Chapter 4 Flashcards
General usage of data and finance
New technologies
Give access to significantly greater volume to data.
Give access a broader range of data based financial and non-financial, but all of which can be valuable in making financial decisions.
 Decision-making
Three levels of decision-making
Strategic – links to acronym in the finance function – high-level next 10 years.
Tactical – links to advise/apply in the finance function – medium term.
Operational – links to advise apply in the finance function – day to day
Monetising data
Creating and obtaining value from digital assets 
Examples of how data monetisation can be used in a retail business
Target customers with personalise offers
Reduce stockholding and waste
Inform overall product lines – assortments
Develop its product offering – if you like, this, you might also like…
Discovery, capture storage of data (assemble)
Finances involvement
What data should be captured?
The cost of capturing the data
Combining different sources of data to make informed decisions
Analysis and communication (finances, traditional role).
ETL – extraction transformation and loading
– definition
A process where multiple sources of information I taken and loaded into a data warehouse
Data, extraction
Definition
Taking data from a variety of sources
Data transformation
Definition
The processing of data into a storage format for querying an analysis – cleansing and standardising
Data loading
Definition
 Insertion of data into the final target database
Data engineer
Definition
An IT literate who creates the link between the sources of data and the data warehouse
Data mining
The process of discovering patterns in large set of data – through software or automation
Finances role in ETL systems
Knowing what data needs to be extracted, and how it can be transformed
Usefulness of information
Cost benefit analysis.
Communication.
Hadloop
Definition
Network of computers to solve problems.
It works by breaking task down and sharing them across servers, allowing processes to running parallel, and therefore speeding up the process it.
HDFS (hadloop distribute file system)
The part of the system that breaks the tasks into chunks and distributes them
Map reduce framework
The part of hadloop, which coordinates the distributed processing of the data to achieve the outcome (summarise) 
Business intelligence
Definition
The technical architecture of systems, that extract, assemble, store, and access data to provide reports and analysis
The use of software to combine business, analytics, data, mining data, visualisation data, tools, and infrastructure and best practices to help organisations to make more data driven decisions 
Finance function’s role in business intelligence
Consider the potential for BI in the organisation.
Champion appropriate BI projects.
Continue to report and monitor and pass information.
Begin to provide forward-looking analysis based on financial and non-financial information
Take on decision support roles in partnership with other departments.
Data modelling
Definition
Consideration of an organisations data storage that allows it to be stored/retrieved in efficient and effective way
How it is stored
Data manipulation
Definition
The process of making data easier to read
Data analysis
Definition
Evaluation of data to create information that is valuable in making decisions 
The three levels of data modelling
Conceptual – practical – i.e. what data is needed
Logical – technical – how will the date be held unused
Physical – systematic – how will the data be maintained
Management of the components of Big data
The role of the finance function
4vs
Volume - the finance function as well placed to Paetner IT, in terms of which data is legally required
Variety – given finances interface with multiple stakeholders. Well placed to advise on what variety of data might be useful in facilitating, decision-making and adding value
Veracity – with its strong, ethical credentials finance as well place to be involved in checking data
Velocity – ensuring decisions are made and appropriate time frames
How do use of data analytics can add value to the finance function?
 Provide information to its stakeholders which is more timely and more accurate.
How to improve business performance by combining financial and non-financial data.
Decision support system
Computer systems designed to store and analyse data relevant organisational decision-making. 
Is often used for scenario planning.
