Business Intelligence Lowdown

Data Warehouse Adds Power to Data Mining Tools

-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

This is business intelligence at its best – software that helps you read your customers’ minds. Teradata Warehouse Miner 5.0 claims to be able to do just that. The database tool from the data warehouse provider leverages the most advanced analytic skills when used in conjunction with data-mining solutions from SAS, SPSS, Fair Isaac Model Builder and KXEN, to provide a peek into the future buying behavior of customers. According to Randy Lea, VP of products and services at Teradata, the combined solution facilitates faster model development, with runtimes becoming 25 times faster.

With the latest version of the software, improvement is promised in operations like data profiling, Analytic Data Set (ADS) generation, Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML), and model management. Follow this link for more information.

Support For SQL Server 2005

The newest release of SQL Compliance Manager features ample support for Microsoft's SQL Server 2005, including x64-bit environments and tailored alerts depending to the seriousness of the security issue. Idera, which provides management and administration solutions for Microsoft's SQL Server, has released version 2.0 as a cost-effective option for companies to automate their compliance processes and make sure that their SQL databases are up to standard. The Compliance Manager allows all accesses, updates, and modifications to data and security settings to be audited in real time. Information related to the audit is stored in a secure, tamper-proof central storage system. The new ActiveAlert feature allows you to set well-defined policies that identify and raise alarms on activities and events that violate corporate audit standards. Database Trends and Applications reports:

Version 2.0 also includes audits for over 20 new trace events, over 40 new object categories, impersonation data and 400 object types unique to SQL Server 2005. The Compliance Manager architecture has been structured to take full advantage of the new SQL Server 2005 environment, including using the new secure audit data capture, using SQL Server 2005 databases as the SQL Compliance Manager repository, and using SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services as the reporting engine.

Email Management Tool

There's one more tool available out there for those of you who are wishing for a god-sent plan to help manage your emails. Information technology management firm CA has integrated its CA Message Manager with Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g, Microsoft Exchange, and IBM Lotus Notes, to provide a complete email archival and management solution. The tool will not only store your emails, but also monitor them for violations and allow you to set a retention period so you can meet compliance and litigation support regulations. Database Trends and Applications reports:

A single point-of-control for managing and archiving messages across the enterprises is a necessity in today's corporate environment, Mike Gundling, vice president of development for CA's Storage Management Business Unit said. "Email needs to be treated as a business record."

CTP for SQL Server 2005

With Microsoft's Service Pack 1 for its SQL Server 2005 scheduled for an April launch, the company unveiled a public Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the software recently. SP1 is planned to be a new customer collaboration model that will have a separate release mechanism for security fixes. Microsoft is using the Transparent Customer Collaboration Model to gain the customer's feedback, suggestions and opinions and incorporate them during the development cycle of the service pack. Customers will not have to worry about delays in updating security options in their server since there is a discrete release mechanism for the same. The company can also spend more time on other updates instead of rushing things to expedite the security fix. Microsoft has shown a profound level of commitment to the product by extending the CTP model to it. You can use this link to download the CTP. 

Location Intelligence Tool

If you are an IT administrator, there may be times when you would like to keep a finger in all the pies that are your geographically diverse and data centers. Well, here's a location intelligence tool from AdventNet Inc. that promises to help you do just that. With ManageEngine Applications Manager, a web application management solution, you can keep your eye on what's going on in all your data centers, no matter in which corner of the globe they are located. The tool monitors information by integrating its root cause analysis capability with Google Maps, and displays results on a single web console. The newest version of Applications Manager features web transactions, Microsoft.NET monitoring, an enhanced web client with integrated AJAX capabilities, and the ability to monitor application servers, database systems, web servers, mail servers, and websites. For more information before you buy the tool, read up on it here. Who knows, you may even pull out a plum!

Oracle SQL Developer

Database developers can now take advantage of Oracle SQL Developer (also named Project Raptor) to browse and create objects, run SQL statements and scripts, edit and debug PL/SQL code, view and update data, and build custom reports according to the needs of their development projects. The tool incorporates a code formatter and strings of code that reduce the time and effort needed to write a program.  Database Applications and Trends reports:

The tool is available for all releases of Oracle Database 10g and Oracle9i Database Release 2. Additionally, Oracle SQL Developer is certified to run against all editions of Oracle Database 10g, including Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, Standard Edition One, and Express Edition.

