Sustainability has gained prominence globally among nations, regions and organisations as a result of factors such as the effects of climate change on the environment, diminishing natural resources and rising population growth with their concomitant impact on economies and social systems. South Africa is a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) that promotes international principles and best practices on sustainable development. Sustainability Reporting is one such best practice. Sustainability Reporting is imperative for good governance and organisations are now expected to support sustainability issues, risks and performance in a balanced and reasonable way. The United Nations and other global bodies have been in the vanguard in promoting guidelines for sustainability reporting with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) being the most Prominent Sustainability reporting guideline. The South African Higher Education Institutions generate a number of reports in the course of any given academic year. As has been the case in the global corporate world, failures in governance in some South African universities point to weaknesses in their governance, especially when it comes to oversight of the operations of institutions. Considering this, it is important to critically examine strategic planning processes to understand the aspects that are important for the survival of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and therefore they should be regularly and closely monitored. The study begins by exploring literature relating to strategic planning, governance, sustainability reporting practices and Business Intelligence (BI) technologies in Higher Education. The primary objective of the investigation is to propose a sustainability reporting framework for Higher Education Institutions in South Africa. It is argued that with the aid of appropriate BI tools, the proposed Sustainability Reporting framework would be useful in tracking progress in the implementation of strategic plans and at the same time strengthen governance in institutions. The study identified elements of Sustainability Reporting that are important for strategic planning. To develop the proposed framework, an empirical investigation was undertaken. Four online questionnaires were completed and returned by 108 participants comprising of Registrars and Information Managers at 23 South African Higher Education Institutions as well as to Information Managers in selected International Higher Education Institutions and Managers at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). The online questionnaires were developed to elicit information to include in the proposed framework. To analyse results, both descriptive and inferential statistics such as Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used. Results from the surveys revealed that Higher Education Institutions globally and in South Africa are grappling with the same issues. When it comes to Sustainability Reporting, factors such as information culture and Business Intelligence maturity levels were not found to be very different among the various institutions. In the case study at NMMU, correlational analysis confirmed that variables such as Management buying and the availability of BI reports were positively related to effective strategic planning and vice versa. Similarly, a strong correlation was observed between reporting guidelines and strategic planning. Moreover, the study highlighted the critical role of management and leadership in a university in creating an environment that supports Sustainability Reporting. In conclusion, it was recommended that efforts should be directed at creating awareness and at training staff on aspects that promote sustainability. It is incumbent upon the institution to take advantage of and promote technological tools and techniques to enable the easy flow of data and information in understandable and usable formats to all its stakeholders. Finally, a Framework for Sustainability Reporting for Higher Education Institutions (FSRHEI) and guidelines for implementing Sustainability Reports are proposed.

Organizations today are adopting business intelligence (BI) systems at a fast pace with the expectation that these systems will help them make better business decisions and improve their performance. But with the ever changing industry dynamics and variable business needs of end-users, the BI requirements of organizations are also getting unpredictable and increasingly harder to deliver by the service providers. Additionally, the advancement of web 2.0 & enterprise 2.0 technologies has opened up more possibilities for the development of user-centric innovative business applications. Enterprise BI Mashups are a specific breed of such technologies that have the potential to empower end-users with self-service capabilities and facilitate problem-solving in ad-hoc situational BI scenarios. This research project attempts to explore the current landscape of Business Intelligence (BI) Mashups and to identify gaps in technology with respect to user requirements and corporate objectives. Through an empirical investigation of BI mashups use cases, specific issues and challenges associated with the use of mashups in BI have been ascertained. Working in collaboration with IBM Cognos, we have formulated a taxonomy and utility framework for Enterprise BI Mashups. The formulated taxonomy provides a basic framework for understanding the domain of BI mashups and is aimed to aid application development initiatives for creating BI mashups toolkits. The utility framework draws upon real-world use cases for BI Mashups as well as pertinent software design patterns that can facilitate the development of BI mashup tools and services. These frameworks are expected to advance an understanding of business process requirements that can be satisfied through the use of Enterprise BI Mashups, and also aid in the development of mashup toolkits targeted at BI end-users.

