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2011 Business Intelligence Buyer’s Guide:
Technology Evaluation Centers
BIfor
Everyone
Business Intelligence: A Buyer’s Guide
RIT FOR MANUFACTURING EXECUTIVES
Business Intelligence: A Buyer’s GuideBy Jorge García, Research Analyst, Technology Evaluation Centers
SAP Customer Success Story Marcus & Millichap Sharpens Reporting with SAP® BusinessObjects™ Solution Portfolio
SAP Customer Success Story Aquent Uses SAP® BusinessObjects™ Software Tools to Deliver Talent
QlikView Customer Success StoryCampbell Soup Sales and Operations Planning Transformation
IBM Customer Success Story Fast Growing Company, Mayflex, Chooses IBM Cognos Express to Deliver Essential Business Intelligence and Planning Capability
MicroStrategy Customer Success StoryUsing MicroStrategy Mobile to Perform Marketing and Consumer Shopping Behavior Analysis
Thought LeadershipSaaS BI Tools: Better Decision Making for the Rest of Us
SAP Special ReportThe Business Information Revolution:Best-run Businesses Innovate Better with SAP
TEC Special ReportThe Role of Business Intelligence in Content Strategies
Vendor Directory
Table of Contents
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Business Intelligence: A Buyer’s Guide
This buyer guide is intended for business owners, managers, decision makers, and anyone
interested in learning about the deployment of business intelligence (BI) systems across
large enterprises as well as small to medium businesses (SMBs). It presents a comprehensive
view of the wide spectrum of BI software solutions currently available and investigates
how they match different types of organizations according to size and need.
The guide addresses software solutions in three major groupings:
• BI for large enterprises
• BI for SMBs
• Software-as-a-service (SaaS) BI offerings
Given this classification, the guide covers a wide range of BI solutions for almost all
organizations, and anyone interested in a BI system should be able to identify a potential
suitable solution. Each section contains specific information to help organizations research
and analyze BI solutions, and make decisions about which BI software is a good fit for them.
Large, Medium, or Small?To help understand what this guide covers, some parameters must be established for
defining large, medium, and small businesses. An organization can be defined according
to economic, geographical, and local characteristics. However, for the purpose of this
guide, only total revenues and the number of employees will be considered as defining
parameters:
• Large enterprises have more than 500 employees and over $250 million (USD) in
revenues.
• Smalltomediumbusinesses have 1 to 500 employees and revenues of up to $250
million (USD).
By Jorge García, Research Analyst, Technology Evaluation Centers
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IT in Large EnterprisesAlmost all large organizations demonstrate some of the following characteristics:
• They have specific in-house information technology (IT) department staff, with clearly defined functions
and roles. This gives them the organizational maturity to have internal BI staff in place.
• They rely on pre-existing technology frameworks that enable them to prepare for large-scale BI system
deployments, in terms of technical and human resources.
• Their executives rely heavily on information gathered via a variety of sources that generate large and
complex volumes of data, all of which needs to be analyzed using specific software tools (such as corporate
BI solutions).
• They can rely on extensive budgets to meet corporate software needs and can afford to deploy state-of-
the-art solutions.
IT in SMBsWhen it comes to SMBs, the story is rather different. Many SMBs show some of the following features:
• They have a very small in-house IT staff, or none at all. In general, they count on only a few people to carry
out all IT-related functions, from hardware maintenance to software and network services.
• They rely on a set of limited technology frameworks to deploy software solutions. In many cases, IT staff
must develop applications from scratch or adapt existing applications.
• As with large enterprises, SMB executives rely heavily on information gathered from complex but varied
sources that can generate large and complex volumes of data, all of which needs to be analyzed using
specific software tools (BI solutions).
• SMB budgets are tight and limited. Every software system resource needs to be selected with care to
comply with all the organization’s requirements.
SaaS BI: The New AlternativeThe SaaS BI space is gaining increased coverage and users around the globe. Despite some initial fear and
doubt among the buyer community, SaaS BI vendors and services are on the rise, and some traditional on-
premise vendors are launching SaaS versions of their BI solutions. SaaS BI software solutions will undoubtedly
be the next big trend in the coming years, as they add new value for organizations with specific budget,
human resource, and technical constraints, while providing access to BI analysis and reporting tools—and
negating the hardware and IT personnel costs of a traditional BI system deployment.
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BI for Large EnterprisesBecause of the nature of BI, which traditionally involved the incorporation of expensive high-end software
technology, BI software systems were first deployed in large enterprises. To encompass the complete BI life cycle
process, it was necessary to have strong budgets, as well as the means and justification for taking financial risks
in order to gain a competitive advantage. To achieve this competitive advantage, many large companies were
eager for software tools that would enable them to improve their decision-making process. Some software
companies responded to this need by accelerating the evolution of classical decision support systems to
provide sophisticated analysis tools with high-end software technology. Naturally, the high cost of these types
of tools limited their accessibility to large-scale companies (also, the technical requirements for this technology
could be met by big corporations only).
In the last four or five years, economic factors as well as the exponential growth of data volumes generated by
organizations have forced the development of very sophisticated BI applications, and also expanded the kind
of tools a classical BI system normally uses. The BI space is still growing and maturing, and large corporations are
still demanding new solutions for new enterprise needs.
BI for SMBsWith recent economic conditions and the information boom, many smaller companies have found themselves
requiring analysis tools that enable them to improve their business monitoring and performance improvement
strategies. BI solution innovation has cascaded down from large companies to provide adapted and specific
services to companies with a need for advanced analytic software tools but with very limited budgets. Recent
BI tools have improved the BI life cycle to help organizations of every size and shape to improve analysis, data
management, and data visualization tools.
Is BI Really for Everyone?
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The State of the Market
The Growing Interest in BIIt was in the late 1970s when the first decision support systems—predecessors of modern BI applications—
arrived in the corporate world. In those days, only certain very large companies could afford these kinds of
applications to help their executives with the business decision process. Nowadays, BI solutions play a major
role in almost every organization, with many companies needing to analyze vast amounts of data to generate
valuable information to gain insight into the organization and make the best possible decisions.
In addition to huge companies requiring the analysis of enormous amounts of data, smaller companies are
generating more and more operational information. Economic conditions have forced these smaller companies
to find ways to increase productivity and improve business performance—traditional operational tools being
simply not sophisticated or powerful enough to get the job done. Nowadays, many SMBs use specific tools to
analyze and process these greater amounts of data and come up with the best possible business decisions.
Over the last few years, Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) has seen a steady increase in the interest in BI
software—not only from large companies, but also from SMBs trying to address their data management needs
and decision support processes. The number of overall BI software selection projects in TEC’s Evaluation Centers
*Data in figures 1 to 3, 6 to 8, 10, and 11 is derived from TEC’s Evaluation Centers. Data values reflect the number of software selection
projects in TEC’s Evaluation Centers. For figure 3, data values reflect user responses.
Figure1.BIsoftwareselectionprojects(2005to2010)*
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has increased in a linear fashion over the last five years, with a slight decline from 2009 to 2010. This indicates
a stabilization in the demand for BI solutions, and for business software in general. However, we could expect
a slower but steady growth in the near future (see figure 1). This trend is seen in all subsequent figures as well.
This growth trend is not exclusive to large enterprises; many smaller companies are looking for tools to gain
organizational insight and improve productivity and performance. Indeed, SMB interest in BI has grown at an
extremely steep rate over the same period (see figure 2).
Moreover, interest in BI and business performance management tools over the last five years has been
increasing at a steadier rate as compared to other business software tools, such as enterprise resource
planning (ERP) systems and human resource management (HRM) systems (see figure 3).
Figure2.InterestinBI:largeenterprises(LEs)versusSMBs
Figure3.InterestinBIsolutionscomparedtootherbusinesssoftware
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Despite the respectable position of BI solutions in comparison to other classes of business software, BI system
adoption is still in a growth phase, for the following reasons:
• The SMB market space is adopting this kind of business software solution to improve overall operations
and decision-making processes.
• Large enterprises are still looking to improve analytical and decision-making processes due to the
information explosion that is resulting from more complex business models and corporate mergers and
acquisitions.
• Regulatory and compliance pressures are pushing companies to improve their reporting and analytical
standards to comply with new and more rigorous regulations. This has generated the need for BI solutions
that incorporate specific functionality to comply with distinct governmental and industry regulations.
• Some industries require specialized functionality to accommodate specific complex business processes. This
phenomenon is pushing BI software vendors to create specific industry vertical functionality for BI systems.
The BI Life Cycle: Classical versus Modern BI TasksBI solutions were originally conceived as tools for information analysis and decision support, with historical data
as a source. Extensive sets of historical data were processed, analyzed, and delivered to the user via visualization
tools such as reports or dashboards. The traditional BI approach resembles a batch process in which information
follows a sequential process from source to target. In general terms, this BI life cycle approach is a composite of
the components shown in figure 4.
Figure4.ClassicalBIlifecycleprocess
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Data Sources The classical BI life cycle process collects data directly from the point where it’s generated. Data can be
originated from many types of systems and applications, including relational databases, business software such
as ERP or customer relationship management (CRM) applications, plain text files, or office application files such
as spreadsheets.
Data Integration Process The data is moved or copied from its source location to a data warehouse or data mart. During this process,
which is called data integration, some subtasks take place:
• A data quality process ensures that the information remains consistent, accurate, and “clean”— i.e., there is
a process to avoid/correct/detect problems within the data that is being moved to the data warehouse.
• A data transformation modifies the structure of the data to satisfy the conditions imposed by the design of
the data warehouse, and to ensure the consistency of all information.
• The load process allocates the information into an information repository (such as a data warehouse or
data mart).
Data Warehouse/Data Mart ComponentThe data warehouse or data mart is an information repository that is used for analysis purposes. What this
means is that the data warehouse has a specific structural design that enables the analysis of large volumes of
data in a shorter period of time than with a traditional relational database system. Common relational database
systems are designed using a “relational model,” in which data elements are grouped and stored to facilitate the
registration of transactions. Relational databases are used for operational purposes; they are not intended for
extensive data analysis, but rather are used for registering and performing operations with specific quantities
of information. A data warehouse, on the other hand, is designed in such a way as to enable the exploration and
analysis of large volumes of data.
Analysis and Data Visualization Process Once the information is in the data warehouse, the analysis process can begin; that is, the data is transformed
into valuable information for the user.
The BI life cycle process ends when the information is presented in a form that enables an improved decision-
making process.
At first, this appears to be a fairly simple process, as each task follows a straightforward sequence. However, at
each stage a complete set of tasks must be performed in order to proceed to the next stage of the BI life cycle.
This is one of the reasons why many vendors offer solutions to perform specific parts of the overall BI life cycle
process.
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You should consider such a solution if your organization already has part of a BI solution, or if you need to
improve any part of the general BI process. In fact, many organizations have completed their BI solutions with
a mixture of software from different vendors. Another effect of this application diversity is that many so-called
point solutions have features intended to complement and integrate with other BI applications to comprise a
complete BI solution.
For example, the vendors listed in table 1 offer solutions dealing with a specific stage of the process.
Over the last 10 years, the BI life cycle process has changed significantly in terms of shape and performance.
The drivers for these changes include the augmented data volumes generated by all organizations, the increase
in complexity of business models and business operations, the availability of computing resources due to
technology improvements, and universally difficult economic conditions.
Since the beginning of the decade, many companies have been elaborating progressively more complex
business models. Mergers and acquisitions increased, and the volume of data being generated exploded.
The increase in data volumes and the speed with which this data must be delivered forced traditional BI
applications to apply different solutions not only to augment their ability to manage such volumes, but also to
modify the traditional way of performing the data integration process. What was originally based on a batch
set of processes for moving, transforming, and cleansing thousands of records on a monthly, weekly, or even
daily basis transformed into a cycle that moves smaller quantities of data, but with an important increase in
frequency—two, four, or eight times a day, or every hour, or even more frequently. This gave the BI life cycle
process a new dimension, as it now aimed to deliver data almost at the moment it is generated—that’s to say,
at an operational pace.
Such “near real-time” solutions essentially enabled organizations to leverage their BI systems to increase data-
refreshing periods. More recently, some organizations have applied technologies to enable data collection in
actual real time. The number and types of data sources had been growing and becoming more diverse, and
modern organizations are reading data from sources such as social media content and unstructured text.
This diverse set of sources is obliging organizations and software vendors to manage information arriving at
different rates of speed, and coordinating these efforts can be a challenge. Besides all this, the data visualization
phase has also increased the options available to users.
DataIntegration DataVisualization
DataFlux (Data Management Studio) Corda Technologies (CenterView)
Informatica (PowerCenter) Dundas (Dundas Dashboard)
Information Builders (iWay) Universal Mind (Spatial Key)
Talend (Open Studio) VisualCalc (analysis software)
Pervasive Software (Data Integrator)
Table1.Vendorsofferingsolutionsfordataintegrationanddatavisualizationtasks
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Dashboards and scorecards now comprise only part of the available tools. Interactivity between BI tools and
office applications is increasing and extending BI functionality, and mobile technologies are taking their own
place in the equation, with BI providers now capable of distributing BI information to mobile devices. All these
trends in the data visualization phase are enabling more people within the organization to become BI software
consumers or users. Even customers can now be part of the BI solution. Figure 5 depicts a modern BI life cycle
model.
Figure5.ModernBIlifecycleprocess
For the modern BI life cycle process, the classical BI life cycle has been enriched with alternative technologies
and improved methodologies and software tools to provide solutions for a wider number of business areas
beyond those linked to financial issues. Modern BI applications can also provide specific vertical functionality
for industries such as health care and retail, among others.
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The Information DilemmaTraditionally, data warehouse technologies have played a major role in the BI life cycle process. The reason is
quite simple: data warehouses are the repositories where all information resides. A data warehouse management
system comprises the storage, management tools, and data that when combined can deliver a large set of
information for analytical purposes.
Among the core functionalities in a BI project, data warehousing is increasingly being regarded as a basic
consideration for corporate BI solutions (see figure 6).
Figure6.Interestindatawarehousefunctionalitiesandtools
Since about 2005, software vendors have been modifying the shape of classical data warehouses; in some cases
the changes were minimal, but others included important design modifications. These modifications are due to
the need for data warehousing to deliver data in a timely and accurate manner to be able to proceed through
the rest of the BI lifecycle process. Some of these issues are:
• Dataexplosion
The amount of data generated from operational sources has caused data warehouse systems to evolve in
such a way that they not only store greater amounts of data, but also exploit this data in a fast and reliable
manner.
• Lackofhumanandtechnicalresources
Many companies don’t have sufficiently technically skilled human resources to successfully deploy a
data warehouse project. Also, some of them don’t have the software and hardware tools to deploy a data
warehouse system.
• Dataqualityissues
When information grows in volume and the sources of information multiply, it becomes more difficult for
the BI life cycle system and for the IT staff to ensure that data quality issues are addressed accurately.
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• Budgetconstraints
Many companies cannot shoulder the expense of acquiring high-end data warehouse technology. In many
cases, economic conditions represent an important limitation to a company’s ability to handle big amounts
of data generated from different operational sources.
Some software providers are trying to address these and other issues to improve the performance of data
warehouses and at the same time lower the cost of data warehouse implementations. Traditional data
warehouses used to sit on top of common relational database management systems (RDBMSs). Because of the
nature of this type of database, with many high-end technologies needed, data warehouse systems come with
a high total cost of ownership (TCO). Nowadays, many software vendors are designing data warehouse systems
using very different approaches and technologies from traditional relational databases, working to provide
a powerful data warehouse but with reduced costs. Some data warehouse products are designed using very
unique software engineering designs, but some general types of solutions can be easily identified:
• Datawarehouseappliances
Data warehouse appliances combine a set of software applications and hardware devices specifically
designed and assembled for the deployment, operation, and maintenance of a data warehouse system. The
system design takes advantage of the combination of hardware and software features for mass storage to
achieve high performance. Data warehouse appliances can reduce direct software and hardware costs as
well as operational costs by simplifying all administration and tasks. Many of the modern data warehouse
appliances take advantage of high-end hardware technologies such as parallel processing and task
distribution.
• Analyticaldatabases
Analytical databases are designed to improve the speed of analysis of increased amounts of data. Analytical
databases take advantage of different design features, such as column- or index-oriented storage, data
compression, and distributed and parallel computing, among others.
• In-memorydatabases
The innovative technology of in-memory databases enables users to work on a database that resides
completely in memory. This optimizes database analysis because as all data resides in local memory, no
data search takes place. This technology could reshape data warehouse design in the years to come.
These trends in the data warehouse space are making it easier for all kinds of organizations, from small to large
companies, to acquire a data warehouse or data management solution for analytical purposes. Also, software
vendors are expanding their licensing and deployment options for data warehouse technologies and making
them more flexible. Table 2 shows some of the software providers for these types of data warehouse solutions.
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BI Gets Real ( Time): An Operational BI BriefingOne of the most important developments of the modern BI life cycle is inarguably the ability to collect data
directly from the source. This is in distinction to the traditional BI life cycle process, which involved collecting,
analyzing, and presenting results based on historical data. Once analyzed, this data was converted into
information that C-level executives and decision makers needed to support decision-making processes. This
information touched only the upper levels of the organization, and typically did not flow down to the lower
levels. This information was used principally to support long-term decisions.
Technologies such as data federation, enterprise information integration (EII) systems, and business activity
monitoring (BAM) have enabled different sets of solutions to be applied according to particular organizational
needs.
Many companies can now analyze information that is valuable beyond a historical perspective. They can
collect information that comes directly from the source, and thus measure the behavior of many aspects of the
business almost instantly—and with a short-term perspective in mind. It’s now possible not only to know how
business is performing, but also to collect information that is useful only if used in a timely manner (for example,
information generated from social media, stock markets, and other media).
This expansion in scope makes it possible to involve a wider number of users with BI tools, from C-level
executives to users at the operational level. To sum up, here are some of the benefits that operational BI brings
to the table:
• BI solutions can target a greater audience within the organization.
• BI solutions can be used not only to analyze and support decisions, but also to measure performance, react
to changing circumstances, and indicate the appropriate measures to take.
• BI solutions can adjust to information that is moving at different speeds within the organization. Information
now flows through the BI life cycle to get from source to target at the “right time” for the user. This process
is no longer based on speed, but on “time to value.”
• BI solutions can now support transactional environments. However, adequate support does presuppose
high availability.
DataWarehouseAppliances AnalyticalDatabases In-memoryDatabases
Netezza Kognitio QlikTech
Dataupia Vertica Microsoft (PowerPivot)
Aster Data Illuminate
Teradata Infobright
Table2.Vendorsofferingdatawarehousesolutions
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Transforming Data into Information The basic idea behind the first BI solutions was to improve decision support systems by automating more tasks,
and to provide decision makers with a more accurate version of the “truth.” This paradigm has not changed, but
two major components of it have evolved. Firstly, the complexity involved in the decision-making process has
increased dramatically; and secondly, because of the integration of major technology software applications for
handling data and processes, BI applications can help address a wider scope of problems. They can now support
three levels of the decision-making process:
• Strategicdecisions define the corporate future in the long term, and are normally made by the executive
team. These types of decisions were addressed by the classical BI life cycle process, and involve analyzing
large amounts of historical data. They answer the “What?” questions.
• Tacticaldecisions establish the initiatives that must be followed in order to accomplish strategic goals.
They must be handled with care due to their connection between the strategic vision and day-to-day
operations. They answer the “How?” questions with respect to strategic goals. In general, they involve
limited amounts of data, in near real time or actual real time.
• Operationaldecisions relate to the day-to-day operation of an organization. They involve defining specific
tasks to perform and operate. These decisions usually involve processes and procedures.