Ad-Hoc Query Builder

BI software provider MicroStrategy has added to its reporting capabilities with a new graphical interface for impromptu queries. Query Builder, which provides power users, developers, business analysts, and report consumers the ability to query operational databases without hand-coding SQL, is available with the newest release of MicroStrategy 8. Database Applications and Trends reports:

The graphical Query Builder interface makes it easy to select tables and columns and define joins visually. Power users with knowledge of the data model have vast flexibility to ask almost any type of business question with Query Builder.

Query Component for Multiple Relational Databases

A new data query service that eases access to data from multiple, relational databases is now available from data service management solutions provider MetaMatrix. The query component, MetaMatrix Query, streamlines development and maintenance of Java applications that use more than one relational database, by federating data from these repositories and optimising distributed queries. Database Trends and Applications reports:

With MetaMatrix Query, rather than having to write custom code to connect to several individual databases, extract the data and then integrate the data within the application, Java developers can embed a single data service component that handles interactions with all relevant relational databases, including a SQL query that spans multiple sources.

Illegal Data Mining

The scales have tilted in Google's favor in the tug-of-war between the search giant and the US government; score one for the common man's right to privacy. Now, the New York-based Datran Media Corp. has been forced to pay a settlement of $1.1 million for unauthorized use of nearly 6 million email addresses gleaned from various companies that used the lure of freebies to fool customers into giving up their personal information. Data Warehouse IT Toolbox reports:

"Personal information equals marketing dollars," New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said. "You learn more about consumers who you want to target in a hundred different ways and there's nothing wrong with that if you get the information properly."

Image Text Search Tool

A new web mining and data management tool that works based on the concept of image text search is now available from QL2 Software Incorporated. WebQL 3.0 promises to help structure an organization's data and enhance and improve its search procedures by using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to read text that is represented as images in web pages and PDF documents. Database Trends and Applications reports:

Thus, data that was previously inaccessible, because it existed as an image, is now available for extraction and delivery in an actionable format, like Word, Excel or CSV. WebQL 3.0 also has a number of new enterprise-grade features. New grid computing capabilities provide limitless scalability for large data integration projects, according to the company.

Microsoft Plans to Take-on Google on the Search Turf

When I want to search for something my fingers seem to automatically type in www.google.com into the browser window. It not only comes spontaneously to me, as I am sure it does to millions of Internet users worldwide, but also seems the most appropriate place to start the search.

Microsoft Plans: The recent report by the European President of Microsoft Corp. that it plans to introduce a search engine that's better than Google in six months in the US and Britain only indicates the domination Google enjoys today. Microsoft believes being good is not enough to win the hearts and minds of consumers already dedicated to another standard. The Corporation feels the way ahead is to make its search engine available in a place where it will be most widely used like MSN and Hotmail.

Search Truths: How many of us really utilize the search to its fullest? Have you ever used a search engine to locate a restaurant close to your house that sells fish and chips on the menu for under $5 a plate or perhaps locate the best shopping deals on the net? Generally these days you get back URLs based upon research and chances are that 50% of the time you do a search and you don't get the URL you're looking for.

The Future: The search of the future has not only got to be fast and exhaustive but also specific to what the user is looking for. It’s a bit like going into shopping site and searching the site for a gift for under $50 and being presented with a web page filled with choices. I should be able to get the information I am looking for from the very web page I am in without being directed to another website or another URL

Internet Giants realize that they will have to better their search technology if they have to be in the run tomorrow. Microsoft’s recent move is just one small step. After all, if Google is here can Microsoft be far behind?

Data mining - A BI threat to Security?

"Data mining" - is associated with Business Intelligence and it helps gather information. Unknown to many an internet user, it is being used by several companies to learn about who you are and what you do. Initially they were introduced as personalized pages.

Sure it looked good to have a web page with a layout you had set when you last logged in - the same colors, themes and contents. It is also amusing to have a small window pop up which says "Hello James... looking for a house loan". But, how on earth did they know that you were looking for a loan or a house or a car?

