BI vendors trying to reach the rank and file

Business Intelligence BI Software news : BI vendors trying to reach the rank and file

Industry is heading toward 'pervasive BI,' providing more people access to analysis tools, analyst says By Chris Kanaracus, IDG News Service

Despite the billions of dollars being spent each year on BI (business intelligence) software, the tools remain largely the province of power users and business analysts who know how to wring useful results from them, but that's bound to change, an analyst said.

"There's more awareness that analysis should be pushed out to more people, helping to expand accountability for the decisions being made [in a company]," said Dan Vesset, an analyst with IDC. "The next 10 to 15 years is about providing more people access to BI. The question is, how it will happen?"

Amid a wave of consolidation in the space, large vendors like Microsoft have talked about BI for the masses -- a goal also referred to as "pervasive BI" -- for some time. Meanwhile, smaller companies are fine-tuning their marketing approach, refreshing their user interfaces, and releasing BI products specifically aimed at SMBs.

Wayne Eckerson, director of research at The Data Warehousing Institute, said vendors have a compelling reason to get BI into the hands of more workers.

"The tools are too complex for people to use, so there has been shelfware," he said, "At the same time, the BI vendors want to sell more licenses. If they're only selling to power users, they're not making those enterprise deals that are growing the top-line revenue for the company."

The third version of open source BI vendor Jaspersoft's Business Intelligence Suite, set to launch Wednesday, has a new Web 2.0-style browser interface and functionality that enables business users to make ad-hoc queries in point-and-click fashion.

"If you're getting out into [the midmarket], those organizations don't have big IT staffs and lots of [database administrators]," said Nick Halsey, vice president of marketing at Jaspersoft. "In a resource-constrained organization, it's really easy to get this out into the hands of users who've never had this ability before."

Supply Chain Consulting of Richardson, Texas, is licensing Jaspersoft's technology as part of its CarbonView application, which organizations can use to track their carbon footprint.

It is "vitally important" that the company's software be easy to work with because of the variety of workers it serves, said Jay Baker, director of product architecture for Supply Chain Consulting. Some end-users of the software perform more advanced analytic roles, while others focus on collecting and entering data, such as a fleet manager who is inputting his monthly fuel and mileage usage, he said.

There are also many ways to "slice and dice that and aggregate" the information, he said. "Depending on your role, you might have more of a regional perspective. If you have another role you might be more concerned with a process level, what processes are generating my CO2," Baker said.

He praised the customization features in Jaspersoft, saying they make it easier to tinker around and get those desired views: "You want to empower users to see things the way they want to see it, and they don't want to submit a help request ticket to get that done," Baker said.

Taking that idea to the extreme, a new offering called Widgenie from LogiXML is conceivably something an enterprise user could actually buy and use without IT's involvement. Users of the new hosted service can upload data from various sources, such as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file, and quickly create visualizations of the data by customizing prebuilt charts and graphs in drag-and-drop fashion. The resulting "widgenies" can then be shared with others.

The service will be offered in a free, ad-supported version, as well as a $50-per-month edition that enables users to turn off the vendor's branding, said Bill Kotraba, director of sales and marketing for LogiXML's new LogiOnDemand division. He said this level of pricing makes it possible for individual users, such as a sales manager who wants to deliver data to team members, to buy the service and bill it to their expense account.

Still other vendors believe there's a niche in catering to customers that have broader needs, but aren't ready to move wholesale to a BI platform.

Datawatch of Chelmsford, Mass., is putting Monarch BI Server into beta. It takes data from static reports and business documents, such as PDFs, and pushes it into spreadsheets, summaries, and charts. The company positions the product as an alternative for enterprises without the resources or desire to deal with more complex BI implementations. Pricing will start at $10,995.

"For SMBs, the IT department can barely keep up with spam e-mails, than take on an entire new BI infrastructure," said John Kitchen, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Datawatch.

