Business Intelligence Lowdown

Nastiest Malware Trends

The term "malware" is no longer new to the Internet users. Since the technology has evolved over the years, hackers have designed new ways to invade the computer networks with malicious software programs, which are not legal, yet strong and powerful to intrude into your sensitive data. The article "Understanding the Enemy: The Top 10 Nastiest Malware Trends" at IT Security conveys this strong message to all Internet users.

There are different forms of malware such as spyware, adware, hijackware, trojan horse, worms, virsues, piggyback and DBD. The IT Security article gives an insight into the current malware trend. You will be shocked to learn how unsafe your computer system is against the malware attacks. If you are not a software programmer, there is every possibility that you may not even know that your system has been infected with dangerous malware.

The article says that McAfee Avert Labs recorded 50,000 threats between Jan and Nov of 2006. Also, people are making huge profits from malware business. Surprised? But this is true; there are companies that recruit paid professionals to create malware and spread them on the web. The threat is looming large.

Now it's time to wake up to the security threat posed by malware to your computer and network. Don't miss out to read this article. It tells about the top ten nastiest malware trends and how they spread like bushfire. It will be a great help for every single Internet user who wants to prevent such malware from affecting his/her computer.

Volante Certified By SpikeSource

Volante technologies, provider of platform-independent data management software for industries that offer financial services, has configured its products for optimal use with SpikeSource Spike Stacks like Java, Apache, and MySQL components, in effect providing its clients solutions based on open source infrastructure at reduced costs, with end-to-end testing and one point of support. SpikeSource promotes the implementation of open source stacks by providing free testing and certification services. Data Warehouse Knowledge Base reports:

Volante data management products, which run in J2EE and .NET environments, support a wide variety of solutions used by the financial services industry including payments, corporate actions, market data and trade processing. By working with SpikeSource, Volante offers customers solutions that are thoroughly tested and certified with all of the open source infrastructure required to run in mission critical environments.

SAP Business Workplace Goes Mobile

To enable quick decision-making and efficient business processes for on-the-road professionals, SAP is pushing a host of its client and server based business software to handheld mobile devices. An alliance with the 3i Consulting Group has enabled the SAP Business Workplace to be accessed through any web-enabled mobile device from BlackBerry, Palm, Pocket PC and other providers. Search Mobile Computing reports:

SAP users can access SAP Workflow to execute any decision-based task from anywhere, including purchase orders, requisition releases, invoice approvals and quality notification reviews. Users receive an e-mail on their device and make the decision there. The information is immediately sent to the SAP server for processing once a decision is made.

BI to Fight Crime

English county Gloucestershire is deploying business intelligence (BI) solutions from SAS as part of its efforts to reduce crime and the fear of crime, and become one of the most effective opertional forces in the UK. The county is improving the quality of and standardizing its data to comply with the deadline of March 2006 for the Cross Regional Information Sharing Project (CRISP), which mandates that all 43 forces in England and Wales allow other forces access to their data. Vnunet reports:

The BI software from supplier SAS is helping employees to search records and generate error reports, says Reg Barnard, Gloucestershire Constabulary's information services development manager. 'Instead of having a large pile of data that we never looked at, we want to look at it as an asset, and use it to try to gain value for the organisation,' he added.

IBM to Invest in Data Management

IBM is planning to cash in on the need for better information management in all organizations. The computer vendor publicized its plans to invest an additional $ 1 billion toward data management software and services over the next three years. The investment is spurred by the innovative technological advances in hardware and software, pressure from new data-intensive technologies, and the need for quality data throughout an enterprise. Computer World reports:

IBM sees a solid business reason for the investment. Steve Mills, an IBM senior vice president and Software Group executive, said customer demand for information management-related software and services is expected to give the company "double-digit" growth in those areas.

IBM Ties Up with Business Objects

Business intelligence (BI) solutions provider Business Objects and IBM are collaborating their resources to provide value to the healthcare and life sciences sphere. IBM's Clinical Genomics is now integrated with business intelligence capabilities from Business Objects to provide access to information across a wider subscriber base. Database Trends and Applications reports:

"Things that used to take 12 weeks can be done in a matter of hours now," Kerri Atkins, IBM alliance director for the Americas, explained. "Being able to bring patient information together quickly and more easily allows them to improve patient care, as well as research with patients."

