The Most Widely Used Business

Intelligence Paradigm
Enabling Pervasive BI with Guided Ad Hoc Reporting

A White Paper
by Kevin Quinn

Kevin Quinn

Bringing more than 25 years of software marketing and implementation

experience to his role as Vice President of Product Marketing for Information
Builders, Kevin Quinn oversees the development of marketing for all product
lines.
Mr. Quinn has been credited with helping to define business intelligence enduser categories through his creation of guidelines for using and employing
business intelligence tools. He has helped companies worldwide develop
information deployment strategies that help accelerate decisions and improve
corporate performance. His efforts in this position have helped propel
Information BuildersWebFOCUS and iWay Software solutions to category
leadership in their respective areas. Kevin is also the founder of
Statswizard.Com, an interactive sports statistics Web site that leverages
business intelligence functionality.
Mr. Quinn holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from
Queens College in Flushing, New York.

Table of Contents
1

Executive Summary

The Business Intelligence Challenge

The Evolution of Business Intelligence

In the Beginning, There Was Batch

Business Units Find a Way: Advanced Ad Hoc Reporting

Next Came OLAP and Cubes

Guided Ad Hoc: Putting the Power of Reporting in the

Hands of End Users

WebFOCUS Report Templates: How They Work

Ranking

Trends

12

Guided Ad Hoc In Action: Real World Successess

13

In Their Own Words

Executive Summary
Organizations today face a great challenge. They must make timely business information readily
available to a large base of various users, in a way that is highly relevant and useful to each. But, the
traditional business intelligence (BI) tools at their disposal have forced them to rely on IT resources,
or teach their non-technical professionals how to navigate the complex features and functions of
ad hoc and OLAP software.
In fact, a recent report by Heavy Reading Research shows that only 25 percent of businesses can
claim that at least half of their professional and managerial employees are using BI on a regular
basis. The same report cites that the deployment of BI will likely more than double when tools
become easier to use and non-technical users can more easily embrace them.
Information Builders Guided Ad Hoc solutions empower businesses to broaden the depth and
reach of BI making more reports with more information available to more people across and
beyond the enterprise. With Guided Ad Hoc, IT professionals can quickly and cost-effectively
create a single report template, and publish it via the Web. Users can then use an easy and familiar
interface to run their own reports. They can select their measures, dimensions, sorts, filters, and
more from simple drop-down boxes resulting in the potential for thousands of different content
combinations, to satisfy the widest range of business information requirements.
Today, Guided Ad Hoc solutions are used in thousands of companies of all types and sizes. These
businesses have been able to recognize the true impact that BI can have, by putting the power of
reporting right in the hands of their end users.

Information Builders

The Business Intelligence Challenge

For decades, BI has been providing companies with a faster, more effective way to collect, summarize, display, format, and distribute the information contained within their enterprise data sources.
This has allowed business professionals throughout and beyond the organization including
executives, managers, front line workers, customers, and business partners to view and analyze
timely, accurate data about core business activities, and use it to improve decision-making and
strategic planning.
But, the complexity of traditional BI tools has placed a tremendous burden on IT teams. Developers
typically build reports using intricate programming languages or WYSIWYG design tools, then make
those reports accessible to end users via hard copy, Web browsers, or e-mail. As emerging and
changing business requirements result in a flood of new report requests from end users, developers
often find themselves buried in report-related projects that can distract them from other crucial
corporate technology initiatives.
Throughout the years, numerous advancements in BI solutions have made them more intuitive
and easy to use. Simple desktop reporting tools made business data readily and broadly available
to end users, but delivered static, relatively superficial information that provided limited strategic
value. Ad hoc and OLAP tools offered the kind of in-depth analytical detail required, but were not
widely deployed due to the time and costs associated with training, installation, maintenance,
and support.
That left non-technical users in the same position requiring the ability to access and interact with
mission-critical business data, but without the time or skills needed to generate their own reports.
Because of these problems, most organizations use only a fraction of their enterprise data less
than twenty percent on average. And, according to GIGA Group, companies further compound the
problem by making that data available to less than five percent of their business users.
By failing to leverage their most vital asset their information companies hinder their own
productivity, and put their ability to truly optimize performance in jeopardy. To reverse this trend,
they must ask themselves:
How do we provide truly meaningful information to a large number of end users at all levels
while minimizing the reliance on IT staff without forcing them to learn complex business
intelligence software?

Guided Ad Hoc Reporting

The Evolution of Business Intelligence

In the Beginning, There Was Batch
In the past, programmers wrote COBOL programs that ran in batch mode on mainframes, collecting
and aggregating numbers from data sources. The result was a printed report complete with
summaries, totals, subtotals, headings, footings, calculations, and more that would be copied and
shared among employees.
Because these reports provided vital information that end users were unable to access themselves,
IT departments found themselves inundated with requests. These requests were often expressed in
business terms that were not easily understood by developers, resulting in iteration after iteration
of each report until the user got exactly what they needed. This created time lags often as long as
several months that negatively impacted the activity or process that the information within the
report was supposed to enhance.