Monarch BI Server is based on an existing product, Monarch Report Mining Server, but the company has simplified the installation process and lowered the price, Kitchen said.

But while some BI tools might be getting easier to use by more people in the enterprise, they won't replace the heavy-duty tools, IDC's Vesset stressed.

"One hundred percent of employees are not going to sit there and do deep analysis. Others will just be consumers of it, of information," he said. "The vast majority of what is being done with statistical tools is beyond your average user."

Source: Business Intelligence BI software news, InfoWorld.com

BI steps into the cloud

Business Intelligence BI Software News : BI steps into the cloud

Panorama Software unveils analytics service that goes beyond Google Docs By Tom Sullivan

Business intelligence functionality has made its way into cloud computing as Panorama Software on Thursday unwrapped PowerApps.

Calling it "analytics as a cloud-computing service," the company said PowerApps goes outside a previous deal with Google that brought analytics and reporting to Google Docs.

"When we started developing this project with Google we had to build an analytics engine, and that is essentially PowerApps. This is opening it up, via a cloud computing model, to other applications," said Oudi Antebi, vice president of strategy and marketing at Panorama. "The engine is independent of Google."

Antebi explains that while Amazon has its storage service in the cloud and Google has its Apps, Panorama is in the same game but playing an altogether different position.

Customers use PowerApps to query the hosted data and, the company said, new tools enable data upload and cube creation and management. Because PowerApps uses the MDX (Multidimensional Expression) standard OLAP language, the engine can generate answers that are rendered in Microsoft Excel, Google Apps, or customized front-end applications.

Such customers, Panorama hopes, will include enterprises that traditionally developed custom solutions using stalwart databases, such as Microsoft's SQL Server, IBM's DB2, or Oracle, according to a company spokesperson, as well as SMBs who use SaaS-model applications such as Salesforce.com or NetSuite, and ISVs eager to extend their applications with analytics.

The allure to enterprise-class customers that run applications either on-premise or via the software-as-a-service model is that PowerApps brings more robust OLAP, analytics, and reporting, along with the cloud manner of low barrier-to-entry, Antebi said. "It's a very cost-effective way of doing analytics," he added.

David Hatch, research director for business intelligence at Aberdeen, explained that based on his research, the foremost inhibitor of BI among enterprise users is a lack of requisite skills. "This is addressed indirectly with BI in the cloud," Hatch added. "The Web browser paradigm [of such services] also helps with that."

What's more, the ability to implement a service only once eases pain on the IT side because they don’t have to continually update and maintain desktop BI applications, Hatch said.

Hatch contends that other companies, namely LogiXML, are essentially doing BI in the cloud, even if they're not calling it that.

The model has not been a popular option for analytics, however, because customers are likely to get better performance with in-house OLAP, particularly when it comes to applications run internally, according to Nigel Pendse, a consultant and author of "The BI Survey" and "The OLAP Report."

"It's different if the data is already held externally in some sort of SaaS solution such as Salesforce.com, Google Apps/Docs, etc.," Pendse explained. "In such cases, it does make sense for the OLAP engine to also be an SaaS solution."

Panorama is an open platform such that developers can create their own front end to it that hooks into either SaaS or packaged applications, Antebi said.

But whether customers can do the necessary integration and customization to run PowerApps or are better off waiting for their SaaS providers to partner with Panorama likely depends, again, on the IT staff's skill sets, Hatch added.

Indeed, the real power of BI in the cloud will be to embed it in enterprise applications that need more analytics. Antebi said that Panorama is looking to ink pacts with appropriate providers, but "it's a little too early to discuss partners."

Source: Business Intelligence BI software news, InfoWorld.com

Open source BI continues to improve

Business Intelligence BI Software News : Open source BI continues to improve

Last week at the Red Hat Summit in Boston, Jaspersoft announced their new version 3 suite, aimed at taking the company beyond their namesake widely-used reporting system.

