Adoption of Digital Technologies for Finance Office

The decision support system plays a very important part for any organization, especially when it comes to finance the outcomes are often direct and measurable. 

As per Gartner, 80% of finance leaders agree finance must significantly accelerate the adoption of digital technologies, such as Analytics, Automation etc. to support the business by 2025. A survey of 400 finance leaders shows a broad expansion of the technology toolkit being used to drive efficiency, agility and productivity. And these technology need to be complimentary to each other to bring out the full potential. 

Pic Credit - Gartner (April 2022)

Now the question is how to build the capability for the adoption of digital technologies? 

As per MIT Sloan Management Review the digital maturity depends on 7 parameters,

1. Strategic use of (Advanced) Analytics 
2. Model Explainability
3. Cross-Functional Data Collaboration
4. Analytics Skill
5. Exploration and Experimentation
6. Data Driven Culture
7. Digital Inclusivity

And the following questionnaire helps to evaluate the maturity. Calculate the average score for each of the 7 parameters.

• Score ⫺ 4 : Leading in digital capability
• Score between 3 to 4 : Developing digital capability
• Score ⫹ 3 : Lagging in digital capability

Pic Credit - MIT Sloan Management Review

This metric will help the CFO to assess the Finance Office's digital maturity over time and can track current state and the progress over time. 

References: 

• How Digitally Mature Is Your Finance Office? by Kristof Stouthuysen, published in MIT Sloan Management Review - Summer 2023
• “Gartner Survey Shows CFOs Turning to Process Mining to Drive Better Returns From RPA,” - Gartner, April 27, 2022

Oracle Data Visualization with Advanced Analytics

In continuation to my previous blog Exploring Oracle Data Visualization Desktop in this post I am going to discuss on adding advanced Analytics with Oracle DVD ( and OBIEE 12c, Oracle BICS)

To start with first we have to enable the Advanced Analytics.

The installation is pretty simple and straight forward.

And it is simple click next next ....

It also enables us to create and use 'R' programming.

Once enabled we can use Analytics options. To test that let me create a simple bar chart.

And add a Trend line to that.

I can choose the method from Linear, Exponential and Polynomial, or can select the Confidence Intervals.

Let us try out one Cluster analysis with # of Orders vs Sales for Cities.

Next time I will proceed further on using R with DVD.

Oracle Synopsis - Excel based BI operated from Mobile

Oracle Synopsis is the first Mobile Analytics App that lets you quickly open and interact with spreadsheets and business data in a visual and intuitive way while you're on the go. It is a Standalone Mobile Based BI Reporting Tool which takes excel as data source and is available in both Android and IOS. The End Users like Travelling Salesmen, Medical Representatives, PMOs, etc... who have the need to share reports (mainly excel based) 24*7 do not need any technical training to use it or create and share reports.

This app can also be preferred because it is absolutely free.

To understand the working of Oracle Synopsis, I will not take an example from somewhere else, but from my wife who is working as a PMO is an MNC ... 👰.

Let us assume that our PMO i.e. my wife in this case, has gone for a vacation with no access to Laptop or Desktop and all of a sudden receives an urgent phone call from the BU Head asking for the headcount of Mid-level employees on different technologies. The data is to be given in a format in which there is a comparison between “People who are working on a project” and “People who are on bench”. Luckily, she has a recent excel dump containing details of all the employees, like ID, Account, Assignment Status, Department, Technology, Grade etc. But it would be difficult to get the counts from Excel manually.

In this situation, Oracle Synopsis comes in her rescue. She downloads "Oracle Synopsis" app from Goolge Play Store in her phone (assuming it's an Android phone) and installs it.

She opens the Excel file in Synopsis.

The tool, on its own identifies the numbers and aggregates them, coming up with some default visualizations.

Once she taps on the visualization, it takes her to the 2nd level; where she can change the Settings / Aggregations along with other customizations. In this case, she changes the aggregation to Count of Employee Code.

First, she changes the 'Name of the Sheet' by clicking the pencil icon besides "Sheet".

Next she clicks the "Setting" icon on the top which gives her a list of the various columns present in the sheet. For her requirement, she removes a couple of columns and keeps the rest.

Next, she enables the "Edit Column Labels" toggle button to change the Column Lable for 'Code' column to '# of Emp'.

 

She taps on '# of Emp' button which then takes her to a series of detailed Reports by different Dimensions.

She can browse through the charts, can tap on the chart to have a "Close-Up" View.

Once in the "Close-Up" View, she can Edit the chart by clicking the pencil icon. This gives her the option to choose from the different Chart Types, change the "Text" of the visualization, change the "Number" format in the visualization, etc... If she is not sure about what to select, then she can even ask the app to choose it for her by tapping on  the "Choose for Me" button.

She needs to share a report on the 'Billed vs On Bench Resources', so she selects the report '# of Emp' by 'Assignment Status'.

And adds 'Technology' field in the report. If required additional filters can also be added.

She changes the chart type to 'Radar' and this visualization seems to suit her requirements.

Now, she simply shares the details to her boss via Email or WhatsApp by tapping on the "Share" icon on the top-right side of the visualization.

As a result of this, her boss has not only the numbers but also some analysis on top of that, which saves the day, and makes her available even on vacation.

