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Chapter 4 • Business Reporting, Visual Analytics, and Business Performance Management 211

Questions for Discussion

1. What are the best practices in business reporting? How can be found online. What are the basic objectives of
can we make our reports stand out? Netflix’s strategy now? What are some of the major
2. Why has information visualization become a centerpiece assumptions underlying the strategy? Given what you
in the business intelligence and analytics business? Is know about discovery-driven planning, do these assump-
there a difference between information visualization and tions seem reasonable?
visual analytics? 8. In recent years, the Beyond Budgeting Round Table
3. Do you think performance dashboards are here to stay? Or (BBRT; bbrt.org) has called into question traditional
are they about to be outdated? What do you think will be budgeting practices. A number of articles on the Web
the next big wave in business intelligence and analytics? discuss the BBRT’s position. In the BBRT’s view, what is
4. SAP uses the term strategic enterprise management (SEM), wrong with today’s budgeting practices? What does the
Cognos uses the term corporate performance management BBRT recommend as a substitute?
(CPM), and Hyperion uses the term business performance 9. Distinguish between performance management and
management (BPM). Are they referring to the same basic performance measurement.
ideas? Provide evidence to support your answer. 10. Create a measure for some strategic objective of
5. BPM encompasses five basic processes: strategize, plan, interest (you can use one of the objectives formu-
monitor, act, and adjust. Select one of these processes lated in discussion question 6). For the selected mea-
and discuss the types of software tools and applications sure, complete the measurement template found in
that are available to support it. Figure 4.10 provides Table W4.2.1 in the online file for this chapter.
some hints. Also, refer to Bain & Company’s list of man- 11. Using the four perspectives of the BSC, create a strat-
agement tools for assistance (bain.com/management_ egy for a hypothetical company. Express the strategy as
tools/home.asp). a series of strategic objectives. Produce a strategy map
6. Select a public company of interest. Using the compa- depicting the linkages among the objectives.
ny’s 2013 annual report, create three strategic financial 12. Compare and contrast the DMAIC model with the closed-
objectives for 2014. For each objective, specify a strate- loop processes of BPM.
gic goal or target. The goals should be consistent with 13. Select two companies that you are familiar with. What
the company’s 2013 financial performance. terms do they use to describe their BPM initiatives and
7. Netflix’s strategy of moving to online video downloads software suites? Compare and contrast their offerings in
has been widely discussed in a number of articles that terms of BPM applications and functionality.

exercises
teradata university and Other hands-On exercises d. Which applications are covered by CPM?
1. Download Tableau (tableausoftware.com). Using the e. How are these applications similar to or different
Visualization_MFG_Sample data set (available as an from the applications covered by Gartner’s CPM?
Excel file on this book’s Web site), answer the following f. What is GRC, and what is its link to corporate
questions: performance?
a. What is the relationship between gross box office g. What are some of the major acquisitions that occurred
revenue and other movie-related parameters given in in the CPM marketplace over the last couple of years?
the data set? h. Select two of the companies discussed by the article
b. How does this relationship vary across different years? (not SAP, Oracle, or IBM). What are the CPM strate-
Prepare a professional-looking written report that is gies of each of the companies? What do the authors
enhanced with screenshots of your graphical findings. think about these strategies?
2. Go to teradatauniversitynetwork.com. Select the 3. Go to teradatauniversitynetwork.com. Select the “Case
“Articles” content type. Browse down the list of articles Studies” content type. Browse down the list of cases and
and locate one titled “Business/Corporate Performance locate one titled “Real-Time Dashboards at Western Digital.”
Management: Changing Vendor Landscape and New Based on the article, answer the following questions:
Market Targets.” Based on the article, answer the follow- a. What is VIS?
ing questions: b. In what ways is the architecture of VIS similar to or
a. What is the basic focus of the article? different from the architecture of BPM?
b. What are the major “take aways” from the article? c. What are the similarities and differences between the
c. In the article, which organizational function or role is closed-loop processes of BPM and the processes in
most intimately involved in CPM? the OODA decision cycle?

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