauge that displays the data ranges that are defined. Links to comments, trend data, and element properties can also be provided.
data cleansing
The process of eliminating inaccuracies, irregularities, and discrepancies from data.
data governance
The process for addressing how data enters the organization, who is accountable for it, and how that data achieves the organization's quality standards that allow for complete transparency within an organization.
data management
The process of managing data as a resource that is valuable to an organization or business, including the process of developing data architectures, developing practices and procedures for dealing with data, and then executing these aspects on a regular basis.
data mart
A subset of the data in a data warehouse. A data mart is optimized for a specific set of users who need a particular set of queries and reports.
Data Mavericks
Individuals with in-demand analytical and technical skills who have made their organization very dependent on their skills to understand data. These individuals also tend to resist efforts to broaden the use of technology in an organization as it threatens their status.
data modeling
A model that is used to either logically or physically organize the data elements in a database, including the definition of the data elements and of the relationships among the data elements for a specific industry, such as banking.
The relative value of data, which is based on the accuracy of the knowledge that can be generated using that data. High-quality data is consistent, accurate, and unambiguous, and it can be processed efficiently.
data silos
A term used to describe the process of keeping data in separate systems for use by specific business units. The information in one silo sometimes conflicts with information maintained in another silo.
data steward
An individual comfortable with both technology and business problems. Stewards are responsible for communicating between the business users and the IT community.
data value
In the context of this book, the degree to which information is valued as a corporate asset.
data visualization
The process of abstracting data in a schematic form, including attributes or variables for information units, and rendering it into visual forms such as graphs, charts, diagrams, and animations.
data warehouse
A collection of data that is extracted from one or more sources for the purpose of query, reporting, and analysis. Data warehouses are generally used for storing large amounts of data that originate in other corporate applications or that is extracted from external data sources.
decision making
How decisions are made, based on what types of resources, information, and specific processes are available.
dimension tension
A state in which the maturity level of one or more of the four organizational pillars does not match the maturity level of the other pillars.
diversity
The mix of skills, backgrounds, and knowledge that employees bring to an organization.
domain experts
Also known as subject matter experts, these individuals have an in-depth knowledge of a specific area within their business unit. The input from domain experts is critical in making decisions about what data to use and how to use it.
dynamics
The nature of interactions among individuals within the organization and among the four organizational pillars.
enterprise resource planning (ERP)
An integrated application that controls day-to-day business operations such as inventory, sales, finance, human resources, and distribution. From the warehousing perspective, ERP systems differ from standard databases in that they have predefined data models that must be understood in order to successfully extract the data.
executive sponsor
C-level individual who sponsors enterprise and strategic changes and initiatives in an organization.
forecast
A numerical prediction of a future value for a time series. Forecasting techniques are used to identify previously unseen trends and anticipate fluctuations to facilitate better planning.
globalization
Comprehensive term for the emergence of a global society in which economic, political, environmental, and cultural events in one part of the world quickly come to have significance for people in other parts of the world.
grid computing
A type of computing in which large computing tasks are distributed among multiple computers on a network.
information access
The flow of meaningful business insight to the business users who need it.
Information Evolution Model (IEM)
The SAS organizational maturity model (patented by the U.S. government). The model provides a framework for measuring where an organization is in terms of generating and using business insight to support decisions and validate strategies.
information management process
A comprehensive step-by-step description of how information is collected, cleansed, stored, moved, and delivered to support decision making.
A detailed layout and description of how an organization creates value and output in the form of products and services, including all the steps, input, and output required to complete this process.
infrastructure resources
The IT resources used to manage, store, and distribute enterprise information including networks, databases, application, solutions, and data warehouses.
innovation
The ability of an organization to generate and act on new or different ideas, products, or services.
intelligence tools
Applications used to transform raw data into useful knowledge.
IT architecture
The hardware, software, and connectivity that support information flow.
key performance indicator (KPI)
A measurement that shows whether an organization is progressing toward its stated goals.
master data
The data that describes the important details of a business subject area such as customer, product, or material across the organization. Master data allows different applications and lines of business to use the same definitions and data regarding the subject area. Master data gives an accurate, 360-degree view of the business subject.
master data management
The business applications, methods, and tools that implement the policies, procedures, and infrastructure to support the capture, integration, and subsequent shared use of accurate, timely, consistent, and complete master data.
maturity model
A framework that describes, for a specific area of interest, a number of levels of sophistication at which activities in this area can be carried out.
metadata
Descriptive data about data that is stored and managed in a database, in order to facilitate access to captured and archived data for further use.
The types of measures that an organization tracks to gauge its success. Also see: Key performance indicators.
motivators
The intrinsic and extrinsic forces that drive people to do what they do.
outsourcing
The transfer of the management or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider.
performance management
The organization's effort to track, report on, and distribute its business performance information to support decision making.
rewards
The compensation structure—formal and informal—and how it shapes behavior.
scalability
The ability of a software application to function well and with minimal loss of performance, despite changing computing environments; the volume of computations, users, or data. Scalable software is able to take full advantage of increases in computing capability such as those that are provided by the use of SMP hardware and threaded processing.
service-oriented architecture (SOA)
A software design and software architecture design pattern independent of any vendor, product, or technology and based on discrete pieces of software providing application functionality as services to other applications. For instance, this software design defines how two computing entities, such as programs, interact in such a way as to enable one entity to perform a unit of work on behalf of another entity.
shared services model
A model in which an organization consolidates the offering of a service, such as analyzing data or producing business intelligence reports, in one business unit. Other units must come to that unit to get this work done.
skills
The capabilities that are sought or nurtured in the organization's knowledge worker.
social responsibility
The organization's focus on environmental, social, and humane activities.
Reports that can't be automatically updated (or refreshed) by business users.
text analytics
Refers generally to the process of deriving patterns and trends from unstructured content such as notes, reports, and comments.
transparency
Visibility in contexts related to the behavior of an organization, the manner in which it conducts business, and its relationship to customers, employees, and partners.