Business Objects to Improve Budget Preparation

Meridian Health, provider of health services, facilities, and programs across New Jersey, has deployed planning solutions from business intelligence solution provider Business Objects, to increase efficiency in the preparation of budgets and to improve functionality in its financial reporting applications. Crm2day reports:

Meridian can now calculate net patient service revenue budgets, and fixed cost center budgets and margins with more accuracy and in less time. Additionally, Meridian ensures reports are reflective of the changing needs of the end user by automating processes and eliminating the need to develop reports that provide only marginal business value.

SAS Supports Open Metadata Architecture

Business intelligence (BI) and analytics provider SAS has tied up with Meta Integration Technology Incorporated (MITI) to provide its Data Integration clients with the ability to integrate and manage metadata from disparate sources, thus expediting implementations at a lower cost. MITI's Meta Integration Model Bridges (MIMB) will offer support for open metadata architecture through which users can exchange metadata between different products. Crm2Day reports:

"The partnership between SAS and Meta Integration Technology Inc. brings added value and an innovative competitive advantage to customers," said Christian Bremeau, president and CEO of MITI. "The ability to import and export metadata leverages metadata for analysis increases the value for business intelligence and enables better management decisions."

BI Vendor Targets India

Business Objects is foraying into the Indian business intelligence (BI) market with plans to triple its customer base over the next three years. Besides the existing BI users like the telecom, retail, and financial sectors, new segments like the BPO industry and the government will be targeted, said Business Objects' Company Business Development Director India/SAARC Sanjay Deshmukh. Hindustan Times reports:

In the next two years, the government will be the biggest customer in BI space with huge data to be managed, said Deshmukh. "Many government departments have compiled the data and are ready for the next level of business intelligence applications," he said, adding they were in advanced level of talks with a few for the software.

Sutter Deploys BI Solution

Northern California-based Sutter Health is deploying Autonomy Corporation's Intelligent Data Operating Layer infrastructure software to allow easy search, analyze, and retrieve operations from unstructured sources like the Internet, scanned articles, and emails. The software will integrate structured and unstructured information from multiple text, speech and video repositories across the 26 hospitals that Sutter operates. Information Week reports:

Autonomy' search engine software will help Sutter identify new markets, health-care services, and business opportunities, such as enabling Sutter to be among the first health-care provider in a community to offer services utilizing important new medical devices or pharmaceutical products, says Jim Harrison, who was recently named to the new position of VP of business intelligence and is heading up Sutter's new business intelligence group, which formally had been called the strategy and business development team.

Support for Open-Source DB

The new release of MicroStrategy 8, the business intelligence (BI) solution from MicroStrategy Incorporated, comes with certification for popular open-source databases MySQL and PostgreSQL, in addition to support offered for all major databases. With advances in the latest version of its BI software, MicroStrategy Inc. is moving closer to its goal of supporting open systems and open-source standards that affect business intelligence. CRM Knowledge Base reports:

Other open source/open system capabilities of MicroStrategy 8 include support for the Mozilla Firefox browser, the Apache/Tomcat web servers, the Linux operating system, and the Pluto portal. "The new release of MicroStrategy 8 is designed to offer added options for customers that choose open source relational database systems for their enterprise," said MicroStrategy COO Sanju Bansal.

DB Vendors Jump on BI Bandwagon

The BI market is continuing to thrive, which is why application and database vendors are also hoping for a piece of the pie. The market, which was till now being catered to by specialist third-party providers like Business Objects, Information Builders and Cognos, is now being permeated by Oracle and SAP.

Appliance vendor Whirlpool is one of those who have ditched BI tools from specialist vendors to invest in SAP's Netweaver Business Intelligence suite, which will help in closing gaps in front-end visualization and reporting capabilities, ease integration requirements, and eliminate the need for employees with multiple skill sets. Others are also switching to BI tools from their database providers as they wish to avoid the isolation that occurs when back-end software is upgraded before the BI vendor can support the update.

But traditional BI vendors still have an advantage since they support disparate data sources, whereas the platform providers generally focus on their own data sources, says John Hagerty, an analyst at AMR Research. This edge will not last for long though, since IBM has already introduced a BI tool, the DB2 Data Warehouse Edition, which overcomes some of the issues facing other platform vendors by supporting multi-vendor data sources.