Data mining is also a concern with governments eavesdropping on citizens. Computer technology is used to extract knowledge that's buried in enormous volumes of undigested information. With the speed at which computers can crunch data today searching through a few hundreds of thousands of lines of data to filter out a few key words - it is easy.

So if you searched for “Hijack” and related words…its easy to pick you up. Similarly the contents of your chats can be searched in no time to detect possible pedophiles and murderers or even tax evaders. While these are the high points of Data Mining, it can also be used to search and sort through trillions of bits of raw data culled from telephone calls, e-mails, the Internet, airlines, car rentals, stores, credit card records and other sources.

To a common man are these not the very threats he was trying to shield himself from by using a firewall and anti spy software and anti virus software. And here reputed companies and makers of search engines are doing the same thing. What’s more worrying is that these are the very useful sites you just cannot do without. So in a creepy way even the innocent citizen has been given the same"preferential" treatment as Bin Laden. Now is that not a misuse of technology and invasion to one's privacy?

Hybrid OLAP Tools

Online analytical processing (OLAP) tools are now using visual presentations like charts, maps and diagrams to help users detect data patterns that help in the decision-making process. A few vendors have come out with innovative implementations of the OLAP technology.

• Tableau from Tableau Software generates tables from standard structured OLAP and relational data sources, has an interactive display, and can hold embedded charts with multidimensional data views within cells.
• Kheops Technologies' JMap Spatial OLAP extension presents a multidimensional view of data through interactive maps, tables and diagrams. It also offers Web map navigation and manipulation with a modular architecture.
• Text OLAP that is a part of Megaputer's PolyAnalyst suite of data and text mining tools delivers an interactive, structured analysis of text documents. The difference between conventional text mining is evident in the use of extracted terms and concepts as dimensions. Entities are displayed in the matrix form with linked charts and color-coded extracts from the reference documents.

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.

Decision Support Systems

Decision Support Systems (DSS) are interactive, computerized information systems that lend support to the decision making process. There are five specific types of decision support systems:

1. Communications-driven: A DSS that emphasizes communications, collaboration and shared decision-making support.

2. Data-driven: A DSS that emphasizes access to and manipulation of a time-series of internal company data and occasionally, external data.

3. Document-driven: A relatively new form of DSS that is focused on the retrieval and management of unstructured documents.

4. Knowledge-driven: A DSS that suggests or recommends actions to managers through expertise or knowledge about a particular domain, understanding of problems within that domain, and skill at solving some of these problems.

5. Model-driven: A DSS that emphasizes access to and manipulation of statistical, financial, optimization and/or simulation models.

Data Mining Helps Database Marketing

With growing emphasis on the need for maintaining the quality and integrity of data, organizations are spending their time, resources and money in cleaning up their databases. This cleanup process involves replacing outdated data and consolidating data from various sources. But in enterprises that employ database marketing, the purging process can often be leveraged to segment the market in such a way that the most-likely-to-purchase customers can be targeted to help increase profits.

Data mining can be used to the company's advantage if combined with effective market segmentation techniques. Instead of the brute force approach in which all customers are targeted in a marketing campaign, segmentation techniques identify those clients who will perform the best, and thus ensure profitable returns on the campaign. Market segmentation intelligence should be applied to the database to add value to each of the customer records, which can then be used to prioritize customers and rank them according to their order of importance.

Some organizations use a segmentation technique that links multiple customer and prospect databases in a relational manner. These test segments or "cubes" are then tested using discriminating identifiers to decide which segments are of most value to the enterprise. Market segmenting intelligence thus gained can be utilized to build future marketing programs for bigger databases, which in turn will lead to higher returns for the organization, within the given marketing budgets. The bottom line is that sales increase in a timely manner at a lower cost.

Multilingual Text Mining Applications

Text mining solutions providers, TEMIS and Basic Technology, have teamed up to develop new multilingual text mining applications for government and commercial markets. TEMIS’ Insight Discoverer solutions for European Languages and Basis Technology’s Rosette language analysis system for Asian and Middle Eastern languages will integrate to aid users in extracting meaningful information from unstructured data. KM World reports:

Basis Technology will use its expertise in linguistics products to ensure technical assistance, support, maintenance and further development of TEMIS text mining products for that company's North American customers. The companies plan to collaborate in the future on text mining solutions for vertical markets such as life sciences, financial, legal discovery and CRM.