The incorporation of operational BI capabilities into the overall set of BI tasks enables modern BI suites to expand
their reach to other areas such as business process management and business performance management.
Business Performance Management: BI with a Strategy BI software providers are now incorporating many business performance management features to expand
the reach of BI solutions and create a more proactive BI environment capable of measuring and planning,
and suggesting corrective action if necessary. Business performance management tools can help construct a
management methodology framework that (added to a BI technical and software infrastructure) can deliver not
only organizational insights based on historical data, but also a measure of how an organization is performing
against its goals. This integration between BI and performance management tools transforms the BI cycle from
a passive data information factory into a proactive solution provider. Business performance management tools
and BI applications are complementary, and the software industry is currently closing the gap (see figure 7)
between tools that reflect the state of an organization and those that measure against goals and can help
formulate a proactive strategy; it’s clear that business performance management tools are extremely important
to the BI life cycle.
Metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) can be created as part of a planning strategy to measure financial
and process performance and to provide the necessary means to forecast specific key indicators. As a set of
techniques, performance management tools can improve an organization’s overall business performance, and
enable the incorporation of a framework to achieve performance management goals; balanced scorecards,
six sigma, and other types of methodologies can be applied to align the operational-tactical-strategic trio
according to overall goals.
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In the BI life cycle, business performance management systems generally occur within the following contexts:
• integrated with strictly operational tools (e.g., BAM systems)
• as part of an enterprise BI system
• integrated with operational systems such as ERP, CRM, or supply chain management (SCM) systems to
measure the performance of vertical business indicators
Some complete BI suites are now offering operational tools and business performance management capabilities
to complete the overall functionality core of operational BI and business performance management. Also, some
major business software providers are developing or acquiring vertical functionality to position their products
in specific niches where BI is extremely important, as in retail, health care, financials, and other industries.
Some of the benefits of integrating business performance management capabilities into the overall BI life cycle
infrastructure are as follows:
• Keep dashboards and scorecards up to date with the use of native operational BI capabilities.
• Encourage the use of collaboration tools to improve performance, communication, analysis, and response
based on the ability to measure processes against specific goals.
• Identify and predict operational problems faster, and take corrective or preventive actions.
• Encourage improvements to risk management strategies.
• Encourage better alignment to corporate goals at all organizational levels.
Many technologies continue to be embedded into the BI life cycle core infrastructure. BI tools are far from being
at peak maturity, and you should expect them to include many new technologies in the not-so-distant future.
Figure7.InterestinbusinessperformancemanagementversussomecoreBIfunctionalities
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Trends and Challenges in the BI SpaceAs was mentioned earlier, BI applications and the general BI life cycle process are still maturing, with new
software and hardware technology being incorporated into core BI functionality. Here are some BI trends to
watch for in the near future:
• Mobility
The incorporation of mobile technologies into the BI mainstream will increase in upcoming years. Many
vendors are incorporating compatibility with several mobile providers and specific applications and
interfaces to provide BI analysis information via mobile devices.
• Socialmedia
The data explosion has already arrived, but BI will be incorporating functionality to analyze structured and
unstructured data coming from diverse social media sources. This trend is growing constantly due to the
potential benefits in areas such as customer care and marketing, as well as product lifecycle management
strategies.
• Complexeventprocessing
Complex event systems are being incorporated with BI functionality and vice versa to enforce the data
movement from the operational source right through BI applications.
• In-memoryanalytics
The software technology behind in-memory analytics is attracting hype and attention; it may be the key
to reshaping the way we see and use data warehouses and BI applications in general. Analyzing millions of
records in milliseconds or even faster will push BI life cycle processes to new limits.
• Columnardatabases
Columnar databases could mark the end of relational databases in the BI space; with its innovative
architecture, columnar databases are a potential means of resolving the data volume problem.
• SaaSBI
SaaS applications are still growing and evolving, but nowadays there are a fair number of SaaS BI offerings
on the market. This software delivery model is a viable option for many SMBs, and may have some potential
for large enterprises.
• VerticalizationofBIfunctionality
BI providers are working hard to gain specific industry markets that use BI tools intensively. Many large
software vendors are incorporating functionality specifically created for industries such as construction,
health care, financials, retail, etc.
Because of the analytical nature of the BI life cycle, the form BI solutions take is closely related to the way in
which business evolves. Indeed, BI solutions are subject to continuous evolution at the same evolutionary pace
of business models and information requirements. This of course triggers challenges that the BI life cycle has
to address in order to remain current and maintain its ability to generate revenue for an organization. Here are
some of the challenges facing organizations with respect to BI deployment:
• to maintain a methodology for activity and task standardization, as well as a methodology to manage the
division of work
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• to maintain BI systems that are trustworthy from the user perspective
• to maintain the ability to solve time-to-delivery problems
• to assess and measure the business value of BI solutions
• to maintain and encourage the iterative nature of the development and deployment of a BI solution
• to maintain and encourage a risk management strategy for data management (data quality, metadata
management) and the impact this can have on an organization
• to maintain an accurate strategy with respect to BI life cycle development
Naturally, every BI deployment has its own particular set of issues, risks, and problems, and there are as yet no
iron-clad rules for deploying and ensuring the success of a BI system. However, by applying a formal strategy for
assessing all phases of a BI deployment project, it is possible to ensure incorporation of the necessary tools for
BI-assisted decision-making at the organizational level.
Social BISince the World Wide Web became publically available in 1991, social interaction has changed dramatically. This
new era in social communication has seen the progressive incorporation of new communication media into the
Web. In addition to e-mail, the Internet is being crowded with newer tools to enable individual and collective
communication between people all over the world. Web mail, blogs, and instant messaging services have all
enjoyed popularity. Now, many services—such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter—enable data communication
through distinct types of interaction between users; this is what we call “social media.”
BI and Social Media: The Structure of Unstructured AnalysisAlong the social media evolutionary path, companies and institutions realized that these channels are
producing vast amounts of valuable data that come directly from the source: customers (potential or existing),
users, or even employees or associates of the company. The value of social media data resides in the fact that
it reflects the sentiment of any given user with respect to a subject—easily a product, service, or brand. Social
media data can be collected and analyzed to assess the intangible aspects of an organization, like popularity,
market presence, and so on.
Recently, some companies have been working to provide tools not only for social interaction and collaboration,
but also for analysis of the information generated. The goal of these types of applications—called “social media
analytics” or “social Web analytics”—is to collect and interpret social media content.
BI and Social Media Analytics: The Best of Both WorldsCurrently, many software vendors are bringing social media analytics capabilities to organizations. The social
media analytics space is divided between independent vendors offering specific solutions to address this niche
and traditional software vendors (mainly BI vendors) that started adding social media analytics capabilities
to a core set of BI functionality features. Having social media analytics capabilities can bring some specific
advantages to an organization. Some of the major advantages are as follows:
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• Expansion of data sources
New BI tools not only analyze data coming from an organization’s Web site, but can also acquire data
from external social media sources. The analysis has expanded beyond the reach of direct feedback to
information that is generated beyond the purview of the organization. Organizations are able to “hear”
what is happening outside their boundaries.
• Analysis of both unstructured and structured data
In addition to analyzing information coming from traditional table, row, or field structures, organizations
can now tap into data in different formats, such as plain text, quizzes, and so on.
Many of the vendors in the social media analytics space offer their services on demand. Many organizations
can avoid the costs involved in the acquisition of an on-premise application but still leverage the capabilities to
measure their product and company presence in the social media space.
New social media tools will continue to emerge while others disappear. Social media analytics applications
are still in an early stage of maturation, and their adoption will likely expand throughout the corporate world
in the coming years. Without a doubt, this class of tools will represent a core consideration in the decision-
making process for almost all big (and even small to medium) companies looking to develop their marketing
and publishing campaigns.
Public BI: BI in the Public SectorDespite the noise surrounding the deployment of BI applications in the private sector, and extensive
commentary on BI business performance management applications evolving to become a basic part of every
large company’s stack of applications, public sector organizations remain more interested in the development
of BI solutions that comply with their own sets of unique conditions. This is especially true of those organizations
that handle large amounts of data and rely on this data to support important decision-making processes.
Figure8.PublicsectorinterestinBIapplications
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Over the last couple of years, government institutions have increased their interest in having BI applications to
support their data management processes (see figure 8).
BI tools may be used in both the private and public sectors. In both cases they can be used to support a decision-
making process and/or to measure and manage an organization’s performance. By collecting, analyzing, and
presenting data during the BI life cycle, BI applications transform this data into information to be used according
to organizational needs. Data has to be moved within the organization in a manner that offers “time to value,”
which may vary according to the nature of the information; it’s important that information be delivered in good
time, but it’s more important that it be delivered at the right time.
At this point, BI tools are used in similar ways in both the private and public sectors. The differences lie mainly
in their specific interests and outcomes. While BI in the private sector deals with measuring sales, marketing,
operations, and so on, BI in the public sector is dedicated to measuring service performance, goal achievement,
and budget. While private sector businesses analyze information with an eye to augmenting profits, analysis in
the public sector looks at social accomplishments and whether or not a project is on budget. So, it’s only natural
that general purpose BI applications do not meet all the specific needs of the public sector.
A BI solution for the public sector warrants some particular considerations; for example:
• transparency of information and process
• compliance with regulations and visibility of operations
• observance of budget constraints
• tracking of institutional goals and accomplishment of these goals
• service levels and public access to information
In addition to these considerations and core BI functionality, a BI solution for the public sector may have the
following requirements:
• compliance with public administration regulation standards for operation and security
• specific features to audit data management operations (storage, movement, and transformation)
• strong support for self-service functionality in order to provide broad access to BI tools for internal (within
the public organization) and external (general public) users
Deploying a BI solution for the public sector is not equivalent to deploying a BI solution for large private
organizations; radical differences exist in terms of regulation compliance needs, operational modes, and, of
course, the organizations’ strategic goals. The success of a BI solution deployment in the public sector may
rely on ensuring that each data consumer has access to the required information in the way it’s needed and
ensuring that all processes occur with transparency, compliance, and accuracy.
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According to the document “How Large Enterprises Approach IT Infrastructure Consolidation” from Forrester
Research, the two main motivators for data center consolidation in large enterprises are to improve operational
efficiency and to reduce complexity. These two goals are partially achieved by consolidating strategy and
operations, but BI and business performance management tools have a role to play in this consolidation.
Major companies are trying to consolidate information from across all business areas by improving the way
information is gathered, processed, and analyzed. For this purpose, BI tools are being reshaped to accomplish
more tasks and to be proactive in the way they use and manage information for large organizations. Important
BI software vendors are working hard to increase the set of functions that BI tools can perform, to cover more
of the data management area: data integration, data warehousing, business performance management, data
analysis, and data visualization. BI solutions are including even more high-end software tools, such as master
data management (MDM), and specific collaboration tools, such as issue tracking systems, messaging systems,
and others.
The BI growth phenomenon has triggered two main methods for developing BI solutions and achieving both IT
consolidation and analysis services at all levels of the organization: Some large organizations go for a complete
and unique set of solutions from a so-called mega vendor, while others go for a mix of tools provided from
different vendors to achieve a best-of-breed set of tools that combine to make a complete BI solution. Taking
these two approaches under consideration, the complete BI life cycle process can be fulfilled by a BI suite
specifically designed for large organizations, or by a comprehensive set of tools to complete the set of all BI
functionalities. In both cases, a complete BI solution consists of the following functional elements:
• a data management process that accounts for recompilation, storage, and movement
• an information delivery process to show, in different media, the results of analysis
• a data analysis procedure to support the decision-making process
• a business performance management functionality set to measure corporate performance
• an MDM and data governance functionality to handle all data assets of an organization
• a collaboration tool to enable the sharing of ideas and to manage interactive team work
• a set of BI functionality vertically oriented to cover specific industries such as health care, banking, etc.
The Big BI: BI for Large Enterprises
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The incorporation of more functionality into the BI life cycle process has also been influenced by some specific
challenges that the BI space in large organizations has to deal with. Some of these challenges are:
• to address the data explosion
• to provide BI deliverables to a broader audience within the organization
• to reinforce and encourage its main decision support function
• to expand the BI analysis framework not only internally across the organization, but externally to all
information coming from outside the organization
The BI space is continuously growing and evolving, and both corporate users and industry analysts hold
many expectations for its future. In addition to constantly striving to improve performance and revenue,
large enterprises will always need to adapt to business challenges coming from new industry conditions and
regulations.
BI for Large Enterprises: Functionality MatrixThe following matrix contains a list of existing BI vendors on the market with solutions specifically designed for
large enterprises. The matrix covers a core set of functionality features considered essential for a corporate BI
product. In addition to a small set of technical criteria, the matrix consists of the following main areas:
• Information delivery
• Data analysis
• Data management
• Business performance management (BPM) functionality
• Extended BI functionality
In order to reflect a comprehensive set of functionality features, each of these sections has a subset of criteria
to assess capabilities in more detail.
The following ratings are based on vendor claims for solution functionality. The system fully supports (Full),
partially supports (Partial), or does not support (None) the functionality, or the functionality may be supported
through an additional product (With additional product). Other features are either available (Yes) or not
available (No).
Note that these ratings are intended as a guide only. To determine which solution best meets your organization’s
requirements, you can conduct a comprehensive evaluation and comparison analysis in TEC’s Business
Intelligence Evaluation Center.
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Company Actuate BoardInternational
IBM
Product BIRT iServer Enterprise
Board ToolKit Cognos 10 Business Intelligence
Region Global EuropeNorth AmericaAustralia
Global
Multiplatform Yes Yes Yes
Localization Yes Yes Yes
Technical support Yes Yes Yes
Training Yes Yes Yes
Audit trail management No Yes Yes
Security management Yes Yes Yes
Central administration Yes Yes Yes
Info
rmat
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Del
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y
Analysis and reporting Full Full Full
Dashboarding Full Full Full
Mobile BI capabilities With additional product None Full
Advanced data search With additional product Full Full
BI software gadgets (e.g., Oracle BI beans) Yes No Yes
Advanced reporting Full Full Full
Microsoft Office integration With additional product Full Full
Geospatial capabilities With additional product Full Full
Dat
a A
naly
sis Standard analytics Full Full Full
Advanced analytics With additional product Full Full
In-memory analytics Full None Full
Web and social analytics None None With additional product
OLAP services Full Full Full
Dat
a M
anag
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t Data warehousing None None With additional product
Enterprise data integration Full Partial With additional product
Data quality With additional product Partial With additional product
Metadata management Full Partial With additional product
Data mining None None With additional product
Operational BI capabilities Full None Full
BPM
Fun
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nalit
y
Metrics and KPIs With additional product Full Full
Scorecards With additional product Full Full
Planning None Full With additional product
Strategy management None Full Full
Budgeting None Full With additional product
Financial consolidation None Full With additional product
Risk and performance management None Full With additional product
Forecasting With additional product Full With additional product
Exte
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BI
Func
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Portal integration Yes Yes Yes
Master data management None None With additional product
Data governance None None Partial
Industry vertical functionality No Yes Yes
Third-party application integration Yes No Yes
Collaboration tools Yes No Yes
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Company InformationBuilders
Microsoft MicroStrategy
Product WebFOCUS Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, SQL Server 2008 R2
MicroStrategy 9
Region Global Global Global
Multiplatform Yes Yes Yes
Localization Yes Yes Yes
Technical support Yes Yes Yes
Training Yes Yes Yes
Audit trail management Yes Yes Yes
Security management Yes Yes Yes
Central administration Yes Yes Yes
Info
rmat
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Del
iver
y
Analysis and reporting Full Full Full
Dashboarding Full Full Full
Mobile BI capabilities Full With additional product Full
Advanced data search Full Full None
BI software gadgets (e.g., Oracle BI beans) No No No
Advanced reporting Full Full Full
Microsoft Office integration Full Full With additional product
Geospatial capabilities Full Full Full
Dat
a A
naly
sis Standard analytics Full Full Full
Advanced analytics Full Full Full
In-memory analysis Full Full Full
Web and social analytics None With additional product Full
OLAP services Full Full Full
Dat
a M
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t Data warehousing With additional product Full None
Enterprise data integration Full Full None
Data quality Full Full None
Metadata management Full Full Partial
Data mining Full Full Full
Operational BI capabilities Full Full None
BPM
Fun
ctio
nalit
y
Metrics and KPIs Full Full Full
Scorecards Full Full None
Planning With additional product None None
Strategy management With additional product None None
Budgeting With additional product None None
Financial consolidation With additional product None None
Risk and performance management Full None None
Forecasting Full With additional product Full
Exte
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Func
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Portal integration Yes Yes Yes
Master data management Full Full None
Data governance Full With additional product None
Industry vertical functionality Yes Yes Yes
Third-party application integration Yes Yes Yes
Collaboration tools No Yes With additional product
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Company Oracle QlikTech SAP
Product Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus
QlikView SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions, EIM solutions, EPM solutions
Region Global Global Global
Multiplatform Yes No, Windows Yes
Localization Yes Yes Yes
Technical support Yes Yes Yes
Training Yes Yes Yes
Audit trail management Yes Yes Yes
Security management Yes Yes Yes
Central administration Yes Yes With additional product
Info
rmat
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Del
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y
Analysis and reporting Full With additional product Full
Dashboarding Full Full Full
Mobile BI capabilities With additional product Full Yes
Advanced data search With additional product Full Full
BI software gadgets (e.g., Oracle BI beans) No Yes Yes
Advanced reporting Full Full Full
Microsoft Office integration Full Full Full
Geospatial capabilities None Full With additional product
Dat
a A
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sis Standard analytics Full Full Full
Advanced analytics Full Full Full
In-memory analytics With additional product Full With additional product
Web and social analytics Partial with additional product Full With additional product
OLAP services Full Full Full
Dat
a M
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t Data warehousing With additional product None With additional product
Enterprise data integration With additional product None With additional product
Data quality With additional product None With additional product
Metadata management With additional product None With additional product
Data mining With additional product None Full
Operational BI capabilities With additional product Full With additional product
BPM
Fun
ctio
nalit
y
Metrics and KPIs With additional product Full With additional product
Scorecards With additional product Full With additional product
Planning With additional product Full With additional product
Strategy management With additional product Full With additional product
Budgeting With additional product Full With additional product
Financial consolidation With additional product Full With additional product
Risk and performance management With additional product Full With additional product
Forecasting Full Full With additional product
Exte
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Func
tiona
lity
Portal integration Yes Yes Yes
Master data management With additional product None With additional product
Data governance With additional product None With additional product
Industry vertical functionality Yes Yes Yes
Third-party application integration Yes Yes Yes
Collaboration tools With additional product Yes Yes
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Company SASInstitute TIBCOSoftwareInc
Product SAS Enterprise BI Server
TIBCO Spotfire Analytics platform
Region Global Global
Multiplatform Yes Yes
Localization Yes Yes
Technical support Yes Yes
Training Yes Yes
Audit trail management Yes Yes
Security management Yes Yes
Central administration Yes Yes
Info
rmat
ion
Del
iver
y
Analysis and reporting Full Full
Dashboarding Full Full
Mobile BI capabilities Full None
Advanced data search Full None
BI software gadgets (e.g., Oracle BI beans) With additional product No
Advanced reporting Full Full
Microsoft Office integration Full With additional product
Geospatial capabilities None Full
Dat
a A
naly
sis Standard analytics Full Full
Advanced analytics Full Full
In-memory analytics None None
Web and social analytics With additional product None
OLAP services Full Full
Dat
a M
anag
emen
t Data warehousing Full None
Enterprise data integration With additional product None
Data quality With additional product None
Metadata management Full Partial
Data mining With additional product Full
Operational BI capabilities With additional product Partial
BPM
Fun
ctio
nalit
y
Metrics and KPIs With additional product Full
Scorecards With additional product None
Planning With additional product None
Strategy management With additional product None
Budgeting With additional product None
Financial consolidation With additional product None
Risk and performance management With additional product None
Forecasting With additional product Full
Exte
nded
BI
Func
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Portal integration Yes Yes
Master data management With additional product None
Data governance None None
Industry vertical functionality Yes Yes
Third-party application integration No Yes
Collaboration tools Yes With additional product
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ActuateActuate founded and continues to co-lead the Eclipse BIRT (Business Intelligence and
Reporting Tools) open source project. Actuate has over 4,500 customers globally in a diverse
range of business areas, including financial services and the public sector. Founded in 1993,
Actuate is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices worldwide.
