South Leicestershire College Enhances Performance Management and Drives Efficiency With Intuitive Dashboards

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Posted on : 13-04-2012 | By : Ben Stinner | In : Analytics

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND–(Marketwire -04/13/12)- South Leicestershire College (www.slcollege.ac.uk) has today announced it is implementing Intuitive Dashboards, the advanced business intelligence dashboard solution from Manchester-based Intuitive Business Intelligence (www.intuitivebusinessintelligence.com), to provide instant, real-time, graphical dashboard views of the College‘s performance against their Key Performance Indicators.

Intuitive Dashboards will empower the Executive team, Heads of Faculty and Governors with instant visibility of their performance, enabling them to take immediate action in response to potential variances. The implementation will monitor KPIs in the student lifecycle, including student applications, enrolment and learning outcomes, reporting from the College’s PICs and ProSuite student administration software. In addition, Intuitive Dashboards will provide dramatically-enhanced, visual reporting on the financial position of the College, directly from their Corero financial software.

Future implementations will monitor on-programme data including student attendance and punctuality, as well as curriculum efficiency, staff utilisation, absenteeism and staff development from the College’s HR systems.

Suki Rai, Head of Planning, Information and Funding at South Leicestershire College, comments, “We set out to empower our staff with the right tool to give them full control over the information that impacts their faculty or department. We needed an easy-to-use dashboard solution that provides a single point of access to the most relevant information needed for more effective decision-making. Intuitive Dashboards is critical in enabling us to enhance our performance and identify any operational aspects of the College that demand immediate action.”

She continues, “Recent restructuring at the College and cuts to funding in the Further Education market has placed an increasing emphasis on driving improved efficiencies. By adopting Intuitive Dashboards, we will instantly eliminate hours of staff time spent manually creating management reports. Intuitive Dashboards empowers our users by giving them real-time access to the relevant performance data affecting their specific responsibilities.”

Suki Rai concludes, “We looked at several dashboard solutions, but the ease of use and simplicity of access to our critical information proved the compelling factors in our selection of Intuitive Dashboards. We were also impressed with the uncomplicated, honest approach demonstrated by Intuitive Business Intelligence; their track record in the Education sector underlines their in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by FE establishments and convinced us that we’d made the right choice. Our implementation of Intuitive Dashboards signals a new era in the way that South Leicestershire manages and uses management data. It provides in-depth insight into our performance quickly and easily, so I have no hesitation recommending other Colleges should implement Intuitive Dashboards.”

Tony Bray, Managing Director at Intuitive Business Intelligence, comments, “I’m delighted to welcome South Leicestershire College to our rapidly-expanding list of Education clients. Intuitive Dashboards will enable them to continuously monitor and improve the operational and financial management of the College, but also take a proactive stance in managing student data. Ultimately, Intuitive Dashboards will help the College to make faster, more accurate management decisions to benefit staff and students alike.”

Notes to Editor

About Intuitive Business Intelligence and Intuitive Dashboards

Intuitive Business Intelligence Limited (www.intuitivebusinessintelligence.com) is a rapidly-growing technology innovator in the field of Business Intelligence (BI) software solutions. Their products enable organisations to save time and money by making faster, more accurate decisions based on the wide-ranging data sources and systems that already exist within their business. Their flagship product, Intuitive Dashboards, empowers users with a single, consolidated, real-time view of critical business information, combined with proactive alerts to potential shortfalls in performance against the client’s most important metrics and KPIs.

About South Leicestershire College

South Leicestershire College (SLC) is a general college of further education, situated on the southern outskirts of Leicester. We attract learners from the local Oadby and Wigston area and from across Leicestershire and the East Midlands. The main campus based in South Wigston is a brand new state-of-the-art GBP 43million facility, housing a first class teaching and learning environment. The college has three other established campuses across the city each providing their own specialist provision.

SLC offers a curriculum that meets the needs of both employers and local communities. In 2011/12, SLC supported over 8,000 learners to achieve qualifications via a diverse curriculum. We pride ourselves on our friendly approach and individual attention to our students.

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/south-leicestershire-college-enhances-performance-093900546.html

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  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px South Leicestershire College Enhances Performance Management and Drives Efficiency With Intuitive Dashboards

Business Intelligence Vendors Must Adapt

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Posted on : 13-04-2012 | By : Ben Stinner | In : Analytics

Enterprises are challenged by a phenomenal increase in the volume of business data and ever-shortening timeframes in which to process and analyze it.