Business Units Find a Way: Advanced Ad Hoc Reporting

When point-and-click ad hoc solutions were introduced, they gave non-programmers new hope
allowing them to build their own reports, without IT intervention. Several power users within each
business unit, who possessed both business savvy and the ability to understand data relationships
from a technical perspective, were given report creation capabilities. At the same time, IT teams
were free to work on other initiatives.
Yet, this approach still resulted in static output, and additional reports were required to answer the
questions raised by the data in previous reports. As a result, the underlying business problem which
prompted the report in the first place was rarely solved.
Additionally, although these tools did not require in-depth programming expertise, they were still
quite technical in nature, with hundreds of features that were confusing to even a technically-astute
business user, often leading to errors and inconsistencies in report information. Industry expert
Ralph Kimball agrees, claiming that, ad hoc query tools, as powerful as they are, can only be understood and used effectively by a small percentage of the potential data warehouse user population.
And, although ad hoc reporting solutions freed IT teams from a large percentage of their report
development burden, it forced them to oversee the cumbersome process of installing and
maintaining the software on user desktops.

Next Came OLAP and Cubes

Online analytical processing (OLAP) solutions were the next class of tools that aimed to further
simplify reporting for end users. Data was pre-aggregated and loaded into multidimensional cubes,
allowing users to quickly and easily drill down to more detailed information.
Because OLAP is interactive in nature, users could participate in an investigative session directly from
their desktop computers drilling down to more detail, or sorting or pivoting, when information
presented a problem that required further examination from a different perspective. No existing

Information Builders

knowledge of complex data sources was needed; all information navigation and investigation
could be performed instantaneously and was kept within the context of the cube.
But, OLAP had plenty of problems of its own. First, IT staff found themselves burdened with
requests for reports that included information outside the cube resulting in the need to create
new cubes or models. Additionally, data contained in cubes was often dated, and did not present a
real-time view. And, like the ad hoc reporting solutions that came before it, IT staff were forced to
install and maintain OLAP software on user PCs.
End users have also been quite vocal about the limitations of OLAP. Nigel Pendse, an independent
industry analyst who specializes in OLAP, conducted a survey of OLAP users. Among the key
problems noted were slow query performance, an inability for user groups to agree on information
needs, dynamic requirements that changed faster than cubes could be built, and the unreliability of
the software itself.
While ad hoc and OLAP solutions went a long way toward making BI capabilities available to more
people, companies still struggled to find end user reporting environments that were simple and
intuitive, yet easy and cost-effective to deploy and manage.
The real challenge? To make reports highly interactive and flexible, and at the same time, easy to
share, deploy, and access.

Guided Ad Hoc Reporting

Guided Ad-Hoc:
Putting the Power of Reporting in the Hands of End Users
Information Builders has broken down the barriers, creating a way for organizations to rapidly and
cost-effectively deploy simple, intuitive end user reporting environments. Guided Ad-Hoc combines
the ease and simplicity of report templates with the availability and accessibility of the Internet, to
make interactive report pages readily available to end users. As a result, they are empowered to
generate their own reports in a familiar and comfortable environment, as quickly and easily as if
they were shopping online.
With Guided Ad Hoc technologies, there is no desktop software to install and maintain, no licenses
to track and manage, and no complex, hard-to-understand features for users to learn and navigate.
Developers can use WebFOCUS to build a Guided Ad Hoc report template with selectable parameters, publish it as an HTML page, and make it available via the Internet.
The process is quick and efficient, with reports of moderate complexity often being fully designed,
developed, and deployed in less than 30 minutes. Developers create one single Guided Ad Hoc
template that can be easily manipulated by hundreds or thousands of end users to meet the
broadest range of business information needs. And, best of all, the administration hassles that
comes with traditional ad hoc and OLAP solutions are completely eliminated.
Once a template has been published to the Web, users can then simply make selections from predefined parameters in drop-down menus to determine a reports content. Columns, sorts, filters,
and measures can all be tailored to meet each users particular information needs, then changed
at any time making the process dynamic and interactive by allowing them to continuously slice,
dice, and filter the view of their data. This presents the possibility of a virtually unlimited number
of different reports to be generated from a single template, without the need for hand coding or
cube construction.
Users can also save their parameter selections as personal reports, further increasing reporting
productivity by making it even easier and faster to access the vital information they need to
perform their jobs.

