MicroStrategy BI Software - Sales Force Analysis Module

Business Intelligence MicroStrategy BI Software : Sales Force Analysis Module

MicroStrategy’s Sales Force Analysis Module, an application module for sales management, provides more than 85 performance metrics and over 40 key reports to help companies convert leads into sales, monitor sales pipelines, and rank sales executives. The module helps your organization gain insight on the types and quality of leads in the sales process, report on the status of each opportunity, and analyze revenue forecasts.

Built on the MicroStrategy platform, the Sales Force Analysis Module answers an unlimited range of business questions for a variety of users to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales force. Companies use the module to monitor key performance indicators that automatically spotlight above- and below-target performance.

MicroStrategy’s Sales Force Analysis Module has been designed so that organizations can accelerate sales force performance management initiatives by running packaged analytics directly against an existing data warehouse or multiple disparate data sources including sales force automation systems. The module can be easily modified and extended to meet additional reporting and data requirements.

Source: For more information on MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Software, Check out http://www.microstrategy.com/Software/Applications/SAM/?CID=

MicroStrategy BI Software - Human Resources Analysis Module

Business Intelligence MicroStrategy BI Software : Human Resources Analysis Module

MicroStrategy’s Human Resources Analysis Module, an application module for human capital management, provides more than 80 performance metrics and over 45 key reports to help your HR professionals monitor employment and labor law compliance, optimize the tremendous fixed costs associated with human resources, and improve employee recruitment, retention, and performance.

Built on the MicroStrategy Platform, the Human Resources Analysis Module is the only technology that can empower HR professionals to align human resources with corporate strategy. Leveraging the security and administration of the MicroStrategy platform, a company may choose to grant a Finance Manager permission to view only headcount information, while a Payroll Manager will have permission to view salary, bonus, and W-2 information..

MicroStrategy’s Human Resources Analysis Module has been designed so that organizations can accelerate HR performance management initiatives by running packaged analytics directly against an existing data warehouse or multiple disparate data sources including HR management systems. The module can be easily modified and extended to meet additional reporting and data requirements.

Source: For more information on MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Software, check out http://www.microstrategy.com/Software/Applications/HRAM/?CID=

MicroStrategy BI Software - Financial Reporting Analysis Module

Business Intelligence Software : MicroStrategy Financial Reporting Analysis Module

MicroStrategy's Financial Reporting Analysis Module, an application module for financial performance management, provides more than 50 financial metrics and over 40 key reports to help organizations immediately begin reporting, analyzing, and monitoring financial information from existing operational systems and data warehouses.

With the Financial Reporting Analysis Module, an organization can run GAAP-compliant reports that replace those typically produced manually by finance or accounting departments. Business users at all organizational levels run reports and scorecards, focusing on corporate performance, drilling down to transactional details, viewing trends, and extracting intelligence not otherwise evident.

Built on the MicroStrategy Platform, the Financial Reporting Analysis Module is uniquely able to deliver key business and technical benefits. The module can be easily modified and extended to meet additional reporting and data requirements.

Source: For more information on MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Software, check out http://www.microstrategy.com/Software/Applications/FRAM/?CID=

MicroStrategy BI Software - Customer Analysis Module

Business Intelligence Software : MicroStrategy Customer Analysis Module

MicroStrategy’s Customer Analysis Module, an application module for marketing and customer relationship management, provides more than 65 performance metrics and 40 key reports to help companies segment customers, monitor lifetime values, improve customer satisfaction, and drive profitability.

The Customer Analysis Module provides deep insight into customer behavior, enabling organizations to reduce attrition of high value customers, optimize customer profitability, and identify cross-sell opportunities. Incorporated into the design of this module are the best practices acquired from over 400 customer-centric implementations at leading organizations across the world.

Built on the MicroStrategy platform, the Customer Analysis Module has been designed so that organizations can accelerate customer relationship management initiatives by running packaged analytics directly against an existing customer warehouse or CRM operational system. The module can be easily modified and extended to meet additional reporting and data requirements.

Source: For more information on MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Software, check out http://www.microstrategy.com/Software/Applications/CAM/?CID=

MicroStrategy 8 BI Software

Business Intelligence BI MicroStrategy 8 Software

Better Business Decisions Every Day. MicroStrategy 8 builds upon the unified architectural foundation established by MicroStrategy 7. It inherits the industrial-strength attributes that have become the hallmark of MicroStrategy technology—including the highest user scalability, highest data scalability, supporting all 5 Styles of Business Intelligence as plug-n-play components, and an enterprise-caliber of non-stop operations and powerful administration.

With MicroStrategy 8, businesses can now extend the richness of MicroStrategy business intelligence to more diverse business people and to use it to manage more facets of business performance.

Source: For more information on MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Software, check out http://www.microstrategy.com/Software/?CID=

The CEO's Guide to The Top 5 Issues that Misguide Business Intelligence Decisions

Business Intelligence BI Software Articles : The CEO's Guide to The Top 5 Issues that Misguide Business Intelligence Decisions by R.L. Fielding

When considering business intelligence (BI) software, it is essential to be aware of underlying issues that can seriously impact on your bottom line. In a country where most businesses have information stored in several different databases, it's no secret that the BI strategy you choose will effect your profit and loss target. From data collection and integration to data analysis, the holy grail of Business Intelligence software combines your disparate databases to provide a decision support system that will enable you to make key conclusions using all of the available information. This is clearly a huge bonus to those companies searching for ways to surpass their competitors. However, in today's landscape, managers and executives in "small to midsize" organizations are at a significant disadvantage where business intelligence is concerned.

Their business intelligence data and needs are similar to their Fortune 500 and Global 9000 counterparts, but their business intelligence budgets are not. So how do you find the right Business Intelligence vendor--one that provides concurrent access to all available types of information with a simple, user-friendly interface at a cost that makes sense? Simple: Avoid these top five common obstacles and purchase only what your company will use.

1. Usability verses feature bloat.
We've all experienced it--we want only the best. The most technically sound flat screen TV on the market. The newest cell phone with the most ring tones, Web access, and email. A membership to the most popular gym filled with the most technically advanced machines and highly-educated trainers. But does too much of a good thing become more overwhelming than beneficial?

Simplify. Are all the bells and whistles necessary? Be selective about the BI programs you choose and only buy what you'll use. Carefully consider the expensive BI products and do your research. There are companies in the BI marketplace that provide decision support systems tailored for the small to mid-size company, without the unnecessary, expensive add-ons. With a little legwork, you can identify BI software that enables users to integrate, publish and analyze enterprise data across disparate data sources - without expensive ETL technology.

2. Enough already about metadata!
Metadata is literally data about data. It can range from timestamps to icons to free-text comments and much more. Because of the need to distill the useful information from the mass of information available, it's typical to invest in a large BI company that ensures consistency by manually creating your metadata, which in turn can add value, but also adds tremendous cost. However, it is often possible to leverage companies' existing metadata - a fact that many big BI companies overlook. As such, it may not be necessary to spend the extra money to manually create these metadata schemes - the info you need may already be there. As with anything else, the key is about finding balance--too much or too little data is not useful. Good business intelligence means balanced information.

3. Consulting
Don't buy it if you don't need it. Many BI products require substantial consulting projects as part of their launch process, often costing as much as the software itself. Take a close look at your company's needs and determine whether or not this additional support is necessary. Unlike the business intelligence products of Big BI, there are niche BI companies with software that installs and runs without expensive consulting - yet they still provide concurrent access to any combination of enterprise data sources in a single user request; can be installed in a matter of hours; and include user-friendly tools for query creation, reporting and data analytics.

If you would like to read the complete article, please visit Decision Technology at http://www.decision-technology.com/article_fielding_ceo.htm. About Decision Technology, Inc. Decision Technology business intelligence software is the ideal solution for organizations with limited IT resources, and whose data are confined in disparate databases or operational systems.