SAS Records Record Growth

SAS, provider of business intelligence (BI) and analytics solutions, has announced that its revenue for the year 2005 stood at $1.68 billion, an increase of 10 percent over 2004. The growth was propelled by the increased demand for SAS Enterprise BI Server, and for applications designed for industries including banking, sales, insurance, retail, education and government, reported SAS. The Americas stood first in contributing to SAS' sales with 46 percent, while Europe came in second with 44 percent, followed by the Middle East and Africa, and the remainder from Asia. Biz Intelligence Pipeline reports:

SAS 9 Enterprise Intelligence platform includes data integration, storage, analytics and business intelligence elements. The company intends to continue pushing the tools this year. "That's our focus for 2006," said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight in a statement.

Embedded Databases - Open-Source Vs Commercial

With the multitude of options available in the open-source database market, many organizations are questioning the need to pay for a commercial database product. The deciding factor in the choice between open-source and commercial lies in identifying the key business requirements of an organization. If you place emphasis on stability and functionality issues, you'd be better off with a commercial database since open-source offerings cover just the basics, says Les King, program director for DB2 Marketing Information Management Software Group at IBM. He adds that an enterprise should deliberate on seven key comparison points when making the choice __ scalability, availability, transaction throughput, larger capacity, support for mixed workloads, autonomic features, and integration with other products.

A key selling point for open-source databases is that they can be tailored to suit an organization's specific needs. In reality though, those who deploy open-source solutions do so mostly because they are looking for a free, embeddable, distributable database, and not because they are looking to customize the software.

But on the downside, open-source technology will not be able to meet the demanding changes in the needs of database users, contends Microsoft's Carol Dullmeyer, senior product manager for SQL Server. The morphing of database needs and features will drive customers' abilities to grow their databases, build reports, analyze the business, or distribute data to mobile employees, she adds. Security of data is another cause for concern, besides cost and flexibility issues. Organizations should consider if the code in open-source offerings is secure and stable.

In the meantime, the bigger players in the commercial database market like Oracle, IBM and Microsoft, are also joining the open-source fray by offering free, scaled-down versions of their products to lure basic users, in the hope that they will be tempted to upgrade at a later date.

Oracle Snaps Up Open-Source DB Vendor

Oracle Corporation has extended its embedded database product line with the acquisition of open-source database vendor Sleepycat Software Incorporated. Berkeley DB from Sleepycat is embedded in various open-source products like Linux and BDS UNIX operating systems, Apache Web server, OpenLDAP directory and the OpenOffice productivity suite. Sleepycat isn't Oracle's first open-source purchase. Last year, it bought Finland's Innobase, which makes the InnoDB database engine used at the heart of MySQL AB's database. Computer World reports:

The moves by software vendors to snap up open-source companies are seen partly as a way to attract additional developers, in the hope that those developers will upgrade to paid-for products for wide application deployments.

Cognos BI for Supply Chain Solution

As part of an agreement reached between business intelligence software provider Cognos, and IBS AB, provider of distribution and supply chain software, the Cognos 8 BI solution will be offered as an integrated part of the IBS Business System, to allow customers more efficiency in controlling the supply chain. IBS Business Systems is used to handle operations related to the supply of goods, customer relations and financial control. Business Intelligence Network reports:

"In combining our data warehouse with Cognos' reporting capabilities, the customer receives optimal business support. This is a major competitive advantage for our customers," said Mark Cockings, Vice President of IBS Global Software.

RFID-Oriented BI Tools

Though more and more companies are leveraging radio frequency identification (RFID) for business intelligence (BI) purposes, there is a shortage of BI tools for mining RFID data, according to Keith Gile, research director at Forrester Research Inc. RFID uses radio frequency waves to transmit data from a tag mounted on an item, back to a transponder and database for processing. Though various researches and surveys are predicting increased spending for BI in the coming years, there is not much being done to develop RFID-oriented BI tools. The reason why vendors are not rising to the RFID challenge is probably because they do not have the technology to do so. Successfully linking RFID and BI entails leveraging intellectual property about manufacturing and supply chains that these vendors probably don't have, explained Gile. But things are looking up, with Business Objects being in the process of building relationships with partners that are heavily involved with RFID, according to Russ Hill, director of worldwide consumer packaged goods and retail marketing.

