BI4Lunch

Business Intelligence is one of the fastest growing enterprise software sectors and also on top of the CXO radar. Companies have built large data warehouses (Enterprise DW, DataMarts, Federated ...) and have deployed BI tools to help knowledge workers analyze the data and dish out actionable insights. Unfortunately the problem is that the business users still can not find the right reports, data, and insights. Google with its search technology has democratized access to unstructured data anywhere on the web. Could businesses combine DW, BI, and Search to have instant access to the knowledge nuggets? Recent months, several BI vendors have announced products and partnerships in this direction and this could well be the next frontier of BI.

Continue reading "Search for Business Intelligence coming to your browser" »

Posted by metrics2 at 01:06 PM | Permalink

Intelligent Enterprise has just relesed the 7th annual BI Megatrends special isssue. It starts with the current state of BI product innovations: 

• Open-source vendors like Pentaho and Jaspersoft are making their presences felt.
• Actuate provides BIRT (Business Intelligence Reporting and Tools), a report-authoring tool, based on the open-source development environment Eclipse.
• Endeca Technologies, which offers a guided search, navigation and analysis platform, threatens to redefine the meaning of BI by concentrating on the user experience instead of the data.
• Celequest is breaking new ground by delivering real-time agent technology with analytical capability, and recently, offering an all-in-one BI appliance.
• Through interactive visualization and data manipulation, Spotfire is vastly expanding what users can do with analytics.
• SAP NetWeaver architecture encourages third parties to add value to the SAP environment by developing hybrid, operational/analytical applications as combinations of services.
• Microsoft is tightening BI and Reporting Services integration with its SQL Server and Analysis Services. As its PerformancePoint plans unfold, the company will incorporate the proven capabilities found in the acquired ProClarity tools.

Continue reading "BI Megatrends: IntelligentEnterprise Special Issue" »

Posted by metrics2 at 01:27 PM | Permalink

For an operational business intelligence (BI) application, infrastructure is the key to success. However, the best infrastructure in the world won’t deliver the desired results unless the very best planning and management of the project are in place and are practiced.

The purpose of an operational business intelligence environment is to provide cross-organizational business analysis capabilities to all businesspeople. In order to accomplish this, a hands-on project management approach is necessary.

Before starting any project, it is advisable to understand what resources business management plans to commit to the project and to completely understand management’s expectations. Some of the issues to look at are:

Continue reading "Two Main Pillars of Operational Business Intelligence" »

Posted by metrics2 at 07:22 AM | Permalink

A new survey by Applix demonstrates the growth of performance management into operational aspects of business, the next step toward enterprise-wide performance management. This is the first in a series of surveys the company is conducting on the topic.

Applix and BPM Magazine conducted the first Operational Performance Management Survey in the spring of 2006 to investigate the alignment of strategic corporate initiatives with business-line function performance management. The survey delved into how organizations transform raw data into actionable information, creating a necessary and valuable link between finance, operational performance and overall business success. A total number of 239 CFOs, financial planners, analysts and line of business managers participated in the survey.

Continue reading "Survey Shows that Performance Management Gaining Momentum Beyond Finance" »

Posted by metrics2 at 05:41 AM | Permalink

The impact of one individual on the performance of an organization has long been debated, and the debate has focused most recently on the controversy over compensation for CEOs. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton cite studies that maintain that no more than 10 percent of the performance of an organization can be attributed to its leader as opposed to other forces. There is also debate about the most important traits of leadership. Some recent studies continue to examine the personality and style attributes of effective leaders. Others are giving more emphasis to certain forms of intelligence.

Continue reading "How Important Is "Executive Intelligence" for Leaders?" »

Posted by metrics2 at 10:21 PM | Permalink

Posted by metrics2 at 10:12 AM | Permalink

Has your company stopped growing lately? Stopped exploring new markets, customers or channels? Stopped introducing new products or services? Do you no longer encounter new competitors in the market? Is the structure of your organization static? Have business users within your company stopped asking new questions? Has your IT department stopped deploying new or enhanced data collection systems?

Changes in your business have a significant impact on the reporting and analysis needs of people in your business and user communities in terms of the metrics they want to see, the data needed to derive these metrics and the technologies needed to deliver the business intelligence (BI) solutions. Continue as BI Review discusses BI Enterprise-Wide Imperative and Challenges

Posted by metrics2 at 10:30 AM | Permalink

Business Objects, Cognos, Information Builders and SAS recently announced partnerships with Google Enterprise, and Cognos additionally hooked up with Autonomy, FAST and IBM OmniFind. Do these alliances portend a revolution in how we do BI? Or will the search box--omnipresent on the Web and indicative of Web-design shortcomings--merely be another easier access method? Seth Grimes poses the question, and provides some insights.

Read Full article by Seth Grimes

Posted by metrics2 at 04:48 PM | Permalink

Ventana Research recently completed a study that shows companies use a variety of measures to assess the performance of their contact centers. The most popular are based on measuring how efficiently calls are handled. First-time resolution of problems is high on this list because managers see it as impacting both costs and customer satisfaction. But Ventana observations suggest that many companies distort the real results by applying questionable operational practices. Ventana recommends that companies seeking real performance improvements scrutinize these practices and supplement efficiency measures with others more directly related to their business goals.

Continue article at Intelligent Enterprise...

Posted by metrics2 at 09:03 AM | Permalink

Bill Inmon tackles industry trends, unstructured data and the data lifecycle with Data Warehouse 2.0

Posted by metrics2 at 11:01 AM | Permalink

Business value migrates in the direction of the user interface. Experience shows that no matter how much upstream data collection, information transformation and intelligent integration occurs, the payoff in the experience of the client occurs at the user interface. Whether business analyst, electronic file clerk, top executive, system administrator or power user, the "Ah ha!" moment occurs at the user interface. Information delivery provides a last opportunity to synchronize the experience of the user with the business process that is unfolding in the IT system. This is a basic principle in thinking about system architecture and the design of a usable software interface.

Read Full Article at DM Review

Posted by metrics2 at 11:03 AM | Permalink

One of the most common questions people ask about performance dashboards is, How do we define effective key performance indicators (KPIs)? The answer is important because KPIs govern how employees do their jobs.

Metrics used in performance dashboards are typically called key performance indicators because they measure how well the organization or individual performs against predefined goals and targets. There are two major types of KPIs: leading and lagging indicators. Leading indicators measure activities that have a significant effect on future performance, whereas lagging indicators, such as most financial KPIs, measure the output of past activity.

Continue Reading .....

Posted by metrics2 at 11:28 PM | Permalink