This thesis deals with corporate management and measurement of strategic business performance. The main object of this thesis is to design a system for strategic management of service organization and try to apply this model in environment of chosen service. Balanced Scorecard methodology was used to achieve this objective and the metric model and strategy map of service organization is based on its principles. The first part of the thesis is aimed at theoretical aspects of corporate management and measurement of strategic business performance, so it focused on Balanced Scorecard, Business Intelligence and Corporate performance management. This part provides theoretical framework for the next part of this thesis. The next part deals with applicability of theoretical concepts at chosen service company. The objective was to implement some metrics originating from the previously constructed metric model using Business Intelligence. The outputs of this part are metric model depicted in the form of strategy map and management reports in form of graphs and tables that monitor the business performance through chosen metrics.

This thesis addresses a new management approach - "Corporate Performance Management" (CPM). It sets forth the concept of this new approach as a business performance monitoring and strategic support tool, its assumptions, framework, components, relationship to business intelligence, and related methodologies. Particular focus is placed on "key performance indicators" (KPI), their characteristics, segmentation, methods for their selection, and implementation procedures. The theoretical part of this work is devoted to creating a methodology by which CPM can be effectively implemented on projects in the financial sector with an emphasis on the critical success factors of such a project as a whole. The primary elements of this methodology are the selection of the best possible metrics, the project's overall success and the development of efficient reporting. The practical part of this work initially introduces "Project KPI 2008", which ran in Komerční banka (Czech Commercial Bank), then pits it against the theoretical methodologies defined in the theoretical section. The entire project is then assessed based on the results of the comparison, and finally, conclusions and recommendations are made for the future of this project. The main asset of this thesis is its creation of the afore-mentioned management methodologies and the ideal, course to be taken in implementing a KPI-focused project. This work is valuable not only for investigating key performance indicators themselves, but also as an informative tool for managers who would like to acquaint themselves with or learn more about the CPM concepts in general.

This dissertation thesis deals with the topic of Business Intelligence and Balanced Scorecard and its use in České odborné nakladatelství, s.r.o., a relatively small company of 29 employees, which publishes magazines about business, gastronomy, textile, foods, hotels etc. The first part of my thesis describes the BI and BSC theoretically and offers a methodical basis for the following chapters. It gives the reader a definition and structure of BI, with access to a Data Warehouse including the fundamentals of building an OLAP database. It furthermore explains what BSC is, which perspectives use and what a strategic map is. The theoretical chapters of my paper will draw conclusions about the use of BI and BSC and the links between them. The practical, hands-on, chapters continue with the actual application of BI and BSC in the afore-mentioned ČON, s.r.o. It describes the goals and ambitions of the company, which are further on divided into individual strategic goals and metrics, fragmented into perspectives of the BSC and portrayed in a strategic map. Upon analyzing the demands of the company a BI framework is created, data sources are identified, Data Warehouse are designed and brought into effect. In the end a multidimensional OLAP cube is created with MS SQL Server 2008. Finally, there is a MS Excel 2007 explanation and interpretation of the measured values (reporting), which is taken from the available sources of ČON, s.r.o. and is compared against the set strategic goals and metrics of the company. The results of this thesis are based on actual demands of the company and are ready to be implemented and used in real-life.

This thesis deals with possibilities of strategic measurement of performance in Czech industrial firm and application of distinguished metrics using Business Intelligence tools. In particular it is a firm called Linde Pohony s.r.o. that produces axes and half axes for forklifts. This thesis is based on contemporary information about strategic performance management and its tools. The main aim of this thesis is to demonstrate possibilities of using Business Intelligence in order to measure key performance metrics. Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 with its Analysis and Integration services are used to prove it. It was necessary to create model of metrics at first. First part of the thesis deals with several ways and methods how to measure firm's performance. Then a proper method to measure performance is chosen. In following chapters ways how Business Intelligence tools can contribute to industrial firms are discussed. Then the real implementation of few metrics is described following with an outline of firm's software architecture. Main contribution of this thesis is particularly in demonstrating power of Business Intelligence tools when they are used along with Balanced Scorecard methodics in small or medium sized Czech industrial firm. Also Linde Pohony s.r.o. can profit from this work -- considering that many administrative tasks are much easier and faster and management has much better view into their firm. Keywords Business Intelligence, industrial firm, Balanced Scorecard, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, Strategic performance management, metric