Since 1985, Decision Technology has provided organizations with intuitive, information retrieval software for decision support applications. Its newest business intelligence software product, DecisionCentric, provides Enterprise Information Integration with query and reporting tools optimized for small and medium size organizations. It enables users to integrate, publish and analyze enterprise data across disparate data sources - without expensive ETL technology. This article is copyrighted by Decision Technology. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part and may not be posted on other websites, without the express written permission of the author who may be contacted via email at DTI@digitalbrandexpressions.com.

About the Author
R.L. Fielding has been a freelance writer for 10 years, offering her expertise and skills to a variety of major organizations in the education, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing industries. She lives in New Jersey with her dog and two cats and enjoys rock climbing and ornamental gardening.

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=111502

Business Intelligence : Accelerate Your Business Performance

BI Software Articles : Business Intelligence : Accelerate Your Business Performance by Ramakrishnan

Business intelligence is the process of gathering information from the business. The gathered business information is transformed into knowledge using business intelligence. Business intelligence will ease the decision making process, helps in understanding the customer taste and market trends. To run the business successfully one should have the comprehensive business knowledge and understanding of our business strengths and weakness. Business intelligence will take into account the internal and external factors of a business.

Business Intelligence Definition

The basic definition of business intelligence "the process of gathering information about a business or industry matter; a broad range of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data that helps to make business decisions."

Business Intelligence Includes

Business intelligence (BI) includes software applications, technologies and analytical methodologies that perform data analysis. Business intelligence covers data mining, Web mining, text mining, reporting and querying, OLAP, and data visualization.

Knowledge management is part of Business Intelligence

Knowledge management is one of the methods in business intelligence. Knowledge management has been defined as "the technique and tools for capturing, storing, organizing, and making knowledge" Business intelligence is driven by an objective laid by the company. The duration of the objective may be short period or long period.

Business Intelligence Software

Business Intelligence software enables users to integrate and analyze data. Business intelligence software enables us to explore all the business information instantly and effectively. Business intelligence helps the business management to access up-to-date and accurate information about the business performance. Identifying and understanding business opportunities in this vast business environment requires far more than an understanding of technology trends.

OLAP powerful BI Software

The most popular business intelligence tool is OLAP (Online Analytical Processing). OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) is a powerful, Business Intelligence & enterprise reporting application for small and medium organizations with the capacity to fully Integrate Enterprise Information.

OLAPBrowser delivers incredible reporting power. Create global and enterprise information delivery systems, executive information Systems and personal analytical application.

About the Author
Ramki is with Axsellit Technologies (http://www.axsellit.com/business-intelligence.html) Business Software. Axsellit Software delivers professional, benefit-enriched business solutions with an unbeatable performance-to-price ratio. Axsellit Technologies provides Business Intelligence Software http://www.axsellit.com/businessintelligence.htm

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=99389

Business Intelligence Advancements Transform Corporate Decision-Making

BI Articles : Business Intelligence Advancements Transform Corporate Decision-Making by RL Fielding

Companies have long considered data collection and analysis to be fundamental activities for long term strategic planning. Before the rise of the Information Age, most decision making was based on guess-work or trial-and-error practices. Businesses seeking to achieve a sustainable advantage over their competition quickly turned to information management systems for detailed data analysis. These systems and methods have evolved to what is now known by the broader term "business intelligence" or "BI". Business intelligence refers to in-depth analysis of company data for better decision-making. The technology and processes that make this analysis possible take unwieldy collections of information and translate them into organized, readily-accessible, human-readable compilations of data. With an effective BI tool, companies can easily track their own operations, their customers' activity patterns, and industry trends. These fact-based assessments help companies work toward specific goals with confidence.

The business intelligence process can be broken down into the following three stages:

1. Data
2. Information
3. Knowledge

Raw data is gathered and processed into information. The information must be filtered and arranged into meaningful patterns. The knowledge drawn from that data analysis helps to form the business intelligence of a corporation.

Business intelligence needs vary across industries. The functional area and particular processes under examination play a large role in the type of data gathered and the range of knowledge sought. Common functional areas include: Sales and Marketing, Human Resources, Operations, and Finance.

Sales and marketing departments track products, customers, demographics, promotions, sales force, order type, and other related fields. Human resources groups often look to measure employee, organizational, and departmental issues. Assembly speed, warehouse stock, manufacturer and supplier cost, and shift productivity are the domain of operations management. Finance departments will closely watch data on topics such as currency standards, account information, and industry trends.

In the field of business intelligence, staff organizational levels also come into play. Those in lower organizational levels are more likely to focus on measures of short-term, correctable performance while more senior employees may measure high-level trends instead of absolutes. Of course, both of these types of measures are important to gauging a company's relative success.

Good business intelligence means balanced information. Too much or too little data is not useful. Corporations can focus on the most crucial improvements by setting reasonable limits on the information gathered, coordinating the efforts around a company-wide strategy, and employing business intelligence systems.

Intelligence support systems can improve day-to-day business decision-making. Once a company has decided to adopt a business intelligence strategy, the first step in the process is to decide on goals for the initiative. After a central goal has been agreed upon, such as providing shareholders with a return above the industry-average, it is important to assess where overall decision making can be improved and to target the most valuable areas.

To facilitate their efforts, businesses may choose from a variety of intelligence support products on the market. Common tools include: data warehouses, business performance management, data mining or KDD (knowledge-discovery in databases), document warehouses, text mining, data visualization, scorecarding, and OLAP (Online Analytical Processing). These products work to sort through raw data and contribute to informed decision making. Some of these tools can produce compelling results when applied in tandem. For example, data and document warehouses used in tracking a store's inventory can be linked to show both company data on past sales trends and external articles containing consumer opinions, thus expanding the pool of information available for decision-support and providing a more complete understanding of the situation.

Software-oriented business intelligence is seen by some as the next phase in the movement. Companies with limited Information Technology (IT) resources or whose data is held in disparate data sources can rely on software such as DecisionCentric® or Decision Analyzer®. Both products are produced by Decision Technology, Inc.. They enable users to analyze data, create reports, and export files to other applications like Acrobat, Word, and Excel. DecisionCentric®, in particular, is a powerful business intelligence application for small to midsize companies. At its heart is an EII engine optimized for small and midsize organizations. This allows organizations to postpone data warehouse implementations or extend the power and reach of any existing data warehouse. Moreover, the software program offers a free-form reporting tool that does the heavy lifting of report design to make the end-user's job easier.

Business intelligence is prevalent in virtually every level of corporate dealings, in every industry. Technological advances require companies to make 'round-the-clock decisions at a moment's notice. The companies that can develop winning strategies in the face of increased competition and mountains of data will triumph over their competitors.

Business intelligence products guarantee companies the confidence of knowing the current fact-based information they need will always be right at their fingertips.

About Decision Technology, Inc. Decision Technology business intelligence software is the ideal solution for organizations with limited IT resources, and whose data are confined in disparate databases or operational systems. Since 1985, Decision Technology has provided organizations with intuitive, information retrieval software for decision support applications. Its newest business intelligence software product, DecisionCentric, provides Enterprise Information Integration with query and reporting tools optimized for small and medium size organizations. It enables users to integrate, publish and analyze enterprise data across disparate data sources - without expensive ETL technology.

About the Author
R.L. Fielding has been a freelance writer for 10 years, offering her expertise and skills to a variety of major organizations in the education, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing industries. She lives in New Jersey with her dog and two cats and enjoys rock climbing and ornamental gardening.

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=72719

Business Intelligence 101

BI Articles : Business Intelligence 101 by Robert Flanglin

The goal of every business is to be successful by gaining new customers and retaining old customers. A crucial way of achieving this end is through "Business Intelligence." Business intelligence is also known as simply BI. Business intelligence can be defined as a process of collecting information in the area of business. An essential idea of business is that data is enhanced into information and then into knowledge. Business use BI to gain an advantage in the marketplace by understanding their customer's needs, customer's decision-making processes, and economic, cultural, and technological trends. Business intelligence involves analyzing not only the customer but the entire industry as a whole. Finally, business intelligence is driven by a goal set by the company. The goal can be short term or long term.

