Business Intelligence Lowdown

Carnival of Business Intelligence #2

--By Sagar Satapathy

Welcome to the second edition of the Carnival of Business Intelligence. Here are some great posts that made the cut because of their quality and content.

Almomento presents Open Call For Project MastermindX posted at BurstCreativity. Ability to be creative in all of the aspects of our life can enhance it beyond belief. Since creativity enhances with practice, we have to put ourselves through an intense emergence into the world of creativity, to make a profound change in how we approach life.

Phil presents Rising Sea Levels « Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity. By the end of this century according to Time Magazine, sea levels could rise by more than 4 feet!

Scott Lee presents Challenges and Powerful Potential With Network and Multi-Level Marketing posted at Dirty Mechanism. Multi-level marketing itself, in pairing with network marketing, is often looked upon as a giant pyramid scheme, or scam.

Anna Farmery presents It is not the words, it is the understanding posted at The Engaging Brand. Communication in business is not about telling, it is about understanding.

Alan presents Risk Taking - Living life to the fullest posted at Made to Be Great. Don’t play close to the fire or you will burn, don’t climb to high, you might fall; be realistic or you will just end up disappointed.

Wilson Ng presents Profits Straight to the Bottom Line posted at Reflections of a BizDrivenLife. Using MIS to understand your cost structure as well as in making pricing decisions are a must. but first, you must understand how it impacts your bottom line.

Murad Ali presents Ethics in business: How to make the right decision? posted at The New Business World. Ethical questions have plagued business owners ever since they have developed a conscious. The standards of ethics have changed over time and vary from culture to culture.

Praveen presents Review of "The Rich Jerk" - Get It Free, Plus $1 posted at My Simple Trading System. Learn more about the "Rich Jerk" marketing book.

Vahid Chaychi presents Viral Marketing Strategies - Learn How to Spread the Words for Free! posted at Internet and Search Engine Marketing. Do you know how websites like Hotmail and Google became popular and well-known? They didn't spend a single cent for advertising. They used the power of viral marketing.

That concludes the second edition of the Carnival of Business Intelligence. Thank you for promoting this carnival on your blogs through a link back. See you next time.

Carnival of Business Intelligence #1

Welcome to the first edition of the Carnival of Business Intelligence! It is really great to receive a good number entries to this carnival despite of the short notice given to our readers. I hope it will turn out to be a huge success in future. Without further ado, here are the posts in the order they were received.

Emmanuel Oluwatosin presents How to harness the Intelligence of Customer to solve your problems posted at Emmanuel Oluwatosin: Inspiring Excellence, Realising Ambitions. Ever heard of the word “CrowdSourcing“? Fansourcing, crowdcasting, crowdfunding, or wikinomics? Despite the jargony name, crowdsourcing is a very real and important business idea.

GameProducer.net presents 80 Percent of Companies Won't Fail Within 5 Years posted at GameProducer.Net. Yet they keep telling us otherwise.

Lucas McDonnell presents More distributed tags means more personalization. posted at Uncommon Knowledge.. A brief article on the importance of distributed tagging.

Praveen presents My Simple Trading System: Tracking Customer Profitability posted at My Simple Trading System. In these days of global competition, businesses have to continually improve their profitability and margins, reduce costs, and boost their efficiencies.

Murad Ali presents Knowing your business’s strengths and weaknesses: A simple SWOT analysis. posted at The New Business World. Business owners often wonder whether or not they are in a strong or weak position when compared to their competition. The SWOT analyzes a businesses strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to help the owner/manager precisely where their business stands.

Priscilla Ortiz presents 10 Web tips for entrepreneurs posted at Priscilla Ortiz - Journal to Prosperity, Path to Freedom Inc.. These were a few sites that helped Priscilla get started with websites and blogs, it's a good start.

Vahid Chaychi presents Get Inspired by the Success Stories and Interviews posted at Internet and Search Engine Marketing. You may get disappointed while you have started a new business and it has not given any good result yet. Most people give up at this point and stop working. One of the best things that prevents you to give up, is reading the success stories and interviews of successful people in your niche. Learn how to find and read them every week.

Barbra Sundquist presents Top Five Places for Small Business Networking (HomeBusinessWiz.com) posted at HomeBusinessWiz. Networking. Does the word strike fear into your heart, or does it excite you with its possibilities?

Vincent McBurney presents Next time you want to dump testing look at the Hubble posted at Tooling around on the Information Server. This post details the sequence of events that lead to a major flaw in the Hubble Telescope image quality with lessons for BI and DW projects around testing and quality.

Charles H. Green presents Seductive Statistics posted at Trust Matters. If what you're trying to measure is intangible, your metrics may kill your results.

Jack Yoest presents Exxon and Global Warming and Capitalism posted at Reasoned Audacity. "Exxon, the sign of the double cross," quipped one leftist wag. The oil energy giant is often maligned by anarchists, non-capitalists and environmentalists. No matter what a Fortune 500 does, it will be maligned by socialists. And now the tree-spikers/tree huggers are even madder. Or are celebrating. It is sometimes hard to tell the difference.

That concludes the first edition of the Carnival of Business Intelligence. You will definitely agree that it is important for all carnival participants to do their part to support the carnival and help it grow by promoting it on their personal site. We will appreciate any such gesture on your part. Thanks!

Atlanta Goes Intelligent on Cognos

-- Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Government agencies across Atlanta are set to clean up their acts, with the help of innovative business intelligence software from the house of Cognos. The tools will help the city to assess performance metrics for various tasks, automate revenue collection from parks and other recreational facilities, allow data to be integrated across disparate databases, create comprehensive reports without manual intervention and search, and monitor high-end data management and procurement.

