Business Analytics - The art of smarter decision making 14th March 2013

Topic: Business Analytics - The art of smarter decision making

Description: Organisations worldwide are using Business Analytics to enable smarter decision making and improve business outcomes. Querying, reporting, and analysis answer questions such as what happened, how many, how often, where the problem is, and what actions are needed. Business analytics answers questions like why is this happening, what if these trends continue, what will happen next (prediction), how can we do things better, what is the best decision for a complex problem (optimisation).

In today’s economic climate, organisations are finding they can’t afford not to ask the forward-looking questions.

This session will discuss ‘Business Analytics’ in terms of its relevance within Business Intelligence and will focus on helping you understand:
• What Business Analytics is.
• When to use Business Analytics, including an approach framework and case studies.
• How Big Data fits into the Business Analytics landscape.
• What skills you’ll need and resources to help you get them.

The demand for expertise in Business Analytics is growing and attending this session will benefit business analysts, solution architects, DW/BI & IM practitioners, business leaders and future ‘Data Scientists’.

Presenter: Andy Painter is an Information Management specialist who has implemented IM solutions in the UK and Australia over the last 15+ years. These solutions have spanned multiple industries including Financial Services, Pharmaceuticals, Government and eCommerce.

His experience has been gained through practical involvement in multiple projects from development to architecture, incorporating industry recognised best practices.

As an Architect, Andy works with both the business and technology to ensure solutions are business focused and deliver real business benefit.                                                      

Date: Thursday 14th March 2013

Time: 5:30pm for a 6pm start

Venue: ACS Office Level 2, 120 Clarendon Street Southbank Vic. 3006

Fee: Member: $0.00 Non-Member: $20.00

Registration: Register here

Refreshments and drinks will be provided.

Contact Info: 
Convenor: Pengchea Ngo
Mobile: 0403709613
Email: pengchea@yahoo.com

Data Warehouse Concepts and Design - 28 Feb 2011

Topic: Data Warehouse Concepts and Design

Description: This presentation will briefly cover a number of concepts and design techniques related to planning and developing a Data Warehouse.
The following points will be addressed during the presentation:
• What is a Data Warehouse, and what are its goals
• Differences between Operational Database Systems and Data Warehouses
• Schema types for Data Warehouses
• Data Warehouse Architecture and Bus Matrix
• Dimensional modelling
• High level overview of the ETL subsystems
• Q&A

Examples throughout the presentation are sourced from Kimball, R. and Ross, M., The Data Warehouse Toolkit, Wiley, 2002, other relevant works on this topic, as well as from the presenter’s experience.

Due to limited time, this presentation is only an introduction to the above concepts and design techniques, and no prior knowledge is assumed. Attendees will gain an understanding of the structure of the underlining data on which BI tools are applied, in order to get useful knowledge for the business.

Presenter: Laura Rusu completed her PhD in Computer Science in 2009 at La Trobe University, with a thesis on “XML data warehousing and mining”. During her studies, she proposed a number of novel techniques to adapt traditional data warehousing and mining methodologies (which deal mostly with structured data) to XML data warehousing and mining. She presented at more than 10 international conferences, and published two extended papers in prestigious international peer-reviewed journals. She also authored a book chapter and edited a book on Data Mining and Warehousing Technologies. Laura’s experience is a blend of academic, research and industry roles. She worked in academia as a lecturer and she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in a two-year project for AirServices Australia. Currently she is a Development Team Lead at Computershare Technology Services, and an independent consultant on Data and Information Management topics.

Date: 28 Feb 2011
Time: 5:30pm for a 6pm start
Venue: ACS Pearcey Room Level 2, 120 Clarendon StreetSOUTHBANK VIC 3006
Cost: Member: Free Non-Member: Free

Registeration: Register here

Refreshments and drinks will be provided.

Contact Info:
Convenor: Pengchea Ngo
Mobile: 0403709613
Email: pengchea@yahoo.com

Best Practice in Business Intelligence - 11 Nov 2010

Topic: Best Practice in Business Intelligence

Description: Open source BI is revolutionising the way BI applications are built and deployed. In a business environment with tight budgets, limited headcount and more requests for vital information than ever before, new approaches are needed to solve both old and new IT and business challenges to avoid the costly BI implementations of the past. Zachary Zeus of BI consulting firm BizCubed will describe how the Pentaho commercial open source business model enables organisations to overcome these roadblocks and deliver effective BI solutions to business users more efficiently.