As a result of the financial crisis are companies forced to face uncertainties which significantly affect corporate governance. Companies have many ways how to face this issue. This work is focused on the possibility of using modern system Corporate Performance Management. The first part describes the impact of financial crisis on the Czech economy, business environment and are being defined most characteristic uncertainties, businesses must address. In this section is also mentioned the historical development of information technology and management information systems, which are closely linked with the managerial decision-making and enterprise management. In next section of the work are mentioned reasons of emergence of Corporate Performance Management, being described the basic principles of continuity with Business Intelligence and are being defined methodologies, metrics, processes and technology. Based on the study of literature has been chosen model of strategic management principles the Balanced Scorecard within which have been defined the mission and vision of companies located in times of certainty and uncertainty. Also were established strategic objectives of both different situations whit which were applied of appropriate metrics. Another part is focused on process of business planning reflected again in different situations certainties and uncertainties. Being mentioned theoretical facts associated with the basic management disciplines and are created by different planning models. In conclusion it is mentioned the question of implementation, the mapping of the largest providers of modern solutions and are being set trends for future years.

This Diploma thesis deals with the analysis and proposal of the pilot BI solution for the company Svoboda & Partner CZ s.r.o., engaged in the automechanic expertise. Fundamental objectives of this work focus particularly on the above mentioned pilot BI solutions and partial objectives deal with an analysis of the company and its needs, arising from business strategy and market analysis applications available to support the visualization of transaction reporting. These objectives have been achieved by analyzing the company's business model in chapter seven, further analysis of needs and problems within the company in chapter eight. Before the analysis, the diploma thesis deals with a survey of available applications that offer functionality of dynamically generated graphs to aid visualization of transaction reporting in chapter six and finally a major analysis and preparation of pilot BI and transaction reporting for this business which you can find from chapter 9 to chapter eleven. Contribution of this work for the company will be a complete analysis and delivery of all necessary documents in order to decide whether the above BI solutions to the company implement or not. In the case of a positive decision of the company, it is expected that thanks to BI solutions the ways of looking at corporate data can be more expanded, more precise and more operational management of the company, achieving better performance, higher profits and more efficient decision-making based on better data for decision making.

In this diploma thesis I concentrate on analysing the possibilities of standardization of financial Business Intelligence solution. The objective is firstly to assess whether it is useful to create a so-called standard model, i.e. a solution model, which could be used repeatedly in independent BI project implementations. The objective is to analyse whether there are similarities among the implemented BI projects in terms of content requirements (measures and dimensions), or what are the differences. The objective is then to design a standard solution model (design relational and dimensional model for data structures). Another objective is to create a functional prototype solution based on the designed model, i.e. to create the actual data structures and fill them with data. A part of this prototype solution should be a set of demonstrative reports. The objectives will be achieved first of all by analysing the theoretical foundations, which provides the literature, and by analysing available real project documentation. Considered BI projects have been implemented within several non-financial commercial institutions. That means that the outputs of this thesis are applicable primarily in non-financial enterprises environments. In the next step, the dimensional modelling techniques will be used to create the schema. Then, leveraging the knowledge of BI solution development techniques on Microsoft SQL Server platform, the prototype solution will be deployed. Reports will be developed using the Microsoft Excel client tool. The benefit of this thesis consists in the model added value, which can be used as the core of newly developed financial BI solutions. The implementation process should by this spare some time. Another benefit of the thesis is the possible use of the prototype solution as a tool for customized demonstration of the financial BI capabilities to potential customers.

Extract, Transformation, and Load (ETL) system is responsible for the extraction of data from several sources, their cleansing, conforming and insertion into a data warehouse. The thesis is focused on building ETL methodology to better understanding of ETL process and its application in the real environment. I've worked on project "BI Cookbook" with Clever Decision, a software consulting company that specializes in Business Intelligence. The aim was to create ETL part of the BI methodology. This methodology has been designed to provide ease of use, flexible and extensible material for the purpose of building ETL solution. The main goal of this work is to introduce created ETL methodology, all of its components and the way in which it could be used. Following goal is to discuss options of its implementation and modification for the wide range of use. The main contribution of this work is to provide ideas of creating and implementing ETL methodology or ideas for creating methodology in general. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first theoretical part deals with basic definition, architecture and implementing of ETL system. The second part presents the proposed methodology. The last part contains of the possible options for implementation a modification of the methodology.