This latest version focuses on ad-hoc BI with a more flexible "Web 2.0" AJAX interface making it easy to build dashboards via drag and drop. By creating metadata domains, the eliminate the need for users to understand the underlying database schemas and queries. You can also easily embed the dashboard in any web application.

JasperSoft's latest update appears to be a significant improvement in making open source BI offerings more competitive in the market. Traditionally, the large scale closed source BI vendors have been able to dismiss open source products as being unproven or too limited in their capabilities. But with the rate of development at JasperSoft, Pentaho and BIRT, I think 2008 is the year that open source BI will start to have serious impact in the market.

If you're a BI "power user" or just a newbie, I'd like to get your thoughts in this area. Do you think the open source companies have what it takes to rival the incumbents? What's been your experience with these products? Let me know.

Source: Business Intelligence BI Software news, InfoWorld.com

Tibco boosts BI with Insightful buy

BI Software News : Tibco boosts BI with Insightful buy

Tibco purchases statistics and data mining specialist Insightful in a deal worth nearly $25 million

By Tom Jowitt, IDG News Service

Tibco Software is to boost its business optimization portfolio after announcing that it would purchase data mining specialist Insightful in a deal worth nearly $25 million.

Insightful specializes in statistics and data mining tools for business intelligence (BI). The use of predictive analytics allows companies to discern patterns, trends, and relationships hidden in the data they collect.

Tibco meanwhile provides enterprise software centered around the service-oriented architecture (SOA), business process management (BPM) and business optimization segments. Tibco said it would add Insightful's products to its business optimization portfolio.

The acquisition of Insightful is Tibco's second acquisition in the BI space, after it acquired Spotfire in May 2007 for approximately $195 million in cash.

Under the terms of the Insightful deal, Tibco will pay $1.87 per share in cash, making the deal worth approximately $24.3 million, including certain assumed options. This price represents a premium of 29 percent over the average closing price of Insightful's common stock over the sixty trading day period ending on 18 June, the last trading day before the deal was announced.

"Our Board of Directors has evaluated strategic alternatives for Insightful and has determined that this outcome is in the best interests of our stockholders," said Jeff Coombs, president and CEO of Seattle-based Insightful in a statement.

There is little doubt that it has been something of a tough trading period for Insightful recently. It described its last quarterly financial results as disappointing, after first quarter revenues fell to $4.9 million from $6.2 million, and it reporting a net loss for the quarter.

Prior to that, for the year ending 31 December, revenues slipped to $22.3 million from $24 million in the year prior to that. It also posted a net loss of $1.7 million for the 12 month period.

"Financially it's both a great win and exit strategy for Insightful, a publicly-held company that seemed destined for a fire-sale after a gradual meltdown in new sales," commented Madan Sheina, of analyst house Ovum.

"The company has been treading corporate water to stay afloat for the past few years," he added. "While Tibco is still sitting on a large pile of cash, the big question now is whether the $25 million forked out for Insightful will squeeze Tibco's share price."

Sheina feels that technologically, this acquisition signals a deeper push for Tibco into analytics - following its acquisition of Spotfire. "The Insightful name will probably be dropped as a separate product brand and be merged as part of Tibco Spotfire's Enterprise Analytics Platform. Significantly Insightful's flagship S-Plus statistical data analysis engine, which has powered Spotfire's solution since 2005, now falls under Tibco's direct ownership."

"Expect deeper integration and some interesting opportunities to layer Spotfire's visualization capabilities for data mining," said Sheina. "What the future holds for existing Insightful customers is unclear at this stage."

The deal is expected to close during Tibco's fiscal third quarter, which ends in August.

"This is a valuable technology for them (Tibco)," said Alys Woodward, program manager (BI and analytics) at IDC. "It certainly does fit in with Spotfire and Tibco's product set."

"Predictive analytics is something that is happening in the market," she added. "Predictive analytics is the next wave in the market, as BI software vendors want to have some sort of predictive capability embedded in their products."