Data Mining Software from IBM

The DB2 Content Manager Standard Edition v8.3 for iSeries is the latest data mining software from IBM, intended for use in small to medium-sized medical offices, law establishments, retail outlets and manufacturing organizations to help them consolidate unstructured data into organized and meaningful structures. This will in turn simplify the querying and reporting processes. Though the software is specifically designed for the iSeries market, it is not bundled with any hardware systems, according to Theresa O'Neil, director of content management software at IBM. Search CRM reports:

The content manager features a graphical workflow builder, a tool that allows users to manage document processes, such as document creation, approval and archiving. The DB2 Content Manager Standard Edition v8.3 for iSeries also offers Web services support, automated management of XML documents and XML schema mapping utilities.

Bringing Down Search Time

With increased demand for software that can cut both the time and cost involved in searching through volumes of email for a particular message, more and more companies are joining the list of such providers.  The latest to jump on the bandwagon is the newly launched Santa Clara-based Clearwell Inc., which rolled out its Clearwell Email Intelligence Platform earlier this week. Firms estimate that a typical request for email in a legal discovery situation requires 1,300 hours of labor and costs more than $100,000. Search tools are also available from the stables of other new companies like the New York-based Orchestria and the Washington-based MessageGate. Zdnet reports:

Bigger players like Computer Associates, EMC, HP, IBM, Symantec and Zantaz already offer some basic search capabilities in their email archiving programs.

SAS Ranked Among Leading Data Mining Vendors

Data mining software from SAS has been rated among the best in the industry by the research group Gartner Inc. The software vendor found itself in the top quarter of the “Magic Quadrant for Customer Data Mining, 1Q06” report, for excellence in the data mining segment and for significantly impacting the market growth and direction. The data mining solution, SAS Enterprise Miner, and the text mining solution, SAS Text Miner, were evaluated for the report. Business Intelligence reports:

SAS' award-winning data mining solutions also are available as part of SAS Customer Intelligence. The software enables organizations to find and retain profitable customers using demographic data, customer buying patterns and other data.

Search Appliances from Google

Google Incorporated, the popular Internet search leader, has launched two new document search tools for business organizations. The “Mini” search appliances are available at two different prices, $5,995 for a mechanism that can search 200,000 internal documents, and $8,995 for one that can handle up to 300,000 records. Last year, Google had introduced a 100,000-document search appliance for $2,995. Computer World reports:

Search appliances are a combination of hardware and software that can be used by office workers to cull through a wide variety of documents inside an organization, or by external customers to search through documents on a company's Web site.

Software to Detect Fraud

Data mining software from Innovetra has helped the Britain-based retail outfit Peacocks identify 20 cases of fraud in its premise operations. Fraud Alerter has helped ferret out situations where staff members have been involved in illegal transactions and deals. The new software has allowed investigators to run sales data through the data mining tool and thus pinpoint areas of sales anomalies and exceptions. It also addresses the training needs and identifies procedural breakdowns. While three of the cases have resulted in dismissals, two have been marked for investigation and the remaining fifteen are ongoing.

Salvation Army to Deploy New Data Mining Software

Portfolio, a software package from the Massachusetts-based Amergent Corporation, is being deployed by the Salvation Army USA Western Territory, to help centralize all its donor databases throughout its 13-state Western territory. The charity has so far been using customized fundraising software from Donor Central, just before the vendor went out of business. Salvation Army West's CIO Clarence White says that plans are afoot to complete the majority of the upgrade by the end of the summer. Work will be suspended on the project during the busy fund-raising season next fall and winter, before being completed during the first quarter of 2007. Computer World reports:

White is confident that installing Portfolio will be cheaper and easier to integrate with the organization's Great Plains accounting software, than alternatives such as Web-hosted fund-raising software. Portfolio will allow us to keep data in one place and let people still have ownership, he adds.

New Data Mining Workbench from SPSS

Clementine 10, the new data mining suite from SPSS Incorporated, promises the entire range of data mining applications and processes, from business insight to integration with business processes and operational systems. New features like the SPSS Predictive Enterprise Services and an anomaly detection algorithm have been added to automate and manage processes and to enhance productivity.  With this tool, data miners can efficiently identify the most and least important data attributes for a given analysis, thus simplifying predictive modeling in CRM and marketing applications. Data Base Trends reports:

To improve performance, Clementine 10 provides in-database caching, database write-back with indexing, and optimized merging for joining tables outside of the database. The software will also give a substantial boost to customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, fraud detection and revenue assurance applications.

