Dynamic Architecture
The core product features of Value Network Insights™ Enterprise Edition include:
Streaming dataflow engine: Monitors business events and integrates those events with contextual data from data warehouses or operational data stores in real time. Provides a complete, higher-value view of critical operational metrics.
Temporal processing: Enables the business user to associate time with events. Identify trends over time and understand events in the larger business context. Distinguish between momentary spikes and real trends.
Operational Prediction Reports: Provides rapid visibility into business operations, KPIs, and KRIs personalized by individual users. Allow rapid response to changing market conditions. Alerts can be used to make time-sensitive decisions, or to initiate actions such as generating workflows.
Rich analytics: Provides detailed metrics and contextual data to help the business user process and act on the alerts.
Seamless integration: Integrates easily with all workflow platforms, operational applications, and legacy systems that already exist in your environment. Uses standard interfaces.
A single, integrated, continuous monitoring solution for operational value network BI: Deploy an operational BI solution in days. Value Network Insights Enterprise Edition plugs into your existing network and includes data integration, analysis, end-user Prediction Reports, and collaboration tools.
General Technical Overview
BI infrastructure: All tools in the platform use the same security, metadata, administration, portal integration, object model, and query engine. All tools share the same look and feel.
Metadata management: All tools leverage the same metadata. The offering provides a robust way to search, capture, store, reuse, and publish metadata objects. These include dimensions, hierarchies, measures, performance metrics, and report layout objects.
Development: The BI platform provides a set of programmatic development tools – coupled with a software developer's kit for creating BI applications. These can be integrated into a business process, and/or embedded in another application. The BI platform enables developers to build BI applications without coding by using wizard-like components for a graphical assembly process. The development environment also supports Web services in performing common tasks such as scheduling, delivering, administering and managing.
Workflow and collaboration: This capability enables BI users to share and discuss information using public folders and discussion threads. In addition, the BI application can assign and track events or tasks allotted to specific users, based on pre-defined business rules. This capability is delivered by integrating with a separate portal or workflow tool.
Information Delivery
Reporting: The solution provides the ability to create formatted and interactive reports with highly scalable distribution and scheduling capabilities. In addition, the solution handles a wide array of reporting styles (for example, financial, operational, and performance Prediction Reports).
Prediction reports: The solution is able to publish formal, web-based reports with intuitive displays of information, including dials, gauges, and traffic lights. These displays indicate the state of the performance metric, compared with a goal or target value.
Ad hoc query: The solution provides self-service reporting, enabling users to ask their own questions of the data, without relying on IT to create a report. In particular, the tool has a robust semantic layer to allow users to navigate available data sources. In addition, the tool offers queries, governance, and auditing capabilities to ensure that queries perform well.
Microsoft® Office integration: The solution can be used as a middle tier to manage, secure, and execute BI tasks, but Microsoft Office (particularly Excel) acts as the BI client. The solution provides integration with Microsoft Office, including support for document formats, formulas, data "refresh," and pivot tables. Advanced integration includes cell locking and write-back.
Analysis
OLAP: The solution enables end users to analyze data with extremely fast query and calculation performance, enabling a style of analysis known as "slicing and dicing." This capability spans a variety of storage architectures such as relational, multidimensional, and in-memory.
Advanced visualization: The solution provides the ability to display numerous aspects of the data more efficiently by using interactive pictures and charts, instead of rows and columns. Advanced visualizations go beyond just slicing and dicing data to include more process-driven BI projects, allowing all stakeholders to better understand the workflow through a visual representation.
Predictive modeling and data mining: The solution enables organizations to classify categorical variables and estimate continuous variables using advanced mathematical techniques.
Scorecards: The solution takes the metrics displayed in a Prediction Report a step further by applying them to a strategy map that aligns key performance indicators to a strategic objective. Scorecard metrics can be linked to related reports and information in order to do further analysis. A scorecard implies the use of a performance management methodology such as Six Sigma or a balanced scorecard framework.
The Value Network Business Intelligence (BI) Cube Structure
 The identification of cases or work packages at risk is based on a combined data model that includes the operational performance perspective, the role-based Standard Value Network and the participant-based Collaborative Value Network. Upon configuration a multi-dimensional data cube is created as the basis for analysis and evaluation. The dimensions of the cube are based on:
Operational performance measures
The Standard Value Network (SVN) view
The Collaborative Value Network (CVN) view
Data to populate this structure is gathered using customer workflow system data queries that are stored in an Oracle database within the Value Network Insights™ SaaS environment. This data is then processed by the powerful and unique Value Network Insights™ analytic engine. Network indicators of a case are assessed and then compared to statistically relevant thresholds that are identified in a configuration phase. The indicators and benchmarks are based on the standard network analytics applied to the workflow system query data through the lens of the Value Network Insights™ data model.
Additional dimensions can be configured based upon context needs.
SaaS Solution
Value Network Insights™ Enterprise Edition is a SaaS Solution. The heart of the application is the Value Network Insights™ “kernel” that provides the key data model, conversion, and analysis functionality for creating a value network-centric view of organizational information. Value Network Insights™ can be installed as an enhancement to existing BI solutions or connected into the corporate IS environment using APIs with your existing applications to create a BI solution.
The SaaS solution is a multi-tenant solution hosted on a dedicated server with Intel Xeon Quad Core E5410 CPU with 2GB RAM, 2x160GB SATA 7, 200 RPM HDs, and 2,000GB BW – located within a professional third party server farm with shared firewalls. Running on an Oracle database configured in accordance with the proprietary Value Network Insights™ data model, the SaaS application leverages SAP Business Objects Crystal Reports for report generation and a custom layout engine based on leading network algorhythms. SaaS back-end components are connected using XML standards and fed to a browser front-end optimized for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6x and higher. A Microsoft Windows Workgroup 2003 environment serves as processing framework. Reports are generated in Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Visio, and Adobe PDF. Files are loaded, stored, and handled in Microsoft Excel 2003 format. Extensions to the core application are formed by a full-fledged dynamic online survey tool with organizational network analysis capabilities built in C++, an advanced immersive network visualization tool built in OpenGL and delivered within a Java applet, and a customizable geolocation component. A mirror server is used for ensuring business continuity. An administration interface allows for individual tenant administration.
Immersive visualization capabilities are provided by an OpenGL Network Browser extension. All files generated in Microsoft Office format allow use of all functionality provided by the relevant Microsoft Office products. Network files are created outside of the application, either manually based on the ValueNet Works™ analysis method, or automatically using separately provided utilities that convert outputs from various software solutions such as Microsoft Outlook or the SAP Solution Composer into a default network format. All interfaces use XML as a standard.
See also: User Stories - Predictive Analytics
See also: Enterprise Edition
Note: All Microsoft® products are sold and licensed separately. Microsoft, Windows, Office, Word, Excel, and Visio are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. | 