Budgetary pressures and resource constraints also mean that IT departments cannot keep up with the flood of business intelligence change requests. In addition, organizations are coming under increasing regulatory scrutiny, which shines a bright spotlight on data governance.

In Ovum’s latest decision matrix, “Selecting a Business Intelligence Vendor,” the independent analyst firm reveals that while the need for BI continues to grow, the diversity, volume, and speed of data thrown at BI solutions have increased significantly over last year.

“To keep delivering even the same level of insights as a decade ago, BI vendors and their solutions need to be more agile and adaptive than ever,” said Surya Mukherjee, senior analyst at Ovum. “Agility must go beyond simply making existing BI infrastructures run faster. It must also encompass elements of self-service, mobility and collaboration.”

Given that the core BI market is fairly consolidated, the major vendors now offer a mature portfolio of products built through years of acquisitions and integrations. As a result, most vendors claim to possess similar core BI functionality, the report says.

In addition, over the past year, most vendors have jumped on buzzword bandwagons around Big Data, Fast Data, and mobile BI. These factors have further complicated the BI selection problem.

“The overall market appears to be recording healthy growth rates in spite of the fears of a double-dip recession in Europe and reduced investor confidence in global financial markets,” Mukherjee said. “A large part of this growth is driven by new license revenue and not merely maintenance and services. This reflects the expansion of BI deployments from departmental to organizational, the constant change in analytic goalposts, and continuing investment in newer analytic technologies.”

Article source: http://www.billingworld.com/news/2012/04/business-intelligence-vendors-must-adapt.aspx

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Win "Experiences of a Lifetime" Dream Vacations Through Emma, a Free, Friendly Classifieds Marketplace App Linked to …

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Posted on : 13-04-2012 | By : Ben Stinner | In : Analytics

TYSONS CORNER, Va., April 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — MicroStrategy® Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR – News), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence (BI) software, today announced “Experiences of a Lifetime” dream-vacation contests for users of Emma™, its free, friendly classifieds marketplace app linked to Facebook.

In addition to making its users feel safer and more confident during classifieds marketplace interactions, Emma is making its users’ dreams come true. In the months ahead, Emma will be sending select Emma network users to unforgettable destinations abroad, including the Cannes Film Festival.  Emma users can enter to win Experiences of a Lifetime trips by logging into Emma.com and submitting a free bid on any of the Experiences of a Lifetime listings.

There are currently six Experiences of a Lifetime listings that Emma users are able to win, with additional listings to be added at a later date.  Starting in May, Emma will send Experiences of a Lifetime winners and a guest on the following trips:

  • Cannes Film Festival. In May, an Emma winner will win a Red Carpet experience, mingle with celebrities, attend VIP parties, and enjoy a luxury yacht getaway in the French Riviera.
  • amfAR.  In May, an Emma winner will attend an exclusive, star-studded black tie gala benefiting AIDS research, held during the Cannes Film Festival.
  • Monaco Grand Prix. In May, an Emma winner will watch their favorite drivers trackside by day and then dine on a luxury yacht by night.
  • Summer Escape in Amsterdam.  In July, an Emma winner will boat through Amsterdam’s historic canals, see the great works of Van Gogh, and take in the old world charm of windmills and the Keukenhof gardens.
  • Spectacular St. Barts Vacation.  In December, an Emma winner will experience the dream island of St. Barts, explore the fabulous beaches and nightlife, and cruise the island’s magical reefs aboard a luxury yacht.
  • Honeymoon in Vegas.  In January 2013, an Emma winner will hop aboard a helicopter for a tour of the Red Rock Canyon, catch a Cirque du Soleil performance, and experience true romance with a Wynn Las Vegas honeymoon suite stay.

Winners will be chosen based on their interests relevant to specific listings, which are reflected in their Facebook profiles and revealed through Emma.  For example, the Monaco Grand Prix winner will be chosen based on Facebook “Likes,” interests, and photos relevant to the Monaco Grand Prix (i.e. being the biggest Formula 1 fan or showing the greatest interest in traveling and meeting new people). The most passionate fans will be selected to live out their dream escape. To see details about the “Experiences of a Lifetime” giveaways, visit http://www.emma.com/about/experience.