The project, which is expected to cost the city $2.1 million in software and consultation fees, will be implemented by 1,000 users in the next 12 to 18 months. The Cognos 8 Business Intelligence solution will take over the tasks hitherto performed by Microsoft Excel worksheets and performance management software from CorVu. Cognos’ solution scored over similar offerings from Hyperion Solutions, Oracle and OutlookSoft.

Crime fighting, garbage disposal, pothole, road and traffic signal repairs – the tasks may be different, but the functions that govern them remain basically the same. The Cognos system will allow agency officials to harness the present work order, fleet, time and human resources management systems, and pull data from various sources and provide intelligent information for decision-making.

5 Software Programs that work Wonders for Small Business Companies

--By Sagar Satapathy

If you are stepping into the digital world with the goal of making your small business a successful one, you will have a number of hurdles to overcome. Propping up your business will require the implementation of some software programs that have become an integral part of any successful business process.

If you choose to ignore those applications, then you are in danger of losing your business prospects to your competitors. There are many such software applications that are crucial to the success of your business, but I am sure that these P5 are something you cannot ignore.

1. Microsoft Dynamics Financial Software

Microsoft Dynamics is not new to the users who are well updated on the technology trends in the market. Previously, it was known as Microsoft Business Solutions. This is definitely a powerful solution for the small businesses. If you are fed up with your old accounting software, then it's the right time for you to go for Microsoft Dynamics. It has been specifically designed for small businesses.

Microsoft Dynamics has all the robust features to strengthen your accounting, payroll and other financial processes. It will also help in lowering your operational costs. If you are concerned about the cost of this software, then you have a reason to smile. It's FREE of COST!

2. Goldenseal Small Business Software

I am not sure whether you know more about Goldenseal Software or not. However, I am sure that it is of your interest. Glodenseal Small Business Software is an integrated software that provides solutions on accounting, project management and construction estimation. This is one of the best software applications for Macintosh and Windows computers.

Goldenseal Software is extremely useful for controlling expenses, managing inventory and projects and keeping track of the customer base. Features of Goldenseal Software include Billing, Accounting, Inventory Tracking, Payroll and Job Costing.

3. NetSuite Small Business

NetSuite Small Business is an amazing software application for small businesses. It provides multiple of options of data and integration projects to a business process. It is cost-effective and time saving. NetSuite Small Business provides a comprehensive solution to small business managers that ultimately help them to run their business in a smooth way.

NetSuite software's real-time dashboards provide business intelligence to the all areas of the company. With this software application, companies will no longer have to pay thousands of dollars to manage their businesses. NetSuite Small Business not only gives a competitive edge to the business, but also it helps managers in making better decisions.

4. Documents 101 - Document Management Software

Document management is one of the most important functions in any business. Every company needs a full-proof document management system to streamline its business operations. If you are looking for such a system, then Documents 101 is the right option for you.

Documents 101 is a digital document management system. It has been designed to store and access scanned documents, digital images and audio/video files. The paperless solution provided by Document 101 is extremely helpful for attaching. storing and printing documents and files.

5. iKorb Internet Software

Most small businesses have adopted Internet technology to boost their growth prospects. However, it is not easy to implement Internet services in the applications of an organization. You will have to take several things into consideration before selecting the right Internet Software for your business.

iKorb Internet Software should be your first choice if you are finding it tough to choose the best one. iKorb's Internet solutions focus on delivering accurate, custom software solutions. It will also make your project cost effective, which is crucial for your business.

iKorb Internet Software takes care of all the Internet functions including site building, website management, email management, database management and software testing. It reduces the performance of the network and strengthens the communication between the company and its clients. 

Final Word:

There are many software programs that might help your business to reach the zenith of its growth. However, the above five software solutions definitely have an edge over others in terms of quality, cost, reliability and high performance.

Intelligent Business with Salesforce

-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Salesforce.com just opened its portals to business intelligence software from Business Objects. Crystal reports and the Beta version of business widgets are now available to users of AppExchange. Data from Salesforce applications can be leveraged to create complex reports using Crystal, and to measure business performance using the widgets. TMC Net reports:

Customers can also access pre-built reports—including pipeline forecasting, sales by geography and product segmentation. The new business widgets help reduce the time needed to complete everyday tasks such as tracking closed revenue, looking up contacts, and spotting neglected leads.

Salesforce has been making waves in the SaaS industry by adding new capabilities to its AppExchange.

 

BI Booming in Asia-Pacific

The business of business intelligence (BI) is booming in the Asia-Pacific region. With intense competition and the need to comply with regulations driving the market, Malaysia is set to register BI applications sales of $10 million by the end of this year, according to IDC. The research firm also predicts that this figure will double in another four years.

Japan already has a whopping BI market worth $340 billion, and other countries in the region, though just off the starting block, are picking up speed. The BI industry will grow at a compounded annual rate of 13.5 percent over the five-year period between 2005 and 2010, says Sharon Tan, senior analyst with IDC’s Asia-Pacific unit.

The largest users of BI in Malaysia are the government, telecommunications companies and manufacturing units, which leverage analytical tools and applications to make sense of the daily volumes of transactional data. Tan says Malaysia has a long way to go before it can put business performance management (BPM) to optimal use. Training and education, easy-to-use software, industry-specific solutions and management attitude are factors that will play a key role in the adoption of BI among other sectors and industries.

According to IDC, ten years from now, the BI as we know it today will morph into intelligence process automation (IPA). The research company defines IPA as the ability to automate simple, operational decisions. BI will go past the analysts and data-mining users to the mass market, says IDC.

Visual Treat From Business Objects

Visual models that are updated with the latest data as and when events happen – this is the latest offering from business intelligence provider Business Objects for enterprises that wish to improve and enhance performance management.

The Crystal Xcelsius Viewer offers a visual dashboard of interactive data, with security capabilities and live data connectivity through web-based services for users in a company. Corporate databases are linked interactively to provide visual displays that lend themselves to analysis of business performance.