Board InternationalFounded in 1994 and based in Lugano, Switzerland, Board International is committed to
integrating the best of two worlds: the technical benefits of a BI tool and the data analysis power
of traditional business performance management software. Board International provides a
toolkit that combines BI and business performance management in a single solution, allowing
rapid creation and deployment of BI and business performance management applications.
IBMIBM and Cognos represent a solid fusion between a long-term leader in the IT space and a
leader in the BI market. Cognos gave IBM the BI empowerment to become one of the leaders
in the data management space. Cognos 10 BI is its cutting-edge tool for the BI market.
Information BuildersWith more than 12,000 customers and 60 offices around the world, Information Builders
delivers a complete enterprise BI suite, as well as comprehensive business-to-business,
business process automation, and enterprise information management solutions to global
customers. Its WebFOCUS and iWay solutions, well known to provide a reliable set of BI and
integration tools, are widely distributed among a wide range of organizations. Information
Builders also has a solid reputation for outstanding customer service.
MicrosoftSharePoint Server represents the core of Microsoft’s wide BI offering. The Redmond,
Washington–based company relies on its Sharepoint Server solution to bring BI functionality
to any type of organization. Along with other Microsoft software applications such as SQL
Server and Office, Microsoft is able to provide an entire set of BI tools for corporate users.
MicroStrategyFounded in 1989 and based in McLean, Virginia, MicroStrategy is a unique survivor of mergers
and acquisitions, which has allowed the company to develop and evolve its BI solution to
the point where it can compete on the enterprise market. MicroStrategy’s long experience
with its BI solution means that it contains best-of-breed technology. The company also has
the expertise to deliver customer service levels in accordance with the expectations of the
corporate market.
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OracleOracle is one of the biggest software companies in the world. It provides business software
solutions for almost any type of organization and business area. Oracle is committed to
acquiring and developing a diverse set of solutions to expand its reach across a greater
number of industries and software markets. Its set of BI software solutions provides a strong
BI suite for the corporate business market.
QlikTechQliktech is a pioneer of the in-memory analysis space. The company was founded in Lund,
Sweden, in 1993. QlikTech has explored and exploited a new way to analyze data. QlikView
is one of the most popular BI products for midsize companies, and it is expanding rapidly to
larger companies.
SAPThe SAP–Business Objects partnership is able to offer a complete set of BI tools enriched
with an additional set of capabilities. Business Objects is widely recognized for providing
powerful BI tools for a wide range of customers all over the world. SAP BusinessObjects
delivers a complete BI suite for enterprise deployments that require high-quality, reliable data
management analysis.
SAS InstituteSAS develops high-quality solutions to provide companies with the information to make
better decisions and improve their performance and productivity. With more than 30 years
of experience in the data information space, SAS has a reliable set of BI tools to bring to the
market and is a strong competitor in the enterprise BI field.
TIBCO Software IncTIBCO, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, has a wide range of business software solutions.
TIBCO offers the TIBCO Spotfire Analytics platform, a robust BI application for large-scale
companies. Spotfire Analytics platform is enriched by a full set of tools that enable Spotfire to
complete the BI requirements of any company.
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Data is growing in both amount and complexity for businesses of all types and sizes around the globe. In order
to transform data into useful information for the decision-making process, many SMBs are finding it necessary
to complete their maturity process. Having acquired an operational data management solution such as an ERP,
CRM, or financial system, they now need massive data management systems to help them analyze all the data
generated by those systems. Many SMBs are ready to handle data processes that can enable them to measure
their performance and improve their entire operational process. Currently, many SMBs need specific BI tools to
address their data management needs. According to TEC’s data, SMBs are strongly involved in and committed
to finding the right BI solution for their needs (see figure 2 on page 8).
In searching for a BI solution, SMBs must find the optimal balance between the lowest possible cost and the
fullest possible set of BI core functionality. Because of the increasing interest from SMBs in BI solutions, both
traditional and new software vendors have been targeting the SMB space and releasing BI products designed
specifically for SMBs. All of the BI offerings for the SMB market are trying to improve the decision support
process for SMBs by offering strong analytical capabilities, while considering technical and budget limitations.
BI applications for the SMB market must meet the following set of requirements:
• lower TCO
• easy administration
• reduced hardware and technical requirements
• strong core set of analytic capabilities
• basic data management capabilities
• a simplified and, as much as possible, automated data integration and administration process
• integration with Microsoft Office applications (commonly with Excel)
Also, many of the BI applications designed for SMBs include a subset of functionality features adapted from
corporate BI solutions for the SMB market. Among the most important of these functionality features are:
• a complete set of reporting and analysis capabilities
• dashboarding capabilities
• OLAP services
• basic data integration features
• advanced data search
BI for SMBs
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The challenges that software providers must overcome to deliver solutions satisfying all the BI needs for each
industry are considerable, no matter the size of the enterprise. Many software vendors have managed to create
BI suites with features that suit the general needs of most SMBs across several industries.
BI for SMBs: Functionality MatrixThe following matrix contains a list of existing BI vendors with solutions specifically designed for SMBs. The
matrix considers a core set of functionality features for an SMB BI product.
The following ratings are based on vendor claims for solution functionality. The system fully supports (Full),
partially supports (Partial), or does not support (None) the functionality, or the functionality may be supported
through an additional product (With additional product). Other features are either available (Yes) or not
available (No).
Note that these ratings are intended as a guide only. To determine which solution best meets your organization’s
requirements, you can conduct a comprehensive evaluation and comparison analysis in TEC’s Business
Intelligence Evaluation Center.
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Company IBM InetSoft Jaspersoft LogiXML Oracle
Product Cognos Express Style Intelligence
Jaspersoft Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
Logi 10 Platform Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition One
Region Global North America North AmericaEuropeAsiaAfrica
North AmericaEurope
Global
Multiplatform No, Windows Yes No Yes Yes
Localization Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Training Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Audit trail management Yes Yes Yes No No
Security management Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Central administration Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Analysis and reporting Full Full Full Full Full
Self-service reporting Full Full Full Full Full
Ad hoc queries Full Full Full Full Full
Dashboarding Full Full Full Full Full
Information mashups Partial Full Full None None
Mobile capabilities None Partial None Partial None
BI software gadgets (e.g., Oracle BI beans)
No No Yes Yes No
Advanced data search None None None None None
Microsoft Office integration Full Partial With additional product
Partial With additional product
Geospatial capabilities Full Full Full Full None
Standard analytics Full Full Full Full Full
Predictive analytics None Partial None None None
OLAP services Full Full Full Full With additional product
In-memory analytics Full Partial Full Full None
Embedded/basic data integration
Full Full Full Partial Full
Basic metadata management
Full Partial Full Partial Full
Metrics and KPIs Full Full Full Full Full
Planning and budgeting Full Partial None None With additional product
Forecasting Full Partial None None With additional product
Portal integration Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Industry vertical functionality
No No No No No
Third-party application integration
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Collaboration tools No Yes No No No
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Company PanoramaSoftware
Pentaho QlikTech SAP TableauSoftware
Product NovaView Pentaho BI Suite Enterprise Edition
QlikView SAP BusinessObjects Edge Business Intelligence
Tableau Desktop, Tableau Public, Tableau Reader, Tableau Server
Region North AmericaEuropeMiddle East
North AmericaEurope
Global Global Global
Multiplatform No, Windows Yes No, Windows No, Windows No, Windows
Localization Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Training Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Audit trail management No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Security management Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Central administration Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Analysis and reporting Full Full With additional product
Full Full
Self-service reporting Full Full With additional product
Full Full
Ad hoc queries Full Full With additional product
Full Full
Dashboarding Full Full Full Full Full
Information mashups None Partial Full Full Full
Mobile capabilities None Full Full Full Partial
BI software gadgets (e.g., Oracle BI beans)
No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Advanced data search None Full Full Full Full
Microsoft Office integration Full Partial Full Full Full
Geospatial capabilities Full Full Full Full Full
Standard analytics Full Full Full Full Full
Predictive analytics None Full Partial None Partial
OLAP services Full Full Full Full Full
In-memory analytics None Partial Full None Partial
Embedded/basic data integration
Full Full Full With additional product
Full
Basic metadata management
None Full Full With additional product
Partial
Metrics and KPIs Full Full Full Full Full
Planning and budgeting None Partial Full Full None
Forecasting None Full Full Full Partial
Portal integration Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Industry vertical functionality
No Yes Yes No No
Third-party application integration
Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Collaboration tools Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
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IBMIBM and Cognos represent a solid fusion between a long-term IT leader and a leader in the
BI market. Cognos gave IBM the BI empowerment to become one of the leaders in the data
management space. Cognos Express is a BI tool designed especially for the midsize market.
InetSoftInetSoft developed a BI solution that’s a good fit for the midsize market. Since 1996, InetSoft has
been providing BI software that can deliver the kind of information that SMBs need.
JaspersoftStarted in 2001 as an open source reporting product named JasperReports, Jaspersoft now
provides a complete set of BI tools for organizations that want to take advantage of open
source software. Jaspersoft has been breaking down the wall in recent years to become a
serious competitor in the BI landscape.
LogiXMLFounded in 2000 and based in McLean, Virginia, LogiXML develops XML-based software. With
the LogiXML platform, an XML-based BI solution, organizations can embed LogiXML reports
and charts with ease into almost any Web-based platform. LogiXML delivers a BI solution that
comprises an interesting set of tools for midsize companies.
OracleOracle is one of the biggest software companies in the world. It provides business software
solutions for almost any type of organization and business area. Oracle is committed to
acquiring and developing a diverse set of solutions to expand its reach across a greater
number of industries and software markets. Its set of BI software solutions provides a strong
BI suite for SMBs around the world.
Panorama SoftwareHaving a strong partnership with Microsoft, Panorama Software delivers a strong set of BI tools
that can be deployed in Windows environments. Panorama delivers powerful BI tools since
1993 and is a leader in BI solutions in Windows environments. Panorama Software can bring
powerful BI tools to empower basic and experienced users with information management
abilities.
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PentahoFounded by BI industry veterans, this commercial, open source BI provider offers a BI suite
that has a vast set of BI tools for reporting, dashboarding, OLAP analysis, and data integration
services. Pentaho is one of the world’s most deployed open source BI solutions. The company
also has a wide number of partnerships.
QlikTechQlikTech is a pioneer of the in-memory analysis space. The company was founded in Lund,
Sweden, in 1993. QlikTech has explored and exploited a new way to analyze data. QlikView
is one of the most popular BI products for midsize companies, and it is expanding rapidly to
larger companies.
SAPThe SAP–Business Objects partnership is able to offer a complete set of BI tools enriched
with an additional set of capabilities. Business Objects is widely recognized for providing
powerful BI tools for a wide range of customers all over the world. SAP BusinessObjects
delivers a complete BI suite for enterprise deployments that require high-quality, reliable data
management analysis.
Tableau SoftwareTableau originated in 1997 and has its roots in a group of people from Stanford University.
With their expertise in business and science, Tableau developed a series of products producing
high-quality visualizations of data for the United States Department of Defense. Since then,
Tableau has developed Tableau Server to deliver a BI tool with high-quality visual standards
and query performance. Creator of the VizQL language, Tableau has proven itself as a serious
competitor in the BI space.
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SaaS will perhaps be one the most important trends in IT and business software history. SaaS applications are
one of the main offerings of a cloud computing infrastructure, and SaaS is reshaping the way everyone works
with business applications.
During the last couple of years, there has been an increase in the number of software vendors launching SaaS
versions of their traditional business software applications. Currently, many software vendors strongly believe
that having a SaaS delivery model as part of their software offerings will have an important effect on their
business in terms of revenue in the medium and long term. Other software vendors are starting out as native
SaaS-based solution providers.
What Is SaaS Anyway?In February 2001, The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) published an article called “Software as
a Service: Strategic Background. “ The term “software as a service (SaaS)” was coined to describe a model in which
an application is deployed on a central server and accessed remotely using a network such as an intranet or the
Internet. In this delivery model, for users to access the application, users must connect to a remote computer,
which is generally accessed based on a subscription or rent schema (see figure 9).
SaaS BI
Figure9.GeneralSaaSapplicationmodel
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From a customer perspective, the benefits of having a SaaS business application in place are inducing many
organizations to move from an on-premise solution to a SaaS solution provider. Some of the most important
benefits include:
• Users have access to their business applications with the use of only a “thin client”—a Web browser such as
Internet Explorer or Firefox. There is no need to install an application on the user machine.
• All software maintenance is done by the service provider. The service provider guarantees application
maintenance, updates, and support.
• The service offering is flexible, based on number of users, consumption, or other factors.
The advantages of the SaaS delivery model over traditional, on-premise applications have important effects
on the way software vendors are developing their new business software versions, especially in some
application areas such as CRM and BI systems, in which SaaS versions are increasingly being added to the
vendor’s software list.
On the other hand, vendors that are starting out as native SaaS software developers have a competitive
advantage because of their focus on SaaS versus the more diffuse experience of on-premise software vendors.
While native SaaS application providers have the specialized knowledge of developing and deploying their
SaaS tools as well as marketing them, they may lack experience in terms of support and services that big
software vendors commonly have.
SaaS in the BI WorldSaaS applications might be on the right path to being the next technology breakthrough. ERP system providers are
adopting SaaS as an alternative to their traditional on-premise application offers; CRM and sales force automation
(SFA) systems are expanding their reach with SaaS products, some of which, like Salesforce.com and NetSuite, are
quite well known. In terms of BI applications, the SaaS segment is growing slowly but steadily, with SaaS solutions
coming from both traditional and native SaaS software vendors in significant numbers (see figure 10).
Figure10.PlatformsusedforBIsolutions
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The Benefits of SaaS BI Despite SaaS BI applications being in the early stages of their development, they can provide important benefits
to an organization planning to follow the SaaS path. Some of the main benefits of SaaS are as follows:
• shorter implementation cycles
• flexible licensing and pricing models
• smooth scalability
• lower TCO than on-premise applications
Because of these benefits, especially the lower TCO and shortened implementation cycle, SaaS BI tools have a
particular appeal for the SMB market. SMBs can readily afford to acquire these types of solutions quickly and
on a small budget, but SaaS can also make it easier for large enterprises to rapidly incorporate BI solutions for
specific business areas into their business application stack. Interest in SaaS BI solutions is steadily growing (see
figure 11). With the many benefits that SaaS can bring to various types of organizations, this growth can be
expected to continue in the coming years.
Figure11.DemandforplatformtypesforBIsolutions
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And the ChallengesAs interest in BI SaaS applications is continuously growing, SaaS technology faces several challenges before
it can achieve the necessary maturity for mainstream adoption. Some of these challenges are particularly
relevant to the BI space due to the vital nature of the information that BI systems deal with. Some of the biggest
challenges to address are:
• security, to ensure that data storage location, infrastructure (hardware and software), and human resources
will not compromise data
• service-level agreements (SLAs), to ensure the reliability of the services provided by a SaaS application
• elasticity, to ensure SaaS application scalability to meet new requirements
• integration, to provide the necessary integration with alternative computing models and systems
SaaS BI applications can bring several benefits to organizations in terms of cost, ease of deployment and
operation, and low TCO. SaaS BI applications still have to grow to a phase in which they can offer the flexibility
and functionality power of traditional on-premise solutions, and of course, they will have to face these challenges
and others in order to achieve the necessary elements for their generalized adoption.
SaaS BI: Functionality MatrixThe following matrix contains a list of BI vendors with solutions specifically designed as SaaS applications. The
matrix considers a core set of functionality features for a SaaS BI product.
The ratings are based on vendor claims for solution functionality. The system fully supports (Full), partially
supports (Partial), or does not support (None) the functionality, or the functionality may be supported
through an additional product (With additional product). Other features are either available (Yes) or not
available (No).
Note that these ratings are intended as a guide only. To determine which solution best meets your organization’s
requirements, you can conduct a comprehensive evaluation and comparison analysis in TEC’s Business
Intelligence Evaluation Center.
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Company AdaptivePlanning
Birst Bitam Cloud9 GoodData
Product Adaptive Planning
Birst 4 KPI Online Cloud9 Analyst Suite
GoodData
Region North AmericaEurope
North America North America North AmericaEurope
North America
Localization Yes Yes Yes No No
Support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Training Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Service-level agreement
Yes Yes No No No
Secu
rity
and
Con
trol
Audit trail management Yes No No No No
SOX compliance No No No No No
SAS 70 Type II compliance
Yes Yes No No No
Application-level security
Full Full None None None
Data-level security Full Full None None None
Data encryption Full Full None None None
Central administration Yes Yes Yes No No
Gen
eral
Func
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lity
Analysis and reporting Full Full Full Full Full
Dashboarding Full Full Full Full Full
Data mashups None None None None None
Advanced data search Full None None None None
Alerts and exceptions Full Full Full None None
What-if analysis Full Partial None None None
Microsoft Office integration
None Partial Full None None
Geospatial capabilities None Full Full None None
Standard analytics Full Full Full None Full
Predictive analytics None Full None None None
OLAP services Full Full None None None
Data warehousing tools None Full None None None
Disparate data source integration
Full Full Full Full Full
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Metrics and KPIs Full Full Full Full Full
Planning and budgeting
Full None Full With additional product
None
Cost management Full None None With additional product
None
Strategy and performance
Full None None With additional product
None
Portal integration No Yes No No No
Industry vertical functionality
No Yes No Yes No
Third-party application integration
Yes Yes No No No
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Company NetSuite Oco PivotLink SAP WeAreCloud
Product SuiteAnalytics Oco Business Analytics Solutions
PivotLink BI Platform
SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand
Bime
Region North AmericaEuropeAsia
North AmericaEurope
North America Global Europe
Localization Yes No No No Yes, French/English
Support Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Training Yes No No No Yes
Service-level agreement
Yes Yes No No No
Secu
rity
and
Con
trol
Audit trail management Yes No No No No
SOX compliance No No No No No
SAS 70 Type II compliance
Yes Yes Yes No No
Application-level security
None Full Full Full Full
Data-level security None Full None Full Full
Data encryption Full Full None None Full
Central administration Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Gen
eral
Func
tiona
lity
Analysis and reporting Full Full Full Full Full
Dashboarding Full Full Full Full Full
Data mashups None None None Full None
Advanced data search None None None Full None
Alerts and exceptions Full Full Full Full Full
What-if analysis Full None None Full Partial
Microsoft Office integration
None None None None None
Geospatial capabilities None Full None Full Full
Standard analytics Full Full Full Full Full
Predictive analytics Full None None None None
OLAP services Full None Full None Full
Data warehousing tools None Full None None None
Disparate data source integration
Full Full Full Full Full
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Metrics and KPIs Full Full Full Full Full
Planning and budgeting
With additional product
None None None None
Cost management None Full None None None
Strategy and performance
None Full None None None
Portal integration No Yes No No No
Industry vertical functionality
No Yes Yes No No
Third-party application integration
Yes Yes No Yes No
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Adaptive PlanningAdaptive Planning delivers an on-demand BI tool with business performance features. The
company was founded in 2003 and is based in Mountain View, California.