The first 2012 Experiences of a Lifetime giveaway, held in February, selected fans of Elton John and the Oscars and sent them to the annual Academy Awards viewing party benefiting the Elton John AIDS foundation. A second February contest discovered aspiring actors and sent them to an exclusive Oscar After-Party in Los Angeles with Hollywood “A-listers.”  To view the winners’ Oscars experience, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedv=weha6HPok_g.

Emma goes beyond the traditional “classifieds” concept of buying and selling products and services. It provides a secure, targeted marketplace for social interactions and gives users peace of mind in knowing who they are dealing with. Emma extends users’ Facebook social worlds to a broader classifieds marketplace, helping them find not only people with the right interests, availability and location, but also people in whom they can place more trust. MicroStrategy launched Emma in September 2011 for the iPhone, and subsequently released a web version in December 2011 and an Android version in January 2012.

“Emma is the friendly marketplace to seek a date, look for a job opportunity, sell stuff, buy services, hire the right person, or find a roommate,” said Michael J. Saylor, chairman and CEO of MicroStrategy Incorporated.  “Emma lets you search for people to interact with using Facebook profile information so you feel more confident transacting with a broader community beyond your immediate Facebook friend network.”

For more details on each Experience of a Lifetime, and to download and log into the free app, visit http://www.emma.com.

About MicroStrategy
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a leading provider of enterprise software platforms for business intelligence (BI), mobile intelligence, and social intelligence applications.  MicroStrategy’s BI platform enables leading organizations worldwide to analyze the vast amounts of data stored across their enterprises to make better business decisions.  Companies choose MicroStrategy BI for its ease-of-use, sophisticated analytics, and superior data and user scalability.  MicroStrategy’s mobile intelligence platform helps companies and organizations build, deploy, and maintain mobile apps across a range of solutions by embedding intelligence, transactions, and multimedia into apps.  MicroStrategy’s social intelligence platform includes a number of applications that help enterprises harness the power of social networks for marketing and e-commerce, as well as a suite of free consumer friendly apps that use MicroStrategy’s enterprise technologies.  The MicroStrategy Cloud offering combines MicroStrategy and third-party software, hardware, and services to enable rapid, cost-effective development of hosted BI, mobile, and social applications.  To learn more about MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR – News), visit www.microstrategy.com and follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/microstrategy) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/microstrategy).

MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform, MicroStrategy Cloud, MicroStrategy Mobile, Cloud Personal, MicroStrategy Transaction Services, Wisdom, MicroStrategy Wisdom and Emma are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

MSTR-G

Contact:
Warren Getler
MicroStrategy Incorporated
703-744-6258
wgetler@microstrategy.com

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/win-experiences-lifetime-dream-vacations-120000915.html

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  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Win "Experiences of a Lifetime" Dream Vacations Through Emma, a Free, Friendly Classifieds Marketplace App Linked to ...
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  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Win "Experiences of a Lifetime" Dream Vacations Through Emma, a Free, Friendly Classifieds Marketplace App Linked to ...
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Win "Experiences of a Lifetime" Dream Vacations Through Emma, a Free, Friendly Classifieds Marketplace App Linked to ...
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Win "Experiences of a Lifetime" Dream Vacations Through Emma, a Free, Friendly Classifieds Marketplace App Linked to ...
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Win "Experiences of a Lifetime" Dream Vacations Through Emma, a Free, Friendly Classifieds Marketplace App Linked to ...

Look Who’s Going to the Big Data Party – E

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Posted on : 13-04-2012 | By : admin | In : Analytics

The exponential growth of data from a widening array of sources is making the term “Big Data” a hot topic among corporate executives from businesses of all sizes across nearly every industry.

The Big Data phenomenon is being fueled by new social networks, mobile devices and increasingly powerful applications that can apture every keystroke and convert it into valuable information. Howevers, the value is significantly diminished unless it can be turned into useful insights that can help corporate executives and end-users make better business decisions on a day-to-day basis.

The good news is that there is a growing assortment of players that are redefining the old ideas of business intelligence (BI) and data integration tools to address the Big Data challenge.

Gaining Insights

Well-known players like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), IBM (NYSE: IBM), SAP (NYSE: SAP) and
Information Builders have launched cloud initiatives to help mid-size and large-scale enterprises facing these issues.

Lesser known names, like
Kognitio, are also asserting themselves in the Big Data arena. Kognitio, the first to deliver an in-memory analytical platform in 1989, is now offering a secure, private cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS).