There was also no word on whether any cuts among the 100 or so staff at Insightful.

Tibco would not provide any further comment on the acquisition, denying requests for an interview after consulting its lawyers. A company spokesperson said that because Insightful was a publicly listed company, Tibco would not making any further comments on the deal.

Source: Business Intelligence BI Software information, InfoWorld.com

Business Intelligence, Performance Management and Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services

BI Software Articles : Business Intelligence, Performance Management and Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services by Robert Palmer

When it comes to business software you need something that will really work to your advantage. After all, if you are going to pay the money to purchase business software you might as well have it work for you. And even though this may sound easy enough, the fact of the matter is that purchasing the right business software is not always the simplest of tasks. Luckily, if you know what you are getting you should not have any problems moving forward with the best possible option.

When you buy business intelligence and performance management software you will have the ability to take advantage of many benefits. For some people who are new to this type of business software things may seem a bit complicated at first. But the bottom line is that this type of business software is easier to deal with today than ever before. As long as you take the time to look into what it can do for you, you should never run into any problems. And when you know the benefits, you will be able to improve the way your company does business.

With business intelligence and performance management software you will get reporting and analysis features that can really make your business more efficient. With this feature you can chart performance, and analyze future earnings and business.

In addition to reporting and analysis features, business intelligence and performance management software is also great for planning, budgeting, and forecasting financials. This sure beats having to do everything by hand. Not only will this help you to save money, but it can also help to save you plenty of time in the long run as well. This type of business software is perfect for sales and human resources departments who are constantly forecasting their "numbers" for the year. Without this software it possible to plan, budget, and forecast, but it is not quite as easy.

Also, look into Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Service business software. This allows you to view your business data all in one place, in an organized fashion. This makes for flexible reporting that any type of business can surely take advantage of.

Overall, business software can take your company to the next level. If you do not currently use any of this software you should look into it today. Whether you buy business intelligence and performance management software or Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Service business software, you should be able to get what you need.

After looking into all of your options make a decision at to which business software will help you out the most. Remember, you do not need many software programs to be a success. Just the ones that will help your business perform at the highest possible level.

About the Author
Visit www.calumo.com/ for a comprehensive Corporate Performance Management (CPM) suite in a single product and architecture powered by Microsoft SQL Server - Analysis Services.

Business Intelligence and Performance Management through Insight, Integration and Collaboration

Source: BI Software articles at GoArticles.com

Business Intelligence Database Systems for Economic Development

BI Software Articles : Business Intelligence Database Systems for Economic Development by Jahanzaib Hassan

Economic development policy is measured by job opportunities, workforce development and business retention and expansion. Business Intelligence Systems are used to enhance economic development, workforce development and business retention and expansion. Business Intelligence Systems for the purpose of Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) are designed to store and report on data used for multi-dimensional, holistic economic development strategies.

They help the decision processes by using communication technologies, data, documents, knowledge, and analytical models to identify and solve issues. Business Intelligence Database Systems offer a wide range of solutions for communities, regions and states who want to maximize the return on investment from their retention and expansion programs. For instance, in one state, the current businesses form its existing economic base. These businesses provide the existing jobs and tax base for local and state entities. They also create new jobs, and in fact, studies show that 60-80% of future job growth comes from the expansion of existing businesses. Business Intelligence database software tools make use of community profiling to measure community assets. They also aid professional site location consultants in advising businesses on the most probable business location and/or relocation. Economic development measurements like job creation, economic output and taxable basis are also kept within the business intelligence database system. Questionnaire Development is also a large part of business intelligence database systems. Each community has unique needs and characteristics that should be addressed by its business retention survey. The survey should be customized or tailored to measure the parameters important to the economic development objectives.
Example of a Business Intelligence System for Economic Development Companies

Business Intelligence Database Systems can be categorized into two major types: model-driven and data-driven. Model-driven systems tend to utilize analytical constructs such as forecasting, optimization algorithms, simulations, decision trees, and rules engines. Data-driven systems deal with data warehouses, databases, and online analytical processing (OLAP) technology. These systems provide tools necessary for effective economic development and site selection analysis. The database provides information necessary when considering a business expansion or relocation including property searches, site-specific demographic analysis, industry mapping, and geographic advantages.