Datalinks Simplifies Data Mining

Datalinks, a data query tool from the Portland-based Business Intelligence Inc., promises to simplify the processes of data gathering and reporting to such a great extent, that even users with a minimum knowledge of Excel can now manipulate data and generate tailored, real-time reports.

Datalinks combines Multiple Source Simple Output (MSSO) Technology to simplify measurement of the learning curve, and a simple Query Builder User-Interface (QBUI), which allows seamless integration to Excel or XML formats. Users can generate live connections between a personal spreadsheet and desired data sources without worrying about data aggregation preview. Telephony World reports:

Datalinks can read, retrieve and manipulate data sources of all formats, including OLAP, ERP, CRM, SCM, Legacy, local and Web-based, and can be used for a wide range of applications like business, finance, health-care, government, military, data mining, business analytics and complex reporting.

Nominet Wins Damages Worth AUS$ 1.3 million

Nominet UK, the national registry for all .uk domain names, has been awarded AUS$ 810,593 towards damages for copyright violations, and AUS$ 500,000 for breaches of Australian fair trade laws, in a January 2003  data mining scam.  The perpetrators of the scam had illegally mined Nominet's WHOIS database, which details domain names and their owners. Many registrants of Nominet were erased from the database, and over 50,000 of them received unsolicited domain name notices which tried to sell them .com domain names.

An investigation conducted by Nominet pointed fingers at Chelsey Rafferty and Bradley Norrish and three of their companies __ Diverse Internet Pty Ltd, Internet Payments Pty Ltd and the Seychelles-based UK Internet registry Ltd. Rafferty and Norrish, and their three companies, were found liable for copyright infringement and breaches of Australian fair trade laws. 

Xerox Deploys Data Mining Software to Improve Sales Forecasts

Xerox has used Rapid Insight's analytics software to minimize the time spent by salespeople on non-value-added processes, thus leaving them with more time for customers. Around 5 months ago, Xerox installed Rapid Insight Analytics, the data mining and predictive analysis software from Rapid Insight Inc., to analyze customer orders, sales prospects, and supply chain data to develop monthly and quarterly sales forecasts for the company's North American operations. The Lean Six Sigma quality management team at Xerox has been using the software to build and test sales forecast models, which analysts at the company's headquarters will use to generate the forecasts.

Earlier, Xerox had been using the Minitab statistical analysis application to develop sales forecasts, but since the tool was complex to use, especially with the large sales data sets, the company switched over to the Rapid Insight software. Dave Rowlands, VP of Lean Six Sigma for Xerox North America, says that the new tool is much more intuitive, and notes that the software graphically groups data by subsets to help users see relationships. The software automatically mines data sources to create forecasting models, and testing those models and spotting and correcting data errors is easy, he adds.

EMC Signs Deal with Acxiom

EMC Corporation, a provider of products, services, and solutions for information storage and its management, has signed a partnership with data integration provider Acxiom Corporation, which will allow EMC to provide hosted grid storage services. Initially, both EMC and Acxiom will jointly develop information grid technology for Business Intelligence (BI) applications. The technology will be marketed as a hosted offering from Acxiom. In two years' time, EMC will offer BI technology based on both the Acxiom grid software and its own Celerra network attached storage and related software, said an EMC spokesman. Computer World reports:

Under the agreement, EMC has also purchased Acxiom's information grid software for $30 million. However, Acxiom will continue to have access to the software for its business purposes.

Read more about the agreement.

Analyzing Data with Data Mining Tools

Data mining is used to identify and interpret data for discerning actionable trends and formulating strategies based on those trends. As companies inspect their spending on marketing activities, they start focusing on their data mining capability. Once the company starts using customer information to make decisions, the next step is to develop more sophisticated means of using customer data. Data mining, data exploration and knowledge discovery are all terms that indicate the need to uncover insights that are neither obvious to competitors nor easy for competitors to duplicate. Customer relationship management depends on data analysis activities to provide directions and opportunities and highlight warning signs for CRM initiatives. CRM uses data mining to figure out how to reach out to and communicate with customers. Data analyses encompasses determining whom to contact, when and where, and also applying complex algorithms in real-time to deliver customized responses to customers.