Today, gaining insight about important market trends from external information sources is as important as gathering data from internal sources.
Alteryx offers a desktop-to-cloud “strategic analytics” solution that captures market and location information to provide organizations with greater insight.

CloudTrigger has leveraged its hands-on, professional services experience to create a set of cloud-based analysis tools that are also leveraging location-tracking data via third-party integrations.

GoodData and
Birst are providing flexible tools to put BI in the hands of business end-users.
AppFirst is giving IT professionals unprecedented insight into their infrastructure and application performance management (APM). And
Host Analytics is converting data into timely corporate performance management (CPM) reports that can guide executive decision-making.

Data Integration

Indicee, founded by the same team that originated Crystal Services and Business Objects, is developing a cloud-based BI platform that other independent software vendors (ISVs) can easily embed into their applications. And
LogiXML is offering agile analytics technology that enables organizations to quickly develop and implement BI applications on any platform.

Fusion-io is offering a new storage memory platform that can capture today’s highly dynamic data to support more powerful cloud-based analytic solutions.

Quantivo’s patented analytics platform allows business users to more easily access massive data warehouses to gain better insight and uncover new opportunities that were often hidden in complex storage systems of the past.

The Big Data challenge and new cloud opportunities have attracted plenty of professional service firms as well. For instance, Deloitte has created a dedicated practice to guide its enterprise customers in this area.

And independent software development companies like
Agilis Solutions and
SoftServe are leveraging these tools to help ISVs and enterprises build custom analytic solutions to meet their unique requirements.

Of course, none of this would be possible without cost-effective data integration tools from companies like
Informatica and
MuleSoft.

These companies and others will be discussing the latest Big Data integration and BI innovations at the
Cloud Analytics Summit on April 25 in Mountain View, Calif.
1a21f end enn Look Whos Going to the Big Data Party   E


Jeff Kaplan is the managing director of
THINKstrategies and founder of the
Cloud Computing Showplace. He can be reached at
jkaplan@thinkstrategies.com.

Article source: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/74855.html

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The Resource Group Attends Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2012

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Posted on : 13-04-2012 | By : admin | In : Analytics

The summit, presented by Gartner, Inc., delivers insight into topics such as effective BI strategy, Cloud, dashboard design and more. Representatives from The Resource Group attended the summit as part of the company’s continuing effort to provide its customers with better business insight.

Renton, WA (PRWEB) April 12, 2012

Four team members from The Resource Group attended the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2012 held April 2-4 in Los Angeles. The summit was presented by Gartner, Inc., a leading information technology research and advisory company. The Resource Group is a leading provider of ERP and Business Analytics solutions designed to help customers gain business insight.

The summit provided strategies and best practices needed by organizations to maximize the business value of Business Intelligence (BI) as well as next-generation analytics. Members of The Resource Group attended the conference as part of the company’s continuing effort to help customers in the mid-market gain better insight into their business by using business analytics in their decision process. Gartner believes that companies which are not using business analytics in the next five years will be at a competitive disadvantage.

“Attending the Gartner BI Summit provided us a wealth of information,” said Sean Ingalls, Customer Account Manager for The Resource Group. “We learned that it is no longer a competitive advantage to just capture relevant data, but it was the actual use of the data that is going to separate companies. In fact, per Gartner, companies who do not adopt a Business Intelligence strategy in the next five years will be at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace. Given our expertise in ERP, we felt that the concept of Business Intelligence is just a natural progression for The Resource Group service offerings and are excited about the opportunity to bring it to the SMB market space.”

This year’s summit focused on Analytic Excellence: Transforming Data Driven Decisions. Topics covered included effective BI strategy, Cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) options for analytics, dealing with big data, predictive and prescriptive analytics, and dashboard design. In addition, summit attendees were able to meet on-site with Gartner analysts as well as participate in interactive workshops and networking opportunities.

About The Resource Group

The Resource Group is a seasoned team of business professionals that help companies gain valuable business insight from their financial systems, enabling customers to manage their business more efficiently and effectively. We are a leading provider of Microsoft Dynamics® GP (Great Plains) accounting and business management software solutions. For over two decades, The Resource Group has helped hundreds of organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska streamline operations, optimize finances, and improve reporting by utilizing Microsoft Dynamics GP software. We also hold several educational opportunities for both existing and potential Microsoft Dynamics GP clients, including our lunch and learn events, Training for Microsoft Dynamics GP Tools, as well as existing customer networking sessions including our annual RG Connect conference. Learn more about The Resource Group by visiting http://www.resgroup.com.