Crystal Xcelsius Viewer combines the power of Business Object’s BI platform, BusinessObjects XI Release 2, with Crystal Xcelsius, the data visualization tool purchased from Informmersion.

HP Unveils New Analytic Tools

If you are in the business intelligence field, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) has a treat in store in terms of its new analytics software that allows you to implement “what-if” simulations of possible changes in IT systems, operations, and staffing levels. HP rolled out a preview of three OpenView management tools – OpenView DecisionCenter 1.0, OpenView AssetCenter 5.0, and OpenView Application Insight 7.0 - at HP Software Forum 2006, its software user conference held in Miami Beach earlier this week.

The DecisionCenter tool will be of great help to the IT manager who wishes to determine the extra costs that will be associated with improving server uptime in a data center, in terms of personnel and infrastructure. AssetCenter will aid in the management of the lifetime of IT assets, while Application Insight will allow IT managers to view the inter-dependencies between the applications, servers, and other devices on a network.

Read more about these tools here.

Business Objects Launches New Release

New features introduced in BusinessObjects XI Release 2 for SAP Solutions promise to enhance the way organizations leverage their data. Business intelligence solution provider Business Objects has launched the solution that is based on Business Object’s BI platform and allows customers to perform an integrated analysis of their business by facilitating data access across SAP applications like SAP R/3, mySAP ERP, SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence Solutions, as well as across non-SAP applications. Functionality has been improved in the reporting and data visualization and metadata management components. Decision-making and performance enhancement are more effective with Release 2. Database Trends and Applications reports:

Key components of BusinessObjects XI Release 2 Built for SAP Solutions include: pre-built report templates across all functional areas of SAP Netweaver BI and SAP R/3; simplified access to data from all SAP and non-SAP sources for a complete business operations view; native application-layer connectivity to SAP R/3 that utilizes SAP business logic and security, and a unique BAPI interface to SAP NetWeaver BI; Crystal Reports XI Release 2, which allows users to rapidly create print-quality reports; and Web Intelligence, the query and analysis solution.

Microsoft's BI Offerings

New business intelligence software is now available from Microsoft that allows for medium sized companies to analyze business data through the use of analytics and scorecards. Users of Microsoft Dynamics SL can build, manage, and view scorecards and reports using Business Intelligence Optimization (BIO), which is scheduled for manufacture in May and launch in June. The software is priced at $3,600 for a basic version, which includes financial analytics and a two-user license. Computer World reports:

Users can view the analytical reports with Microsoft tools such as Excel, Office SharePoint Services and other Office products or directly within the BIO application. Microsoft developed the new BI software with channel partner NexVue Analytics Corp. BIO is built on SQL Server Analysis Services and integrates with SQL Server 2000 and 2005, Microsoft said.

Deriving The Best From BI

Business intelligence has become the new buzzword in corporate circles. Even small organizations are implementing BI solutions to take more informed decisions that will in turn send their profits soaring and maximize ROI. But the question to be asked here is if enterprises are getting the foundation right before building the BI skyscraper.

The base and support of a good business intelligence solution is well-defined, good quality data. In a nutshell, these adjectives mean that data should be accurate and not be duplicated across various storage repositories. Redundant and outdated data scattered across disparate sources will effectively kill your BI system.

Good business intelligence can be derived from high-quality information, which in turn is mined from structured data. A good data resource and proper information engineering are the keys to effective decision-making using business intelligence techniques. A good data resource holds structured data that will return the most appropriate information in answer to intelligent queries.   

Information engineering determines how much information is needed to solve a particular problem, besides presenting that information in a way that facilitates easy decision-making. Different kinds of information can be drawn from the same data set. In other words, each set of data can be interpreted in multiple ways to derive different sets of information. Based on the organization's corporate policies and business plans, its BI tool and its users have to determine what information to extract from the raw data.

ERP Tops Dashboard Applications

A survey by Unisphere Media and Noetix of over 660 companies related to their usage of business intelligence dashboards has revealed that more than three fourths of them use the corporate tools with their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. ERP was followed as the top application by accounting and finance, CRM, IT systems, and human resources. Dashboards were also found to be used a variety of applications like project performance, budgeting, and uptime and downtime for machinery. Database Trends and Applications reports:

The survey, titled The OAUG Survey on Business Intelligence Dashboards, found that corporate dashboards were emerging as the "killer" IT application for senior management, and, over time, would facilitate the breakdown of corporate data silos.

Cognos and IBM Extend Ties

Cognos and IBM are involved in a partnership through which Cognos will provide IBM's Websphere and Information Management technologies as part of the preferred reference architecture for a special edition of its BI platform, Cognos 8. As part of the alliance, both organizations will jointly develop, market and sell solutions based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to help clients get the best out of their analytic capabilities. Database Trends and Applications reports:

"We have spent the last three years working with IBM to optimize our business intelligence performance management stack with IBM's middleware stack," Rupert Bonham-Carter, senior director, IBM Alliance for Cognos, explained. "IBM's middleware strategy really aligns with our principles of open standards, flexibility and agility."

Business Objects Connects to Oracle Apps

Business intelligence provider Business Objects has launched new integration kits that connect a line of applications from Oracle, including its databases, OLAP multidimensional cubes, PeopleSoft JD Edwards, Siebel, and e-Business Suite, with BusinessObjects XI Release 2. Business Objects already offers support for Oracle Fusion Middleware, the base on which future Oracle enterprise applications will be built. Database Trends and Applications reports:

The BusinessObjects XI Release 2 integration kits offer pre-built integration feature native drivers and security plug-ins that leverage the existing security infrastructure. Using the integration kits, according to the company, customers can access their transactional data through secured reporting, interactive dashboards, and scorecards while easing the management and distribution of sensitive corporate information within their various Oracle environments.