SAP’s Latest BI Server

Enterprise BI Server 2.0 is the latest offering from analytics and forecasting software vendor SAP, to help customers search for and construe data to make informed decisions. The BI server, which is a major part of the SAS 9 Intelligence Platform, promises to provide enhanced drag-and-drop report building capabilities, report usage tracking and archiving, and time-based filters and calculations. Users of Microsoft will be pleased to learn that the server integrates with Microsoft Excel. It offers ESRI geographic mapping which enables retailers to check out the geographical locations of competitors before deciding on the location for their new outlet. Software Mag reports:

The BI Server also has added specific, task-focused interfaces for Web or desktop queries, boosted self-service query capabilities for mainstream users and beefed up its graphics to highlight trends that might otherwise be missed. Its Web search tool includes 128 new features.

HyperRoll Teams up with Prologic

HyperRoll Inc., provider of solutions for scaling BI applications, is joining forces with Prologic, the UK-based vendor of ERP software for the fashion and lifestyle industry, to increase the data processing capabilities of its clients. The CIMS ERP tool from Prologic will combine with HyperRoll’s data aggregation technology to increase caching, aggregation and compression capabilities. EWeek reports:

HyperRoll's technology works with almost all of the classic reporting front ends, including formal relationships with the likes of Business Objects, Cognos and Microstrategies.

Airline Flies With Cognos 8 BI Platform

Lufthansa has chosen to deploy Cognos 8 Business Intelligence as the standard platform for all its business intelligence plans, including decision-making and reducing BI maintenance costs. The airline has standardized on the platform from Cognos Inc. to make it a single solution for reporting and analysis. Business Intelligence reports:

Lufthansa chose Cognos 8 BI for its extensive capabilities, ease of implementation and maintenance, and the high level of user acceptance achieved by previously deployed Cognos applications.

Cognos Data Modeler Available

Cognos 8 BI users can now employ a new tool, Cognos 8 Business Intelligence Data Modeler, to access information stored in IBM Lotus Notes databases and applications. They can also present and manage Cognos reports within the IBM WebSphere Portal and the IBM WorkSpace client to support collaboration and performance management projects. Computer World reports:

With the tool, users can select Lotus Notes data sources, tables and columns and label them with names that are meaningful to the business without making any changes to the existing Notes applications, according to Cognos.

BI Pitfalls to Avoid

While all organizations have business intelligence needs, the smaller ones find it hard to make the requirements fit within their budget. itmWeb details a few pointers to avoid being sucked into the BI tangle of software, and choose the right software for your firm.

• Buy a software suite with features that you will use. BI vendors do cater to providing small enterprises with tailor-made solutions.
• Examine your metadata needs before jumping on the bandwagon to create it. Look for information that already exists and balance out the rest of your needs accordingly.
• Find a software platform that does not require expensive consulting projects when it is launched.
• Don’t let the size of a vendor’s name or reputation precede it. Carry out a little research to see which BI software will best fit your organization’s needs before you make the decision to buy.
• Select a vendor with a flat license fee so that your maintenance and upgradation costs do not increase exponentially each time you change your infrastructure.

Evaluating your BI Suite

How do you evaluate the architectural considerations to help you choose the best BI suite for your organization? There are various aspects that are not evident during a vendor demo, like whether your BI tool is based on the client/server technology or on the Web, if the OLAP approach is taken, the ease with which it can be embedded in other applications, whether there exists a common framework for use across query, reporting, OLAP, dashboards and analytic applications, and if the services can be distributed across multiple servers and platforms. Intelligent Enterprise reports:

Just as you may have to open the hood of a car or take it for a test drive to see some of the engine differences, so too will architectural differences in the BI suites become apparent only when you install, deploy, or customize the products.