Presenter: Zachary Zeus is the Managing Director of BizCubed, a business intelligence consulting firm based in Sydney, NSW. He has 15 years experience as a business data expert working with the likes of MetLife (the US insurance giant). Zachary holds an MBA from New York University and is a certified Pentaho trainer. His firm is business intelligence enabler for ASX 100 companies and government agencies.

Date: 11 Nov 2010
Time: 5:30pm for a 6pm start
Venue: ACS Pearcey Room Level 2, 120 Clarendon StreetSOUTHBANK VIC 3006
Cost: Member: Free Non-Member: Free

Registeration: Register

Refreshments and drinks will be provided.

Contact Info:
Convenor: Pengchea Ngo
Mobile: 0403709613
Email: pengchea@yahoo.com

The Story of how University of New England and Altis Consulting partnered together to deliver a student load and income executive Dashboard 21/09/2010

Topic: The Story of how University of New England and Altis Consulting partnered together to deliver a student load and income executive Dashboard

Description: What happens when you combine a mature data warehouse and a committed development team and ask them to turn a visualization dream into reality within 5 weeks? The story of how University of New England and Altis Consulting partnered to deliver a student load and income executive dashboard – in record time. Incorporating disparate stakeholder requirements and working at locations 500km apart, the joint Altis and UNE team collaborated to deliver an outcome that everyone involved still enthuses about today

Presenter: Peter Hopwood is a Principal Consultant with Altis Consulting and has extensive experience across the entire Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence (DW/BI) spectrum. He has delivered DW/BI solutions to multi-national clients both in Australia and the United Kingdom. Widely considered an authority on data management technologies he has presented at various conferences including the International Data Warehouse Institute.

Date: Tuesday 21th September 2010
Time: 5:30pm for a 6pm start
Venue: Emirates BuildingCentre for Innovation & Technology Commercialisation Innovation@257 (up the escalator) 257 Collins Street, Melbourne
Cost: Member: Free Non-Member: Free

Registeration: Register

Refreshments and drinks will be provided.

Contact Info:
Convenor: Pengchea Ngo
Mobile: 0403709613
Email: pengchea@yahoo.com

Agile Business Intelligence Overview 24th August 2010

Topic: Agile Business Intelligence Overview

Description: This session will discuss the origin, core concepts and the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology. This approach is becoming more widely adopted by the industry so the need to have a working knowledge of the subject is important. This session is ideal for project managers, development staff, testers, DW/BI practitioners and business leaders wanting to gain a broad understanding of this topic.
The event will finish up with the panel session.

Presenter: Paul Roder is a Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing specialist with almost 30 years in IT who has worked in the UK, Europe and Australia. His involvement with the Agile approach is relatively recent but he has worked on several projects that utilised Agile methodologies with varying degrees of success. He is employed by Prima Consulting in Melbourne as a Senior Consultant.

Date: Tuesday 24th August 2010
Time: 5:30pm for a 6pm start
Venue: Emirates BuildingCentre for Innovation & Technology Commercialisation Innovation@257 (up the escalator) 257 Collins Street, Melbourne
Cost: Member: Free Non-Member: Free

Registeration: Register

Refreshments and drinks will be provided.

Contact Info:
Convenor: Pengchea Ngo
Mobile: 0403709613
Email: pengchea@yahoo.com

Data Warehouse & Business Intelligence Fundamentals 20th July 2010

Topic: Data Warehouse & Business Intelligence Fundamentals

Description: This session will discuss concepts and best practice commonly associated with today’s Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence solutions. From discussing the need for DW/BI to the role of Metadata, this session is ideal for business analysts, solution architects, DW/BI practitioners and business leaders wanting to hear the latest trends and approaches in this field.

Presenter: Paul Skaife is a Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing specialist who has implemented solutions in The UK, Europe and Australia over the last 10+ years. These solutions have spanned multiple industries including Telecommunications, Finance, Manufacturing, Logistics and Media. His experience has been gained through practical involvement in multiple projects incorporating both Kimball and Inman techniques. Paul stands very firmly in a camp between business and technology, ensuring that business can leverage technology and realize business benefits. He has previously presented at national and international conferences.

Date: Tuesday 20th July 2010
Time: 5:30pm for a 6pm start
Venue: ACS Office Level 2, 120 Clarendon Street Southbank Vic. 3006
Cost: Member: Free Non-Member: Free

Refreshments and drinks will be provided.

Contact Info:
Convenor: Pengchea Ngo
Mobile: 0403709613
Email: pengchea@yahoo.com