Presented at InnoTech Oregon 2013. All rights reserved.

1. Real-Time Analytics with
Node.js and MS Azure
JASON STEVENS & JON DE LA MOTTE
CSG PRO
INNOTECH OREGON 2013

2. Introductions
 Jason Stevens
 Senior Business Analyst at CSG Pro
 20+ years experience in IT development, operations & management
 Jon de la Motte
 Senior Analytics Consultant at CSG Pro
 Specialist in data visualization and open source tools
 CSG Pro
 A leader in providing IT Solutions to the Portland community since 1993
 Business Intelligence is one of our core practices

3. Presentation Overview
 Business Context: The New Reality of Real-Time
 Traditional Analytics: Best Fit?
 The Technical Challenge
 Solution Architecture
 Scenario
 User-participation Demo
 Q&A
 About CSG Pro

4. Business Context
The New Reality of Real-Time
 Technology is continuing to accelerate the pace of business
 New micro-markets open constantly, to be tapped by the first to reach
them
 Greater throughput on delivery processes has also increased the costs
associated with slowdowns or stoppages
 The global reach of the Internet means that your customers, business
partners and competitors are always active
 Staying on top of new opportunities and ahead of risks requires the
most up-to-date information possible

5. Business Context
The New Reality of Real-Time
 Business Decision-Makers are less likely to be at their desks than ever
before
 They’re at customer sites, meeting suppliers, or on the shop floor
 (Or at conferences like this one!)
 The information that they need has to reach them where they are
 Real-time information isn’t real-time if you can’t readily use it until you
get back to your desk
 Support for visualization and interactivity through mobile devices is key

6. Business Context
The New Reality of Real-Time
 Real-time data sources might…
 Be external to your core business systems
 Appear as streams
 Have less structure than traditional relational databases
 Examples:
 Facebook
 Twitter
 Logfiles

7. Traditional Analytics
Best Fit?
 Typically…
 Designed to integrate across many data sources, rather than a few key
systems
 Report over relatively long periods of time, rather than hours or days
 May be a little stale, due to latency in ETL processes that feed them
 Due to data volumes, jobs may take some time to run or be batched
 User interfaces often designed for desktop viewing and may not be
highly interactive

8. Traditional Analytics
Best Fit?
 Traditional analytics serve traditional business needs well
 Help answer broad analytical questions
 Useful for evaluating past performance or planning for future
performance
 But they weren’t designed to meet the needs of real-time business
 Help answer operational questions
 Useful for making immediate decisions
 Real-time analytics augment and enhance traditional BI

9. The Technical Challenge
Making Real-Time Work
1. A lightweight, on-premise program that can incrementally capture
data without impacting operational systems’ performance
 Optimized for real-time input (streams) or output
2. A high-speed data cache that is accessible via the Internet
3. A solid delivery mechanism

10. Just More Software?
No, we need…

11. Something to Hold
Responsive
Interactive

12. And Infrastructure to Support It

13. Solution Architecture
NoSQL
or SQL
Database
On-Premise
Program
Computers
Cell Phones
Tablets
Modern web
browsers

14. Solution Architecture
 Why use Node.js?
 Built on JavaScript
 Event driven
 Non-blocking input/output
 Built for high-performance, real-time delivery
 Lightweight and flexible
 Well suited for both the server and the worker
 Open source benefits
 Community packages
 Need Twitter/Facebook/Google authentication? Done.

15. Solution Architecture
 Why use Microsoft Azure?
 Secure integration with corporate networks and identity management
 Support for open-source platforms such as Node.js
 Proven web standards mentality
 Easily scalable across load, geography
 Straightforward code deployment

16. Demo: Call Center
 A customer’s impression of your business is often directly related to
their experience when they call in – and these opinions are lasting
 You want to make sure that this experience is positive – and take
immediate corrective action if not
 Modern ACDs make data available about current state – metrics
like time in queue, percentage of calls that are abandoned, time to
abandon, and time spent with a CSR
 Being able to see these data in real-time lets you improve customer
loyalty and prevent expensive churn

17. Demo: Call Center
 Mock call center data
 Cross filtering
 Responsive layout
 Automatic data updating
 The “Simulate Call” fakes a call to the call center

18. Demo URL
bit.ly/call-board

19. Q&A
 Questions?
 Answers!

20. About CSG Pro
 CSG Professional Services (http://www.csgpro.com) does whatever
it takes to help organizations get the most value out of their
enterprise data.
 We develop IT projects that improve business decision-making and
efficiency throughout your organization, using leading Microsoft
technologies to tap into your data – wherever it lies – to create
maximum value.