Business Intelligence Initiative

Managers:  Do you need a better way to view information, track your programs and make informed decisions?

Your agency collects and maintains a lot of data about your business--why is that data sometimes hard to obtain quickly? And why is it so hard to really use that data to inform your decisions?

The answer is that you need access to dynamic reporting and visualization tools that provide you with the information you need when you need it. These tools deliver what we call business intelligence (BI). That’s why a group of agency managers got together to choose a common set of BI tools for efficient, inexpensive use by all agencies in the Commonwealth. And that is why we formed the Business Intelligence Competency Center (BICC) — to help you develop business intelligence reports and processes within your agency.

To learn more, attend the:

2nd Annual Business Intelligence Summit
hosted by the Business Intelligence Competency Center
July 15, 2009 @ 9:00 AM
East Reading Room of the Patrick Henry Building
1111 E. Broad St., Richmond, 23219

Click Here for More Information on the Summit

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Business Intelligence Competency Center (BICC) Manager:
Kathy Graham
(804) 786-0545
Kathy.Q.Graham@veap.virginia.gov or
BICCINFO@veap.virginia.gov

February 2009 - Business Intelligence (BI) Updates

• The BICC has completed its first full implementation of LogiInfo™. The Stimulus.Virginia.gov web site's reporting page was developed using the tool to display stimulus project requests submitted by the citizens of the Commonwealth. The public can drill-down through a map, a pie chart, a bar chart, and a line chart to view project details by county, by project category, and by date of submission. Visit http://www.stimulus.virginia.gov/charts.aspx to view this application.
  
  
• LogiXML will give a demonstration of the new release of LogiInfo™ 10.0 at the Thursday, March 5, BICC Meeting. The meeting will start at 9:00AM in the Conference Room 2 on the First Floor of the Patrick Henry Building, 1111 E. Broad St., Richmond 23219. Call the BICC Manager listed above for more information.
  
  
• Both the Production and Non-Production Shared Environments has been established. The Non-Production (Test) Environment will allow an agency to test a BI application before promoting to production. The Production Shared Environment will host agency BI applications developed using the LogiAdHoc™ and LogiInfo™ tools (www.logixml.com).
  
  
• Free Reporting Tool available. Application and report development can be accomplished using a free development tool called Logi Report. This free development tool (www.freereporting.com) contains a large subset of the full cost developer tool (click here for a comparison) and may address the reporting need for many agencies.

For more information contact the Kathy Graham, BICC Manager, at (804) 786-0545 or kathy.q.graham@veap.virginia.gov.

Events

Frequently Asked Questions

VEAP's Definition for Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence (BI) is the catalyst for making good management decisions. BI is key to maintaining our excellent management reputation. BI enables “knowledge workers” to convert raw data first to information and then to actionable knowledge that management can use to make right decisions. BI includes not just reporting and ad–hoc queries, but also data analysis (including dashboards, scorecards, forecasting, etc.) as well as data management.

The benefits of BI include:

• improved access to information,
• improved communication,
• more reliable data,
• higher performing reporters / analysts,
• better analysis and
• simplified data sharing.

VEAP Business Intelligence Initiative

The Business Intelligence Initiative (BII) is a collaborative effort among Executive Branch agencies and the Virginia Enterprises Applications Program (VEAP). As part of this initiative, the Commonwealth envisions standardizing a BI toolset for information delivery and analysis for Executive Branch agencies. There are currently a number of different business intelligence tools and capabilities used within agencies. It is the goal of the BI initiative, over time, for agencies throughout the Commonwealth to adopt and use the standard BI tools. Click here for more details on the BII vision.

Objectives of the VEAP Business Intelligence Initiative

The key objectives for the BI Initiative are as follows:

1. Coordinate efforts to select BI toolset with capabilities to meet Commonwealth and agency BI needs
2. Develop and publish policy that establishes BI toolset as a standard
3. Establish a VITA hosted environment suitable for agency BI deployments
4. Establish a BI Center of Excellence (the Business Intelligence Competency Center (BICC)) that

• assists agencies with specific BI efforts (e.g., coordinating training, providing developer/analyst resources and sharing information gleaned from BI toolset use) and
• provides a governance model for the use of the BI toolset
5. Create an awareness of and an understanding about the BI Initiative
6. Deliver BI implementations for two agencies within eight (8) months of BI RFP award