Removing Boundaries Between Search and BI

As further proof that vendors are beginning to realize that search and business intelligence tools are complementary technologies, BI solutions provider Information Builders has announced WebFocus Intelligent Search, a tool that permits search and analysis operations on both structured and unstructured data sources. The new tool is based on technology from the Google Search Appliance and Information Builders' iWay integration and adaptor software. Biz Intelligence Pipeline reports:

The system uses the WebFocus Server, Google Search Appliance, and the iWay Google Index Adaptor. The product is currently being beta-tested by a number of IBI customers and will be generally available in the second quarter.

Power Company Powers With BI

To prevent sudden power outages and rolling blackouts, power company Michigan Electric Transmission Co. (METC) is implementing real-time data analysis in its network. The company generates electric power from various sources and moves it to local distribution companies that in turn use METC substations to provide power to 6 million households in Michigan's Lower Peninsula. The project, which was started in 2003, is expected to be complete in around 7 to 8 years. IBM is providing consulting and integration services for the project, besides data center services and software. METC is using IBM's DB2 database and content-management applications. The project aggregates real-time data collected from systems and devices in the electric network, and transforms it into something useful for the people who run the system, said Paul Myrda, chief technologist and director of operations at Trans-Elect, METC's parent company. The multi-million dollar project promises to enhance the reliability and efficiency of the core network through application integration, message brokering, data warehousing, and business intelligence.

Search Vs BI

In spite of the various differences between the two, search tools and business intelligence solutions are two sides of the same coin. Business intelligence tools perform structured queries into known databases, while searches run on unknown repositories. A search is based on the use of keywords; the appropriateness of the results generated depends on the right choice of the search text string. BI tools return a definite answer in response to a well-framed query, or provide a view to a particular set of data.

Business intelligence solutions that are standardized are more suited for queries that relate to a particular organization, as they return precise, consistent results through common interfaces used throughout the company. Searches do not provide the right answer to the question you have raised; more often than not, you will have to sift through the volumes of data that is returned to find the result you want.

One area where search tools score over BI software is user-friendliness. Anyone can perform search operations, while everyday users find BI tools hard to work with. Searches also work well across multiple sources with just a single query; this is not possible with a BI tool without a lot of work to integrate the databases involved in the search process.

In most situations, they are being used in conjunction with each other. Organizations are beginning to realize the need for data mining solutions beyond those offered by traditional BI tools, which is why traditional BI vendors are starting to integrate search tools into their BI offerings. Search engine vendors too are beginning to incorporate structure into the search technique, so that specific and relevant information is returned.

Speed-Trap Ties Up With KMP

It's a marriage between e-business intelligence solutions and interactive marketing and technology. A tie-up has been announced between speed-trap and KMP Associates that will merge speed-trap's Prophet into KMP's solutions to provide precise user statistics and usability metrics. Data Warehouse News reports:

The solution will allow KMP to ensure increased effectiveness and profitability throughout the sites it creates, implements and develops for its clients, said KMP's managing director.

Business Objects Signs Pact With Noetix

Business intelligence solutions provider Business Objects has inked an original equipment manufacturer's (OEM) deal with Noetix to merge and sell its Crystal Xcelsius with the Noetix Dashboard. Noetix provides solutions that create business intelligence content from enterprise applications. Business data output from the Dashboard will be directed to Xcelsius, which will operate as the end-user layer. Biz Intelligence Pipeline reports:

The Noetix software features more than 100 pre-configured key performance indicators metrics, reports and trend charts. The tool can display metrics "regardless of which database or data source houses the information," the company said.

High-Speed Data Processor From IBM

System z9 Integrated Information Processor (zIIP engine), the new high-speed data processor from IBM, is expected to enhance and expedite data processing tasks related to customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and business intelligence (BI) computing processes. The data processor is built to work in tandem with IBM's DB2 database. Users of IBM z9 mainframes can upgrade to the zIIP engine for $125,000.  Biz Intelligence Pipeline reports:

The zIIP processor comes on the heels of other specialty processors that IBM has been adding to the mainframe, including the zAAP processor made available in 2004 for speeding Java applications. The zIIP specialty processor will be available before the end of the year, but IBM officials would not be more specific.

Enterprise Search - A useful BI tool

Companies and businesses everywhere are now realizing that their volume of data doubles every 3 months. This snowballing nature of data today makes enterprise search all the more relevant. It basically goes through your file system and indexed documents via your Web browser.

The look and feel of the search result pages is completely customizable using ASP and SQL. Enterprise search can find information stored in many different containers, including e-mail servers, desktops, enterprise application databases, content management systems, file systems, intranet sites and external Web sites.

Enterprise search applications become a sort of virtual repository of corporate information, uniting these disparate sources behind one interface. Now Google seems to be getting into this monopoly, which was controlled by 2 European companies. Call centers, AT&T, IBM, Siemens, and General Motors and other global companies have been using it to spot trends and answers. 

Google hopes to undercut the specialists with its Google Search Appliance.  Google Search Appliance looks inward, indexing and sifting the digital data to answer specific questions pertaining to that firm alone. Not only has Google been successful at providing an enterprise search tool for some companies but also has their end users derive a reasonable level of satisfaction and at much lower costs.

It is just a matter of time given the future in it, before the Internet Giants like MSN and Yahoo invest time, money and effort into bettering their own Enterprise Search engines to catch up. Enterprise search is different from the usual consumer search as the information is not stored on Web pages or Web sites and the standard of relevance is also different.

Inside the enterprise the relevance is different from that of the internet while sifting through the data. And, relevance algorithms that work well for consumer Web search don't apply inside the enterprise. Inside an enterprise you might with an enterprise search come up with thousands of relevant data and all could be equally relevant and this is the main concern that is being addressed by the providers.

