BI Maturity Model Level 2 – Query & Analysis

Overview of Query & Analysis Solutions & Environments

Sample Query and Analysis Solution

Query and analysis solutions enable business users and analysts to rapidly generate business queries and reports from enterprise data based upon business question of the data.  Also known as “ad-hoc” querying, these tools typically provide intuitive, graphical interfaces that shields users from technical complexities and allows users to leverage business terminology instead of the more technical database names. The business focus of these tools allows nontechnical professionals to be comfortable with their data and allows them to quickly and efficiently satisfy their own information needsin real time with minimal assistance from system developers. Commonly, query and analysis environments include a middleware layer that converts database conventions into business nomenclature that is more intuitive and understanding to end-users. Moreover, query & analysis environments give users the capability to access and analyze data in a unique and personal manner. Utilized primarily by business users, query and analysis solutions provide an environment that enables interactive methods to query data, present data in an ad-hoc manner, and find information on an as-needed basis.

Characteristics of Query & Analysis Environments

•  Utilized primarily by business users

•  Drag-n-drop interfaces to create queries and simple reports

•  Rapidly and intuitively generate queries with minimal help from IT professionals

•  Highly-interactive methods to query data

•  Users ask business questions to develop queries

•  To produce queries, users only need to understand their own business terms

•  Users can independently dive into the details of their data