Descriptive Analysis - Relatively less complex, Segmentation and clustering techniques are typically used to group customers by shared characteristics. This is to highlight patterns that can be used in developing marketing plans. Usually, basic segmentation is used to group customers by easily identified, mutually exclusive characteristics such as demographics or product ownership or usage. Clusters are mutually exclusive sub-segments, based on pre-selected characteristics, usually those thought to be key indicators of consumer behavior. 'Value clusters' are those that are based on the current or potential value of a customer group.

Predictive Modeling - This data mining tool uses statistical methods to compare and contrasct customers on a wide range of factors. Predictive modeling is used to identify those factors that are highly correlated. It is also used to measure the degree of correlation and statistical reliability. The result of a predictive model is a mathematical formula or score that can be applied to customers to predict expected behavior. CHAID or CART analyses create decision trees of the most predictive attribute combinations by testing multiple factors against each other. The easy-to-describe, visual output relating predictive attributes makes these analyses popular. CRM Today reports:

Risk models may be used to determine the likelihood of default or non-payment and they typically relay on credit bureau data. These models require a fairly long time frame to validate. Attrition models also require a longer time horizon to validate. These models identify customers at risk of defecting.

Defining data models

Data mining is often regarded as an activity that involves writing a lot of reports. However, in reality, data mining is an activity that involves using specialized analytic tools to execute predefined data mining operations. Data mining implies searching through data to unearth useful information. It is different from statistical analysis in the following aspects. Statistical analysis is usually the result of an assumption whereas data mining can be carried out without making an assumption. In statistical analysis, the statisticians have to formulate equations to match the hypothesis, in data mining, the tool can generate the equations on its own. Statistical analysis can be carried out with unclean data that can be filtered during the process. Data mining requires clean data. Statistical results are easy to interpret whereas data mining results may require the intervention of statisticians to aid interpretation. Businessintelligence reports:

The data mining tool would study the database to identify all groups of customers with distinct buying patterns. After the data is mined, the analyst could use various query, reporting, and multi-dimensional analysis tools to work with the results.

Read More: Defining Data Mining

Gain competitive advantage through data mining

Data mining allows you to figure relationships and associations between data that you otherwise would have not known. The analysis of information that data mining provides helps you to focus your marketing efforts on the identified segment. Most analysis tools use a verification based approach where the accuracy of an analysis depends to a large extent upon the ability of an individual to ask the right questions and the capability of the analysis tools to return reliable results. Other data analysis tools include multidimensional online analysis processing (OLAP), query and reporting tools that allow queries through point and click interfaces, etc. Data mining uses a discovery based approach in which algorithms such as pattern matching are used. Data mining can be said to be truly data driven and capable of highlighting trends and patterns in a relationship. A well received tool is the Hummingbird Genio Miner that combines data mining with data acquisition. Tdwi reports: 

In sum, verification-based approaches, although valuable for quick, high-level decision support such as historical queries about product sales by fiscal quarter, are insufficient.

Read More: The Need for Enterprise Data Mining Solutions

Newspaper Incorporates Business Intel. to Boost Efficiency and Information Access

The Tribune-Review, based in Pittsburgh, is taking business intelligence to a new level by incorporating it ever deeper into their organizational model.  The paper used to conduct departmental reporting by submitting it to the IT staff person as many papers do.  This manner was not only inefficient, but it also produced static reports that could not be manipulated by the manager without the need to resubmit the report entirely.  That has since changed, however, through the incorporation of Business Objects software.  The company sent a few employees to undergo training who then returned to link the Business Objects software to the papers databases.  The paper also incorporated real-time reporting to allow business managers to pull up data that was freshly updated rather than having to wait the customary months before information such as zip codes and clusters were updated.  Newspapers & Technology Report:

"To allow (management) to interact with the data, sort it, group it, drill down into it and do analysis on it without having to re-involve IT, is going to help them be more productive," he said.  "Having more information at their fingertips is, in the end, going to let them make better decisions."

Read More: Business Intelligence: Better brainpower can mean better decisions