By Don Santoso
BI Developer at Stellar
In a recent engagement, Stellar standardised the data models used in several Consent application reports. The aim was to have a standard data model that is easy to access by business users. We also wanted to reduce the reliance on the analysts to query the model and provide data to others.
In designing the solution, we considered a few factors:
- Ease of use for non-technical users
- Skillset required to customise, maintain and extend the solution
- Integration with existing BI Stack
- Total Cost of Ownership
Stellar solution
Our proposed solution was to provide the business units with a semantic layer of their Consenting data model. As the client has been using mainly Microsoft Business Intelligence technologies including Power BI, the choice was to use Analysis Services Tabular Model as the Semantic Layer.
Since going live, the users have accepted The Tabular Model very well. There are the features they enjoy:
- Easy access to data using familiar tools such as Excel or PowerBI
- No need to write complex SQL queries to get results
- Promotes self-service BI, no more waiting for others to provide data
- Frequently used measures and calculations stored in the Model ready to be used
- Provides quick results as data is pre-aggregated and stored in memory
Users have created several important reports reading data from the model, providing detailed visibility for each of the business units to keep track of their activities. They have also come back with valuable feedback which Stellar has used to improve the data quality in the source system and enhance the model’s usability.
At Stellar, we strive to help customers achieve their Business Intelligence objectives. We have successfully assisted our customers with the Semantic Layer implementation using various technologies. In many cases, we found the use of one or multiple Semantic Layers such as Microsoft Analysis Services, Oracle OBIEE or SAP BusinessObjects to help bridge end-users with the information they need.
Happy to talk
The client loved the solution provided. Talk to us at Stellar if you want more information. Our Data and Analytics expertise and our Seven Essentials will help you perform a complete business assessment on your company and to identify the business pain points.