Business Objects Leads BI Vendor List

Business Objects has topped the list of leading business intelligence (BI), database, and application vendors, according to a survey conducted by Forrester Research. Ten vendors __ Actuate, Business Objects, Cognos, Hyperion, Information Builders, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, Oracle, SAP, and SAS __ were subject to an in-depth evaluation across 92 criteria. Close on the heels of Business Objects in BI platform leadership were Cognos, Hyperion, and MicroStrategy. SAS gained top points in enterprise analytics, while Actuate and Information Builders scored in enterprise reporting and scalability. The report also found that Microsoft's latest BI offering provided better integration capabilities with Microsoft Office. Oracle and SAP were mentioned as emphasizing integration with their own enterprise applications over stronger reporting capabilities.

BI in the Retail Industry

Implementing business intelligence (BI) technology in the retail industry can provide value to the business by driving sales and profitability, reducing operational costs, and presenting a better understanding of customer buying behavior. BI and analytics are being deployed by leading retailers worldwide like Wal-Mart, Foot Locker, Staples, Williams-Sonoma, and Amazon.com in the United States, Carrefour and Karstadt in Germany, Marks & Spencer and J. Sainsbury's in the United Kingdom, and Pao de Acucar in Brazil to take various strategic decisions including the location of retail outlets, the number and color of each item to include in a store, and the amount of discount to offer.

Applying BI to areas like merchandising, marketing and operations has set the cash registers ringing in retail outlets. Business units are using the large amounts of data generated to extract useful information that can help outsmart the competition, optimize space usage, take advantage of credit and loyalty card usage to drive more sales, and use the Internet as a channel for sales.

Analyzing past sales data and predicting future trends, retailers can decide on the optimal allocation for each store. BI can help in optimizing space and manpower usage. Through effective segmentation and profiling, customer preferences and buying trends can be used to drive future sales.

An effective BI system will have to combine data management procedures like cleansing, classifying, and consolidating data across disparate systems, with predictive analytics like data mining, forecasting, and optimization, to provide insights into customer, supplier, product, and operational data that can be used to increase profits. The future of BI in the retailing industry lies in how valuable it is in maximizing customer satisfaction and profitability with the optimal mix of products of good quality, and efficient and courteous service.

Enterprise Information Integration

Enterprise Information Integration (EII) is being touted as the solution to the ills __ regulatory compliance, real-time business intelligence (BI), and the daunting task of converging structured and unstructured information __ plaguing the business world. EII is defined as the integration of data from multiple systems into a unified, consistent and accurate representation geared toward the viewing and manipulation of the data. It integrates the information assets of an enterprise by providing access to diverse information sources from a variety of disparate siloes of information.

Probably this definition of EII reminds you of traditional information integration techniques like ETL-oriented data warehousing and customer data integration. The difference lies in the fact that EII accesses, instead of moving the information. EII provides a consolidated view of data through virtualization techniques that hide the combined query processing system that pulls data from various sources, while ETL moves data to data repositories and data marts.  EII focuses on less data movement and transformation while combining disparate definitions of data elements using strong global query optimization. EII is not a replacement for data warehousing; it complements the technology by bringing in data from minor or non-standard sources, and presenting it to the client on demand.

Other pivotal elements of EII include metadata management and robust data modeling. Metadata supports data reusability by creating and maintaining the logic and interfaces needed to preserve virtual views of customers and products. EII tools help maintain and enhance security of metadata and data in diverse sources. The technology is vital in providing an integrated platform that blends data access standards with data about the sources and the information needs.

In a nutshell, EII aims at providing a unified, on-demand view of data by creating access to multiple and different sources of data securely and efficiently.

BI Benefits

What do users of business intelligence software solutions look for in their BI suites? A Ventana Research survey of 471 information technology and line-of-business users in large and midsize companies identified the following benefits in vendors' business intelligence applications, in decreasing order of importance:

• Improved competitiveness
• Improved customer service
• Improved profitability
• Improved revenue generation
• Improved capacity

Fighting Future Crime

The utility of business intelligence (BI) is spreading across all fields; BI software is being deployed for a variety of purposes ranging from preventing theft to deterring crime. The Richmond Police Department (RPD) in Virginia is implementing data mining, predictive analysis, and BI tools from enterprise business intelligence software solutions providers SPSS and Information Builders to prevent future crime from happening. The application, which combines SPSS' predictive analysis and Information Builders' enterprise BI capabilities along with an analytic framework from RTI International, an independent scientific research and technology development corporation, will aid the RPD in deploying police power to the right places at the right time and thus preventing crime. The software and implementation make sense since criminal activity follows predictable patterns, and the police are natural data miners who excel at wading through data to derive solutions to crimes, says Colleen McCue, senior research scientist at RTI International. Eweek reports:

"By better characterizing crime trends and patterns to predict where crime was likely to occur, the police department could anticipate criminal activity and proactively place their resources," McCue added.

Healthcare Provider Deploys Cognos BI Suite

QualChoice, Arkansas' premier healthcare insurance provider, has standardized on Cognos 8 Business Intelligence for its BI platform and warehouse. The BI solution from Cognos will be used to build an enterprise-wide data warehouse to hold all information relating to medical claims, provider contracts, financials, and business operations. CRM Knowledge Base reports:

With Cognos 8 BI, QualChoice of Arkansas can replace the numerous and siloed Excel spreadsheets and SQL queries with one single product that can provide an accurate, consolidated view of the company's performance. "Having Cognos 8 BI as our standard BI platform in place will help us better serve our members, brokers, providers, and employers," said Michael Stock, COO and CFO, QualChoice/QCA Health Plan, Inc.