BirstBirst was founded in 2004 by veterans of the BI industry and is based in San Francisco,
California. Birst specializes in BI software.
BitamKPI Online is an on-demand BI and business performance application based on the on-
premise solutions of its parent company, Bitam.
Cloud9From Redwood City, California, Cloud9 Analytics is a SaaS-based company that provides
various BI solutions for different markets and industries. Cloud9 Analyst Suite is its core BI
application.
GoodDataGoodData is a BI provider headquartered in San Francisco, California, and engineered in the
Czech Republic.
NetSuiteNetSuite is a cloud-based company that offers different types of on-demand solutions.
SuiteAnalytics is its BI offering. NetSuite is based in San Mateo, California.
OcoOco stands as one of the first SaaS BI providers in the market. The company is based in
Waltham, Massachusetts.
PivotLinkPivotLink applies an innovative approach to developing BI solutions. The company is based
in San Francisco, California.
SAPBusiness Objects is widely recognized for providing powerful BI tools for a wide range of
customers all over the world. BI OnDemand offers the BI functionality of traditional SAP
BusinessObjects products, now on the cloud.
We Are CloudWe Are Cloud, from Montpellier, France, produces Bime, a BI solution focused on ease of use
but with powerful features. We Are Cloud give users a neat BI solution with easy start-up.
Casebook
Case Study
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QUICK FACTS
Company• Name: Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment
Services
• Location: Encino, California, USA
• Industry: Professional services—investment real estate
brokerage
• Products and services: Real estate investment sales,
financing, research, and advisory services
• Revenue: $21 billion (USD)
• Number of employees: 1,800
• Web site: www.marcusmillichap.com
Challenges and Opportunities • Facilitate faster and better decision making
• Provide agents and clients the market trend data they
need to make fully informed decisions
• More effectively pair qualified buyers with sales agents
to speed up the sales process
Objectives• Use standard reports that incorporate all relevant
information needed for decision making
• Create reports that give visibility to key performance
indicators
• Gain deeper insight into real estate data
SAP® Solutions and ServicesSAP® BusinessObjects™ Edge Business Intelligence software,
version with data integration
Why SAP• Ease of integration with existing SAP software
• Ability to aggregate and analyze data using core
transaction reporting
• Support for gathering critical information efficiently
Benefits• Lower total cost of ownership by leveraging existing
technology
• More competitive edge due to faster access to trend
data
• Ease of use in generating accurate reports for clients
• Increased employee productivity
Existing Environment• Crystal Reports® software
• SAP ERP application
SAP Customer Success Story
Marcus & Millichap Sharpens Reporting with
SAP® BusinessObjects™ Solution Portfolio
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A Need for Deep Insight
Focused on assisting its clients in creating and preserving their wealth, Marcus & Millichap
leverages technology to make sense of market data, match properties with prequalified
investors, and share the most current information regarding commercial real estate and
capital markets with its agents and clients. The company requires deep insight into real estate
data to enhance its ability to pair qualified buyers and sellers quickly.
However, a cumbersome and unintuitive development process resulted in lengthy report
turnarounds and limited the type of information the company could produce. When
aggregating data, the company looks at numerous market indicators including transaction
velocity, a variety of proprietary metrics, and changes in capitalization rates by region,
property type, and price point. Access to market trends and exclusive metrics enables
the company to price its products better and maximize the return on investment (ROI)
of properties that clients want to sell, and it helps ensure that clients are targeting the
right markets and product types, based on their investment needs and criteria. With its old
reporting system, the aggregation process took hours or days—if it was done at all—and
the company was challenged to generate the reports its sales managers needed to make
accurate and rapid decisions.
“It’s difficult for us not only to aggregate data but also to analyze and efficiently distribute
results to our managers and agents,” says Marty Louie, vice president of finance at Marcus
& Millichap. “To remain competitive, we have to be able to go through tens of thousands
of transactions. We need to compile and make sense of all this data and identify forward-
looking trends, so that our investment professionals can provide clients with an unparalleled
perspective on the investment real estate market locally, regionally, and nationally.”
With SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI, we can provide our management, agents, and clients with data
to assess current market conditions. We enable clients to accelerate and improve decision-making
processes, ultimately maximizing return on investment.
Marty Louie, Vice President of Finance,
Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services
““
Encino, California–based Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services specializes in
investment real estate brokerage, providing real estate investment sales, financing, research,
and advisory services. With over 70 offices across the United States and more than 1,300
sales agents and 500 employees, Marcus & Millichap closed an estimated $21 billion (USD) of
investment transactions for private and institutional investors in 2007.
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Economic fluctuations make some investors skittish, driving the need for a savvy and well-
informed sales force. Louie says, “The key to our success is for our sales force to communicate
to our clients that there are still investment opportunities and capital available. We have to be
able to take all the data that we have and find these pockets of opportunities for our clients.”
To support information sharing and on point reporting and analysis for its sales management
team, Marcus & Millichap turned to a business intelligence (BI) solution.
Selecting a Business Intelligence Product for the Mid-market
Marcus & Millichap was already using Crystal Reports® software to create a range of reports
for its sales management team. Additionally, the company uses components from the SAP®
ERP application for real estate accounting, accounts payable, and other core transactions—
all data that feeds business intelligence.
Louie says, “We’ve used Crystal Reports for a lot of reporting already, so all of our IT
developers were familiar with it.” After evaluating competitive BI products, Marcus &
Millichap selected the SAP BusinessObjects™ Edge Business Intelligence software, version
with data integration, geared specifically for the mid-market. “There are several specific and
unique features available in the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio that led to our selection of a
BI solution,” says Louie. “For example, we are a spreadsheet-intensive company—our entire
management team is very Excel oriented. When I saw SAP BusinessObjects Live Office
software for the first time, and how easy it is for sales managers to have a report they can
update at any time with live data, that sold me on the product.”
Along with ease of use, another factor in choosing SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI software
was speed of reporting. “We cannot afford to wait days or weeks for a new report that may
or may not be accurate,” says Louie. “Our agents and clients turn to us for guidance, so we
have to aggregate data and look for trends for them. The ability to create reports on the fly
and the ease of use for the end user are the main reasons we adopted SAP BusinessObjects
Edge BI software.”
Marcus & Millichap employees benefit from the integration of the BI software with their
existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and reporting applications. “The end user can
gather all financial data from the SAP data warehouse through SAP BusinessObjects Edge
BI,” says Louie. “SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI is a great solution for gathering information
and generating transactions. The software takes all that data and makes sense of it for the
end user. Its ease of use allows us to create dashboards and reports in a matter of days
versus months using our previous BI solution. In terms of navigating, it is more intuitive,
which increases our users’ acceptance rate.”
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The Right Information Is Indispensable to Success
In the process of its initial deployment of SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI, with a rollout to 100
sales managers and executives, Marcus & Millichap looks forward to giving sales agents
visibility into numerous key performance indicators. “With SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI,
sales managers can view critical reports, such as the sales pipeline, so they can assist their
agents in understanding and managing their businesses. Our focus is to give our agents as
much transparency to their businesses as possible, down to the transaction level, in order for
them to succeed as investment real estate professionals,” says Louie.
The company can efficiently distribute current market information to its agents. Louie says,
“The name of the game in brokerage is information—the type and quality of information that
you give to your clients will help them more efficiently deploy their assets and maximize their
returns. By implementing SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI, we can aggregate the data quickly
and efficiently distribute it to all of our agents and management team.”
Marcus & Millichap already sees the software as indispensable to its success. “Without SAP
BusinessObjects Edge BI, we would not be able to provide our agents and their clients with
timely and accurate data on market trends,” says Louie. “We’re at a critical point in our business
cycle—so it’s even more important that we generate and analyze data in a timely manner
and be able to communicate our findings so our clientele can maximize their wealth. Our BI
solution is essential to accomplishing that.”
Business intelligence will also help clients get through the rough spots of the real estate
market. “The real estate market had been on an upward cycle for many, many years,”
explains Louie. “We knew that with any cycle there was going to be a downturn, but we
didn’t know exactly when it would be. So we needed to invest in a solution that would give
us foresight to help minimize the effects of the downturn. Clients and agents are more
demanding in the type of information they want, how fast they want it, and how it looks.
Now that we have SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI in- house, we are positioned to give them
the information they need.”
The name of the game in brokerage is information—the type and quality of information that you
give to your clients will help them more efficiently deploy their assets and maximize their returns.
By implementing SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI, we can aggregate the data quickly and efficiently
distribute it to all of our agents and management team.
Marty Louie, Vice President of Finance,
Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services
““
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SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI adds value, in enabling us to go through that data and give guidance
to our clients. We can provide real estate trend data to our clients in a more timely manner.
Marty Louie, Vice President of Finance,
Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services
““
The Road Ahead
With SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI, Marcus & Millichap anticipates better client satisfaction.
“Our mission is that we are going to be the best at providing real estate services to our
clients and agents, which includes providing timely and accurate data to allow them to make
informed decisions, which will ultimately lead to maximizing their investment returns on
commercial real estate,” says Louie. “That’s where SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI adds value,
in enabling us to go through that data and give guidance to our clients. We can provide real
estate trend data to our clients in a more timely manner.”
Faster access to real estate trend data gives Marcus & Millichap an edge on the competition.
Says Louie, “SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI changes how quickly we’re going to access the
information, and it gives us more visibility to what we call trip wires, or forward -looking
indicators. We can react faster than our competitors to market movements.”
As a midsize company, Marcus & Millichap appreciates the mid-market focus of the software.
“SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI works really well for a company of our size,” says Louie. “We are
a mid-market company, but we don’t see ourselves that way. We have the same issues as a
Fortune 500 company—actually, our challenges are greater because of the limited amount
of human resources that we have available to analyze the effects of regional and national
market influences compared to those available in larger companies. To that end, we are
looking for software that is going to be as dynamic as we are, so we can change it to suit our
needs for the day. That is why SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI is excellent.” Louie also anticipates
greater internal efficiency for the finance team: “We probably will save two full- time people
with the efficiencies that we’re going to gain. For a department our size, that is a lot of freed-
up resources.”
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©2009 by SAP AG.
All rights reserved. SAP, R/3, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, ByDesign, SAP Business ByDesign, and
other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or
registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and other countries.
Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Decisions, Web
Intelligence, Xcelsius, and other Business Objects products and services mentioned herein as well as their
respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. in the United States
and in other countries. Business Objects is an SAP company.
All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data
contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may
vary.
These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP AG and its
affiliated companies (“SAP Group”) for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty
of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The
only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty
statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as
constituting an additional warranty.
Case Study
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QUICK FACTS
Company• Name: Aquent
• Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Industry: Professional services—staffing
• Products and services: Staffing of marketing positions
worldwide
• Web site: www.aquent.com
Challenges and Opportunities • Increase visibility into the business
• Improve corporate agility by giving managers flexibility
and fast turnaround in reporting
Objectives• Consolidate worldwide operational data into a single
data mart
• Create a true marketing database with easy access to
all valuable data
• Enable ad hoc reporting without using information
technology (IT) resources each time
• Save time in report generation
• Allow reports to be saved for reuse
SAP® Solutions and Services• SAP® BusinessObjects™ XI solutions
• SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence® software
• SAP BusinessObjects Desktop Intelligence™ software
• SAP BusinessObjects Data Integrator software
Implementation Highlights • Reviewed and modified data definitions through
collaboration between business, finance, and IT staff
along with SAP consultants
• Scrubbed report definitions to reflect changed data
elements
• Managed the user change effort effectively to
accustom business users to new report style and
delivery method
Why SAP • Flexible, powerful access to data
• Comprehensive reporting functionality
• Leading-edge business intelligence tools
Benefits • Gained high-level perspective for financial analysts
and executives
• Gained the ability to drill down into report data
• Reduced the average time to produce a mailing list
from 20 hours to 1
• Enabled more precisely targeted marketing campaigns
• Freed up development resources from distracting
reporting requests
SAP Customer Success Story
Aquent Uses SAP® BusinessObjects™ Software Tools
to Deliver Talent
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Founded in 1986 by friends residing in a Harvard dorm, Aquent is today the world’s largest
marketing staffing firm. The company helps Fortune 500 marketing organizations find the
people they need, on both a contract and direct-hire basis, and helps marketing professionals
find the rewarding engagements they want. Aquent represents talent in virtually every
marketing discipline, from brand managers and copywriters to data analysts, Web designers,
and search-engine optimization experts. Throughout its history, the company has made more
than half a million matches between its clients and the talent they are looking for.
The reporting environment at Aquent is complex, involving staffing levels and requirements,
results by region, time entry and billing, headcount utilization, pay rates, gross profit, and
much more. Some reports end on calendar dates, others on fiscal dates. Different roles
within the staffing organization are reported on differently. Diverse payroll schemes are also
reflected, depending on the preference of individual clients and marketing professionals.
Unlike most companies in this sector, Aquent provides benefits for its talent, so it requires
additional reporting to establish eligibility.
Although Aquent offers a broad range of ancillary services—including project management,
translation and localization, and healthcare consulting—staffing is its bread-and-butter
business. So when Aquent migrated its custom-built enterprise resource planning (ERP) staffing
system to a Web-based model, it needed a modern reporting solution that would complement
the newly enhanced infrastructure. Aquent looked to the SAP® BusinessObjects™ portfolio
of solutions for the answer, including SAP BusinessObjects XI solutions, SAP BusinessObjects
Web Intelligence® software, and SAP BusinessObjects Desktop Intelligence™ software.
The SAP BusinessObjects portfolio is a platform we can build on—it will essentially serve as a
foundation for Aquent to become a truly global company moving forward.
Larry Bolick, Chief Information Officer, Aquent
““
Time Consuming and Frustrating
According to business intelligence (BI) systems engineer Jeff Payton, the previous reporting
environment left much to be desired. “It had limited ad hoc capabilities,” he says. “For unusual
reports, you had to submit a set report to the development team. They would figure out how
to compile the code and query the database and then prepare the report for you. It was a
time-consuming and frustrating process, and you sometimes ended up with a report that
wasn’t exactly what you wanted after all.”
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Marketing director Jenny Norwood had her own problems with the legacy system. “There
was a ton of information in the database—including mail and e-mail addresses and whether
people had opted in or out of our mailing campaigns—but it really wasn’t a marketing
database,” she says. “Pulling contact information was a multiday struggle. Worse, I couldn’t
save the reports I created, so I’d have to start all over the next time I needed to create one. It
used to take me the better part of a business week to compile a mailing list. And because the
number of lines I was working with in the old system was so big, I would often have to run it
overnight, so it wouldn’t slow down everybody else’s work.”
A Single Data Mart
The first step was to get operational data from around the world into a single data mart.
Aquent pulls data from a database in Sydney that covers its Asia-Pacific operations, one in
London for Europe, and a third in Boston for the North American market. The databases are
replicated to shadow databases in Boston and then extracted out to the data mart in a nightly
batch cycle using SAP BusinessObjects Data Integrator software. SAP BusinessObjects XI runs
on this data mart.
The new system is getting plenty of attention. Says Payton, “The introduction of SAP
BusinessObjects software has given people that look in their eye like, ‘Ooh, we can do that?
Well then, can we do this?’ I’m starting to get more requests for things that people didn’t
know they could do before. It’s a very exciting situation to be in.” Payton notes that business
users can manipulate data and look at reports from new perspectives. “SAP BusinessObjects
software makes it possible to assemble virtually any object in the universe into an ad hoc
report and run it on the fly, so you get exactly what you want—immediately,” he says.
It’s a big help to the development team too. “We have been able to cut them loose to do what
they do best, rather than being distracted by the reporting requests and operational needs of
the company,” says Payton. “We’ve been able to take that off their plate.”
New Query Capabilities
Aquent’s consolidated data and leading-edge BI system has delivered significant benefits.
“Using SAP Business Objects solutions, we can run individual reports for Asia Pacific, Europe,
or North America, or we can run a single report with common criteria,” says Payton. “Our
financial analysts can look at revenue across the board to gain a high-level perspective. And
because the underlying data is contained within the report, they can easily drill down to see
what portion of the revenue came from which market and how each area is performing in
relation to the others.”
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Payton also points to a report, prepared for the president of the North America staffing
business unit, that tracks full-time employees placed within Aquent’s client base. “Some of
the reporting the president wanted to do was impossible with the legacy query tool,” he
says. “With SAP BusinessObjects software tools, we were able to create the report and even
automate it. Now the numbers are waiting for her every morning.”
Marketing director Norwood has also seen clear benefits. “By doing some analysis, we
discovered that clients who order marketing managers from us tend to be in management
positions themselves,” she says. “With SAP BusinessObjects software, I can pull a report of
all marketing directors and managers in the system in order to specifically market to them
about hiring marketing project managers. This helps us segment the messaging to our hiring
audiences much better, reducing waste in our mailing campaigns.”
Norwood’s mailing lists are under control too. “My average report, even a complicated one,
takes less than five minutes to run in SAP BusinessObjects software, and there’s minimal
cleaning required when it gets to Microsoft Excel,” she says. “It has literally gone from about
20 hours to maybe 1 hour. It’s been a huge benefit to me.”
A Fundamental Transformation
For Aquent CIO Larry Bolick, SAP BusinessObjects solutions represent the key to a fundamental
transformation. “Today Aquent is managed as a multinational company,” he says. “Folks in
France manage their piece of the puzzle, they report up to London, and London reports up to
Boston. I believe that when the company is ready, SAP Business Objects software will help us
think of Aquent as a global company with fewer national and organizational boundaries—
because we’ll be able to report across all of those boundaries.
“We have very flexible access to global data today, and that was a difficult problem for Aquent
in the past,” concludes Bolick. “We’re starting to extract information from this mass of data
that we just couldn’t extract before. We are on the cusp of doing things we could not do
before. From the transformation perspective, it’s our ability to really understand the data
better and in different ways than we could in the past. The SAP BusinessObjects portfolio is
a platform we can build on—it will essentially serve as a foundation for Aquent to become a
truly global company moving forward.”
We have been able to cut [the development team] loose to do what they do best, rather than being
distracted by the reporting requests and operational needs of the company. We’ve been able to take
that off their plate.
Jeff Payton, BI Systems Engineer, Aquent
““
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©2009 by SAP AG.
All rights reserved. SAP, R/3, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, ByDesign, SAP Business ByDesign, and
other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or
registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and other countries.
Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Decisions, Web
Intelligence, Xcelsius, and other Business Objects products and services mentioned herein as well as their
respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. in the United States
and in other countries. Business Objects is an SAP company.
All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data
contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.
These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP AG and its
affiliated companies (“SAP Group”) for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty
of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The
only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty
statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as
constituting an additional warranty.
55
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Campbell Soup Company is a global manufacturer and marketer of high-quality simple meals.
Over the last several years, Campbell has successfully rolled out a transformation strategy
designed to step up new product innovations and customer focus. The company’s North
American manufacturing group now produces approximately 850 products representing
4,500 stock keeping units (SKUs).
The Challenge
Align Demand Forecasting and Supply Chain Planning with a More Dynamic Business ModelWhen sales growth of the familiar Campbell’s brand slowed several years ago, the company
acted to transform and again grow its business. The company expanded its product lines
and accelerated product rollouts. “On the operations side of the business, that meant
we needed to manage a significant increase in new products and many more SKUs,” said
Michael Mastroianni, vice president of North American Planning, Reliability and Operations
at Campbell. Mastroianni, who oversees demand and supply planning and overall operations
support for the North American manufacturing group, recognized that the company’s
existing reporting systems and processes were inadequate for the new business model. The
company launched an initiative to put a new sales and operations planning (S&OP) process in
place, with a stronger emphasis on forecasting and inventory management.