I have tried my level-best to explain the use of "Oracle Synopsis", but if I was unable to make somethings not clear, then I am demonstrating the same thing via the video below.

Hope it was useful and entertaining ... 😊

MS Power BI with Gateway

This time I thought of exploring MS Power BI a bit, which is coming up very well and has played an important role in putting Microsoft in the Leader's position in recent times.

Before getting into our Topic, just a small introduction about Power BI and prerequisites for using the Power BI Gateway.

Power BI is a suite of business analytics tools that deliver insights throughout the organization. In short, "Quickly go from Data to Insight, and from Insight to Action".

Prerequisites for using Power BI Gateway:

1. Power BI Desktop is installed

2. Access to https://powerbi.microsoft.com

3. Power BI Gateway is installed (here we have used 'Personal Gateway')

Once we have all our ingredients in place, it is time to start cooking...

In my Database, I have 5 tables as shown in the screenshot below. But I am going to use only 3 tables i.e. SKILL_D, EMPLOYEE_D and SKILL_MATRIX_F.

NOTE:: Keeping in mind the Naming Convention of the tables in Database. Anything_D means it is a Dimension Table and Anything_F means it is a Fact Table.

Now, in the MS Power BI Desktop, I click on 'Get Data' to connect to the Data Source.

MS Power BI supports data from various Data Source for e.g. File, SQL Server, Oracle, Teradata etc). For my purpose I am selecting "Oracle DB".

I am using my local Database "XE" and importing the above mentioned tables. The screenshot is given below:

And importing  SKILL_D, EMPLOYEE_D and SKILL_MATRIX_D tables / data

In the Power BI Desktop, you have 3 views :

1. Report View - Used to create reports

2. Data View - view the data, edit columns, add measures etc

3. Relationship View - Create the relationship between the tables

Before creating a Report in Power BI, make sure to check the Relationship View to make sure that the relationship between the tables is properly established. In the below screenshot, we can see that the relationship is established perfectly by default.

Once the Relationship View is confirmed, you can view the data in the Data View; just to make sure that the Data is getting populated correctly. I got the below screen on my system.

After making sure everything is fine, I add a new measure 'DISTINCTCOUNT(EMPLOYEE_SID)' by right clicking on the Table in the 'Data View'. Remember to use the EMPLOYEE_SID Column from SKILL_MATRIX_F Table.

One thing you will notice that building measures / columns using DAX Functions is real easy and intuitive.

Once the expression is complete, I rename this column as "# of Employee".

Similarly I rename the "SKILL_DESC" Column to "Skill".

Next, I go to the 'Report View'. There are different types of charts which we can use as per our requirement, and creating them is fairly easy. In this case, I add a Pie chart, and put "Skill" in the Legend and "# of Employee" in the Values.

Next I add a Table, which will be useful for me show the change of data once loaded through the Power BI Gateway. I save this report as 'Power BI Sample 3'.

Now, it is time to publish the report online so that they are accessible from https://powerbi.microsoft.com, for which you need to have the access Since I have the access and I am already Logged-in, so I just have to click on 'Publish' button in the "Home" tab of the Menu Bar at the extreme right.

Once the report is Published online, you will get a confirmation of the same and will be asked to be directed to the report online.

Once published, I can go to 'My Workspace' in Power BI online and can view the reports. I already have 2 earlier reports also.

Click on the report name "Power BI Sample 3" to view the report.

Let's create a Dashboard now to place this report in the Dashboard. I name it as 'Sample Dashboard - Gateway'.

I go back to the report and click on 'Pin Live Page'.

It asks if I want to pin it to an 'Existing dashboard' or 'New Dashboard'. I mark the 'Existing  Dashboard' and select the 'Sample Dashboard - Gateway' from the Drop-down.

Once added we can access the report through the dashboard.

This brings me to end of my first goal to create and publish a Power BI report.

Next I will try to refresh the data using 'Power BI Gateway'.

For that I go to my 'Start Menu' and start the 'Power BI Gateway - Personal', installed in my machine.

Once it is started, you will get a screenshot like below:

Next, we have to check it with our report 'Power BI Sample 3'. For that I go to My Workspace ⟹ Datasets tab, click on the 3 dots under the Action Column and then select 'Settings' option.

In the Settings I see Gateway connection is fine, but there is some issue with the Data source credential. Let's investigate that.

I just have to change the Authentication method to 'Basic'.

And that resolves the error. So now I am good to go.

It is time to change the data, I add a new employee 'Kunal'.

And let's add 3 new rows in the 'SKILL_MATRIX_F' table for this new employee.

After making the changes and saving them, I need to refresh the data manually in Power BI Online to make the changes show in report. First, I will refresh it manually by clicking the refresh button in the Datasets page. Refer the screenshot for more details:

And when I visit the dashboard page, I see that 3 new rows have been added for this new employee.

Now, let's try to schedule the refresh of data. For that I add 2 more rows in the SKILL_MATRIX_F table, like given below:

Now, I go back to the Settings page once again and make the Scheduled refresh on, and set the refresh time as 3:00 PM daily. We can change the Frequency, Time Zone, Time etc if required.

And now let's leave it for some times. Past 3 PM when I check it I see Last Refresh has happened at 3:14 PM.

To validate the data change, I revisit the dashboard.

And happy to find that now this employee has got 5 skills. Which means our scheduled refresh is working perfectly...... 👍.