Driving Factors in the BI Market

The worldwide demand for business intelligence (BI) tools and solutions is growing exponentially, with license revenue expected to touch the $3 billion mark by the year 2009, according to a survey from research firm Gartner. The factors that are driving the growing trend in the BI market are:

• Business performance management (BPM), which is also known as Corporate performance management (CPM)
• The growing level of data generated from other application areas like Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Customer relationship management (CRM)
• The need for data of the highest quality
• The need to comply with regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA and Basel II

Utility Provider Adds Intelligence to Grid

CenterPoint energy Houston Electric LLC, an electric and gas utility company based in Houston, has deployed intelligence technology from IBM to enhance the efficiency of its power grid. The company is using the pilot version of an intelligent grid that will automatically enable the power grid to report power outages, component failures and other information over a real-time, IP-based broadband-over-power-line (BPL) system. The five-year, $300 million project will use strategically placed sensors and smart electric meters installed in all customer locations to add a layer of intelligence to its operations. Computer World reports:

Don Cortez, vice president of distribution support for the company's electric operations, said the new technology would help the utility to virtually upgrade its power lines, substations and other electrical transmission equipment without needing a complete and hugely expensive physical replacement.

Dashboard Solutions Deployed

Single-source provider of business-to-business IT solutions and services, Software Spectrum, has deployed dashboard solutions from Celequest, provider of operational performance management solutions, with implementation services from data integration and data migration solutions provider, LoganBritton. Celequest Operational Dashboards will help in monitoring key elements of corporate performance, including employee training and retention, sales and profitability, customer satisfaction and retention, and business growth. Database Trends and Applications reports:

The dashboard solution will provide executives, line managers and decision-makers with instant access to the business-critical information they need to monitor and manage business performance, according to the company.

Nike Launches BI Strategy

Shoe manufacturer Nike has launched the Nike Business Intelligence Strategy to facilitate faster and more standardized access to its worldwide data. Over the last five years, the company has replaced its transactional and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with five datamarts, which are to be consolidated into one Business Workflow-based warehouse from SAP AG, said Marianne Faro, Nike's European information manager, at Gartner Inc.'s BI summit in London. InfoWorld reports:

Nike is tapping BI applications to arrive at "one vision of the truth" for analyzing its financial health and for dealing with how to incorporate new acquisitions into their system.

Executive Dashboards

Managers and executives of most organizations use executive dashboards to enhance and expedite the decision-making process. An executive dashboard acts as an intranet for a group of select employees in an enterprise. The dashboard operations revolve around the key performance indicators (KPI) of the organization. To perform effectively, a dashboard has to identify data sources, means of extracting the data from these sources, and methods to validate and structure the data for the key performance indicators. The dashboard performs the following functions:

1. Helps answer questions about the business and its processes.
2. Helps alert users to any problems that arise.
3. Helps make decisions.

Big Spenders for ERP

Microsoft leads the list of enterprises with high ERP budgets for the year 2006, followed closely by Oracle and SAP AG. "The Enterprise Resource Planning Spending Report, 2005-2006," from AMR Research, compiled after surveying 271 midsize and large companies about their budgets and costs towards enterprise resource planning (ERP), also names SSA Global, Infor, Geac, Lawson, Intentia, IFS, and QAD, among the top spenders for 2006.

Analytics Ambiguities

An informal survey of users of business intelligence (BI) products conducted by Gartner Incorporated has brought to light the different perceptions of the word "Analytics". Data mining, reporting, monitoring call centers, and online analytical processing (OLAP) were a few of the diverse answers to the question "What does the term analytics mean?", according to Gartner analyst Andreas Bitterer. Gartner defines analytics as a tool to leverage data in a particular functional process (or application) to enable context-specific insight that is actionable. Bitterer said that SAP AG, Oracle Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have no perceptible definition for the term, but that they, along with Siebel Systems AG, were the best providers of analytical capabilities.

Enhanced BI Solution

DecisionCentric, the business intelligence solution from Decision Technology, is now available with enhanced join capabilities, the technology used widely in data-intensive environments, for use in small and midsize enterprises. The software is based around the concept of data federation, which provides consolidated access to various databases for IT and business users, both with and without ETL or a data warehouse environment. Database Trends and Applications reports:

"There are lots of customers out there that need these join capabilities," said John Owen, director of business development at Decision Technology. "This will enable them to do a lot more with their existing data sources, in terms of flexibility and analysis," he added. "Data keeps growing, and it's impossible to get your arms around it all without the right tools."

OLAP Survey 5

The results of OLAP Survey 5 conducted by Nigel Pendse and Survey.com provide a detailed view into BI implementations and customer experiences with BI products. The annually conducted survey covers a select group of perceived equal BI application providers known as the "Peer Group". The fifth survey "Peer Group" included the products MicroStrategy, Hyperion Essbase, Cognos PowerPlay, Business Objects, and Oracle Discoverer.

The survey revealed that all the products differed significantly in the number of users or data volumes supported. Most users of OLAP were interested in expanding the use of their solutions. Organizations that conducted a formal evaluation of various products before deciding on the right solution for their processes achieved more success from their OLAP product. Customers were divided over the loyalty issue; while some were happy to stay with their existing provider, others were considering jumping ship to the competition.

The survey also concluded that clear trends have emerged in key areas like customer loyalty, product support quality, data volume, web deployment rate, prevalence rate, and number of seats purchased and deployed.

Layers in a BI Suite

Any organization looking to increase revenues by leveraging the benefits of business intelligence should be willing to invest in a comprehensive Business Intelligence (BI) solution. Typically, a BI suite is an analytical application with multiple, connected, layers, each usable by employees at different levels of the organization.
The monitoring layer sits on top of the application, and alerts users to the changes in the functioning of processes and activities, through dashboards and scorecards. The analysis layer helps users get to the root cause of any problem using multidimensional analysis. The reporting layer provides detailed operational data so that damage control measures can be effected after a problem has occurred. The planning layer enables the creation of plans, models, cases and scenarios using the output derived from the analysis stage. These plans are fed back to the monitoring stage to be set as targets to be achieved or thresholds not to be crossed.