History of Business Intelligence

Business intelligence was first referred to in Sun Tzu's "Art of War." Tzu claimed that in order to win a war you had to have complete knowledge and understand of your strengths and weaknesses as well as those of your enemy. This is the core idea behind modern business intelligence. A company must know itself better than anyone else, and know its customers and competitors better than anyone else. It is ironic how much business and warfare are alike. In BI, one must sift through heaps of data (both external and internal) for management to then device strategies for marketing and where to take the business.

Key Performance Indicators

In BI, the present state of business is assessed by the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPI). Data is becoming available to businesses faster as more organizations implement KPI. In the past, data was available after one or two months, which did not help businesses adjust their strategies in a timely manner. More recently, however, banks have tried to make data available sooner and with shorter intervals, especially for businesses that have higher operational/credit risk loading (I.E. wealth management and credit cards). Some companies can get data weekly, which helps them adjust their strategies more efficiently than ever before.

Business Intelligence Tools

Business intelligence involves collecting quite a bit of information and analyzing it. Many business use tools to achieve this. A few of the data tools are data modeling, data warehouses, and data mining. Data tools help employees collect the data and analyze it efficiently. Data tools are for organizational purposes mostly. Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) is used in the analyzing process. OLAP is sometimes simply referred to as Analytics, which is based on the hypercube or "cube" and dimensional analysis.

Some businesses also use software vendors for BI tools. There are quite a few enterprises offering BI technology. If a business does not get the BI tools themselves, then software vendor will provide a business with tools, and sometimes software support and BI professionals who will help the company analyze results and collect data. Some companies providing BI software are Siebel Systems, Microsoft, Altius Consulting, Business-Soft, and SAS Institute.

Conclusion

Businesses understand that knowing the customer is the key to success. Business intelligence is the path through which a business can collect data about the customer and analyze it. Business intelligence is also about knowing the market, including competitors and market trends. A business that has the most accurate understanding of its marketplace will be more adequately prepared for the continual changes that inevitable occur in markets. Business intelligence is an important concept for any company to understand, because it will help them to gain new customers, retain old customers, and see a positive ROI.

About the Author
Robert Flanglin is facinated by business topics and enjoys writing about them. Robert Flanglin writes articles mostly concerning Business Intelligence.

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=49867

Business Intelligence Solutions for the Retail Industry

BI Articles : Business Intelligence Solutions for the Retail Industry by Mitchell Dubin
Traditionally, the retail industry has lagged behind other industries in adopting new technologies, and this holds true in its acceptance of BI technology. Some industries, such as financial services, have become very sophisticated in using BI software for financial reporting and consolidation, customer intelligence, regulatory compliance, and risk management. However, retailers are quickly catching up and beginning to recognize the many areas of BI that can be applied specifically to their businesses.

The competitive game is changing for retail. As the industry continues to consolidate, retailers have begun to realize that using technology to better understand customer buying behavior, to drive sales and profitability, and to reduce operational costs is a necessity for long-term survival.
Retailers are now paying significant attention to BI software, specifically in the areas of merchandise intelligence (including merchandise planning, assortment, size, space, price, promotion, and markdown optimization), customer intelligence (including marketing automation, marketing optimization, and market basket analysis), operational intelligence (including IT portfolio management, labor optimization, and real estate site selection), and competitive intelligence. There are many factors that have led retailers to adopt BI software: increased competition, the need to squeeze more profitability out of less space, prevalent credit card usage, the Internet's role as an alternative sales channel, the popularity of loyalty cards, and soon, RFID (radio frequency identification). These milestones have created a wealth of data that retailers are now beginning to appreciate and use.

Within individual companies, we view the history of BI in retail through a method that we devised to describe the status of any company's evolution toward becoming an intelligent enterprise. We believe that organizations pass through five fundamental stages as they advance in their use of BI as a competitive differentiator:

Operate -- At this most basic level are the companies rife with information mavericks: the guys in basement offices hammering away on desktop spreadsheets. If they go, the knowledge goes with them. There are no processes, and each request becomes an ad hoc data rebuild, resulting in multiple versions of the truth, with the likelihood of a different answer to any one question every time it is asked. Consolidate -- At this stage, a company has pulled together its data at the departmental level. Here, a question gets the same answer every time, at least within the department. However, departmental interests and interdepartmental competition can skew the integrity of the output and result in multiple versions of the truth. Integrate -- At this point in the evolution, a company has adopted enterprise-wide data and bases its decisions on this more complete information. This company is beginning to have a true awareness of additional opportunities for the use of BI to improve processes and profits. Optimize -- At this stage, the company's knowledge workers are very focused on incremental process improvements and refining the value-creation process. Everyone understands and uses analysis, trending, pattern analysis, and predictive results to increase efficiency and effectiveness. The extended value chain becomes increasingly critical to the organization, including the customers, suppliers, and partners who constitute intercompany communities. Innovate -- This level represents a major, quantum break with the past. It exploits the understanding of the value-creation process acquired in the optimize stage and replicates that efficiency with new products in new markets. Companies operating at this level understand what they do well and apply this expertise to new areas of opportunity, thus multiplying the number of revenue streams flowing into the enterprise. Armed with information and business process knowledge, organizations approaching the innovate level will introduce truly innovative products and services that reflect their unique understanding of the market, their internal strengths and weaknesses, and an unfailing flow of ideas from continuously engaged employees. We are finding that most large retailers have reached or are approaching the integrate stage, with many making great strides toward the optimize and innovate levels. There is an enormous opportunity for the evolution to continue -- within every retail organization.

The Presence of BI in the Retail IT Infrastructure

In the typical retail IT infrastructure, there are two fundamental categories of systems: transactional/operational systems, such as POS and purchase order management systems; and analytic/BI systems.

Operational and transactional systems such as merchandise management, ERP (enterprise resource planning), and POS, are very good at what they do -- organizing huge amounts of operational data and transactions. These systems can tell retailers what has happened in their business and what their customers have done -- last week, last month, and last year.

It's critical, however, for retailers to understand what will happen: what the demand will be for a select assortment of merchandise, what impact an incremental price change will have on demand, which floor plan will sell more designer shoes, which customers will respond to a direct mail or catalog offer.

Real value comes from systems that go beyond the limitations of operational software alone, systems that can take operational data and create enterprise intelligence and predictive insights.
These BI systems must combine data management (consolidating, organizing, and cleansing huge amounts of disparate data from varying systems and platforms) with predictive analytics (data mining, forecasting, optimization). When they do, retailers can make sense of customer, product, supplier, and operational data and draw insights that will help them run their businesses better and more profitably.

Leading retailers around the globe -- like Wal-Mart, Foot Locker, Staples, Williams-Sonoma, and Amazon.com and many others -- have begun using BI and analytics to make an array of strategic decisions. These include where to place retail outlets, how many of each size or color of an item to put in each store, and when and how much to discount. The effects of these decisions can save or generate millions of dollars for retailers.

The Strength of the Market for BI in Retail Today

The market is very strong and getting stronger. While it is difficult to find a comprehensive suite of retail-specific BI offerings that spans the spectrum from competitive intelligence to merchandise planning and optimization (product, price, promotion, and placement) based on customer insight, to knowing how to maximize the ROI on the next marketing campaign, to understanding where to build the next store, to reducing supply chain costs. Retailers are telling us over and over that they are seeking a single, stable, reliable, and proven provider of superior BI solutions. They are implementing projects that span multiple years and will deliver value for years to come.

The Retailers that are Realizing the Most Benefits from BI

We find that the retailers that are realizing the most significant returns on their investments are those that take a purposeful, pragmatic approach to establishing an intelligence platform upon which to base all other BI solutions. A single, reliable demand forecast, for instance, can also be used in merchandising, marketing, logistics, store operations, call center staffing, etc., for operational benefit. BI that remains segmented by functional area can provide some value, but retailers can realize a much larger return by building the foundation upon which the rest of the house will stand. This is true of both top-tier and midmarket retailers, regardless of segment.