An example of a Business Intelligence System that can be customized for individual economic development company's needs is Executive Pulse. This system has been widely implemented in the United States and Canada. The company website also features a free newsletter with excellent current articles on business retention.

About the Author
Copyright © 2006-2007 All rights reserved by Executive Pulse
For more information on Business Intelligence Database Systems and Business Retention and Expansion visit Executive Pulse

Source: BI Software articles at GoArticles.com

Business Intelligence Software Becoming a Necessity for Companies of all Sizes

BI Software Articles : Business Intelligence Software Becoming a Necessity for Companies of all Sizes by Sage

Business intelligence and reporting software has always enjoyed a favorable place in the world of big business. With the capability to deliver reports at the operational level, business intelligence software offers the accountability necessary not only for problem solving, but for moving in the right direction as well. Long a standard of multi level corporations and larger enterprises, business intelligence software has been out of reach for most smaller organizations.

In the past, many software developers have ignored the need for a business intelligence and reporting software solution with the capability to handle businesses both large and small. Earlier applications were often so wide in scope and functionality that they overwhelmed small business owners, both in price and in the many capabilities they offered. Not all businesses required the finite reporting abilities of the available products. Of equal importance, many smaller companies didn't have the computing resources to handle them.

Today, there are options that fit organizations of any size, many of which are scalable so that expansion doesn't require an entirely new program. Applications such as Crystal Time come in multiple versions for the purpose of offering something for everyone. As a result, many small businesses are now able to take advantage of the advance reporting capabilities that until recently, were out of their reach. Those that have taken advantage of these new products have learned why business intelligence software has been a staple of the corporate world for so long. The number of ways that business intelligence software can improve even the smallest of businesses is almost limitless.

Business intelligence software helps ensure that a company's strategic, analytical, and operational initiatives are met. It can reduce the time between the discovery of problems as well as opportunities and allow organizations to take action at the speed required in business. As the availability and deliverability of information increases in importance, businesses that rely on timing have specific needs for enhancing operations, maximizing performance, and gaining a competitive edge. Business intelligence and reporting software makes it all possible.

Now that smaller organizations have access to the same capabilities as their larger counterparts, many are discovering the value of utilizing business intelligence software. With advanced reporting capabilities finally at their fingerprints, whether they remain a small business is less left to chance.

About the Author
To learn more about HR Payroll Software visit our site To learn more about Sage software see our site at http://www.dundeegroup.com

Source: BI Software Articles at GoArticles.com

Revolutionary Method: Free MBA of Business Intelligence & Data Mining BI

BO Articles : Revolutionary Method: Free MBA of Business Intelligence & Data Mining BI by S.Maurer

Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your website or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required. By S. Maurer The non-profit Business Technology Open University - http://business-technology.us - offer a new revolutionary method for a free MBA of Business Intelligence & Data Mining: a teach operation entirely supported by content oriented ads of companies, inside the texts of the lessons. However, Business Technology is totally independent and without any connection with any manufacturer or consultant.

Business Intelligence BI is a terminology representing a collection of processes, tools and technologies helpful in achieving more profit by considerably improving the productivity, sales and service of an enterprise.

With the help of BI methods, the corporate data can be organized, analyzed in a better way and then converted into an useful knowledge of information needed to initiate a profitable business action.

Thus its about turning a raw, collected data into an intelligent information by analyzing and re-arranging the data according to the relationships between the data items by knowing what data to collect and manage and in what context.