The Solution
QlikView Analytical Reporting for Inventory ManagementMastroianni realized that Campbell’s systems could yield tremendous information about
the company’s supply chain and customer behaviors—but the information was trapped.
QlikView provided the means to access and analyze the information, and thereby better
manage inventory and costs. In addition to the needed functionality, QlikView’s ease of use,
QlikView Customer Success Story
Campbell Soup
Sales and Operations Planning Transformation
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quick implementation, and relatively inexpensive costs offered tremendous business value.
“With QlikView, we can leverage the data in our management systems to understand the
financial implications of supply chain decisions,” explained Mastroianni. QlikView reporting
on data from the company’s demand planning system enables the monitoring of daily
demand signals. QlikView features virtually unlimited querying, instant reporting speed with
massive data sets, and easy-to-interpret graphical data.
The Results
More Time to Be StrategicCampbell now operates with true state-of-the-art planning tools for controlling inventory
costs, mix, stock levels, and distribution in a dynamic demand-driven supply network.
QlikView took Campbell into a new world of operational efficiency, with far-reaching
effects throughout the entire supply chain. “QlikView’s virtually unlimited querying, instant
reporting speed with massive data sets, and easy-to-interpret graphical data presentation
helped Campbell to improve productivity, predict financial performance, and monitor our
supply chain,” said Mastroianni. Since the initial projects, Campbell has used QlikView to
automate several other analysis and reporting functions.
The new sales forecasting analysis reduces report generation times, standardizes reports for
the company’s S&OP meetings, and forecasts error analysis during monthly brand meetings.
The Inventory Management report now enables the company to quickly compare differences
between the current and prior month’s forecast. Such differentials reporting previously
required time-consuming processes of loading data into Excel spreadsheets and performing
a manual analysis.
The Schedule Compliance report tracks how well manufacturing plants meet commitments
to produce as scheduled. Since implementing the report, plant performance has experienced
an upswing.
QlikView’s virtually unlimited querying, instant reporting speed with massive data sets, and
easy-to-interpret graphical data presentation helped Campbell to improve productivity,
predict financial performance, and monitor our supply chain.Michael Mastroianni,
Vice President of North American Planning,
Reliability and Operations, Campbell Soup Company
““
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We didn’t anticipate the scope of efficiency gains possible with QlikView . . . It revolutionized
our ability to manage data throughout our supply chain.Michael Mastroianni,
Vice President of North American Planning,
Reliability and Operations, Campbell Soup Company
“ “
The Warehouse and Transportation Capacity report directs how to better align logistics
with forecasted sales. By capturing a snapshot of inventory in warehouses and in transit—
including day, location, inbound, and outbound—Campbell reduces transportation costs and
better matches warehouse staffing levels with need. “We are able to plan workforce needs
and manage carrier capacity around our seasonal spikes through the year,” said Mastroianni.
QlikView is also being used by Campbell to improve reporting from a long-range production
planning system used for risk management scenarios, such as how would production and/
or freight operations shift in the event of a workforce interruption or catastrophe involving
one of its plants. Usability and reporting with the planning system were cumbersome, with
a lot of data to pre-process. A menu-driven graphical application, built in QlikView, made it
easy to model hypothetical situations and compare differences in various scenarios, helping
planners to get more meaningful results faster.
QlikView is currently used by employees, including demand planners, plant production
schedulers, and finance and logistics personnel. Led by Mastroianni, the Campbell planning
and operations team has positioned the company’s new demand-driven supply chain
to support the successful transformation strategy. Along the way, QlikView replaced the
drudgery of many tasks with new and value-added job efficiencies. “The gains achieved
with our forecasting process and QlikView correlate to spending less time on tedious,
non-value added work,” said Sean Hanson, director of Demand Planning at Campbell.
“QlikView is contributing to higher job satisfaction by giving users the time to be more
productive and strategic.” Indeed, demand planners who once spent days dumping data
into Excel to produce pivot tables now have what they need in QlikView. Routine S&OP
meetings now run from standardized reports, which are much easier to generate and
interpret. “We didn’t anticipate the scope of efficiency gains possible with QlikView,” said
Mastroianni. “It revolutionized our ability to manage data throughout our supply chain. We
continue to find new ways to integrate, view, and use data that are tremendously better
than what we were doing before.”
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Overview
Mayflex is a successful, privately owned distributor with a
respected name and a proven track record in partnering
installers and integrators. Since its formation in 1917,
Mayflex has become a leading distributor of cabling
infrastructure, networking, and physical security products.
Through dedication to customer service, by providing a
comprehensive and complementary product range, and
by remaining at the forefront of technical innovation,
Mayflex is committed to becoming the installer’s partner
of choice.
Challenge Mayflex needed to replace a complex spreadsheet system,
improve time-consuming budgeting and forecasting
processes, compare actuals against budgets at various
levels, and save time for end-users through automatic
system updates.
Why IBM? Mayflex chose IBM because they were impressed with
the IBM Cognos business intelligence (BI) solution’s ease
of use, along with its ability to align their budgeting
and profit and loss (P&L) with their distribution resource
management system. With IBM Cognos Express they could
see everything in one place.
IBM Customer Success Story
Fast Growing Company, Mayflex, Chooses IBM Cognos Express to
Deliver Essential Business Intelligence and Planning Capability
Solution The company is using IBM Cognos Express to produce
sales budgets and forecasts, and to consolidate balance
sheets, P&L, and cash flow statements.
Key Benefits The solution provides a single version of the truth, fast
time to value through quick implementation, ease of
use, and remote access to more accurate and detailed
information than before.
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Challenges Faced
As a successful, privately owned cabling infrastructure, networking, and physical security
products distributor, with a respected name and a proven track record in partnering installers
and integrators, Mayflex has experienced a period of rapid growth over the last few years.
During this period of growth Mayflex found that their spreadsheet system, used to budget
business activities, was becoming complex and unwieldy. Lyn Dolphin, financial controller
at Mayflex, comments, “Each time the company expanded, the spreadsheet system became
more unstable; we have remote users in the United Kingdom and in Dubai who were
beginning to lose confidence in the spreadsheets because the links kept breaking.”
Strategy Followed
Having decided to review the budgeting system Dolphin received a timely invitation from
Inca to attend a launch event for IBM® Cognos® Express. “We were aware of Inca’s partnership
with IBM and therefore did not need to speak to any other suppliers. Having discussed our
requirements with Inca we felt that IBM Cognos Express was right for Mayflex.”
Dolphin continues, “We chose the software based on the perceived ease of use and the time
that would be saved by the end users; also the system updates itself as all the data is linked
from the sales budget right through to the P&L, running alongside our Distribution Resource
Management integrated system, IBS Enterprise. We plan to bring in actuals to compare
against budgets at various levels. We had done this in the past but over several reports; with
IBM Cognos Express we can see everything in one place.”
Benefits Realized
IBM Cognos Express will provide Mayflex with a stable environment within which to budget
business activities. Due to the requirement of United Kingdom and international users
connecting remotely, the facility to use the Web for inputting and viewing data will prove
invaluable. “We are still implementing the software but our manager in Dubai is already
using the system for his sales budget,” comments Dolphin.
The implementation of IBM Cognos Express has been split into three phases; phase one
(sales forecasting and budgeting) and phase two (cost forecasting and budgeting) have now
completed. The third and final phase, company financial consolidations, began in mid March
2010. In the space of just three to four months Mayflex will have implemented a complete
budgeting and forecasting solution, enabling them to plan and analyze their business more
effectively.
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Dolphin concludes, “The service and help we have received in introducing IBM Cognos
Express into the business from Inca has been excellent. Our timescales are very short and Inca
have done everything they can to assist us in achieving our target.”
In the future Mayflex will consider the dedicated reporting element of IBM Cognos Express
to produce a fully integrated business intelligence and performance management solution.
Ian Stone, managing director of Inca, says, “We are delighted that Mayflex have chosen IBM
Cognos Express from Inca. Midsize organizations are focused on driving cost and improving
profit and efficiencies; the IBM Cognos Express solution provides them with the necessary
tools to achieve their goals.”
About IBM Business Analytics
IBM Business Analytics solutions deliver world-leading enterprise planning, consolidation and
BI software, support and services to help companies plan, understand and manage financial
and operational performance. IBM Business Analytics solutions bring together technology,
analytical applications, best practices, and a broad network of partners to give customers an
open, adaptive and complete performance solution. Over 23,000 customers in more than 135
countries around the world choose IBM Business Analytics solutions.
We chose the software based on the perceived ease of use and the time that would be saved by
the end users; also the system updates itself as all the data is linked from the sales budget right
through to the P&L, running alongside our Distribution Resource Management integrated system, IBS
Enterprise. We plan to bring in actuals to compare against budgets at various levels. We had done this
in the past but over several reports; with IBM Cognos Express we can see everything in one place.
Lyn Dolphin, Financial Controller, Mayflex
“
“
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© Copyright IBM Corporation 2010
IBM Canada Ltd.
3755 Riverside Drive
Ottawa, ON K1G 4K9
Canada
All Rights Reserved
IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Cognos and TM1 are trademarks or registered trademarks of International
Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM
trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol
(® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time
this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks
in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark
information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.
Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
This case study is an example of how one customer uses IBM products. There is no guarantee of
comparable results.
References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in all countries in which IBM operates.
Any reference in this information to non-IBM Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those Web sites. The materials at those Web sites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those Web sites is at your own risk.
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Company Overview
Edmunds.com Inc. publishes Web sites that empower,
engage, and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts,
and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource
for automotive information, launched in 1995 as the first
automotive information Web site. Its mobile site, accessible
from any smartphone, makes car pricing and other
research tools available for car shoppers at dealerships
and otherwise on the go. InsideLine.com is the most-
read automotive enthusiast Web site. AutoObserver.com
provides insightful automotive industry commentary and
analysis.
Constant Insight into Consumer Preferences and Marketing Effectiveness
Edmunds.com has worked with MicroStrategy to
produce a highly intuitive and visually appealing app on
consumer research and consumer shopping patterns.
The app leverages Edmunds.com’s existing “Report Card”
and “Cross-Shop” Web metric data and MicroStrategy
applications. The target audience for the app includes
auto manufacturer executives and decision makers, as
well as car dealers and Edmunds.com account directors.
MicroStrategy Customer Success Story
Using MicroStrategy Mobile to Perform Marketing and
Consumer Shopping Behavior Analysis
Thanks to MicroStrategy, Edmunds.com continues to set itself apart as the clear leader in providing
actionable analytics for our clients. With the rapid design and delivery of a mobile app, MicroStrategy
made our key Web metrics come alive with an intuitive and elegant iPad application.
Keith Reynolds, Director, Business Analysis, Edmunds.com
““
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Marketing and Consumer Shopping Behavior Analysis for iPad
ThekeybusinessquestionstheiPadappwillhelpthesebusinessusersanswerinclude:
• How has consumer shopping behavior changed over time in terms of Consideration,
Favorable Opinion, Purchase Intent, and Leads submissions?
• Who are the make, model, and segment leaders in the automotive marketplace, and how
are they performing versus their competitors?
• What is the propensity of a consumer to consider other models when searching for a
particular vehicle? For instance, if a consumer is looking for a Cadillac, are they most
likely to also consider a BMW, Chevrolet, or Audi?
Business users will be able to analyze “Report Card” and “Cross-Shop” dashboards and filter
the data by make, model, and segment, as well as analyze dealer market area information.
Using the Report Card tab, users can seamlessly transition through Edmunds.com’s key
Web metrics: Consideration, Favorable Opinion, Purchase Intent, and Leads. The ability to
analyze these consumer patterns and behaviors is a powerful tool for users to help optimize
marketing and advertising plans.
Why Mobile? Why Now?
Like many companies, Edmunds.com wants to make business intelligence (BI) as accessible,
portable, and intuitive as possible. This is particularly critical for executives who are always on
the go and need to be able to react quickly and make intelligent decisions based on the most
recent information.
Solomon Kang, director of client analytic services at Edmunds.com, explains, “As soon as the
iPad was introduced, our CEO quickly realized the potential of having Edmunds.com data
on it and challenged us to create something that was visually appealing, interactive, and
informative. In addition, we wanted to provide our account directors with a more effective way
to communicate the value of our data using a tool that would resonate well with clients on
many levels.”
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Kang continues, “There is clearly a need for a mobile BI strategy and we are excited about our
partnership with MicroStrategy as we continue to develop and refine the application.”
Keith Reynolds, director of business analysis at Edmunds.com, notes how pleased
Edmunds.com has been with MicroStrategy’s mobile BI solution:
“Thanks to MicroStrategy, Edmunds.com continues to set itself apart as the clear leader in
providing actionable analytics for our clients. With the rapid design and delivery of a mobile
app, MicroStrategy made our key Web metrics come alive with an intuitive and elegant iPad
application.”
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Simple business decisions, each of which impacts a company’s performance and efficiency,
are made every day, at every level of an organization, by workers in every department.
But conventional business intelligence (BI) tools are often not available to most decision
makers and are typically designed for use only by trained business analysts. Software
as a service (SaaS)–based BI tools are designed to help the millions of people in non–
information technology (IT) lines of business (LOBs) who struggle every day with the
task of mining Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and other unstructured data sources when
performing everyday tasks such as making sales forecasts, planning for resource utilization,
or servicing customer accounts. Especially in this time of limited budgets and uncertain
futures, inexpensive, easy-to-deploy SaaS BI can help companies put easy-to-use data
mining and reporting tools for smart decision making into the hands of more employees
and uncover the real “geniuses” of decision making hidden in every department.
This technology spotlight focuses on the following contentions:
• SaaS-based analytics can help companies be more resourceful in volatile times and
provide a way to align the goals of the business unit and IT.
• SaaS-based BI tools can allow businesses to optimize how they access and apply business
intelligence to help them make good decisions.
• The core activities of BI (retrieving, aggregating, and presenting data) can be done
efficiently using SaaS solutions.
• New SaaS-based BI solutions offer a way to extend existing BI investments and can work
in concert with on-premises solutions.
Reading this paper should result in a better understanding of how SaaS-based BI in effect
democratizes information access and analysis by putting easy-to-use yet sophisticated
tools in the hands of each department’s “geniuses.”
SaaS BI Tools: Better Decision Making for the Rest of Us
Thought Leadership
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Definitions
Three elements require some definition for the purposes of our discussion:
• “Conventional software” refers to applications with a traditional perpetual license,
deployed onsite at a user firm (on premises).
• “Business analytics software” is part of a market that is divided into several segments and
subsegments, including BI; financial performance and strategy management; customer
relationship management (CRM) analytics; workforce analytics; supply chain analytics;
and advanced analytics, including data mining and statistics. The intent of these tools
is to aggregate data from various sources (typically “production” databases), mine data
for patterns and trends, and provide reports that are typically either diagnostic (of an
ongoing event or series of events that a business will want to be aware of, such as a
seasonal spike in sales of a certain item) or prescriptive (building “what if” scenarios for
planning, based on data on past trends).
• “Software as a service” is a model for software licensing and delivery where applications
built specifically for network delivery are hosted by providers and accessed by users
over the Internet. The price for SaaS applications is typically an “all-in” fee that rolls up
the application, software maintenance, and related support costs (infrastructure and
expenses associated with running, servicing, and provisioning the application) into a
monthly per-user subscription fee.
Current Situation and Benefits of SaaS Business Intelligence Tools
In October 2009, IDC surveyed more than 500 businesses to explore the impact of the
financial crisis on short-term planning (general spending plans and specific IT investment).
In general, the data supports a picture of a broad slowdown across IT sectors, with businesses
increasingly bearish about their short-term ability to invest, whether for stability, growth, or
cost savings down the road.
But there is a silver lining: The data also clearly supports the notion that this climate will
accelerate the growth prospects for the SaaS model and in general for services that provide
a near-term business benefit, either a business process improvement or a forecastable (hard)
cost savings. In general, SaaS services have benefited from the perception that they are
tactical pro tem fixes that allow for relatively easy expansion during hard times. As a result,
across most application segments, survey respondents signaled that they were interested
in SaaS delivery and were actively building projects around SaaS services. During the same
period, SaaS vendors reported a general increase in demand among existing customers.
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Demand for SaaS-Delivered Applications Indeed, in the same survey, business respondents with a high degree of understanding
about the value of SaaS-delivered applications gave a clear indication that they planned to
shift some IT workloads to SaaS delivery (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Level of Business Commitment to SaaS Applications
Source: IDC’s SaaS and Cloud Services Survey, October 2009
This survey, which targeted respondents from firms with at least 500 employees, showed
that nearly 22% of U.S. firms were “fully committed” to SaaS and planned to build businesses
that were between 75% and 100% SaaS-based businesses during the next four years. About
22% of these firms saw themselves as late adopters or nonadopters, down from 24.6% in
the 2008 survey. When respondents were asked about net-new SaaS projects, 76% said they
would launch one to two new projects in the coming year, and 16% indicated that they planned
to launch three to four new projects in the next year. When respondents were asked about the
importance of SaaS to their businesses, the most common responses were:
• Reducedtotalcostofownership (no hardware/software to set up, very modest use
of IT resources)
• Faster“timetovalue”(that is, a shorter period between contract signing and putting
the application to use)
• Betterperformanceandavailability
All three factors have been cited in survey after survey as core reasons why SaaS-delivered
services provide immediate and impactful benefits.
Fully committed to SaaS (75–100% SaaS in next 4–5 years)Fairly committed to SaaS (50% SaaS in next 4–5 years) Cautiously adopting SaaS (25% SaaS in next 4–5 years) Late adopter or nonadopter of SaaS solutions at this time SaaS is definitely not part of our application strategy at this time
24.329.5
21.9
2.1
22.2
Q. What is your organization’s general strategy when considering SaaS
implementations?
n = 522
Note: The survey targeted respondents from firms with at least 500 employees.
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Growth of Data Analysis Tools The past five years have seen an explosion in the growth of BI tools used to analyze data
sets, identify trends and correlated data events, and support good business decisions.
But, in some cases, conventional BI solutions can be overly IT-centric and relatively expensive,
and many are underutilized. They are typically licensed and geared for use by dedicated
analysts who serve many business units across complex, multinational, and multibrand
organizations, and because of their expense and their ties to legacy data systems, they are
centered around IT and not around business functions, such as sales, human resources (HR),
marketing, and fulfillment. These LOBs are not only the providers of most of the production
data that is being analyzed by BI tools but also the primary users of the reports.
Therefore, for several reasons, while BI solutions undoubtedly provide tremendous value
in business operations and planning, conventionally deployed solutions sometimes have
inefficient architecture, high cost, inaccessibility, and complexity. Sometimes the problem
is simply that the right tools do not get into the hands of the LOB users whose work relies
on the analysis and reporting of BI.
But right-sized BI solutions, delivered via SaaS, are easy to use and easy to integrate with
solutions that are already serving these departmental users. These BI tools—and the
superset of business analytics products—can then be focused on new streams of data by
nonanalysts who have business domain specialties (such as sales executives) and who can
look for hidden trends to support a decision, correct a forecast, or improve the performance
of a product line.
Benefits of SaaS BI BI offerings delivered via the cloud provide tremendous additional benefits of scale and
efficiency, lower cost, and better consumption of cloud and local data sources, and they
are changing the way businesses license, deploy, and utilize BI to support decisions at their
companies. Some benefits of SaaS BI are as follows:
• Accessbymoreemployeestomoredata. Key beneficiaries of the trend toward SaaS
BI have been the millions of people in non-IT lines of business who struggle every
day with the task of mining Excel spreadsheets and other unstructured data sources
when performing everyday tasks such as making sales forecasts, planning for resource
utilization, or servicing customer accounts. Users of LOB applications produce the
production data that drives BI requirements, and the powerful BI reporting and
analysis capabilities are especially impactful in the hands of the users who created
the data, resulting in greater adoption and utilization. Every business can be more
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efficient by putting better reporting and analysis tools into the hands of the LOB and
departmental employees who are the subject matter experts in their domains. SaaS
BI can make their jobs easier by providing browser-based access to sophisticated but
easy-to-use data mining and reporting tools and uncovering the “geniuses” of decision
making hidden in every department.