Specific Areas in Which Retailers can Benefit Most Include:

Merchandising -- This is clearly the most important area of a retailer's business and an area where retailers are beginning to exploit the full value of BI. Analysis of past performance, combined with plans and forecasts of future customer behavior, leads to more accurate initial allocations of merchandise across channels and stores. Assortment and size optimization that are based on customer demand patterns ensure that the correct assortments, size, and case-pack distributions get sent to the correct stores. Daily price, promotion, and markdown optimization ensures that items are priced for optimal profitability, both preseason and in season. Space automation and optimization ensure that departmental sales and profit per square foot are maximized, and products are given the correct inventory and space on the shelf or on the rack. Optimized fulfillment ensures that products are allocated or replenished based on demand. Accurate analysis also results in a more efficient use of manpower in picking, packing, and shipping the first wave of product, while minimizing additional, costly payroll expenses to facilitate transfers between stores, vendor returns, changing signage and labels for markdowns, and otherwise correcting mistakes. Marketing -- By understanding customers better -- whether by profiling, segmenting, gauging propensity to respond, or using market basket analysis -- retailers can create better-defined targeted campaigns, reducing expenses (printing, paper, postage) while increasing response rates, revenues, and gross margins. Also, as retailers gain a better understanding of their customers' buying behavior, this analysis can then be used to create more effective merchandising plans for the next season. Operations -- Understanding and predicting changes in demand -- by hour, by day, by location, by promotion, by price change -- means that the store floors, the catalog call centers, and the fleet crews delivering replenishment orders from the DC to the store are all appropriately staffed. This understanding also leads to optimal productivity since store-level human capital costs can be scheduled better and managed more efficiently. The Integrated Solution

It is important to note that a good BI solution will be able to integrate with any other system or platform. That said different BI solutions need to interface with different operational systems for different purposes.

A solution seeking to use customer behavioral data to make better merchandising or marketing decisions needs to interface with sales transaction systems, loyalty systems, in-house credit systems, coupon redemption systems, catalog and Internet customer data systems, and so forth. A system that recommends optimized price changes should interface with the price management system, the item master, the system that generates labels, etc.

There must be a closed-loop interface between the operational systems that retailers rely upon to conduct day-to-day business and the BI systems that help them conduct that business more efficiently and profitably.

The Future of BI in Retail

BI will be defined by the retailers that have figured out how to maximize customer satisfaction and profitability with the right combination of quality products, friendly and efficient service, unique value, a differentiated shopping experience, and a business model that truly serves its community -- locally and globally. How will this be accomplished? It starts with understanding the customer and then linking that insight into every decision that is made, from merchandising to marketing to distribution to store operations to finance, so that retailers can predict how to best serve their customers' ever-changing needs and desires.

Our vision for the future of retail BI provides for that very scenario, through our intelligence platform and our solutions for customer, merchandise, operations, and performance intelligence that are combined in a suite designed to equip retailers to become truly innovative.

A solution seeking to use customer behavioral data to make better merchandising or marketing decisions needs to interface with sales transaction systems, loyalty systems, in-house credit systems, coupon redemption systems, catalog and Internet customer data systems, and so forth. A system that recommends optimized price changes should interface with the price management system, the item master, the system that generates labels, etc.

About the Author
Director of Microsoft Solutions for OnX Enterprise Solutions

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=33450

Oracle is the #1 Preferred BI Vendor

Business Intelligence Software : Oracle is the #1 Preferred BI Vendor

Information Week Research: Oracle BI Has What IT Professionals Want

Forty percent of the IT professionals in a recent Information Week Research survey called Oracle their preferred BI vendor. "A top tier of vendors is emerging from what has long been a splintered market," said Information Week Research. All of the 500 respondents are using BI tools or are evaluating them for purchase within the next 12 months. The survey was conducted before Oracle announced it would acquire Hyperion, which Information Week Research called "a move that promises to increase Oracle's profile in this market even further."

What IT Professionals Want From a BI Vendor

• Nearly 80 percent of respondents are interested in the company's ability to integrate its offerings with existing applications and provide service and support


• Nearly 60 percent say a vendor's long-term commitment to the BI product line and its financial strength matter


• 50 percent say breadth of product line is important


• 56 percent use a combination of vendor-provided and custom-built tools


• 27 percent buy from a software vendor with a broad product offering, while 14 percent purchase them from specialized BI providers

Source: For more information on Oracle Business Intelligence Software, please visit http://www.oracle.com/features/hp/oracle-number-one-preferred-bi-vendor.html

Oracle #1 in Business Analytics Says Leading Market Research Firm Study

Business Intelligence BI Software : Oracle #1 in Business Analytics Says Leading Market Research Firm Study

Oracle RAC delivers the most innovative and reliable solution in the industry

Oracle is the leading business analytics software vendor by revenue, according to IDC's report Worldwide Business Analytics Software 2006-2010 Forecast and 2005 Vendor Shares. IDC's definition of business analytics software includes data warehousing, business intelligence tools, and packaged analytic applications.

Oracle leads the market in revenue, US$2.17 billion, and market share, 13.1%. If revenue from Siebel Business Analytics, acquired by Oracle in January 2006, is included, Oracle leads by an even greater margin, with $2.38 billion and 14.2% market share—nearly $1 billion more revenue than the next closest vendor.

Source: For more information on Oracel Business Intelligence BI Software, please visit http://www.oracle.com/database/feature_db_idcanalytics.html

Why Companies Need Business Intelligence - Part 3

Business Intelligence Software Articles : Why Companies Need Business Intelligence - Part 3

Peep at the future

The current software trend is that of Software as a Service (SaaS) and BI tools are not immune to this trend. In addition, search and web collaboration are functionalities embedded in what vendors are calling the Business Intelligence 2.0 revolution.

Srivatsan cites the example of an emergency room doctor who could use search within BI to scour a broad set of data sources to find out how many instances of food poisoning have been reported in the past 24 hours, where people are affected, and determine common causes.

This real-time access to trustworthy data could help medical professionals spot and prevent widespread outbreak of food-related illnesses.

Companies can also look forward to more collaborative BI such as instant messenger BI where a sales team could have an IM discussion over a dashboard that shows sales performance below objectives, thereby speeding the process for establishing the next steps for addressing the situation.

Imagine being able to call upon BI tools to provide analysis of data as it comes in. This is, after all, what business managers want -- the ability to analyze and perform "what if" scenarios with data as it comes in from the field. No waiting for periods to close. What you have is the ability to make decisions at the right time, right place and in the right context.

Dijkxhoorn believes that true empowerment comes when every employee will have context specific access to BI. Likewise, at the executive level, forward looking information will become available for strategic decision-making, with results linked in to the Strategic KPI's of the company (beyond a simple dial on a dashboard).

Final advice

Gartner's vice president for research, Andreas Bitterer believes that business intelligence needs to be a continuous process for it to be of value. So stop thinking of it as a project.

Srivatsan: "Few organizations have a comprehensive enterprise BI strategy or clearly defined BI standards. Companies with a patchwork of disparate BI technologies are facing the consequences, including, rising deployment, maintenance and training costs, inconsistent information, and frustrated employees who cannot get timely answers to business questions.

By reducing the number of BI tools, companies can save money, have confidence in and control over business data, and give employees the information they need to do their jobs well, he adds.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/information-technology-articles/why-companies-need-business-intelligence-320561.html

Why Companies Need Business Intelligence - Part 2

Business Intelligence BI Software Articles : Why Companies Need Business Intelligence - Part 2

Who is responsible?

"CEOs put the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the CIO to ensure the make sure this value is extracted out of information stored in the company's IT systems," says Jeroen Dijkxhoorn, technology practice leader at SAS.