Information Builders

Flexible output options, such as Excel, PDF, or HTML, allow users to view information in the format
that is most relevant and meaningful to them. Or, users can choose to generate reports in Information
Builders Active Report format, which enables unhindered offline analysis from any PC or mobile
device. Additionally, users can save their selections as a personal named report (i.e. Johns Monthto-Month Revenue Comparison), then schedule it for regular repeat delivery via e-mail. This significantly accelerates decision-making by reducing the amount of time spent finding information.
And, perhaps most importantly, built-in security ensures that only authorized users gain access to
confidential business data based on their role within the organization.
Because this method is so efficient and effective, experts concur that end users will begin using it
more often to meet their critical information needs. In fact, according to Ralph Kimball in his Data
Warehouse Toolkit: The majority of the user base likely will access data via pre-built parameterdriven analytic applications.

Guided Ad Hoc Reporting

WebFOCUS Report Templates: How They Work

WebFOCUS report templates offer a broad range of robust functionality, evident in the following
series of reports. These samples highlight the most basic reports, as well as more sophisticated
ones that incorporate traditional ad hoc and OLAP-style capabilities.

Ranking
Rankings help users learn what is best or worst about certain aspects of their business. For example, a sales manager may want to see which 10 sales representatives are the farthest away from
achieving their quotas, or a human resources manager may want to know who the 20 highest paid
employees are.
With traditional analytical software, rankings could only be applied to different measures or categories by creating a series of new reports. Considering all the possible dimensions and measures in
an average business scenario, IT teams would need to create a staggering number of reports to
meet end user requirements.
Ad hoc and OLAP solutions should have helped to solve the problem, but the capabilities needed
to perform rankings were buried within large feature sets, making them nearly impossible for the
typical end user to find and utilize.
The report below displays the top 10 selling products for an electronics manufacturer, with the
total dollar value of all sales of these products at the bottom.

WebFOCUS Report templates allow developers to add parameters, so users can instantly filter data
in a variety of ways, or obtain more information as needed. In the report below, users have the option
to filter the data by year, quarter, month, retailer, or manufacturing plant. This not only provides for
greater flexibility and functionality in report content, it allows users to quickly uncover and understand vital patterns and trends in sales.

Information Builders

In addition to filters, dimensions and measures can also be parameterized with WebFOCUS Report
templates. The next report clearly demonstrates the power of Guided Ad Hoc, with additional
dimensions (plant, store, state, etc.) and measures (sales, units, cost of goods sold) being offered
to enable users to further alter report content. With seven possible dimensions, three possible
measures, and five possible filters, this template actually represents 21 potential different reports
that can be filtered over 8,000 different ways.
And, because it is actually just an HTML page, this report template could be deployed to an
unlimited number of users with far less time, effort, and cost than would be required if BI software
were to be installed on each desktop. In fact, one Information Builders customer gave users the
power to generate more than 350,000 different content combinations by deploying just four
WebFOCUS Report templates.
Users also have the ability to select from multiple output formats, so they can render the report in
the way that would be most useful to them as an HTML page to allow for continued browserbased viewing, an Excel spreadsheet to enable number manipulation, or Acrobat PDF for optimum
print-readiness.

Guided Ad Hoc Reporting

Trends
Trend reports empower users to compare certain measures across time periods. For example, a
finance manager can compare last months travel expenses to this months, or a sales director can
compare revenues by quarter in a given year. Even more flexibility can be added by providing the
capability to drill-down to the detailed information behind the trends allowing the user to
leverage the same type of slice and dice functionality that is available in OLAP tools, so they can
see not only what is happening over time, but why.
But, the power of the drill-down capabilities delivered by WebFOCUS Report templates goes even
further, enabling developers to parameterize the drill-down options so users can select the most
appropriate one.
The next three reports convey how easy it is for users to analyze trends with WebFOCUS Report
templates. The first report presents this years revenues compared to last years, summarized by the
stores that sell the products. The second report shows how users can drill down on any store to see
which product categories they sold, while the third demonstrates how they can then drill even
further on each product category to see the specific products.

Drill on the store name eMart to get to the next report.

Drill on the product category Camcorders to get to the

next report.

Information Builders

Users choose their drill-down paths at run time with WebFOCUS Report templates, a capability that
even the most powerful and flexible OLAP solutions cant provide. In the reports below, information
on sales by manufacturing plant is presented, with drill-down to specific states. Users can then drill
down from state to products.
These parameters govern the reports drill-down path.

Unlike the last set, this report starts with manufacturing plant
and drills down to state.

State drills to product

10 Guided Ad Hoc Reporting

In this example, users have an incredible number of options to choose from 180 different reports
with 480 possible drill-down combinations, resulting in more than 86,000 unique observations from
a single report template. This empowers users to analyze trends and monitor key performance
indicators from nearly any perspective.
As you can see, this approach delivers the lowest-maintenance, highest-deployment, highest-value
business intelligence possible. Simple Web pages, containing Guided Ad Hoc templates are
accessible to any number of users, with no desktop software or cubes required. So, an unlimited
number of business information requirements can be satisfied quickly, easily, and cost-effectively.