Read more about harnessing the power of BI

BI High on IT Priority List

Forrester research Inc. has revealed that Business Intelligence (BI) is the second highest IT priority for most organizations, close on the heels of security. BI budgets are set to reach $7.3 billion by the year 2008, according to Keith Gile, principal analyst at Forrester. Search CRM reports:

Business intelligence (BI) is among the highest IT priorities for CIOs as they seek ways to leverage the data many shops have assembled over the last two decades.

Enterprise Decision Management

With organizations looking for more advanced decision-making techniques, Enterprise Decision Management (EDP) looks like it is here to stay. EDP is the next logical step to predictive business intelligence, which combines rules-based systems with analytical models to automate decision-making capabilities. Decision-making is treated as a process separate from the analysis stage. EDP exploits business rules managements systems to automate the process of real-time decision making.

EDP will aid in situations in call centers where an employee may have to make spur of the moment decisions which depend on different variables and established organization rules. For example, if a customer asks for a credit extension, the EDP software will take over the decision-making process, and based on the customer rating and predefined rules, either reach a decision one way or the other, or refer the situation to a higher authority.

Though EDP is still in the early stages of development, going by the trend in the predictive analytics business intelligence market, it is safe to say that EDP already has a third of the analytics market share. Predictive analytics is the forerunner to EDP and rules-based systems.

Rules-based systems lend themselves to lend themselves to real-time decisions and offer the ability to automate 85% or more of the day-to-day business decisions typically dealt with manually, says James Taylor, Vice-President of product marketing for enterprise decision management at the Minneapolis-based analytics software vendor Fair Isaac. They are also non-technical, which means they can be maintained by most employees.

Since the rules in a rules-based EDP system and the database and application logic of the system have discrete storage locations, updations and corrections can be effected without the need for application recompilation.

Though EDM works well in simplifying complex business logic, the concept is still new. Companies are hesitant to adopt the technology since decision-making is a process strewn with risks, which makes automation also risky.

Cost of System Downtime

META group, now a part of the research and analysis provider Gartner Inc., has estimated that an hour of downtime for IT systems will cost businesses a million dollars. Though initially, the figure seems quite large, it makes sense when you consider the extent to which companies are dependent on IT and business intelligence systems to support all core business functions.

Most companies are now resorting to data warehouses, not only to support strategic business analysis, but also to support nearly every core business function through active data warehousing. Integrated data in the static snapshots and in live, current records form an environment called the Active Data Warehouse in which both types of data and requirements can co-exist.

Thus when systems fail, a firm is subject to lost revenue, reduced employee productivity and regulatory penalties. The firm has to consider the time taken to recover from such system failures, and must most importantly ensure that integral systems are operational, and data accessible. Some form of customer service and performance continuity should also be maintained. In most companies, a partial system failure results in slowing down the rest of the system too.

The best solution for this problem is to have two production systems that are both up, operational and available to manage routine workloads. This way, the second system is available if the first system fails, or the system's performance is degraded. This configuration is commonly referred to as a "dual system".

A firm needs to understand the financial and operational repercussions of downtime, both in the short and long runs. Implementing a dual system involves various constraints like financial considerations, the complexity of the computing system, the time taken for the organization to suffer irreparable losses before recovery can be effected, and how many operational processes are part of the core business procedures.

New Version of BI Reporting Tool

Actuate, IBM, Intel (TPTP Project), Pentaho, Scapa and Zend are among the organizations that will be deploying the second version of the open source Business Intelligence Reporting Tool, BIRT 2.0, from the Eclipse Foundation. EWeek reports:

BIRT 2.0 features a report component library to support reuse of open-source components. The new version of BIRT also supports large, persistent reports and new report types, along with improved charting and Java scripting.

BI Growth Predicted for the UK

A poll conducted by Geac, the UK-based enterprise software provider, has revealed that IT teams in over 39% of manufacturing and distributing organizations in the UK will be concentrating on Business Intelligence (BI) and reporting projects in 2006. Based on this report, analysts have predicted an annual growth of 30% for the BI market. Business Intelligence reports:

As a note of caution though, half the respondents thought that the ongoing demands of other priorities would be the greatest inhibitors to the success of these projects, 36% felt the budget would be the biggest stumbling block, while 18% were concerned over integration difficulties.

Data Analytics will Help Firms Grow

BI experts and users who had gathered at the Competing on Analytics Symposium held in New York were of one mind in stating that business intelligence could be used to increase revenues and enhance growth if key decisions were based on proper analysis of data, rather than on gut instinct. Professor Thomas Davenport of Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, said that a survey had revealed that most companies used analytics to optimize crucial business processes. The efforts in carrying out analytic procedures are difficult, but the benefits are tangible, according to Gary Loveman, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas-based Harrah's Entertainment Inc. Computer World reports:

Companies can wield business intelligence as a weapon to outmaneuver competitors and boost revenue, but only if data analysis techniques are used enterprise-wide and the effort is backed by senior management.

Business Intelligence Summit

Gartner, provider of research and analysis about the global information technology industry, is hosting business intelligence summits in London and Chicago this year. Gartner Business Intelligence Summit  2006 will be held between February 6 and 8 in London and between March 6 and 8 at Chicago. The London summit will feature 32 analyst presentations, 12 case studies and the collective experience of over 500 delegates from all over Europe. It will also mark the premiere of the European Business Intelligence Excellence Awards that recognize and celebrate the best practices in BI, according to information on the company’s website. The summits promise to provide attendees with the latest industry intelligence on trends and directions, strategies, organizational competencies, corporate performance management, governance, metrics, data quality, application analytics, service-oriented architectures, and key marketplace and vendor developments across the BI spectrum. 

