2. Introductions
Jason Stevens
Senior Business Analyst at CSG Pro
20+ years experience in IT development, operations & management
Jon de la Motte
Senior Analytics Consultant at CSG Pro
Specialist in data visualization and open source tools
CSG Pro
A leader in providing IT Solutions to the Portland community since 1993
Business Intelligence is one of our core practices
3. Presentation Overview
Business Context: The New Reality of Real-Time
Traditional Analytics: Best Fit?
The Technical Challenge
Solution Architecture
Scenario
User-participation Demo
Q&A
About CSG Pro
4. Business Context
The New Reality of Real-Time
Technology is continuing to accelerate the pace of business
New micro-markets open constantly, to be tapped by the first to reach
them
Greater throughput on delivery processes has also increased the costs
associated with slowdowns or stoppages
The global reach of the Internet means that your customers, business
partners and competitors are always active
Staying on top of new opportunities and ahead of risks requires the
most up-to-date information possible
5. Business Context
The New Reality of Real-Time
Business Decision-Makers are less likely to be at their desks than ever
before
They’re at customer sites, meeting suppliers, or on the shop floor
(Or at conferences like this one!)
The information that they need has to reach them where they are
Real-time information isn’t real-time if you can’t readily use it until you
get back to your desk
Support for visualization and interactivity through mobile devices is key
6. Business Context
The New Reality of Real-Time
Real-time data sources might…
Be external to your core business systems
Appear as streams
Have less structure than traditional relational databases
Examples:
Facebook
Twitter
Logfiles
7. Traditional Analytics
Best Fit?
Typically…
Designed to integrate across many data sources, rather than a few key
systems
Report over relatively long periods of time, rather than hours or days
May be a little stale, due to latency in ETL processes that feed them
Due to data volumes, jobs may take some time to run or be batched
User interfaces often designed for desktop viewing and may not be
highly interactive
8. Traditional Analytics
Best Fit?
Traditional analytics serve traditional business needs well
Help answer broad analytical questions
Useful for evaluating past performance or planning for future
performance
But they weren’t designed to meet the needs of real-time business
Help answer operational questions
Useful for making immediate decisions
Real-time analytics augment and enhance traditional BI
9. The Technical Challenge
Making Real-Time Work
1. A lightweight, on-premise program that can incrementally capture
data without impacting operational systems’ performance
Optimized for real-time input (streams) or output
2. A high-speed data cache that is accessible via the Internet
3. A solid delivery mechanism
14. Solution Architecture
Why use Node.js?
Built on JavaScript
Event driven
Non-blocking input/output
Built for high-performance, real-time delivery
Lightweight and flexible
Well suited for both the server and the worker
Open source benefits
Community packages
Need Twitter/Facebook/Google authentication? Done.
15. Solution Architecture
Why use Microsoft Azure?
Secure integration with corporate networks and identity management
Support for open-source platforms such as Node.js
Proven web standards mentality
Easily scalable across load, geography
Straightforward code deployment
16. Demo: Call Center
A customer’s impression of your business is often directly related to
their experience when they call in – and these opinions are lasting
You want to make sure that this experience is positive – and take
immediate corrective action if not
Modern ACDs make data available about current state – metrics
like time in queue, percentage of calls that are abandoned, time to
abandon, and time spent with a CSR
Being able to see these data in real-time lets you improve customer
loyalty and prevent expensive churn
17. Demo: Call Center
Mock call center data
Cross filtering
Responsive layout
Automatic data updating
The “Simulate Call” fakes a call to the call center
20. About CSG Pro
CSG Professional Services (http://www.csgpro.com) does whatever
it takes to help organizations get the most value out of their
enterprise data.
We develop IT projects that improve business decision-making and
efficiency throughout your organization, using leading Microsoft
technologies to tap into your data – wherever it lies – to create
maximum value.