11 Information Builders

Guided Ad Hoc In Action: Real World Successes

Information Builders Guided Ad Hoc solutions have been highly successful in real-world implementations. Our customers have far surpassed the five percent deployment boundary, achieving
usage levels of as high as 40 to 100 percent among all types of business users. These companies
have gained a true competitive advantage by making vital data available and meaningful to
everyone from executives, managers, and front line workers to customers, suppliers, and other
business partners.
The ease and simplicity of Guided Ad Hoc has made WebFOCUS a leader among todays BI solutions.
An independent study conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates shows that WebFOCUS has more
than two and a half times the number of BI users as other vendor offerings. Additionally, it consumes
far less time and resources for report development and deployment, and requires little or no end
user training.
The proof also lies in the size and scope of customer deployments both within the enterprise and
far beyond using WebFOCUS Report templates. For example, when retail giant Arcadia needed to
expand its BI solution to satisfy the needs of a rapidly growing base of users, it turned to WebFOCUS.
The company was able to reduce the number of reports from the more than 1,000 it had created
using another vendors tools to just 100 using WebFOCUS Guided Ad Hoc while still meeting all
end user requirements.
Another client, a leading financial services firm, was burdened with managing more than 3,000 reports
generated by a competitive BI solution. They were able to cut that number to just 30 reports a ratio
of 1 to 100 with WebFOCUS Guided Ad Hoc. And, a large transportation company went from
more than 1,000 reports to just 50 with WebFOCUS Guided Ad Hoc
Other WebFOCUS Guided Ad Hoc successes include:

Pershing LLC empowered more than 85,000 investment professionals to generate their own
reports and analyses through an online self-service portal. Users can quickly and easily create
trending reports and analyze stock trade patterns.

University of North Carolina at Charlotte relied on WebFOCUS to make self-service reporting

available to more than 3,000 staff members in 20 different departments. Users can rapidly obtain
student information such as enrollment, majors and minors, contact details, or lists of pending
graduates via the Web.

Ford Motor Company built their Global Warranty Management System (GWMS) on WebFOCUS
Guided Ad Hoc technologies. Through GWMS, approximately 14,000 dealerships around the
world can obtain customized warranty information. Since its deployment, the application has
reduced warranty-related costs by $40 to 60 million.

12 Guided Ad Hoc Reporting

In Their Own Words

WebFOCUS is transforming the way we access and deliver information across the organization. We are
empowering users with timely, accurate, and consistent information to help every employee make faster
and better decisions. By doing so, we are ensuring every users contribution can have a positive influence
on the business.
David Hale, Supply Chain Controler, Arcadia Group

One of the main reasons our BI environment has been adopted so widely is because it does not require any
special experience or sophistication. If you can order a book or make travel arrangements online, youll find
our BI capabilities very easy by comparison.
Patrick Yip, Drector, Technology Group, Pershing, LLC.

WebFOCUS is powerful, and so easy to use that most users can generate reports on their own. Faculty
members can instantly get information about their students or about the student population as a whole.
Tami Kuhn, Applications Programmer, UNCC

Experiences like these have been repeated time and time again at companies of all types and
sizes. Businesses across all industries have saved countless hours of developer and end user time,
while boosting business performance by making relevant and timely information easy to access
and analyze.
Customer

Deployment Type

Number of Users

Administaff

Extranet

70,000 users

Major insurer

Intranet

15,000 users

Ford

Extranet

22,000 users

Report Volume Where Known

NYC Dept. of Health Internet

Unknown (Public)

20,000 reports/day

Royal Bank

Intranet

10,000 users

900,000 reports/month

Sony

Extranet

1,750 users

StatsWizard

Internet

Unknown (Public)

Major U.S. bank

Extranet

200,000 users

300,000 reports/month

13 Information Builders

About Information Builders

Information Builders award-winning combination of business intelligence and enterprise integration
software has been providing innovative solutions to more than 12,000 customers for the past 30
years. WebFOCUS is the worlds most widely utilized business intelligence platform. It provides the
security, scalability, and flexibility needed at every level of global extended enterprises. Its simplicity
helps create executive, analytical, and operational applications that reach dozens to millions of users.
Information Builders subsidiary iWay Software provides state-of-the-art, multi-purpose integration
engines that address all SOA, application, data, and information management requirements. Its
integration adapters have been adopted by the leading software platform providers. Together,
these products give Information Builders customers the ability to live up to the company motto:
Your business. No barriers.
Information Builders customers include most of the Fortune 100 and U.S. federal government
agencies. Headquartered in New York City with 90 offices worldwide, the company employs 1,400
people and has more than 350 business partners.

14 Guided Ad Hoc Reporting

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