Latest Version of ProClarity Analytics 6 Available

ProClarity 6.1, the latest version of ProClarity Analytics 6, which provides an adaptable interface for organizations that employ advanced Business Intelligence (BI) features for analysis, reporting and notification services. The newest BI solution from ProClarity Corporation includes highly developed support of the Unified Dimensional Model (UDM), which combines the best of OLAP and relational technologies, to allow users to effortlessly interact with data without bothering too much about the core data structures.  The suite also incorporates the ProClarity Dashboard Server with a user-friendly interface that offers combined views of business metrics, business charts and parameters for linked analytics and reporting. Data Base Trends reports:

Additional add-ins are planned for ProClarity Analytics 6, including simple creation of UDM-based Reporting Services 2005 reports, dashboard alerting, leveraging Notification Services 2005, Web-based analytics for Microsoft Business Scorecard Manager; and SharePoint Portal Server 2005 Web parts.

Read more about ProClarity Analytics 6.

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 sales at ballparks. This is then used to determine how to target fans with the right offer at the right time and right place through the website, personalized e-mails, instant messages and SMS alerts.

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.

Select Comfort Opts for Seibel Business Analytics 7.8

Leading retailer Select Comfort, has turned to Siebel Business Analytics to help deliver insight and drive more informed action across its business. Select Comfort's CIO Mike Thyken said that a lot of careful deliberation and evaluation had gone into the choice of a BI product for the company's use, and that Siebel Business Analytics 7.8 was selected for its powerful BI capabilities, ability to deploy to a broad range of end users and ease of use. Thyken also said that the software would enable the company's sales teams, store managers, and HQ staff to identify sales trends and manage its business across sales channels. We are looking to Siebel Business Analytics to help our company continue to meet our sales targets, he added. Siebel Systems reports:

Siebel Business Analytics includes a comprehensive suite of packaged analytic applications that span business functions and incorporate the best practices from over 20 industries, and a next-generation BI platform that delivers enterprise-wide usability, scalability, and performance, which enables organizations to empower each person with rich customer and business insight to drive superior business performance.

Read more about Seibel Business Analytics 

Business Objects SA Looks to Services for Growth

Business Objects SA, the business intelligence vendor with joint headquarters in San Jose and Paris, is taking steps to propel its growth in 2006. The company has zeroed in on services to take it forward, and as part of the progression process, it plans to expand its professional services group and develop more products tailored to particular vertical industries.

The company reported a third-quarter revenue of $261.4 million in October 2005, with revenue from services making up more than half the total amount.  Business Objects SA has grown over the past few years with key acquisitions __ Crystal Decisions Inc. for $820 million in 2003, and Infommersion Inc. for $40 million in 2005. Computer World reports:

Business Objects won't say how many services staff it plans to add or discuss the growth plans in detail until after its financial results are released on Feb. 1, a company spokesman in Europe said. The company hopes to become more of a "business intelligence consultancy", he added.

Read more BI consultancy services at Business Objects

Focus on After Sales Support

Though more and more businesses are choosing hosted applications, they focus mostly on features and functions of the solution, and fail to pay attention to the after-sales aspect of the contract. It is interesting to note that some stipulations of the contract may end up restricting your ability to access your own company data, secure reimbursement in the event of service interruption, ensure adequate data back-up, or skirt hidden charges. Before signing a long-term contract, make sure you clarify certain key issues:

Technical Support & Training - Usually, in industries other than software, customer support is provided at no extra charge. Service-based providers, who often have to earn customer loyalty on a monthly basis, have an incentive to make sure customers are satisfied with the services. However, as far as hosted CRM is concerned, customers are expected to pay for a relationship with the provider. Some service providers offer a minimal level of 'free' support, but then expect the customer to pay for service or support packages that are better quality. Sometimes these extras increase the monthly bill up by nearly 50%.
Do your research thoroughly when it comes to training your employees on the vendor’s products - there are likely hidden costs here, tucked away in the fine print. Also check if there are any additional charges for live, web-based training. Do not accept a situation where your employees have to use a self-help website only – the initiative will be abandoned by users if they have to educate themselves in such a manner. Another vital issue to look into is about additional charges for new users after the initial deployment of your product (the high turnover rate of the industry implies that new users will constantly have to be added).

Service Level Standards & Guarantees - When choosing a hosted option, you are handing over your customer data to the host. However, the Service Level Standards offered by each vendor vary widely, and some of the largest vendors don’t offer any Service Level Standard at all. Since you are trusting your data and making monthly payments to the hosting company, you deserve have documented data about their responsibilities towards you.