• Businessoptimizationforhardtimes. SaaS-based analytics can help companies be
more resourceful in volatile times by helping them identify cost savings, efficiencies,
and opportunities for process improvement they may have otherwise “missed in the
data.”
• Faster“timetovalue”foraquickerreturnoninvestment.Implementations of SaaS
BI solutions can be far faster and less expensive than implementations of conventional
solutions. Consider that building a traditional BI solution with a data warehouse
implementation, data normalization, and data marts for data staging by query systems
typically requires between 6 and18 months, sometimes longer. By contrast, SaaS BI
deployments typically require 2 to 4 months, and SaaS vendors cannot book revenue
until the implementation is complete—a situation in which both buyer and seller are
equally incented to decrease what some vendors call “time to value.”
• Broad reach across the firewall. Further, because SaaS applications are deployed
outside the firewall, users can easily share data, integrate from other data sources,
and combine data from corporate databases in different parts of the world, from
other internal business units, and also from suppliers and partners in any company’s
extended value chain. This is especially important for any firm with multiple sites in
different physical locations.
• Streamlinedarchitecture,withzeroinfrastructure. Unlike on-premises BI systems,
SaaS-based BI is hosted by a vendor. Users access the various modules (for example,
analysis, reporting) securely via any Web browser. From a systems architecture
standpoint, this method is optimal because it does not impose an ongoing computing
burden on back-office production systems, and because the application is hosted by
the SaaS provider, users do not need to maintain an onsite data warehouse. Users
conduct their secure sessions via a Web browser, so there is no client software to
install, and users are always assured of running the most recent, optimized version of
the application code because SaaS applications are not “rolled out” like conventional
applications; they are simply upgraded and optimized on an ongoing basis.
• Lowerimplementationcosts.A conventional on-premises BI deployment also often
requires a long-term professional services component to help build a physical data
warehouse, normalize production data from various sources, build frequently used
reports, and perform other tasks. But IDC has found that when a SaaS application is
being configured for first use, even for complex BI systems that are mapped to on-
premises productions systems (such as Oracle or SQL databases for marketing, sales,
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finance, and so forth), third-party integration and professional services firms are used
in only about 10% of these engagements, significantly lowering the cost.
• Lower ongoing costs. SaaS BI solution vendors charge a “subscription” fee, which
provides an “all-in” cost for the right to use the application service, maintenance
(upgrade path), and support. This subscription is typically based on the number of
users who will interact with the system (per seat), in addition to a support plan. Most
SaaS vendors bundle core support (connectivity, basic user-level support) into the
basic subscription and offer one or two tiers of support above the basic level, with
more stringent service levels, 24-7 support, training, and so forth. In general, for most
organizations, the cost to deploy a SaaS BI solution based on subscription licensing
will be far lower than the cost of buying a conventional on-premises solution.
• Abilitytotapoperatingexpense(opex)budgetsversuscapitalexpense(capex)
budgets. Because SaaS solutions are licenses as subscriptions, their license cost is a
monthly, predictable expense and does not require a one-time up-front payment for
licenses as conventional software. Further, the ongoing support costs to run associated
hardware, management, and integration tools and middleware and hire and train staff
members to support on-premises applications are substantial, and nonmaintenance
support costs are typically booked as capex. Because these budgets will be flat in
2010–2011, SaaS solutions give users a chance to get access to BI and analytics tools
much faster, using opex funds that might reside in their LOB budgets.
• Better alignment of business goals. Business units consuming IT resources
sometimes feel discordance between the technology they know they need to have
to produce good business outcomes and the tools their IT staff has the skills and
bandwidth to deploy. But IT is typically a cost center, and its priorities don’t always
align with LOB requirements. SaaS-delivered BI helps business units get business done
and helps align the goals of the business unit with its technology tools.
Trends in the Market for SaaS BI
• The overall increase in LOB and corporate executive influence over buying decisions
will drive more BI purchases, and business decision makers are showing growing
awareness about the potential benefits of BI technology. This trend signals the
beginning of a broader shift in decision-making power for BI technology purchases
from IT centered to business centered. IDC expects this trend to accelerate.
• According to the forecast published in Worldwide Business Analytics Software as
a Service 2009–2013 Forecast (IDC #221320), the business analytics SaaS market is
expected to expand as a segment of the overall market for business analytics. It will
contribute new revenue as well as replace some traditional purchases, resulting in a
slight revenue expansion of the total market in the next five years. Significant numbers
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of users will access analytics functionality through a SaaS model during this time
period, which will result in compelling case studies that further educate prospects and
drive interest in business analytics SaaS.
• SaaS applications in core business areas such as HR, CRM, supply chain, and
marketing frequently have some organic data analysis and reporting capability, but
analytic applications as part of BI typically provide deeper statistical analysis and a
more comprehensive set of reporting formats, and applications such as the SAP
BusinessObjects BI OnDemand solution are a natural complement to the core SaaS
applications, as opposed to being a generic and often not fully functional part of a
larger solution. For example, SaaS HR systems are ideal for maintaining employee
pay records, managing staffing and recruiting, and monitoring employee travel and
expense, but native BI tools are best suited to analyzing the vast pool of information
derived from these activities, identifying trends in the data, and understanding the real
messages behind the numbers. IDC expects customers to rely on a mix of both core and
native BI applications to produce the best business outcomes.
• Collaborative, embeddable, and easy-to-use interfaces will appeal to more buyers of
business analytics SaaS. The ability to document and share analysis processes and
easily present findings without the need for reformatting will be a necessity. The ability
to deliver highly targeted components of either information or analytic functionality
through a portal or composite application must be addressed. Programming interfaces
must be replaced with wizard-driven customization interfaces and more appealing
visuals applied to data. The language and terminology of business intelligence and
data warehousing preferred by the IT industry must be adapted for the business
analyst audience and must be presented in the context of business decision making.
• Products in the BI market segment and the analytics tools segment are predicted to
be strong sellers through 2010, but while the smaller advanced analytics segment
has greater potential, one factor limiting the market has been the lack of professional
analytical and statistical skills normally required to use conventional BI applications.
Easy-to-use applications such as SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand automate some
of the statistical analysis required to get the full benefit of data analysis and put it in
the hands of a group of decision makers with more “generalist” analytical skills.
Analytic and Reporting Tools from SAP
SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand enables LOB users without prior BI experience to access
data in spreadsheets or in on-demand or on-premises data sources; explore data; combine
data in a few clicks; create visualizations, charts, reports, and dashboards; and share or
distribute data quickly and securely on the Web among employees, customers, or partners.
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This kind of user-level capability to create what-if scenarios and model real-time reports—
not ones queued up and pulled only from relational databases run by the IT department—
has simply not been available before. The applications are run online, so there is no need to
purchase software, hardware, and maintenance—it’s all included in a monthly user fee. SAP
BusinessObjects BI OnDemand also provides advanced reporting features including ad hoc
reporting and analysis for maximizing the value of data.
SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand allows companies to maximize the value of their
data, closing the loop between business strategy and execution, no matter the size of the
company.
Challenges
• The recession has forced organizations to delay spending on many goods and services,
and organizations are delaying spending on new licenses for BI tools at a greater rate
than previously expected. It is now expected that uncertainty and cost control policies
will extend through 2010.
• Notwithstanding the powerful economic benefit and other advantages to sourcing
software as a service, the amount of worldwide software spending dedicated to
this mode of delivery is still less than 4% of all software spending. Buyers will need
to feel they are contracting with reputable firms that can survive tough financial
times, deliver service-level agreements at least equal to those they could guarantee
with on-premises IT resources, and continually refresh software to provide the latest
functionality, or users will not adopt SaaS as quickly as predicted.
Conclusion
IDC believes that SaaS delivery of BI applications will continue to be an important factor
in data analysis and successful decision making in the LOBs of companies. To the extent to
which SaaS-based BI and reporting products such as SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand
can continue to provide the business value and benefits customers are coming to expect
from SaaS-based BI, firms such as SAP will thrive.
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Conventional BI systems are designed to be used by business analysts who run data
analysis on behalf of decision makers. But putting these same tools in the hands of
LOB users democratizes the information and gives them the power to make impactful
business decisions at all levels of the organization. SaaS makes this possible by providing
a low-cost way to give Web-based access to significantly more users, using a streamlined
architecture. The result is better alignment of business goals between lines of business and
IT organizations, better decision-making power in the hands of users, and the discovery
that there can be geniuses in every branch, in every department, in every company, just
waiting for their chance to “run the numbers” with SaaS-based BI tools.
IDC Technology Spotlight. Adapted from Worldwide Business Analytics Software as a Service 2009–2013
Forecast by Brian McDonough, Robert P. Mahowald, and Dan Vesset, IDC #221320.
©2010 IDC
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Beginning last fall and continuing through 2011, SAP and its partners have been pushing
the boundaries of traditional business intelligence (BI) with a wave of new business
analytics solutions:
• SAP BusinessObjects BI and EIM 4.0, which bring together BI and enterprise information
management (EIM) technology in a way that has never been done before
• SAP BusinessObjects Event Insight, a new solution for the real-time processing and
monitoring of business events
• SAP BusinessObjects analytic applications, including 16 industry-specific scenarios
(with dozens more in the pipeline)
• SAP BusinessObjects Mobile, delivering business analytics and insight to any mobile
device, anywhere
• SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand, a hosted BI solution that’s easy to set up, easy to
integrate, and easy to use
• SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance (SAP HANA) software, which makes real-
time BI Performance a reality
• SAP BusinessObjects enterprise performance management (EPM) and governance,
risk, and compliance (GRC) solutions, which drive organizational alignment and unify
GRC initiatives
These new products represent a true revolution in bringing together transactional and
enterprise data. They introduce technologies and capabilities that will change the way
companies think about and use BI—such that BI will change the way they do business.
SAPinsider asked SAP executive Vice President and General Manager Sanjay J. Poonen to
explain the market dynamics that are driving this revolution, and what’s in it for customers.
The Business Information Revolution: Best-run Businesses Innovate Better with SAP
SAP Special Report
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The world is in the midst of a BI revolution. BI has been evolving beyond the domain of
analysts who construct elaborate queries and reports based on weeks-old or even months-
old data. With dynamic dashboards, sizzling performance, and predictive capabilities, BI
has been spreading outside the realm of power users and, with almost viral speed, has
been landing on the desktops of executive management and department heads.
This is a revolution with its own manifesto, based on five very specific precepts:
• BI must be actionable.
• BI must be intuitive.
• BI must be collaborative.
• BI must be fast.
• BI must be accessible.
Actionable BI Driving Insight into Action BI must provide constructive insight based on the data collected in your transactional
system and then turn that insight into action. BI should be less about making people
more efficient in their business processes—that’s for your transactional system. Instead,
BI should be about making people more effective. For example, a transactional system
records what customers buy and how much they pay for it. But a BI system should tell users
which customers are more profitable than others, and then provide options for increasing
that profitability.
Intuitive BI Consumer-grade Usability Because companies have a wide range of skill sets among their workforces, BI should
also employ consumer-grade usability. The average person’s frame of reference regarding
accessing information today is now based on the Internet. When we use our browser at
home, we can easily—and instantly—access the information we need.
So why should it be that, when we get to the office, our abilities to locate information aren’t
as efficient or as effective as using a search engine? Consumer tools and processes have
become the gold standard. People expect a search-based experience like the one Google
provides. They want the breadth and depth of applications that they find in the Apple
App Store. They want it not just on their computers, but increasingly on mobile devices,
like iPads or BlackBerry smartphones, and they want it now. Users expect that business
applications will behave just like their consumer-grade applications.
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Collaborative BI Collaborative Decisions within and outside the Firewall Given the extended nature of today’s business networks, BI should enable collaboration
inside and outside of a company’s firewall and should be agnostic with any kind of data. Once
again, the consumer world is leading the business world here. People are collaborating more
than ever, with social networks and a wide range of networked applications. In business,
this has become critical. Our customers want to analyze their spend and collaborate with
suppliers in China, manufacturers in Eastern Europe, and developers in India. A BI system
cannot stop at the company firewall when so many business decisions need to involve
suppliers and customers.
Fast BI Real-time Insight BI should enable analytic decisions in any type of business process, within any industry,
and on any device—all in real time. Even a decade ago, no one imagined that the old adage
“time is money” would be measured in milliseconds. It is no longer sufficient to wait for a
business analyst to run a query and give you an answer tomorrow based on last week’s
data. Today’s companies want greater agility so they can make decisions based on today’s
information, now. They want to know, in real time, if a change in demand or supply could
have an impact on their inventory levels.
Accessible BI Any Time, Any Place, to Any Person BI should reach all people within the organization to inform, deliver contextual insight, and
transform the way that the organization makes decisions, ultimately driving remarkable
results. Whether the decision is tactical, operational, or strategic in nature, business data
needs to be delivered in a way individuals can consume it—on their mobile devices, over
the Web, and on their desktop.
Information Innovation Based on these precepts, BI users are demanding the business insight they need, in the
context they need it, via any medium they require, to help make the most-informed
business decisions possible. And the products supporting this revolution will be constantly
evolving because, at its heart, the BI revolution is all about information innovation.
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BI is not like ERP and business applications, which require a state of constancy. ERP and
other transaction-based systems are, by their very nature, supposed to do the same things
tomorrow that they do today. But the business analytics environment should be constantly
changing and evolving. If companies are still looking at the same report they were looking
at two years ago, that’s a sign that they’re not using their data to its best effect—to innovate.
The innovation cycle and the changes to information environments are typically much
faster and more flexible than in the standard business application. Companies can’t
innovate without information. At the same time, just collecting information by itself is
meaningless. Businesses must do something with it for it to be useful.
Lead the BI Revolution—with the Support of SAP and Partners The SAP BusinessObjects roadmap puts our products and those of our partners squarely
in front of this need for information innovation, with a product pipeline that not only has
anticipated this transformation of BI, but will, over the coming weeks and months, drive the
market and the acceptance of this approach. All of the new, recently announced products
speak to the requirements of the new BI.
Through collaboration with partners, our customers will have the depth and breadth of BI
tools needed to drive this revolution:
• We’ve relied heavily upon management consultants and system integrators because BI
is no longer about implementing technology; it’s about changing your business.
• Our software partners, with their deep knowledge in specific industries, have shared
their expertise to make our SAP BusinessObjects tools more relevant and meaningful.
• And without the support of our hardware partners, the ability to manage real-time BI
performance with SAP HANA would never have become a reality.
Only with software and hardware working in concert could SAP realize the gains in
performance that will enable our customers to conduct powerful analysis in real time with
today’s data.
If companies are still looking at the same report they were looking at two years ago, that’s a sign that
they’re not using their data to its best effect—to innovate. “ “
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To realize this information innovation and deliver on the five precepts of the new BI, SAP
and its partners will continue to release new tools and business processes that will provide
business intelligence how and when you want it. It will be available on-premise, on-demand,
or on-device. It will be seamless; the same product will work whether customers install
it themselves, use our on-demand platform, embed it in another application, or access it
through a mobile device. And it will be agnostic, integrating structured and unstructured
data from SAP or non-SAP sources.
ReproducedfromtheJan•Feb•Mar2011issueofSAPinsider with permission from its publisher,
WIS Publishing | sapinsider.wispubs.com
TEC Special Report
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The Role of Business Intelligence in Content Strategies
This special report from Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) takes a look at the role that business intelligence
(BI) can play in extracting value from content sources to benefit business decision making. It also reveals some
of the tools and technologies that BI vendors are developing to analyze unstructured content, and examines the
ways businesses are applying these technologies to extract actionable insights from their content management
systems (CMSs) and from the Internet.
With so much business being transacted online, the amount of corporate content generated by—and about—
the average organization is staggering. Companies are relying on CMSs to handle enormous quantities of
information from a wide variety of sources. Hidden in this information is valuable data that, properly analyzed,
can provide key insights into what makes businesses run, and what can make them run better. The problem, of
course, is finding a way to analyze the data.
Extracting BI from Unstructured Data
BI, a branch of enterprise software focused on making sense of massive amounts of data, seems at first glance
to be a likely solution here. However, traditional BI solutions are designed to work with data that’s already
structured in ways that make analysis easy. They tend to work with structured data from, e.g., databases under
which the data has a very well-defined structure (fields, registers, tables, and so on). CMSs, in contrast, store
mostly unstructured data. Such data lacks a formal data model or structure, and requires much more complex
analysis techniques.
Now that demand for unstructured data analysis is on the rise, BI vendors are investing heavily in specialized
analytical tools and technologies. Some of these innovations are introduced here, with commentary on what
you should look for from the vendors that provide them.
BI and CMS: Closing the Gap
While traditional BI systems have been able to provide analysis derived from “cold numbers” such as total
revenue, total sales, etc., many business areas need to expand these capabilities in order to analyze complex
information based on more qualitative notions, such as brand positioning in the market, customer satisfaction,
or customer preferences.
TEC Special Report
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Also, many organizations have come to realize that valuable information is contained in unstructured documents
(as in plain text documents or spreadsheets), which has triggered the development of new types of analysis
tools. The aim of such tools is to enable analysis that uncovers meaning or “sentiment” within an organization’s
documents and other content. This type of data has traditionally been maintained within CMSs.
Beyond the natural evolutions of both BI and CMS applications, the way data is handled within an organization
has also contributed to closing the gap between CMSs and BI systems. Organizations promote better data
sharing between the two types of applications, and BI techniques are being applied to unstructured data,
such as
• semantic publishing frameworks and standards (e.g., the Resource Description Framework [RDF] and
extensible markup languages [XMLs]) that enable documents to be better documented and described, as
well as providing features for porting to different platforms;
• technologies such as sentiment analysis and text-mining techniques, which enable organizations to analyze
or measure the polarity of opinions regarding an object of study, or to uncover valuable information within
text content; and
• software development frameworks such as service-oriented architecture (SOA) to build more user-centric
applications, which promote collaboration and interoperability between different types of systems.
Another enabler of this collaborative BI/CMS evolution is the growth of the so-called social media space, which
has expanded the need for organizations to analyze the content coming from within the organization, as well
as, more particularly, the content generated from outside the organization.
Content Analysis and Its Relevance to the Organization
In the context of the analysis of massive amounts of complex data, many business areas require tools that
can help them interpret and extract valuable information for decision support purposes. There are several
advantages to using BI technologies for these purposes:
• They can expand analysis potential, not only in terms of data quantity, but also in terms of data quality.
• They enable easier searching within corporate information and content based on semantic properties (as
opposed to, e.g., keyword criteria alone).
• They expand analysis capabilities to a broader number of users by applying easier-to-operate interfaces
for data analysis.
• They create more unified frameworks for applying BI, in more instances or business units.
Information analysis based on sentiment or appreciation, and tools that help users create alternative ways to
gather information (such as data mashups, enterprise search strategies, and the development of models for text
and data mining) allow users to detect important patterns, such as customer behavior, possible fraud detection,
and more.