Changing the way things get done

Business intelligence has emerged as a top strategic initiative and investment priority for CEOs, but not surprisingly department objectives vary. Having learned from the past, IT is working to standardize on the type of tools it will deploy across the organization.

Users from across the business, not just managers, want quality information on demand, and are no longer willing to wait for IT to serve it. They also want the flexibility and ease of use in engaging tools that they are familiar with (the nearly ubiquitous use of Microsoft Office). And they want their information delivered consistently.

Business users need tools and solutions which not only can deliver information, but can manage information and produce information by integrating with their current systems. Finally they need to be able to tie operational information to financial information.

Minimizing the risk of failure

Business author and management expert Peter Drucker said there is nothing worse than doing the wrong thing well. Why does this happen? Because people don't understand the company plan or have visibility into how the business is performing.

It happens because people are not accountable for their part of the strategy, or can?t rely on their information to make good decisions.

One of the greatest failings of BI has been in how it gets deployed. Intelligence demand often starts out at a specific department where the scope is tactical and thus deployment is departmental in scope.

The result is a proliferation of tools serving the unique needs of specific departments. Unfortunately, the lack of consistent visibility across the enterprise means that these tools will have limited impact and may not even be aligned with the corporate objectives.

"The decision to adopt BI must have senior executive sponsorship. Such endorsement must be tied to overall business objectives and conveyed across the entire enterprise. This would help synchronize all employees," says Dijkxhoorn.

Have you read through a BI tool manual lately? You will notice that it isn't designed to be used by a layman? Many of today's BI tools are used by so-called power users who act as gatekeepers of the information. The result is BI tools do not get widespread adoption.

"BI tools must not be limited to those within an organization based on technical skills or of a certain department. To maximize the adoption of the BI tools within the organization, all employees should be given access to the information they need to make business decisions," advises Shivkumar.

BI is no longer just about the report, but what's IN the report. Just as business dynamics are constantly changing, BI tools must evolve from a report-centric to information-centric approach that delivers "actionable" insight.

Therefore, it needs to be universally recognized within the organization that BI supports improving performance. BI is a tool that is able to deal with the past, present and future and is the power to provide insight that leads to true competitive differentiation.

The only way to maximize the value of BI is to focus on the total picture -- information management, production and delivery that ensures consistent information, and the ability for users to analyze and re-purpose data.

Only then can a standard be identified and adopted across the entire enterprise.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/information-technology-articles/why-companies-need-business-intelligence-320561.html

Why Companies Need Business Intelligence - Part 1

Business Intelligence BI Software Articles : Why Companies Need Business Intelligence - Part 1 Author: Jose Allan Tan

"We need information but all we have is data!"

This is the message managers often complain about. If there is anything that IT has ever done right it is the ability to collect nearly every single bit of data imaginable -- from data that is written or keyed-in to a computing device, to images like signatures and X-rays. We even record voice and video these days.

One manager told me over coffee: "I've got data coming out of my ears. I don't know how to make sense of it!"

Part-time solutions have been around for many years. I say "part-time" because the solutions solve only "part of the problem, part of the time." Product marketers have labeled these as business intelligence (BI) tools.

Wikipedia defines business intelligence as applications and technologies which are used to gather, provide access to, and analyze data and information about their company operations.

The goal of BI tools is to allow anyone using the information provided to make better business decisions. But there are a few problems with traditional BI tools.

BI is mostly associated with report delivery. Usually there are few people within an organization who actually know how to use BI tools. These users hold on to this 'control' because they probably get a kick out of the power they have over others.

More importantly, such specialty creates job security. But the net effect has been dissatisfaction with what was purchased, and concern over making further investments in the future.

BI tools' failure rests in the business unit's failure to communicate their needs and IT's failure to ask the right questions. The result is solutions that fail to deliver expectations.

"Previous perceptions of BI didn't factor the value provided in managing and making sense of the information assets contained within every enterprise," says V.R. Srivatsan, vice president of Asia South for Business Objects.

"However, this is changing as both technology and the business will with which to use it are maturing resulting in BI becoming a key business process driver within today's enterprise," Srivatsan adds.

BI wish list

Suganthi Shivkumar, managing director for ASEAN & India at Hyperion Solutions, notes that business managers want tools that give them increased insight into the dynamic nature of the global marketplace and allow them to identify areas of profitability.

They expect IT to unlock information that is potentially trapped between silos of applications scattered throughout the enterprise.

"Today's regulatory institutions and business climate are very unforgiving towards any kind of expectation variances or financial discrepancies that may be construed as malfeasance or misconduct. This forces companies to put a lot of rigor in their planning and reporting processes. To produce reports with confidence is critical in the choice of BI tools," Shivkumar says.

Having a single version of the truth is also just as important. Finally organizations want to have clear visibility of their operations including accurate demand-revenue-expenses forecasts to better deploy resources and capitalize on opportunities.

Business intelligence has emerged as a strategic initiative and investment priority for companies. But because departmental objectives vary, it would be easy to lose sight of the core objectives of the company and to deploy BI tools (sometimes from different vendors) to satisfy those needs.

The net result of such a strategy is a proliferation of disparate systems that not only do not effectively inter-operate with each other but complicate the matters.

The good news is that despite all the not-so-glorious past of BI tools, CEOs still believe that BI tools play an important role in today's competitive environment.

Global competitive pressures, and mergers and acquisitions are putting constant pressures on restructuring and finding additional sources of profitability. CEOs want insight to help them steer the business through these turbulent times.

For decades companies have been spending millions on enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer resource management (CRM) and data warehousing (DW) tools. With so much information locked in repositories, CEOs are putting pressure on IT to unlock information trapped in those systems.

After Enron, it's no longer enough to produce reports on time. Accuracy and consistency of reporting have become paramount and discrepancies can mean jail time for even the rich and powerful.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/information-technology-articles/why-companies-need-business-intelligence-320561.html

Microsoft BI - PerformancePoint Server 2007: Planning

Microsoft Business Intelligence BI Software Products : PerformancePoint Server 2007: Planning

Get broad participation without losing control

Plans, forecasts, and budgets are critical and influence decisions every day. Even though people gain valuable insights from them, plans are often only created and updated on an "as needed" basis. We all go through planning and budgeting, but does the process need to be so time-consuming?

Instead, imagine full participation with everyone using a familiar interface, a flexible infrastructure, and a low-cost solution that manages the complexity so you don't have to. Better still, imagine how timely updates and accuracy will drive performance throughout your organization.

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 delivers all that, and it can help you:

• Drive consistency throughout your organization.
• Span planning needs across your enterprise.
• Extend your investments in Microsoft's business intelligence (BI) solution.
• Provide every employee with a stake in corporate performance management.

The planning capabilities of PerformancePoint Server put familiar tools into the hands of contributors across your organization, giving them a flexible, powerful environment that supports the budgeting and planning processes.

Source: For more information on Microsoft Business Intelligence BI Software Products, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/bi/products/pps2007_planning.aspx

Microsoft BI - PerformancePoint Server 2007: Analytics

Microsoft Business Intelligence BI Software Products : PerformancePoint Server 2007: Analytics

Move easily from monitoring to rooting out causes

Rich and powerful analytic capabilities can give you answers to the "why" questions:

• Why did performance dip when you expected it to peak?
• Why are sales underperforming?
• Why is a forecast off-target?

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 can help you answer the most important questions through a set of powerful, integrated analytic capabilities with advanced visualizations. In the end, you get a seamless experience between monitoring data and discovering the root cause of an issue, which means you can take quick action to get performance back on track.

Source: For more Microsoft Business Intelligence BI Software products, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/bi/products/pps2007_analytics.aspx

Microsoft BI - PerformancePoint Server 2007: Monitoring

Microsoft Business Intelligence BI Software Products : PerformancePoint Server 2007: Monitoring

See what's going on at any given time
Understanding what is happening at any given time within your organization is critical to effective performance management. You need to be able to:

• Check progress against team and corporate goals.
• Learn how a division, subsidiary, or team is performing against organizational targets.
• See how individual goals affect overall company strategy.