Long Term Commitments & Contracts - Usually hosted CRM providers advertise their 'free trial', and then look to move you towards a long-term contract. Your vendor might simply focus attention on their next sale once you have paid up. One way to reduce this risk is to look for vendors that have a voluntary contracts policy. This way, you are getting something of value in exchange for a long-term contract – usually a price incentive. CRM Today reports:

Believe it or not, hundreds of companies have similar experiences trying to export data from the servers of some hosted providers - whether it’s emails, files or even customer data in a CRM solution, because they neglected to understand their rights in this area. Some providers may hold onto data until all billing issues are settled. But in many cases, it’s standard procedure to take a few weeks to extract and export data (for the convenience of the provider, naturally), and sometimes the format it’s returned in is difficult to port into another solution.

About Collaborative Filtering

Defining cliques by grouping users with similar tastes is called collaborative filtering. This method is perfectly suited to the Internet. The underlying premise is that an individual's stated preferences are similar to a group or clique of other people in certain aspects, it will be similar in others. Since the Internet makes it easy to collect preference information for a large group, collaborative filtering is now the basis for many recommendation services. One disadvantage of clique-based systems such as collaborative filtering is the need for explicit feedback by the user so that a clique of like-minded users can be found. Collaborative filtering is better than demographic profiling because in collaborative filtering, the clique is not fixed. It is defined around the user's expressed choices and is therefore richer and more adaptable in its predictive ability. All personalization technologies rely on building a model of a user's preferences. CRM Today reports:

How good a job could you do if you tried to express the full range of your preferences yourself? Only you have the advantage of an internal probe - a self-examination of your own thoughts. Even if you were being honest with yourself, would you be able to articulate who you are and include all your preferences? I believe that most people cannot.

What Is Required In Next-Generation Personalization Systems

Personalization systems such as clickstream analysis tools, collaborative filtering-based recommendation systems, and data mining operations have not shown encouraging results. These technology approaches are failing because first generation personalization tools do not treat site visitors as individuals. Also, they are not able to adjust to changing interests of internet users, largely because they do not take current site behavior into account. The logic used by the system - that if individual visitors have one thing in common, then they will have all things in common, is flawed logic. Next-generation personalization systems need to develop separate prediction models for each individual product or piece of content that can potentially be recommended to a site visitor. These systems should also be able to recognize when a site visitor is not accepting a particular type of offer, and should be able to suppress subsequent presentations of similar offers. CRM Today reports:

The strongest indicator of a site visitor's motivation for visiting a site is their actual behavior during the current session. This requires the ability to track what pages they are viewing and what recommendations they are responding to or ignoring. Recognizing what areas of the site have been visited and what individual product pages have been viewed can enable next-generation personalization systems to better distinguish a site visitor's current intentions.

Open Source Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools 1.0 Released

With a business model that has revolutionized software community, The Eclipse Foundation has again released open-source code to build upon.  This time the organization has entered the foray of business intelligence with the release of Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools 1.0.  The company has already had 9,000 copies of the specifications downloaded when a preview version was made available.  This current project will further the organization's ultimate goal of achieving an industry standard, a project already well underway as currently 65% of the estimated 4.5 million Java developers are using the Eclipse Foundation's technology and practices. InformationWeek Reports:

"This reiterates the value of Eclipse in terms of fusing together the idea of open, collaborative code development with commercial applications," says Forrester Research analyst Keith Gile in an E-mail interview.

Read More: Eclipse Offers Open-Source Business Intelligence Tools

Microsoft Dominates Business Intelligence, But for How Long?

A recent report by global consulting company, Frost & Sullivan, has listed Microsoft as the largest single vendor of business intelligence software.  The ranking should come as no surprise as Microsoft currently holds an 18 percent market share of the now more than $33 million dollar industry.  With analysts predicted a steady market growth of 29% annually to reach $70 million by 2007, however, that dominant market share is by no means assured.  In fact, industry analysts are indicating that this industry is in such a high growth phase that any large or mid-sized player can lead to a dominant market share through the development of a quick secession of market superior products. rediff.com Reports:

The maximum contribution to the market comes from data warehouse at 36 per cent, followed by OLAP and reporting tools at 34 per cent, ETL at 18 per cent and analytics at 12 per cent," added Alok Shende, director (information communication & technology practice), Frost & Sullivan, India.

Read More: Microsoft is No 1 business intelligence vendor