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Emerging BI Subcategories: Enterprise Information Systems and Content Intelligence
The merging of CMS and BI technologies is contributing to the development of a new space, in which we
encounter several types of applications that deal with content in various ways, from tools for text analysis to
semantic Web techniques. BI tools are rapidly being converted from systems devoted to strategic and tactical
decision support to applications that support operational areas in daily tasks, as well as helping a broader
number of users to search and discover data insights directly at the information source in other types of
enterprise software applications, e.g., customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
There are two major approaches to combining BI and content management: 1) the development of enterprise
information management systems that aim to cover all areas of organizational information management, and 2)
a more targeted approach called content intelligence, which combines CMS content management abilities with
a strong set of BI capabilities. This combination provides the power to analyze information coming from both
structured and unstructured data. Content analysis carried out by BI systems has several core functionalities:
• Semantic technologies
The goals of semantic technologies are to develop the standards, frameworks, and software that find
meaning in the information managed within an organization. Semantic technologies can be applied
to several different areas, but nowadays they play a major role in the decision support process, as they
provide analytics applications with valuable information for the BI life cycle process. At this stage, semantic
technologies enable the management of the unstructured data that deals with business interaction in all
business process layers (from transactional systems to employees and customer interaction). Semantic
technologies include tools for categorization, autorecognition of topics and concepts, and extraction of
data and its meaning.
• Enterprise search
Enterprise search tools are devoted to easing the search for particular content within an organization. In a
way, they are comparable to Web search processes: information is collected and integrated (possibly using
a crawler, as in a Web search), processed, and indexed. At this point, information is ready to be queried
and matched by or for users. An enterprise search system can collect information from a wide variety of
systems, particularly combinations of databases and CMSs.
• Analytics (text analytics/mining and Web analytics/mining)
One of the core features of the mix between content management and BI functionality is the possibility of
performing content analysis. This type of feature is expanding from traditional text analytics to the ability
to provide a statistical distribution of text elements such as words and phrases, and from traditional text-
mining techniques to the categorization of text elements, as well as the creation of models to find text
patterns over different types of content.
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Trends to Watch For
As in any space in the software industry, CMS and BI software systems are in a state of evolution, and many new
technologies are being adopted to enhance the capabilities of content intelligence systems. Significant trends
to watch for in upcoming years will be based on three major points: 1) data storage and exploitation, 2) social
media, and 3) collaboration.
1. Data storage and exploitation
Traditionally, BI-related processes have been carried out using information stored in relational databases.
This was fine for the analysis of information taken from traditional transactional systems, but turns out to
be quite challenging when it comes to the use of unstructured data. In recent years, a growing movement
toward the design and implementation of non-relational databases has led to the generation of products
for managing content-based information. Products such as the MarkLogic Server (an unstructured database
created specifically to manage unstructured information), as well as cloud databases such as Amazon’s
SimpleDB, can help companies simplify some of the processes involved in traditional BI solutions. This can
ease the process of data integration from disparate sources, as well as providing a unique information
repository, capabilities for digital content storage, and powerful metadata management capabilities.
Other options include “NoSQL” providers such as CouchDB and MongoDB, which are databases specifically
designed for content-based information. Despite some challenges for NoSQL databases, such as their lack
of atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability (ACID) and ad hoc query capabilities, some providers will
certainly evolve to the point where they can provide reliable services for BI/CMS fusion.
2. Social media data and analysis
More and more organizations are incorporating social media strategies to reinforce their brand and
marketing positioning, and to improve social industry relations. This strategy implies the collection of large
sets of unstructured data for analysis. The massive corporate intrusion on the social media space will help
drive improved analytic applications for content (which in the mid-term will be transferred to in-house BI
solutions). Thus, although tools for sentiment analysis and text mining are in the early stages of productive
usage, they will be forced to rapidly evolve and expand in power and versatility.
3. Integrated collaboration
As with other types of enterprise software applications, content intelligence systems will continue to trend
toward the incorporation of more collaboration capabilities. This enhancement will lead to more user-
centric systems that can deliver services to a wider number of users (i.e., beyond the C-level executives who
were the traditional audience for BI applications). The result is a virtuous circle where the ability to manage
and analyze unstructured data is reflected by the need to address a wider audience (the proposition being
that more business areas need to be involved in the organization’s analytical processes). At the same time,
due to the variety of users involved in the analytical process, content intelligence solutions will need to
be designed in a way that centers on the user, by providing elements for facilitating search, localization,
analysis, and user sharing/collaboration.
Vendor Directory
Vendor Directory
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
Business Activity Monitoring
CareLogistics Real-Time Performance Analytics
Georgia, USA 1-800-930-0870 [email protected] www.carelogistics.com
SL Real-Time Visibility RTView California, USA 1-800-548-6881 +1 415-927-8400
[email protected] www.sl.com
SL Real-Time Visibility RTView for TIBCO California, USA 1-800-548-6881 +1 415-927-8400
[email protected] www.sl.com
SL Real-Time Visibility RTView for APM/OC Monitor
California, USA 1-800-548-6881 +1 415-927-8400
[email protected] www.sl.com
Business Intelligence
AgileGraph AgileGraph Texas, USA www.agilegraph.com/contact.asp www.agilegraph.com
Aginity Customer Facing Analytics
Illinois, USA 1-888-821-1201 [email protected] www.aginity.com
Altosoft InsightBI Pennsylvania, USA
+1 484-427 2800
[email protected] www.altosoft.com
AnyChart AnyChart Washington, USA
1-888-845-1211 +1 206-984-1843
[email protected] www.anychart.com
AnyChart AnyMap Washington, USA
1-888-845-1211 +1 206-984-1843
[email protected] www.anychart.com
AnyChart AnyGantt Washington, USA
1-888-845-1211 +1 206-984-1843
[email protected] www.anychart.com
Arcplan Arcplan Enterprise Philadelphia, USA
+1 610-902-0688
[email protected] www.arcplan.com
Balanced Insight Balanced Insight Consensus
Ohio, USA +1 513-322-1646
[email protected] www.balancedinsight.com
BI-Cycle KPI Management Tool Georgia, USA www.bi-cycle.com/maintenance_consultant/index.htm www.bi-cycle.com
BI-Cycle RCM Analysis Tool Georgia, USA www.bi-cycle.com/maintenance_consultant/index.htm www.bi-cycle.com
Bitam Artus Virginia, USA 1-888-820-7776 [email protected] www.bitam.com
Board International Board Management Intelligence Toolkit
Massachusetts, USA
+1 781-290-4800
[email protected] www.board.com
Business Intelligence Systems Solutions
BIS² Suite Amsterdam, The Netherlands
+31 20 34200 28
[email protected] www.bis2.net
Centrifuge BI 2.0 Virginia, USA +1 571-830-1300
[email protected] www.centrifugesystems.com
ComponentOne Studio Enterprise Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-858-2739 +1 412-681-4343
[email protected] www.componentone.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
ComponentOne Studio for Sharepoint Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-858-2739 +1 412-681-4344
[email protected] www.componentone.com
Connotate Agent Community New Jersey, USA +1 732-296-8844
www.connotate.com/contact_us.aspx www.connotate.com
Corda Corda Builder Utah, USA 1-800-968-3240 +1 801-805-9400
www.corda.com/contact-corda.php www.corda.com
DataMentors PinPoint Florida, USA +1 813-960-7800
[email protected] www.datamentors.com
DataSelf DataSelf BI California, USA +1 408-351-3560
[email protected] www.dataself.com
Dimensional Insight The Diver Solution 6.2 Massachusetts, USA
+1 781-229-9111
[email protected] www.dimins.com
Distributive Management
DataDrill Portal 1-800-779-6306 [email protected] www.distributive.com
dMine Business Intelligence
dMine Dashboards [email protected] www.dminebi.com
DSP Panel Performance Canvas Stockholm, Sweden
+46 8 669 03 40
[email protected] www.dspanel.com
Dundas Dundas Dashboard Ontario, Canada 1-800-463-1492 +1 416-467-5100
[email protected] www.dundas.com
ElegantJ BI Business Intelligence Suite
Gujarat, India +91 79-66527011
[email protected] www.elegantjbi.com
Eshbel Priority Rosh Haayin, Israel
+972 3-9251000 www.eshbel.com
eThority eThority Enterprise Edition
South Carolina, USA
1-800-846-9200 [email protected] www.ethority.com
Exact Exact Business Analytics
Delft, The Netherlands
+31 15 262 4323
[email protected] www.exact.com
Fractal Edge Fractal Intelligence UK +44 20 7084 7494
[email protected] www.fractaledge.com
Fractal Edge Fractal Server UK +44 20 7084 7494
[email protected] www.fractaledge.com
FusionCharts FusionCharts Kolkata, India www.fusioncharts.com/contact www.fusioncharts.com
HumanIT InfoZoom Bonn, Germany +49 228 90954-0
[email protected] www.infozoom.com
IBM IBM Cognos 10 BI New York, USA 1-800-426-4968 +1 914-499-1900
www.ibm.com
IBM IBM Cognos Express New York, USA 1-800-426-4968 +1 914-499-1900
www.ibm.com
iDashboards iDashboards Enterprise Edition
Michigan, USA 1-888-359-0500 +1 248-528-7160
[email protected] www.idashboards.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
IDV Solutions Visual Fusion Michigan, USA 1-888-201-7282 +1 517-853-3755
www.idvsolutions.com/contactus www.idvsolutions.com
Inca AV DASHboard Surrey, UK +44 1784 270 860
[email protected] www.incasoftware.co.uk
InetSoft Technology Style Intelligence New Jersey, USA 1-888-216-2353 +1 732-424-0400
[email protected] www.inetsoft.com
InfoCaptor InfoCaptor Pennsylvania, USA
+1 412-532-6273
[email protected] www.infocaptor.com
Information Builders WebFOCUS New York, USA +1 212-736-4433
[email protected] www.informationbuilders.com
InsFocus InsFocus BI Petach-Tikva, Israel
+972-3-9233766
[email protected] www.insfocus.com
Integrated Services Inc.
SQL Rx Texas, USA +1 214-526-7680
[email protected] www.isi85.com
Intellicus Intellicus California, USA +1 408-213-3314
[email protected] www.intellicus.com
iOLAP Executive Dashboard, Reporting/OLAP Tools
Texas, USA +1 214-618-5000
[email protected] www.iolap.com
Jaspersoft Jaspersoft BI Suite California, USA 1-877-600-5767 +1 415-348-2398
[email protected] www.jaspersoft.com
Jedox Palo Suite Freiburg, Germany
+49 761 15147-0
[email protected] www.jedox.com
Juice Analytics JuiceKit Virginia, USA +1 571-482-7760
[email protected] www.juicekit.org
Kalido Kalido KONA Massachusetts, USA
+1 781-202-3200
http://info.kalido.com/contactus.html www.kalido.com
Klipfolio Klipfolio Dashboard Ontario, Canada 1-877-233-6149 +1 613-233-6149
[email protected] www.klipfolio.com
Kognitio BI for Leisure Bracknell, UK +44 1344 300770
[email protected] www.kognitio.com
Kognitio BI for Retail Bracknell, UK +44 1344 300770
[email protected] www.kognitio.com
KXEN KXEN Analytic Framework
California, USA +1 415-904-4160
[email protected] www.kxen.com
LogiXML Logi Info Virginia, USA 1-888-564-4965 +1 703-752-9700
[email protected] www.logixml.com
Lyzasoft Lyza Colorado, USA +1 303-825-1040
www.lyzasoft.com
MAIA Intelligence 1Key Agile BI Suite New Mumbai, India
+91 22-66888999
www.maia-intelligence.com/contact.htm www.maia-intelligence.com
Marketing NPV Dashboard Platform New Jersey, USA +1 609-688-0606
www.marketingnpv.com/contact-us www.marketingnpv.com/dashboard-platform
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
Microsoft Microsoft BI (Sharepoint Server, SQL Server, etc.)
Washington, USA
1-800-642-7676 +1 425-882-8080
www.support.microsoft.com/contactus/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1539&ws=corpinfo&ws=support&ws=mscom www.microsoft.com
MicroStrategy MicroStrategy 9 Virginia, USA 1-888-537-8135 +1 703-848-8600
[email protected] www.microstrategy.com
Netezza (an IBM company)
Netezza Spatial Massachusetts, USA
1-877-638-3992 +1 508-382-8200
www.netezza.com/company/contact_form.aspx www.netezza.com
Neubrain Neubrain CPM Solutions
Maryland, USA +1 301-296-4477
[email protected] www.neubrain.com/performance.html
Nevron Nevron .NET Vision Delaware, USA 1-888-201-6088 [email protected] www.nevron.com
Nevron Nevron SSRS Vision Delaware, USA 1-888-201-6088 [email protected] www.nevron.com
Nevron Nevron SharePoint Vision
Delaware, USA 1-888-201-6088 [email protected] www.nevron.com
Oracle Hyperion Enterprise California, USA 1-800-392-2999 +1 650-506-7000
[email protected] www.oracle.com
Oracle Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Plus
California, USA 1-800-392-2999 +1 650-506-7000
[email protected] www.oracle.com
Oracle Oracle BI Suite Standard Edition
California, USA 1-800-392-2999 +1 650-506-7000
[email protected] www.oracle.com
Panopticon Panopticon EX New York, USA +1 646-912-8444
[email protected] www.panopticon.com
Panopticon Panopticon Intelligence Suite
New York, USA +1 646-912-8444
[email protected] www.panopticon.com
Panorama Software Panorama NovaView Ontario, Canada 1-877-709-5858 +1 416-545-0990
[email protected] www.panorama.com
Panorama Software Panorama NovaView Ontario, Canada 1-877-709-5858 +1 416-545-0990
[email protected] www.panorama.com
Pentaho Pentaho BI Suite Florida, USA 1-866-660-7555 +1 407-812-6736
www.pentaho.com/contact www.pentaho.com
Phocas Phocas 5 Oxford, UK +44 1865 481 420
[email protected] www.phocas.biz
Prelytis LiveDashBoard Paris, France +33 1 44 10 41 80
[email protected] www.prelytis.com
ProfitMetrics Dashboard Solutions Texas, USA +1 713-667-5570
[email protected] www.profitmetrics.com
PureShare PureShare ActiveMetrics
Ontario, Canada 1-877-467-9377 +1 613-236-1644
[email protected] www.pureshare.com
QlikTech International QlikView Pennsylvania, USA
1-888-828-9768 [email protected] www.qliktech.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
QPR Software QPR ScoreCard Helsinki, Finland +358 290 001 150
[email protected] www.qpr.com
Quadbase Systems ExpressChart, ExpressDashboard, ExpressReport
California, USA +1 408-982-0835
[email protected] www.quadbase.com
Ramco Systems Ramco DecisionWorks New Jersey, USA 1-800-472-6261 +1 609-620-4800
[email protected] www.ramco.com
Raymark Xpert-Series Quebec, Canada 1-800-346-7296 +1 514-737-0941
[email protected] www.raymark.com
Relational Solutions POSmart, BlueSky Analytics, BlueSky Forecasting
Ohio, USA +1 440-899-3296
www.relationalsolutions.com
Revolution Analytics Revolution R Enterprise
California, USA 1-855-438-7386 +1 650-646-9545
http://info.revolutionanalytics.com/contact-us-form.html www.revolutionanalytics.com
SAP SAP BusinessObjects Edge Business Intelligence
Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-872-1727 +1 610-661-1000
www.sap.com/usa/contactsap/index.epx?pmelayer=true&kNtBzmUK9zU=1 www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects
SAP SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise
Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-872-1727 +1 610-661-1000
www.sap.com/usa/contactsap/index.epx?pmelayer=true&kNtBzmUK9zU=1 www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects
SAP SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Information Management Solutions
Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-872-1727 +1 610-661-1000
www.sap.com/usa/contactsap/index.epx?pmelayer=true&kNtBzmUK9zU=1 www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects
SAS Institute SAS Enterprise BI Server
North Carolina, USA
1-800-727-0025 +1 919-677-8000
www.sas.com/apps/forms/index.jsp?id=gendetail www.sas.com
SAS Institute SAS Enterprise BI North Carolina, USA
1-800-727-0025 +1 919-677-8000
www.sas.com/apps/forms/index.jsp?id=gendetail www.sas.com
SpagoWorld SpagoBI Padua, Italy +39 049 8283411
[email protected] www.spagoworld.org
SpatialKey SpatialKey Massachusetts, USA
1-866-429-2481 www.spatialkey.com/contactcf/general.cfm www.spatialkey.com
Stottler Henke Associates
DataMontage California, USA +1 650-931-2700
[email protected] www.stottlerhenke.com
Strategy Companion Analyzer California, USA 1-800-905-6792 +1 714-460-8398
[email protected] www.strategycompanion.com
Swift Reporting Swift Reporting Enterprise Edition
Ontario, Canada 1-877-794-3877 +1 416-479-028
[email protected] www.swiftreporting.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
Swiss Information Group
Swing Dashboard Geneva, Switzerland
+41 22 979 35 45
[email protected] www.swissinfogroup.com
Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise Edition
North Carolina, USA
1-888-936-8638 +1 919-481-1974
[email protected] www.syncfusion.com
Tableau Software Tableau Server Washington, USA
+1 206-633-3400
[email protected] www.tableausoftware.com
TARGIT TARGIT BI Suite Hjørring, Denmark
+45 96 23 19 00
[email protected] www.targit.com
Telerik Telerik Reporting Sofia, Bulgaria 1-888-365-2779 +359 2-8099850
[email protected] www.telerik.com
TIBCO Software Inc TIBCO Spotfire Analytics platform
California, USA 1-800-420-8450+1 650-846-1000
TOTVS S/A Business Intelligence São Paulo, Brazil +55 11 3981-7126
www.totvs.com
Vecta Vecta Sales Intelligence
Sheffield, UK +44 114 262 2032
[email protected] www.vecta.net
Visibility Visibility Reporting and Analytics
Massachusetts, USA
+1 978-269-6500
[email protected] www.visibility.com
Visual Mining NetCharts Performance Dashboards
Maryland, USA 1-800-308-0731 +1 301-795-2200
[email protected] www.visualmining.com
VisualCalc VisualCalc Analysis Software
California, USA +1 916-939-2020
www.visualcalc.com/contactme.htm www.visualcalc.com
WorldBI suXess Istanbul, Turkey +90 212 285 4785
www.worldbi.biz/contact.asp www.worldbi.biz
XLCubed XLCubed Excel Edition Maidenhead, UK +44 1628 763 222
[email protected] www.xlcubed.com
XLCubed XLCubed Web Edition Maidenhead, UK +44 1628 763 222
[email protected] www.xlcubed.com
XLCubed MicroCharts for Excel Maidenhead, UK +44 1628 763 222
[email protected] www.xlcubed.com
XMLA Consulting Report Portal Florida, USA 1-800-860-0112 +1 813-866-3483
[email protected] www.reportportal.com
Yellowfin Yellowfin Melbourne, Australia