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 offers rich visualizations, user-friendly design, and an integrated ability to work with the familiar Microsoft Office system environment. All this makes it easy to build, personalize, manage, and deploy the robust scorecards and dashboards that enable your people to continually monitor what's happening within your organization.

Source: For more Microsoft Business Intelligence BI Software products, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/bi/products/pps2007_monitoring.aspx

Microsoft BI PerformancePoint Server 2007

Microsoft Business Intelligence BI Software Products : PerformancePoint Server 2007

Performance management with a familiar interface

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 was designed specifically to help improve operational and financial performance across all departments and all levels of your organization. An integrated application, Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 is built to support formal organizational business intelligence (BI) and performance management processes.

With PerformancePoint Server 2007, you can:

Monitor: Monitor progress in a scorecard or dashboard.

Analyze: Quickly analyze what is driving variances against anticipated or planned outcomes.

Plan: Adjust your corporate plan or budget to meet changing business conditions.

Built on the highly secure, scalable Microsoft BI platform, PerformancePoint Server delivers formal centralized and managed performance management tools and processes in the familiar, easy-to-use 2007 Microsoft Office system environment. A key component of the Microsoft BI offering, PerformancePoint Server can help you align organizational performance with individual and team goals and objectives.

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/bi/products/pps2007_overview.aspx

Business intelligence becomes the jewel in SOA's crown

Business intelligence becomes the jewel in SOA's crown By James Kobielus , Network World

High-tech vendor consolidations often take place in waves. Sometimes, consolidations are just a matter of too much restless capital searching for the next big score, regardless of whether there's a sound business rationale. Other times, however, a sudden storm of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) signals the coming of a new industry order, with far-reaching consequences for business users everywhere.

That is the case with the rash of headline-grabbing M&A deals in the business intelligence (BI) arena over the past year. In rapid succession, we've seen Oracle acquire Hyperion, SAP snatch up Business Objects, and IBM take over Cognos — not to mention acquisitions of smaller BI and corporate performance management (CPM) application vendors by most of those firms

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It's far too easy to misinterpret these recent events as just more of the same M&A-stoked empire-building that we've come to expect from large IT solution vendors. Indeed, whenever the likes of Oracle, IBM or Microsoft makes a splashy acquisition, it causes a collective Pavlovian response in vendors, investment bankers, regulators and analysts everywhere. The entire IT world is primed for further consolidations, hence further business opportunities to seize, or competitive threats to defend against — or simply to comment on for any concerned customer or deadline-frantic reporter.

Much of the recent industry commentary has revolved around a theme that doesn't stand up to close scrutiny — the so-called “demise of the BI pure play.” Yes, Business Objects, Cognos and Hyperion are (or shall we say, “were”) in the top tier of BI pure plays by market share. But, even with their absorption into big-vendor motherships, they leave behind a long list of BI rivals — including SAS Institute, MicroStrategy, Information Builders, Actuate, JasperSoft, and Pentaho — that remain very much independent (though, clearly, any vendor has its price and many no doubt are courting potential suitors).

Want to compare network applications products? Visit the IT Buyer's Guides now.
Just as important, new vendors continue to emerge across all segments of the BI universe — such as reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), dashboarding, predictive analytics, data mining, text analytics, intelligent search and complex event processing (CEP) — with many of the new players differentiating through focus on software as a service, open source, appliances and other nouveau approaches to delivering BI functionality.

Source: For more information, please visit http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2008/012308-kobielus.html

Retailers' No. 1 tech priority is business intelligence

Retailers' No. 1 tech priority is business intelligence By Thomas Wailgum

All of the frothy hype over business intelligence tools is justly warranted in the retail industry. That's according to a January 2008 report from Aberdeen Group titled "Business Intelligence in Retail: A Best-in-Class Roadmap for Performance Improvement."

The report's findings, that BI tools can "build customer knowledge, improve visibility across the enterprise and drive sales," are based on survey results from more than 200 retailers. Nearly 70% of the retailers had already implemented and currently use BI tools, and 26% reported plans to adopt a BI system.

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It's important to note that Aberdeen defines BI not as a single reporting or analytics application applied to a specific data set. Rather, BI "involves the ability to access information affecting the business, often as the data is created," write analyst Jeanette Keene and research director David Hatch. "This can involve one or a multiple set of data sources, and can affect one or many sets of decisions, actions and people."

The top reason retailers are implementing BI systems is to allow them "to quickly react to changes in customer demand." In addition, Best-in-Class retailers using BI tools (defined by Aberdeen as having increased their average year-over-year same-store sales by 11.7%, their average profit-margin by 9.3% and their customer retention by 12.2%), said they needed to be more predictive with their forecasting capabilities (38%) and improve customer loyalty and retention (38%).

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"There is clear focus among Best-in-Class companies on improving intelligence across the enterprise to react to and better predict customer demand," the report's authors write. "In today's highly competitive and global landscape, the average consumer has many options, so maintaining and exceeding customer expectations is critical for a company's continued success."

Retailers need all the help they can get with customer service. The most recent data from The University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) showed that customer satisfaction in the retail sector slipped 0.3 percent last quarter to 74.2 on ACSI's 100-point scale. The last holiday season, in particular, was less-than-merry for many retailers: "Satisfaction with the department and discount scores reached its lowest level since 2001," the index showed.

Source: For more information, please visit http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/022608-retailers-no-1-tech-priority.html

MicroStrategy is BI's Switzerland

Business Intelligence BI Software News : MicroStrategy is BI's Switzerland, CEO Saylor says By Juan Carlos Perez , IDG News Service

At a time of dramatic consolidation in the enterprise business intelligence market, MicroStrategy sees great opportunities as an independent vendor, the company's chairman, president and CEO Michael Saylor said Wednesday.

Unlike competitors that become part of larger IT vendors, MicroStrategy retains the freedom and flexibility to support a broad variety of third-party products without having to weigh the competitive considerations of a parent company, Saylor said.

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"Our view is to be Switzerland in this business and to make sure we protect your investment when we give you the ability to tap into lots of different vendors and technology architectures to achieve your goal," Saylor said during a keynote speech at the company's MicroStrategy World 2008 event in Miami.

For example, it's natural for Business Objects to prioritize making its products work better with the applications of its new parent company SAP -- a $6.7 billion deal -- while Cognos will do likewise once its $5 billion acquisition by IBM is completed, he said. The same story will play out with Hyperion, recently acquired by Oracle for $3.3 billion.

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Even as Saylor was giving his speech, it appeared that the enterprise software market would be further consolidated, with Wednesday morning news announcements that BEA has agreed to be acquired by Oracle for $8.5 billion, and that Sun would buy MySQL for $1 billion.

By contrast, MicroStrategy can continue to chart its own course for supporting a wide variety of complementary, third-party products, such as Web browsers, operating systems, processors, databases and application servers, based on the needs of its customers and on market dynamics, Saylor said.

"The market needs a vendor that provides the flexibility we can provide," Saylor said.

Another benefit from the latest round of consolidation is that it lowers the noise in a market that 12 years ago was very crowded with more than 60 business intelligence vendors competing for attention. This makes it easier for MicroStrategy, founded in 1989, to get its message out to potential customers.

Source: For more information, please visit http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/011608-saylor-microstrategy-is-bis.html

Business Objects - Dashboards & Visualization

Business Intelligence BI Software : Business Objects - Dashboards & Visualization

Illuminate your business with consolidated views of key metrics and information.

Through "what-if" analysis, customer segmentation and forecasting, you can transform information and interact with sophisticated visual representations of business processes that provide new insights and the ability to respond quickly with informed decisions.