This course Business Intelligence BI curriculum would provide a first level exposure to all the building blocks, decision making issues, and emerging advances in the area of Business Intelligence BI, including:

General Control Theory
Feedback Control System
Business Modeling
Data Modeling
OLAP Online Analytical Process
Data Warehouse
Data Mining - Module 1
Data Mining - Module 2
Data Mining - Module 3

Software.

This open MBA of Business Intelligence & Data Mining are only in English and by correspondence, with 2 to 5 lessons a week and they durations varies up to 5.5 months. In the total the Business Technology free courses have 2,600 lessons and additionally more 11,000 complemental lessons, everything sent in e-mail attachments. The announced pre-requirements for the registrations are one of the following: - College/University graduated or in course to graduate, or - Good job experience in the choiced MBA matter and those registrations can be made individually or in groups of employees' of companies or Governments officers. In the moment Business Technology already has 193,000 students from the entire World, and the projection for the end of this year is of more 400,000 students.

About the Author
S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, Correspondence Courses Director of both free Business Technology Open University and the paid Abet Open University.

Source: GoArticles.com

Business intelligence tools and software

BI Articles : Business intelligence tools and software by Ekta Verma

There are numerous business intelligence tools and software for implementing highly developed business logics in your organization. Microsoft Builds Business Intelligence into Office Software to provide a better experience when users access and work with business information from within the suite of applications they already use to work, collaborate and manage their business.

From the Microsoft analysis, BI market has experienced a 17 percent compound annual growth rate over the last 10 years. Excel has remained the most widely used end-user tool for BI, but it has lacked the control needed for supporting enterprise-class decision-making and compliance processes. For the coming days, Microsoft focuses on integrating new BI functionality into Office and ensuring Office connectivity to the SQL Server platform.

Companies are using business intelligence software for more than simple data mining. They're using it to identify hot sellers, cut costs and discover new business.
- BY ALICE DRAGOON

Few other Business intelligence softwares are:

o OutlookSoft - BI & Performance Management Software: OutlookSoft is a unified, predictive BI & performance management solution. From a single enterprise-scale platform OutlookSoft delivers real-time functionality for planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, reporting, analysis, predictive analytics, scorecarding, dashboards, compliance, & more. Leveraging familiar environments like Microsoft Office and a standard web browser, OutlookSoft facilitates the adoption of performance management to employees across the extended organization.

o TechAxes - Enterprise Business Intelligence: TechAxes empowers the entire organization to plan, understand, integrate and leverage business strategy, finance, operations and human resources - all from a single application. High on business performance management, it is web-based and has the following functionalities and tools: finance analytics, analytical CRM, operational analytics, human resource analytics, and special functional analytics.

o Qualitech Solutions - Executive Dashboard: Executive Dashboard is a powerful web-based executive information system that provides a consolidated view of an organization's performance, making it easy to:
(1) Take advantage of a balanced scorecard approach to management.
(2) Measure and understand an organization's key performance indicators (kpi) and performance metrics.
Executive Dashboard provides a management tool for setting expectations for every organization at every level, with easy-to-understand reporting.

o eTransX - eTXIntel: eTransX provides a business intelligence solution that includes real-time integration with a wide range of data sources. Its user interface is intuitive, easy to configure and available "anytime, anywhere" through the web.eTXIntel is a business intelligence solution with integrated dashboarding, role-based authentication, real-time business analytics. eTXIntel encourages interactive exploration of data sets with users able to create their own queries with full drill down using a point-and-click approach.

o NEC - FlexProcess: FlexProcess by NEC is the next Generation ERP solution designed from the ground up for Process Manufacturers (pharmaceutical, life sciences, rubber, plastics, textiles, food and beverage and chemical). FlexProcess delivers an agile and complete ERP solution leveraging Microsoft .Net open architecture to provide the flexibility to adapt to your organizations needs without compromising core function and upgradeability. FlexProcess streamlines regulatory compliance.

For reading articles on other latest topics visit - Halfvalue.com Knowledge Resource

About the Author
Ekta Verma

Source: GoArticles.com