1-877-643-0227 +61 3 9090 0455 www.yellowfin.com.au
Zap Technology Zap Business Intelligence
Brisbane, Australia
+61 7 3211 8450
www.zaptechnology.com/contact/contact.asp www.zaptechnology.com
Business Performance Management
ActiveStrategy ActiveStrategy Enterprise
California, USA +1 484-690-0700
http://info.activestrategy.com/contact-activestrategy.html www.activestrategy.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
Actuate BIRT Performance Management
California, USA 1-800-914-2259 +1 650-645-3000
[email protected] www.actuate.com
Actuate BIRT Product Suite California, USA 1-800-914-2259 +1 650-645-3000
[email protected] www.actuate.com
Adaptive Planning Adaptive Planning California, USA 1-800-303-6346 +1 650-528-7500
[email protected] www.adaptiveplanning.com
ASG Software Solutions
Performance Management Solutions
Florida, USA 1-800-932-5536 +1 239-435-2200
[email protected] www.asg.com
Bitam Artus Virginia, USA 1-888-820-7776 [email protected] www.bitam.com
Board International Board Management Intelligence Toolkit
Massachusetts, USA
+1 781-290-4800
[email protected] www.board.com
Centrifuge Performance Management
Virginia, USA +1 571-830-1300
[email protected] www.centrifugesystems.com
Clarity Systems (an IBM company)
Clarity 7 Ontario, Canada +1 416-250-5500
[email protected] www.claritysystems.com
Corporater Corporater EPM Suite Massachusetts, USA
1-800-670-8942 www.corporater.com/en/company/inquiry.html www.corporater.com
Covalent Covalent Performance Management Suite
Somerset, UK +44 1823 32 32 39
[email protected] www.covalentsoftware.com
DSPanel Performance Canvas Planning
Stockholm, Sweden
+46 8 669 03 40
[email protected] www.dspanel.com
ElegantJ BI Business Intelligence Suite
Gujarat, India +91 79-66527011
[email protected] www.elegantjbi.com
Epicor Epicor Enterprise Performance Management Solutions
California, USA 1-800-999-6995 +1 949-585-4000
[email protected] www.epicor.com
Exie Performance Management Suites
Oslo, Norway +47 23 00 96 90
www.exie.com/Exie.com/Contact_Exie.html www.exie.com
HardMetrics On-Demand Analytics +1 215-297-9738
[email protected] www.hardmetrics.com
Host Analytics Performance Management Suite
California, USA 1-866-391-4678 +1 650-249-7100
[email protected] www.hostanalytics.com
IBM IBM Cognos 10 Planning
New York, USA 1-800-426-4968 +1 914-499-1900
www.ibm.com
IBM IBM Cognos TM1 New York, USA 1-800-426-4968 +1 914-499-1900
www.ibm.com
Infor Infor PM 10 Georgia, USA 1-800-260-2640 +1 678-319-8000
[email protected] www.infor.com
Information Builders Performance Management Framework
New York, USA +1 212-736-4433
[email protected] www.informationbuilders.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
KCI Computing Control California, USA +1 310-921-6222
[email protected] www.kcicorp.com
Klipfolio Klipfolio Dashboard Ontario, Canada 1-877-233-6149 +1 613-233-6149
[email protected] www.klipfolio.com
Lawson Lawson S3 Enterprise Performance Management
US 1-800-477-1357 www.lawson.com/wcw.nsf/pub/contactus www.lawson.com
Longview Solutions Longview 7 Ontario, Canada +1 905-940-1510
www.longview.com/company/contact-us www.longview.com
MicroStrategy MicroStrategy 9 Virginia, USA 1-888-537-8135 +1 703-848-8600
[email protected] www.microstrategy.com
Neubrain Neubrain CPM Solutions
Maryland, USA +1 301-296-4477
[email protected] www.neubrain.com/performance.html
Nimsoft Service Delivery Portal, SLA Reports, Unified Reporter
California, USA 1-877-752-6468 +1 408-796-3400
www.nimsoft.com/company/contact.php#01 www.nimsoft.com
Oracle Hyperion Enterprise California, USA 1-800-392-2999 +1 650-506-7000
[email protected] www.oracle.com
Performance Solution Technologies
ManagePro California, USA 1-877-487-3001 [email protected] www.managepro.com
Prodacapo Corporate Performance Management Suite
Danderyd, Sweden
+46 8 622 25 00
[email protected] www.prodacapo.com
Prophix Performance Management Software
Ontario, Canada 1-800-387-5915 +1 905-279-8711
[email protected] www.prophix.com
PureShare PureShare ActiveMetrics
Ontario, Canada 1-877-467-9377 +1 613-236-1644
[email protected] www.pureshare.com
QPR Software QPR ScoreCard, QPR FactView
Helsinki, Finland +358 290 001 150
www.qpr.com/contact-forms/contact-sales.htm www.qpr.com
Qualitech Solutions Executive Dashboard North Carolina, USA
+1 704-944-6040
www.iexecutivedashboard.com/contact/contact_form.asp www.iexecutivedashboard.com
River Logic Enterprise Optimizer Texas, USA 1-866-326-0171 +1 214-393-4650
[email protected] www.riverlogic.com
Rocket Software CorVu Massachusetts, USA +1 617-614-4321
www.rocketsoftware.com/about/contact www.rocketsoftware.com
SAP SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation
Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-872-1727 +1 610-661-1000
www.sap.com/usa/index.epx?kNtBzmUK9zU=1 www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
SAP SAP BusinessObjects Financial Information Management
Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-872-1727 +1 610-661-1000
www.sap.com/usa/index.epx?kNtBzmUK9zU=1 www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects
SAP SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation
Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-872-1727 +1 610-661-1000
www.sap.com/usa/index.epx?kNtBzmUK9zU=1 www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects
SAP SAP BusinessObjects Profitability and Cost Management
Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-872-1727 +1 610-661-1000
www.sap.com/usa/index.epx?kNtBzmUK9zU=1 www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects
SAP SAP BusinessObjects Spend Performance Management
Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-872-1727 +1 610-661-1000
www.sap.com/usa/index.epx?kNtBzmUK9zU=1 www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects
SAP SAP BusinessObjects Strategy Management
Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-872-1727 +1 610-661-1000
www.sap.com/usa/index.epx?kNtBzmUK9zU=1 www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects
SAP SAP BusinessObjects Supply Chain Performance Management
Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-872-1727 +1 610-661-1000
www.sap.com/usa/index.epx?kNtBzmUK9zU=1 www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects
SAP SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing
Pennsylvania, USA
1-800-872-1727 +1 610-661-1000
www.sap.com/usa/index.epx?kNtBzmUK9zU=1 www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects
SAS SAS for Performance Management
North Carolina, USA
1-800-727-0025 +1 919-677-8000
www.sas.com/apps/forms/index.jsp?id=gendetail www.sas.com
Silvon Software Stratum Illinois, USA 1-800-874-5866 +1 630-655-3313
[email protected] www.silvon.com
Swift Reporting Swift Reporting Data Analysis
Ontario, Canada 1-877-794-3877 +1 416-479-0289
[email protected] www.swiftreporting.com
Tagetik Corporate Tagetik 3.0 Lucca, Italy +39 0583 96811
[email protected] www.tagetik.com
Whitestein Technologies
Living Systems Process Suite
Cham, Switzerland
+41 44-256-5000
[email protected] www.whitestein.com
Winterheller Software Winterheller Enterprise
Graz, Austria +43 316 8010-0
[email protected] www.winterheller.com
Data Management
Aginity ETL Solutions Illinois, USA 1-888-821-1201 [email protected] www.aginity.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
Clarabridge Clarabrige Virginia, USA +1 571-299-1800
www.clarabridge.com/contactus.aspx www.clarabridge.com
Composite Software Composite Information Server
California, USA +1 650-227-8200
[email protected] www.compositesw.com
DataFlux (a SAS company)
Data Management Studio
North Carolina, USA
1-877-846-3589 +1 919-447-3000
www.dataflux.com/contact/contact-us.aspx www.dataflux.com
DataMentors DataFuse Florida, USA +1 813-960-7800
[email protected] www.datamentors.com
Datanomic Director Version 8 Cambridge, UK +44 1223 228 450
www.datanomic.com/contact www.datanomic.com
Dataupia Dataupia Satori Server Massachusetts, USA
1-866-748-3282 +1 617-301-8400
[email protected] www.dataupia.com
FICO FICO Xpress 7 Minnesota, USA +1 612-758 5200
www.fico.com/en/pages/contact.aspx www.fico.com
Infobright Infobright Enterprise Edition
Ontario, Canada 1-877-596-2483 x225 +1 416-596-2483 x225
[email protected] www.infobright.com
Informatica Informatica PowerCenter
California, USA 1-800-653-3871 +1 650-385-5000
http://vip.informatica.com/?elqpurlpage=483 www.informatica.com
iOLAP Data Integration Tools Texas, USA +1 214-618-5000
[email protected] www.iolap.com
Microsoft Microsoft PowerPivot Washington, USA
1-800-642-7676 +1 425-882-8080
www.support.microsoft.com/contactus/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1539&ws=corpinfo&ws=support&ws=mscom www.microsoft.com
Pervasive Software Pervasive Data Integrator
Texas, USA 1-888-926-5969 +1 512-231-6000
[email protected] www.pervasiveintegration.com
Syncsort QPR ScoreCard, QPR FactView
New Jersey, USA +1 201-930-9700
[email protected] www.syncsort.com
Talend Talend Data Management
California, USA +1 650-396-7738
[email protected] www.talend.com
Data Warehousing
1010data 1010data New York, USA +1 212-405-1010
[email protected] www.1010data.com
Aginity Data Factory Illinois, USA 1-888-821-1201 [email protected] www.aginity.com
Algebraix Data Algebraix Data A2DB Texas, USA +1 512-651-5834
www.algebraixdata.com/about-us/contact-us www.algebraixdata.com
Aster Data Aster Data nCluster California, USA 1-888-278-3732 +1 650-232-4400
www.asterdata.com/contact_us/index.php www.asterdata.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
BI-Cycle Plant Information Data Mart
Georgia, USA www.bi-cycle.com/maintenance_consultant/index.htm www.bi-cycle.com
BIReady BIReady Langbroekerdijk, The Netherlands
1-888-868-5663 +31 343 563851
[email protected] www.biready.com
EMC Greenplum Greenplum Database California, USA +1 650-286-8012
www.greenplum.com/about-us/contact-us www.greenplum.com
EMC Greenplum Greenplum Database Single-Node Edition
California, USA +1 650-286-8012
www.greenplum.com/about-us/contact-us www.greenplum.com
IBM IBM DB2 Universal Database Data Warehouse Edition
New York, USA 1-800-426-4968 +1 914-499-1900
www.ibm.com
IBM Informix Dynamic Server for Data Warehouse
New York, USA 1-800-426-4968 +1 914-499-1900 www.ibm.com
Illuminate Illuminate Barcelona, Spain +34 934 573 401
[email protected] www.illuminateinc.com
Kalido Kalido Dynamic Information Warehouse
Massachusetts, USA
+1 781-202-3200
http://info.kalido.com/contactus.html www.kalido.com
Kognitio WX2 Bracknell, UK +44 1344 300770
[email protected] www.kognitio.com
McObject eXtremeDB Washington, USA
+1 425-888-8505
[email protected] www.mcobject.com
Netezza (an IBM company)
Netezza Skimmer Massachusetts, USA
1-877-638-3992 +1 508-382-8200
www.netezza.com/company/contact_form.aspx www.netezza.com
Netezza (an IBM company)
Netezza TwinFin Massachusetts, USA
1-877-638-3992 +1 508-382-8200
www.netezza.com/company/contact_form.aspx www.netezza.com
Netezza (an IBM company)
Netezza Spatial Massachusetts, USA
1-877-638-3992 +1 508-382-8200
www.netezza.com/company/contact_form.aspx www.netezza.com
Panoratio PANOsight California, USA +1 408-504-5016
[email protected] www.panoratio.com
ParAccel ParAccel Analytic Database
California, USA 1-866-903-0335 [email protected] www.paraccel.com
Sybase Sybase IQ California, USA 1-800-792-2735 +1 925-236-5000
http://response.sybase.com/forms/sybasecontactme?mc=financialservices100305c www.sybase.com
Teradata Teradata Active Enterprise Data Warehouse
Ohio, USA 1-866-548-8348 +1 937-242-4030
www.teradata.com/t/contact-us www.teradata.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
Teradata Teradata Data Mart Appliance
Ohio, USA 1-866-548-8348 +1 937-242-4030
www.teradata.com/t/contact-us www.teradata.com
Teradata Teradata Data Warehouse Appliance
Ohio, USA 1-866-548-8348 +1 937-242-4030
www.teradata.com/t/contact-us www.teradata.com
Teradata Teradata Database Ohio, USA 1-866-548-8348 +1 937-242-4030
www.teradata.com/t/contact-us www.teradata.com
Teradata Teradata Extreme Data Appliance
Ohio, USA 1-866-548-8348 +1 937-242-4030
www.teradata.com/t/contact-us www.teradata.com
Teradata Teradata Extreme Performance Appliance
Ohio, USA 1-866-548-8348 +1 937-242-4030
www.teradata.com/t/contact-us www.teradata.com
Teradata Teradata Purpose-Built Platform Pricing
Ohio, USA 1-866-548-8348 +1 937-242-4030
www.teradata.com/t/contact-us www.teradata.com
Vertica Vertica Analytic Database
Massachusetts, USA
+1 978-600-1000
[email protected] www.vertica.com
XtremeData dbX Illinois, USA +1 847-871-0379
www.xtremedata.com/contact www.xtremedata.com
Outsourcing
BrightPoint Consulting Dashboard, Data Visualization, Flex Architecture
California, USA +1 760-634-7657
[email protected] www.brightpointinc.com
ClaraView BI Solution Services Virginia, USA +1 703-269-1500
[email protected] www.claraview.com
Consilium BI Consulting Services Rotterdam, The Netherlands
www.consilium.nl/contact/tabid/64/default.aspx www.consilium.nl
eVerge Group Oracle BI Deployments Texas, USA 1-888-548-1973 +1 972-608-1803
[email protected] www.evergegroup.com
Intelligent Solutions Colorado, USA +1 303-444-2411
[email protected] www.intelsols.com
Kerberos BI Consulting Mendoza, Argentina
+54 261 434-0205
[email protected] www.kerberosconsultores.com
RMSource Frontend North Carolina, USA
1-877-319-3051 [email protected] www.rmsource.com
Support Analytics ProSourcing Maryland, USA +1 804-201-8256
[email protected] www.supportanalytics.com
The BMA Group Consulting Services Chatswood, Australia
+61 2 9884 8499
[email protected] www.bma.com.au
Software as a Service
ActiveStrategy ActiveStrategy Enterprise On-Demand
California, USA +1 484-690-0700
http://info.activestrategy.com/contact-activestrategy.html www.activestrategy.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
Actuate BIRT OnPerformance California, USA 1-800-914-2259 +1 650-645-3000
[email protected] www.actuate.com
Adaptive Planning Adaptive Planning (On-Demand)
California, USA 1-800-303-6346 +1 650-528-7500
[email protected] www.adaptiveplanning.com
Aginity Data Factory Illinois, USA 1-888-821-1201 [email protected] www.aginity.com
Altosoft Insight On-Demand Pennsylvania, USA
+1 484-427 2801
[email protected] www.altosoft.com
Binocle Binocle Pennsylvania, USA +1 484-887-1630
www.binoclebi.com/index.php?p=22 www.binoclebi.com
Birst Birst California, USA 1-866-940-1496 +1 415-644-5400
[email protected] www.birst.com
Bitam KPI Online Virginia, USA 1-888-820-7776 [email protected] http://kpionline.bitam.com
Cloud9 Cloud9 Analytics California, USA +1 650-561-7855
[email protected] www.cloud9analytics.com
Cloudscale Cloudscale Enterprise California, USA +1 650-206-2240
www.cloudscale.com/index.php/contact www.cloudscale.com
Cloudscale Cloudcel California, USA +1 650-206-2240
www.cloudscale.com/index.php/contact www.cloudscale.com
Direction Software Go Live Illinois, USA +1 312-924-3755
[email protected] www.directionsoftware.com
EMC Greenplum Greenplum Chorus California, USA +1 650-286-8012
www.greenplum.com/about-us/contact-us www.greenplum.com
GoodData GoodData California, USA +1 415 200-0186
[email protected] www.gooddata.com
IDV Solutions Visual Fusion SaaS Michigan, USA 1-888-201-7282 +1 517-853-3755
www.idvsolutions.com/contactus www.idvsolutions.com
Infocentricity Xeno California, USA +1 415-493-2090
[email protected] www.infocentricity.com
iPartners Balanced Scorecard Georgia, USA 1-888-618-8360 +1 678-710-0600
www.ipartners.net/info_request.asp www.ipartners.net
iTradeNetwork Supply Chain Management and Intelligence
+1 925-660-1100
www.itradenetwork.com/html/contactus.htm www.itradenetwork.com
Jedox Palo Suite SaaS Freiburg, Germany
+49 761 15147-0
[email protected] www.jedox.com
K2 Analytics EPM Maestro Suite www.k2analytics.com/contactus.html www.k2analytics.com
Kognitio WX2 (DaaS) Bracknell, UK +44 1344 300770
[email protected] www.kognitio.com
Lityx LityxIQ Intelligent Analytics Suite
Pennsylvania, USA
1-888-548-9947 [email protected] www.lityxiq.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Product Headquarters Toll-freeInternational-access
E-mailWeb site
Metricus Metricus Enterprise SaaS
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
+31 10 71 10260
[email protected] www.metricus.com
NetSuite SuiteAnalytics California, USA 1-800-638-7847 +1 650-627-1000
[email protected] www.netsuite.com
Oco Oco On-Demand Business Intelligence
Massachusetts, USA
1-800-691-8880 +1 781-810-2100
[email protected] www.oco-inc.com
OnDemandIQ OnDemandIQ Virginia, USA 1-866-396-7712 [email protected] www.ondemandiq.com
PivotLink PivotLink California, USA 1-866-625-9884 [email protected] www.pivotlink.com
QMD Accountworks Insight North Carolina, USA
+1 828-877-2775
[email protected] www.qmduser.com
SAP SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand
Germany 1-888-342-5727 +49 6227 7-47474
www.ondemand.com/contact www.ondemand.com/businessintelligence
SuccessFactors SuccessFactors Business Execution Software Suite
California, USA 1-800-809-9920 www.successfactors.com/company/contact www.successfactors.com
We Are Cloud Bime Montpellier, France
+33 4 67 41 60 64
[email protected] http://businessintelligence.me
Social Media Analytics
Radian6 Radian6 Dashboards New Brunswick, Canada
1-888-672-3426 +1 506-452-9039
[email protected] www.radian6.com
Radian6 Radian6 Engagement Console
New Brunswick, Canada
1-888-672-3426 +1 506-452-9039
[email protected] www.radian6.com
Sentiment Metrics Sentiment Metrics Farnborough, UK +44 845 658 9945
[email protected] www.sentimentmetrics.com
Sysomos Sysomos MAP Ontario, Canada 1-866-483-3338 [email protected] www.sysomos.com
Sysomos Heartbeat Ontario, Canada 1-866-483-3338 [email protected] www.sysomos.com
Sysomos Audience Ontario, Canada 1-866-483-3338 [email protected] www.sysomos.com
Vendor Directory
Vendor
Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) helps private- and
public-sector organizations choose the best enterprise
software solutions for their unique business needs-quickly,
impartially, and cost-effectively. TEC’s online Evaluation
Centers, containing IT research and extensive knowledge
bases that catalog vendors’ support for thousands of
enterprise software features and functions, are the leading
resource for IT decision makers around the world. By
combining that information with a proven methodology,
unique Web-based software selection platforms, and years
of software selection expertise, TEC delivers an unmatched
range of online software evaluation and selection services
that bridge the gap between enterprise decision makers
and the vendor/value-added reseller (VAR) community.
Technology Evaluation Centers Inc.740 St. Maurice, 4th FloorMontreal, QuebecCanada, H3C 1L5
Phone: +1 514-954-3665, ext. 254Toll-free: 1-800-496-1303Fax: +1 514-954-9739E-mail: [email protected] site: www.technologyevaluation.com
The information included herein reflects the latest research conducted by TEC’s analysts. Said information may have changed at the time of publication and does not constitute representations on behalf of present vendors for, without limitations, functionality, upgrades, delivery, or development. The reader should not rely solely on the information herein for software selection related decisions. TEC makes no guarantees with respect to the accuracy of said information.
TEC, TEC Advisor, and ERGO are trademarks of Technology Evaluation Centers Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.© Technology Evaluation Centers Inc. All rights reserved.
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