• Xcelsius 2008Create engaging and actionable business dashboards connected to BusinessObjects platforms or other data sources with point-and-click ease. Choose from several editions:
• BusinessObjects Xcelsius EnterpriseA point-and-click data visualization tool, specifically designed to create interactive analytics and dashboards with secure, live connections to BusinessObjects Enterprise or BusinessObjects Edge Series.
• Xcelsius Engage and Xcelsius Engage ServerCreate business dashboards connected to live company data.
• BusinessObjects Dashboard BuilderGet instant insight into your business activities by viewing your business intelligence content together in one consolidated dashboard view.
• BusinessObjects VizServerEasily set up visual environments to explore relationships, trends and timelines.
• BusinessObjects StarTree SDKVisualize and explore large hierarchies and relationships in your applications.
• BusinessObjects TableLens SDKVisualize large amounts of data; spot trends and make assumptive correlations.
• BusinessObjects TimeWall SDKVisualize long time horizons, while being able to focus on a time of interest.

Source: For more information on Business Objects Dashboards & Visualization, please visit http://www.businessobjects.com

Business Objects - Advanced Analysis

Business Intelligence BI Software : Business Objects Advanced Analysis

Designed for financial and business analysts, Advanced Analysis tools create real-world value from your information assets.

These tools—which rely on sophisticated analytic engines that can access both numeric and text data—interrogate complex historical data to look for trends, outliers and patterns through a visual interface.

• BusinessObjects VoyagerExplore OLAP data using a tool designed specifically for financial and business analysts—one that delivers a full range of functions to analyze multi-dimensional data sets.
• BusinessObjects Set AnalysisDefine, track, and analyze segments, such as good customers, bad suppliers, and at-risk customers, impact your business.
• BusinessObjects Predictive AnalysisUse focused marketing campaigns, view accurate demand and profitability forecasts, and identify when a key metric is trending out of line.
• BusinessObjects Text Analysis'Read' text in 30+ languages, extracting key information so text can be used as a data source for business intelligence.
• BusinessObjects LinguistX Platform SDKBuild multi-language text analysis into search engines, data mining applications, security, legal discovery, storage and routing tools, reducing time-to-market and development costs.
• BusinessObjects ThingFinder SDKExtracts entities, relations and events in all major languages for information discovery applications, including publishing, categorization, link analysis, data and text mining, business intelligence, and more.
• BusinessObjects Summarizer SDKExtract key sentences, summarizing a typical document in a fraction of a second, allowing users to find information more quickly.
• BusinessObjects Metadata Management SystemEditorial staff, researchers, corporate librarians and analysts can efficiently review, cleanse and augment information about entities and events that has been extracted from text.

Source: For more information on Business Objects Advance Analysis, please visit http://www.businessobjects.com/product/qra/advanced_analysis.asp

Business Objects Software - Query, Reporting, Analysis

Business Intelligence BI Software : Business Objects Application - Ad hoc Query, Reporting, and Analysis

Let end users interact with business information and answer ad hoc questions themselves—without having to understand complex database languages and underlying structures.

These tools support query generation and integrated analysis, as well as basic report authoring and information sharing over intranets and extranets.

• BusinessObjects Web IntelligenceBenefit from self-service access to information and intuitive analysis in one integrated product for effective decision-making.
• BusinessObjects Desktop IntelligenceFor users who not only want to view standard reports, but also need to analyze the data they see, perform ad-hoc queries to fetch new data, and create their own reports.

Source: For more information on Business Intelligence (BI) Software, please visit http://www.businessobjects.com/product/qra/adhoc.asp

Business Objects BI Software - Reporting

Business Intelligence BI Software : Reporting

Enlighten your organization's performance by accessing your data and transforming it into actionable information with interactive reports.

By delivering the most-requested pieces of information reliably and securely—via the web or embedded in enterprise applications—reports serve as the foundation of a broad business intelligence (BI) strategy.

• Crystal Reports 2008Design, explore, visualize, and deliver reports with the world's leading reporting tool.
• Crystal Reports ServerCreate, manage, and deliver reports over the web or embedded in enterprise applications.
• Crystal Reports ViewerOpen, view, explore and share reports from your desktop without any IT support.
• Crystal Reports for EclipseAccess data, design and view reports, and easily integrate them in Java applications.
• Crystal Reports for Visual StudioDesign and deliver reports with Crystal Reports Basic for Visual Studio.
• crystalreports.comShare reports over the web—instantly, simply, and securely. We host your files for you, so you don't have to deploy anything or depend on IT.

Source: For more information on Business Intelligence (BI) software, please visit http://www.businessobjects.com/product/qra/reporting.asp

Business Objects - Crystal Reports 2008

Business Objects (BO) Business Intelligence (BI) Softwares : Transforming data into actionable information.

Crystal Reports 2008 is a powerful, dynamic, actionable reporting solution that helps you design, explore, visualize, and deliver reports via the web or embedded in enterprise applications. It enables end users to consume reports with stunning visualizations, conduct on-report business modeling, and execute decisions instantly from the report itself—reducing dependency on IT and developers.

Source: For more information, please visit http://www.businessobjects.com/product/catalog/crystalreports/

BO Intelligence Platform - OnDemand

Business Objects Business Intelligence BI Software : Intelligence Platform - OnDemand


Deploy a business intelligence solution over the Web - without buying servers or installing software. Give insight to customers and partners immediately, without an IT project.
Now you can compare your organization's data to third-party market and financial data, share reports over the Web and automate processes with enterprise-class business applications—in real time and at a lower cost.

• Business Intelligence OnDemandOffload your business intelligence and data warehouse infrastructure onto our hosted platform—and start analyzing your data sooner.


• crystalreports.comShare reports over the Web—instantly, simply, and securely. We host your files for you, so you don't have to deploy anything or depend on IT.


• Information OnDemandCompare your organization's data to third-party market and financial data. Our prebuilt reports save you hours or days of preparation.


• Business Applications OnDemandAutomate, manage and gain insight into your organization's processes. Easily extend your on-demand applications and apply the power of business intelligence to process management.

Source: For more information on Business Objects BI Software, please visit http://www.businessobjects.com/product/platforms/ondemand.asp

BO Intelligence Platform for Mid-Market

Business Objects Business Intelligence BI Software : Intelligence Platform for Mid-Market

BusinessObjects Edge Series is a simple, affordable, and proven suite of business intelligence products for small and mid-size companies.

Get the same insight into your business data and performance as enterprise organizations do—from flexible ad hoc reporting and dashboards to data integration and performance management—at a much lower cost.

• BusinessObjects Edge StandardImprove business processes and get an edge on the competition.
• BusinessObjects Edge ProfessionalCombine the power of data integration with essential business intelligence (BI) for better information insight and reliability.
• BusinessObjects Edge PremiumProactively manage the business performance of your mid-sized organization.
• BusinessObjects Edge PlanningProduce detailed—yet flexible—plans and budgets for your mid-sized organization.
• QuickStart BI PacksQuickly apply BI to your existing applications or industry-specific needs.
• BusinessObjects Edge Series – product add-onsFor mid-sized organizations running SAP.

Source: For more information on Business Objects BI Software, please visit http://www.businessobjects.com/product/platforms/midmarket.asp

Gartner Business Intelligence & Information Management Summit - Sydney

Gartner Business Intelligence & Information Management Summit

18 - 19 March 2008 - Sydney - Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre

Overview

Business dynamics are changing radically due to the globalisation of markets, increased scrutiny of results, and, ever increasingly rapid and interlocking business strategies and processes. As a consequence, higher expectations and user demands for information and analysis to make smarter decisions and manage business performance are changing.

Better decisions, faster. That was the most important reason cited for investing in BI in the Gartner "User Wants and Needs" surveys conducted around the world earlier this year. Our annual CIO survey showed that BI applications remain the highest technology priority for CIOs today.

However, only 36% of CIOs believe that management is using the right information to run the business.

Most organisations equate BI with information delivery. The challenge is that most users, and vendors, don't see BI as a broad strategic initiative. The value of BI is more than information dissemination; BI is highly linked to achieving business goals. Yet the biggest problem IT still faces is how to make BI more pervasive and increase adoption among business users.