About Gartner

Publically traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Gartner, Inc. is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. We deliver the technology-related insight necessary for our clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, we are the valuable partner to clients in 12,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, we work with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 5,000 associates, including 1,280 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information about Gartner, Inc., please visit Gartner Inc.http://www.gartner.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012-4-The-Resource-Group/Gartner-BI-Conference/prweb9395413.htm

Article source: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/press-releases/article/The-Resource-Group-Attends-Gartner-Business-3477840.php

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IBM acquires BI software maker Varicent

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Posted on : 13-04-2012 | By : admin | In : Analytics

IDG News Service - Adding to its already considerable line of analysis software and expertise, IBM announced Friday that it has acquired business intelligence software provider Varicent Software.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Based in Toronto, Varicent was a privately held company founded in 2003. It has more than 180 corporate customers, including banks, insurance companies, retailers, information technology and telecommunications providers. Starwood Hotels, Hertz and Office Depot have used the company’s products.

Varicent software collects and compiles reports of sales data from different systems, such as finance, sales, human resources and IT departments. Such data can then be used to determine employee compensation, streamline territory assignments, manage sales quotas, and report on and analyze sales activities.

The software will be folded into IBM’s Smarter Analytics line of software packages, joining analysis software from previous acquisitions, including Algorithmics, Clarity Systems, OpenPages, Cognos and SPSS. IBM has been deploying software from these acquisitions into packages, called Smarter Analytics Signature Solutions, that address specific needs such as fraud detection, financial operations and customer service.

IBM expects to generate $16 billion in the sales of data analysis systems and services by 2015. The company has almost 9,000 consultants and operational personnel devoted to business analysis systems. It also employs 400 researchers in the field, who are expected to secure hundreds of patents a year.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab’s e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com

 IBM acquires BI software maker Varicent

Article source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9226182/IBM_acquires_BI_software_maker_Varicent

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Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot

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Posted on : 13-04-2012 | By : Ben Stinner | In : Analytics

I don’t always agree with everything Rob Collie says, much as I respect him, but his recent post on the Windows Azure Marketplace (part of which used to be known as the Azure Datamarket) had me nodding my head. The WAM has been around for a while now and up until recently I didn’t find anything much there that I could use in my day job; I had the distinct feeling it was going to be yet another Microsoft white elephant. The appearance of the DateStream date dimension table (see here for more details) was for me a turning point, and a month ago I saw something really interesting: detailed weather data for the UK from the Met Office (the UK’s national weather service) is now available there too. OK, it’s not going to be very useful for anyone outside the UK, but the UK is my home market and for some of my customers the ability to do things like use weather forecasts to predict footfall in shops will be very useful. It’s exactly the kind of data that analysts want to find in a data market, and if the WAM guys can add other equally useful data sets they should soon reach the point where WAM is a regular destination for all PowerPivot users.

Importing this weather data into PowerPivot isn’t completely straightforward though – the data itself is quite complex. The Datamarket guys are working on some documentation for it but in the meantime I thought I’d blog about my experiences; I need to thank Max Uritsky and Ziv Kaspersky for helping me out on this.

The first step in the process of importing this data is to go to the Azure Marketplace and construct a query to get the slice of data that you want – this is a big dataset and you won’t want to get all of it. Once you’ve signed in, go to https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/0f2cba12-e5cf-4c6d-83c9-83114d44387a, subscribe to the dataset and then click on the “Explore this Dataset” link:

869f9 snaghtml190a951 thumb Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot

This takes you to the query builder page, where you get to explore the data in the different tables that make up this dataset:

51ad7 image thumb Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot

You choose the table you want to explore in the confusingly-named ‘Query’ dropdown box on the right-hand side of the screen. The available tables are:

  • ThreeHourlyForecast, a fact tables containing three hourly weather forecasts
  • ThreeHourlyForecastArchive, a fact table containing aggregated, averaged values for the various forecasts for a given date and time
  • SignificantWeather, a dimension table containing the different types of weather that can be forecast
  • Visibility, a dimension table containing the different levels of visibility
  • DailyForecast, a fact table containing daily weather forecasts
  • Observations, a fact table containing observed weather
  • Site, a dimension table containing all the UK’s weather stations