Law Firm Implements Microsoft BI Tool

A law firm in Australia has effectively deployed Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 to allow layered views of business information for its clients, executives and employees. Deacons, Australia, has used the scorecard and dashboard application from Microsoft in combination with software from Aderant to provide functional uses through its extranet portal for both internal users and external clients. Only 4 Gurus reports:

The Scorecard is a Web-based solution that provides organizations with a cost-effective stage on which to articulate goals, priorities and strategies, monitor business activity through performance metrics, identify and analyze issues, and collaborate and act on business intelligence, said Elliott Ichimura, industry manager with Microsoft's Professional Services Division.

Performance Dashboards – Revolutionizing BI

Performance dashboards make up the new face of Business Intelligence, according to Wayne Eckerson, Research and Services Director of the Data Warehousing Institute. These tools are more versatile than scorecards or flat dashboards. They allow top-level executives to analyze, measure, monitor and manage their businesses by providing access to tailored views of data. Eckerson delineates the versatility of three types of performance dashboards __ strategic, operational and tactical, each of which have three layers of views __ summary, multidimensional and operational. These dashboards have the potential to optimize a firm’s performance by revolutionizing BI applications.

Consolidation and Standardization of BI Platforms

Most business establishments are hesitant in expediting the procedures of standardizing or consolidating their BI platforms since they feel the process is disruptive. A survey of senior managers from 400 medium and large organizations conducted by Ventana Research revealed that though more than half of them have adopted standardization and consolidation procedures, only one sixth have completed its implementation. Most of them are still in the planning and development stages of the roll-out process, which may take from several months to several years.  Though there is an upward trend in the adoption of standardization and consolidation measures, several firms will continue to use customized BI suites for a few departments with distinctive needs. Intelligent Enterprise reports:

IT usually leads standardization and consolidation initiatives. Driving the business case for standardization and consolidation were quantified return on investment (ROI; 54%) and total cost of ownership (TCO) calculations (53%).

Nettezza in Partnership with Cognos

Data warehouse applications provider Netteza has furthered its tie-up with BI software vendor Cognos, to streamline analysis and reporting of sales, inventory and customer data for retailers. Netteza's NPS system combines with Cognos' BI solution to simplify the process of data extraction and analysis. Data Warehouse reports:

"As Netezza's momentum in the retail market continues to grow, partnerships with industry leaders such as Cognos allow us to deliver more comprehensive benefits to retailers who are looking to simply, quickly and cost-effectively analyze large volumes of data," said Netezza CEO Jit Saxena.

Cognos Ties up with Similarity Systems

With data quality being a top priority for business intelligence professionals, the tie-up between Athanor from Similarity Systems and Cognos 8 from BI corporation Cognos seems to make perfect sense. Athanor will provide users methods to monitor data quality and deal with data problems at their source. Data quality metrics from Similarity Systems can be scrutinized using Cognos 8. Business Intelligence Pipeline reports:

Data quality remains a serious challenge for many BI practitioners. Most surveys of business intelligence professionals find poor data to be a top impediment to the generation of meaningful analytics.

Two Distinct Views of BI

The business intelligence (BI) market is seeing two discrete views of how BI solutions should be deployed. On the one hand, there are the all-in-one BI suites on offer from BI vendors Business Objects SA, Cognos Inc., Hyperion Solutions Corp. and MicroStrategy Corp., which promise low total cost of ownership (TCO), compliance and improved productivity. On the other, IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., and Oracle Corp. are marketing relational database products that combine BI stacks with ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) and analytics.

Both camps are pushing their products as the ultimate solution for a firm's BI needs, though the BI vendors are focusing on front-end tools while the relational database vendors are looking at back-end solutions. But both Microsoft and Oracle are eyeing the front-end market too; they have already sketched basic visions of BI tools. Enterprise Systems reports:

With front-end tools like Oracle's Portal, Reports, Daily Business Intelligence and Microsoft's Office 12 productivity suite, Business Scorecard Manager, and SharePoint  Portal already in production, the chances of either vendor remaining complacent with mere dominance of the BI back-end is virtually nil.

Celtics Turn to Data Analytics Tool to set Ticket Prices

StratBridge.net, the data analytics tool from the Massachusetts-based StratBridge Inc., will help the executive team of the Boston Celtics to set base prices for tickets for the next season. Officials of the NBA team have already taken advantage of the tool to monitor consumer demand through real-time displays of sold and available seats in its home turf, in August last year. Planners found that ticket buyers tended to favor aisle seating in certain sections, by using the data analytics tool. So now the team is focusing on marketing the inner seats. Group and individual ticket sellers in the ticket office can see an image of the arena seating chart on a plasma TV screen with different color blocks indicating real-time availability and revenue for home games. Sales executives can access this information from their desktops to study buying trends and design new promotions. Computer World reports:

The NBA basketball team has already seen a "seven figure" return on investment fueled by five-figure revenue boosts every one to two weeks, since it began using StratBridge.net last summer, according to Daryl Morey, senior vice president of operations and information for the Celtics.

Read more about StratBridge.net

Business Intelligence for Baseball Teams

Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball (MLB), has deployed SAS Enterprise BI Server at its offices to provide business intelligence solutions to all the individual teams. These solutions are expected to create new business benefits by capturing and analyzing vital information generated in the stadiums, over the phone and through the Internet. SAS already manages the official league site, which is part baseball encyclopedia and part ticket line, and each of the 30 individual club sites.

With this successful implementation, all teams can share customer information garnered from online and offline sources, and use it to develop and execute high-impact marketing campaigns with superior ROI. Individual teams will be able to integrate and analyze customer information gathered from multiple touch points.

SAS also helps MLBAM learn more about the fans visiting the official league site, by collecting and analyzing customer information like merchandising and ticket s