In its second year, the Business Intelligence & Information Management Summit will address the key issues affecting your organisation's BI strategy and initiatives, to make smarter decisions. From building the business case to increasing user adoption; and deploying new technologies to defining the right metrics, you'll get the advice, guidance and best practices to stay on top of all the latest trends, new strategies, technology developments, and the many other aspects of this changing business tool.

Start Making Smarter Decisions Now. The Gartner Business Intelligence & Information Management Summit delivers a wide range of analyst presentations, case studies, panel sessions, the latest technology solutions, discussion forums and more. Plus the opportunity to network with and share collective experience of delegates from throughout Asia-Pacific. We hope to see you in Sydney!

Source: For more information on Business Intelligence BI Summit Sydney, please visit http://www.gartner.com/it/summits/bi2a/overview.jsp

Gartner Business Intelligence & Information Management Summit

Gartner Business Intelligence & Information Management Summit

14 March 2008 - Singapore - Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Centre

Overview

Business dynamics are changing radically due to the globalisation of markets, increased scrutiny of results, and, ever increasingly rapid and interlocking business strategies and processes. As a consequence, higher expectations and user demands for information and analysis to make smarter decisions and manage business performance are changing.

Better decisions, faster. That was the most important reason cited for investing in BI in the Gartner "User Wants and Needs" surveys conducted around the world earlier this year. Our annual CIO survey showed that BI applications remain the highest technology priority for CIOs today.

However, only 36% of CIOs believe that management is using the right information to run the business.

Most organisations equate BI with information delivery. The challenge is that most users, and vendors, don't see BI as a broad strategic initiative. The value of BI is more than information dissemination; BI is highly linked to achieving business goals. Yet the biggest problem IT still faces is how to make BI more pervasive and increase adoption among business users.

The inaugural Business Intelligence and Information Management Summit in Singapore will address the key issues affecting your organisation's BI&IM strategy and initiatives, to make smarter decisions. From building the business case to increasing user adoption; and improving data quality and governance, you'll get the advice, guidance and best practices to stay on top of all the latest trends, new strategies, technology developments, and the many other aspects of this changing business tool.

Start Making Smarter Decisions Now. The Gartner Business Intelligence & Information Management Summit delivers a wide range of analyst presentations, panel sessions, the latest technology solutions and more. Plus the opportunity to network with and share collective experience of delegates from throughout Asia. We hope to see you in Singapore!

Source: For more information on Business Intelligence BI Summit, please visit http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=563507&tab=overview

Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2008

Gartner Business Intelligence Summit

Smarter Decisions: BI and Performance Management take Center Stage
1-3 April 2008 - Chicago, IL - Hyatt Regency Chicago

Overview

Business Intelligence isn’t just about reporting anymore. Smart BI practitioners have harnessed the power of their business data to get the kind of business results every company needs to succeed – and now you can, too.

The Gartner Business Intelligence Summit is a multi-faceted BI conference with a unique “how to” focus. We’ll show you why smart BI is moving from simple rear-view reporting to a top-down strategic asset – and what role you play in making it happen. We’ll help you deliver a convincing business case for your BI initiatives – and explore new ways to engage the business users who need BI most. From applications and architecture to metrics and vendors, the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit will focus on real-world BI through case studies, best practices, product demonstrations and actionable advice.

What’s New This Year

NEW conference topics: The Role of Governance, Performance Management Impact on Information Infrastructure, Marriage of Search and BI, The Content Continuum: Adding Unstructured Content to BI applications. Making BI More Process Driven/Centric. The Role of Master Data Management. Leveraging the Synergy of Portals and BI Platforms. Social Software as a collaboration and insight platform.

NEW: Eight Hands-On Workshops (seating is limited to 25).

Plus Alumni favorites: Magic Quadrants Session, Avoiding the Five Fatal Flaws of BI, CPM, Data Warehouse, Metadata, Analytics, and more!

Source: For more information on Business Intelligence BI Summit 2008, please visit http://www.gartner.com/it/summits/bi6/overview.jsp

BO - Intelligence Platform for Enterprise

Business Objects BI Software - Intelligence Platform for Enterprise

For the Enterprise we're delivering on our promise of making business intelligence (BI) more pervasive, actionable, and personal.

With many enhancements and innovations across the entire product suite, we're making it easier for your users to access and share information regardless of who they are, where they work, and how they want to access information.

BusinessObjects XI 3.0
Benefit from a full spectrum of BI capabilities—ranging from reporting, query and analysis, and dashboards and visualization, to intuitive discovery and advanced predictive analytics capabilities. Meet all of your strategic BI requirements on a single platform while ensuring delivery of the right information to the right users at the right time.

Migration for Existing Customers
Minimize the cost of ownership for customers adopting our BI platform. We provide a range of tools, documentation, and training to make your transition as effortless as possible.

BI Platform: BusinessObjects Enterprise
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI is the BI platform that enables IT departments to confidently deploy and standardize their BI implementations. Built using a flexible, scalable, and service-oriented architecture, it allows you to easily extend BI to everyone in your organization.

Source: For more information on Business Objects BI Software, please visit http://www.businessobjects.com/product/platforms/enterprise.asp

SAP and Business Objects Unveil First Joint Offerings

Business Intelligence BI Software News : SAP and Business Objects Unveil First Joint Offerings - January 16, 2008

Kick-Off Go to Market Activities with First Combined Product Packages; Customers Gain Solutions for Business Insight, Performance Management, and Compliance

WALLDORF, Germany or PARIS or San Jose, Calif .— (BUSINESS WIRE) — As a first indication of the successful pace of integration of the two companies, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Business Objects S.A. (NASDAQ: BOBJ) (Euronext Paris: ISIN code FR0004026250 - BOB) today revealed nine joint product packages, available this month, that will be sold by both organizations’ global sales teams. These packages were chosen to address the most common challenges facing business users from the C-suite to Main Street, which include: gaining better business insight, improving company performance and ensuring compliance with corporate governance policies. These packages will allow companies to license, install, and manage solutions from SAP and Business Objects in a single IT investment transaction.

The companies detail these new product packages in conjunction with today’s announcement acknowledging the next steps in SAP’s successful acquisition of Business Objects (see press release entitled “SAP and Business Objects Unite to Lead Emerging Market for Business Performance Optimization.”) With a broad showing of support from shareholders and business partners, SAP and Business Objects now embark on a road map to expand their wide lead in the market of software for business users into leadership in the emerging market for business performance optimization.

“Our initial combined software packages enable new customers to experience the business value gained by the thousands of customers that are successfully running applications from the SAP and Business Objects solution portfolios,” said Léo Apotheker, deputy CEO and president of Customer Solutions and Operations, SAP. “These initial offerings underline the already strong synergies in both our product and sales organizations, and foreshadow how quickly we will bring our two companies together. We fully intend to build upon these offerings and provide our customers with the innovative, market-leading solutions they’ve come to expect from SAP and Business Objects. United by a shared vision to transform the way the world works by connecting people, information and businesses, this is the first demonstration of how we will protect and expand our customers’ IT investments, while helping them to further optimize business performance.”

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SAP and Business Objects Unite to Lead Emerging Market for Business Performance Optimization

Business Intelligence Software BI News : SAP and Business Objects Unite to Lead Emerging Market for Business Performance Optimization

OverviewOn January 16, 2008, SAP AG announced next steps in the successful acquisition of Business Objects, uniting two of the technology industry’s biggest brands with a shared vision to transform the way the world works by connecting people, information and businesses.

With a broad showing of support from shareholders and business partners, SAP and Business Objects now embark on a road map to transform their wide lead in the market of software for business users into leadership in the emerging market for business performance optimization. As a first indication of the successful pace of the companies’ integration, SAP and Business Objects also announced an initial slate of joint product offerings, enabling deep, operational intelligence to improve business performance for customers in multiple industries worldwide.

Source: For more information on business intelligence BI software, please visit Business Objects website http://www.businessobjects.com/company/sap/