As far as I can tell, this data is more or less the same as what’s available through the Met Office’s own DataPoint service, and the documentation for this is here: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/ddc/datasets-documentation.html

Once you’ve selected a table you can construct a filter by entering values in the Optional Parameters boxes below the query dropdown. These changes are then reflected in the URL shown at the top of the screen:

02e27 image thumb1 Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot

This URL represents an OData query. One thing I didn’t notice initially is that the query that is generated here includes a top 100 filter in it which you’ll need to remove (by deleting $top=100 from the end of the URL) if you want to do anything useful with the data; you might also want to build a more complex query than is supported by the query builder, and you can learn how to do this by reading this article.

In my case I decided to look at the full three hourly forecast data. As I said, this is a big dataset – initially I thought I’d download the whole thing, but 18 million rows and several hours later I cancelled the import into PowerPivot. Instead I opted to look at data for the whole of the UK for just one forecast made on one day, which worked out at a more manageable 250000 rows. What’s not clear from any of the current documentation is what all of the columns in the three hourly forecast fact table represent:

  • Date is the date the forecast is issued
  • StartTime is the time the forecast is issued and is either 0, 6, 12 or 18, representing midnight, 06:00, 12:00 and 18:00 – new forecasts are issued every 6 hours
  • PredictionTime is the time that an incremental update to a forecast is issued; these incremental updates appear every hour. PredictionTime is an actual time value going from 0 to 23 representing the hour the incremental update was issued.
  • TimeStep is an offset in hours from the StartTime, and represents the time that the forecast is predicting the weather for. It ranges in value from 0 to 120, going up in 3s (so the values go 0, 3, 6, 9… 120), meaning we have weather predictions for 5 days into the future for each forecast.

Therefore, for any given row in the ThreeHourlyForecast table, if the Date is April 10th 2012, StartTime is 6, PredictionTime is 8 and TimeStep is 9, then this is data from a forecast that was issued on April 10th 2012 at 8am (the second incremental update to the 6am forecast) and this row contains the prediction for the weather for the time StartTime+TimeStep = 6 + 9 = 15:00 on April 10th 2012.

Here’s the OData url I used to grab data for the three hourly forecast issued on April 10th at midnight (StartTime=0 and PredictionTime=0) for all weather stations and all time steps:

https://api.datamarket.azure.com/Data.ashx/DataGovUK/MetOfficeWeatherOpenData/ThreeHourlyForecast?$filter=Date%20eq%20datetime%272012-04-10T00%3a00%3a00%27%20and%20PredictionTime%20eq%200

To use this URL in PowerPivot, you need to create a new PowerPivot workbook, open the PowerPivot window and then click the From Azure DataMarket button:

43855 image thumb2 Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot

Then enter your query URL and Account Key (which you can find on the Query Explorer page by clicking on the Show link, as indicated in the screenshot above):

e1d40 image thumb3 Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot

Having imported this data I also imported the whole of Site (renamed here to Weather Stations) and SignificantWeather tables to give the following PowerPivot model:

5da4b image thumb4 Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot

Here are the joins I used:

83803 image thumb5 Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot

I also created a few calculated columns, including one called ActualPredictionForStart which added the TimeStep to the Start Time and the Date to get the actual date and time that the prediction is for:

=[Date] + (([StartTime] + [TimeStep])/24)

With this all done, I was able to find out what the predicted weather for the current time and my home town was in this (as of the time of writing) two-day old forecast:

83803 image thumb6 Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot

…and do all the usual PivotTable-y  and chart-y things you can do with data once it’s in Excel:

b9267 image thumb7 Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot

Incidentally, the forecast is wrong – it’s not raining outside right now!

PivotTables and Excel charts are all very well, but there’s a better way of visualising this data when it’s in Excel – and in my next post I’ll show you how…

 

UPDATE: First of all, I owe an apology to the Met Office – as soon as I hit publish on this post it started pouring with rain, so they were right after all. Secondly, in a weird co-incidence, Rob Collie posted about using the other weather dataset in the DataMarket on his blog: http://www.powerpivotpro.com/2012/04/download-10000-days-of-free-weather-data-for-almost-any-location-worldwide/

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  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Importing UK Weather Data from Azure Marketplace into PowerPivot