Business Intelligence: Decision-making fed by real-time data

Business Intelligence: Decision-making fed by real-time data
By Jessica Twentyman

Published: March 11 2009 17:41 | Last updated: March 11 2009 17:41

At the London-based same-day delivery company, eCourier, it is not enough for managers to know the average number and value of recent orders placed by a particular client. That type of historical analysis can easily be obtained using traditional business intelligence tools.

Technology now has to go further, identifying problems the moment they arise.

Given eCourier’s growing customer numbers and high volume of daily transactions, that is not a problem weekly reports can solve, says Jay Bregman, chief technology officer of eCourier (now part of SAP Business Objects).

Early attempts to sift through reports on each customer manually were too time-consuming, he says. Instead, eCourier switched to technology from SeeWhy, a real-time BI specialist, to monitor and analyse customer booking behaviour in real time.

As soon as a client places an order on the company’s website, the transaction is added to a unique profile of their behaviour and analysed against data already held. If the new order does not match the pattern of previous orders, an automatic e-mail alert prompts the client’s account manager to get in touch to resolve problems or to sell extra services, such as overnight or international delivery.

This is business intelligence at its most responsive, but it is far from the norm. Today, most corporate BI environments focus on running queries and reports against a data warehouse that holds a recent snapshot of data collected from different transactional systems.

Before it can be analysed, that data must be cleansed and organised – which can take from a few hours to several days. By the time data is available for analysis, it may be out of date and getting less relevant to decision-making.

The enterprise data warehouse can either be a key enabler or a painful bottleneck, says James Kobielus, an analyst with Forrester Research, the IT market research company.

“Decisions must keep pace with the urgency of modern business. Some business decisions are just too time-sensitive, and the stakes too high, to rely entirely on days-old analytics. For the most time-critical decisions, enterprises require ‘really urgent’ analytics,” he says.

His company defines this as “any business intelligence, metrics or other operational data that is updated from the source continuously or, at the very most, every few minutes”.

Typically, this approach may be useful, for example, in providing customer insights to the contact centre (as at eCourier); managing logistics based on external conditions such as weather and traffic volumes; or enabling highly responsive marketing campaign management.

The growing need for more immediate visibility into data has prompted a number of approaches to BI. SeeWhy’s approach, for example, is based on sophisticated event-stream processing (ESP) technology.

Each “event” – typically a message generated by an operational system – is analysed as it occurs, rather than in the aggregated, historical fashion of traditional BI. ESP typically means looking for scenarios of events, such as patterns and combinations of events in succession, that are significant indicators of a business problem, explains Charles Nicholls, chief executive of SeeWhy. Mastercard, for example, uses the technology to detect fraudulent use of credit cards.

“The outputs of these events are usually real-time metrics and alerts and the automatic initiation of immediate actions in other applications, instead of reports, which require analysis and interpretation by humans before any decision can be made,” he says.

In research conducted by his company, he claims more than three-quarters of operational managers surveyed said they were frequently forced to make business decisions before data became available, and two-thirds said that by the time it did arrive, data was already out of date or no longer useful.

A similar, event-based approach is deployed by Tibco Spotfire, formed in 2007 when Tibco, a provider of middleware, which connects applications, acquired business analytics company Spotfire.

The combined business has married the two technologies to create complex event processing technology that monitors the progress of key business processes and issues alerts and fixes when pre-set thresholds are breached. Tools are also provided to enable business analysts to focus on data relating to a specific process, especially when it’s gone awry, so problems can be resolved.

“In a downturn, the efficiency of your business processes is everything,” says Rock Gnatovich, Tibco Spotfire chief operating officer. “Where they deviate from the norm, the events that are generated by your computer systems represent both opportunities and emergencies for your organisation, so it makes sense to keep tabs on them.”

Other BI vendors are hardly blind to the opportunity that real-time – or at least near-real-time BI – represents. Most enterprise BI tools now seek to help customers tackle the problem of data latency – the period between the time data is entered on a company’s systems for the first time and the time it is available for analysis.

IBM Cognos, for example, uses streaming technology in its IBM Cognos Now product, aimed at organisations looking for a simpler approach to operational monitoring. This is offered either as a BI appliance (a pre-configured, software-hardware hybrid) or via a software-as-a-service model.

But despite the hype surrounding real-time BI, not every situation requires this approach, says Graham Mackintosh, business unit executive for IBM Cognos. “Real-time BI only makes sense in situations where you can respond to its findings in real time. Extreme low latency is only helpful if there is measurable business benefit and return on investment to be gained from quick responses,” he says.

“It’s more about delivering data to operational managers within an actionable time frame,” agrees Royce Bell, chief executive of Accenture Information Management Services. “Organisations need to prioritise if they are to avoid overloading managers with information – otherwise, it just becomes noise. And that can only come about through regular, thoughtful conversations with them about their data needs.”

Nor may it be necessary to invest in new technology to close the data latency gap. Some organisations already have the tools they need to get a grip on “really urgent” analytics, says Forrester’s Mr Kobielus.

“For starters, your enterprise data warehouse administrators can shorten end-to-end data latency by reducing the batch update cycle from once every evening, to once every hour, every 15 minutes or even every few seconds,” he says.

“Clearly, you can take measured, incremental steps into real-time analytics, or bet the business on a bleeding-edge futuristic approach. The path you take depends on how key real-time responsiveness is to your strategy.”

SAP Business Objects: one year on

German software giant, SAP, bought Business Objects, the business intelligence company, just over a year ago and the combined business now faces the task of convincing a huge tranche of customers that have already invested in SAP BI technology to migrate to the Business Objects BI platform.

Last year, SAP released its post-acquisition BI product roadmap that showed some SAP products – including its Business Explorer reporting tool – would be phased out. The company has insisted it will continue to invest in its own SAP Netweaver BI tools, but it is clear the primary focus will be on Business Objects’ tools.

Convincing customers could take time, according to a recent report by Gartner analyst Kurt Shlegel.” Generally speaking, the majority of mature NetWeaver BI customers are loyal to SAP and the investments they made in the product,” he writes. “However, they are also in no hurry to quickly adopt the Business Objects product roadmap.”

But Mr Aman insists there are big advantages for customers ready to take that step. “There is already tight integration between SAP and Business Objects technology – although we are, of course, working to make it more seamless – but more importantly, there’s a lot of capability within the Business Objects portfolio that is unmatched by current SAP capabilities,” he says.

One example, according to David Meyer, vice president of emerging technologies at SAP Business Objects, is Polestar, an end-user tool that enables users with little or no BI experience or training to search for and explore data. He said it aims to offer them the simplicity and speed of internet search.

Polestar users, for example, can use keyword searches to find data and the tools automatically generate a visual representation of the results in the form of charts or graphs.

“This technology will enable SAP customers to put BI in the hands of everyone and anyone in their company in a way that they have never been able to achieve before,” adds Franz Aman, vice president of intelligence platform product marketing at SAP, and the person with responsibility for promoting the combined companies’ portfolio of information management products, including BI capabilities and related tools, including data profiling, metadata management and data quality.

In coming months, he adds, the company will release a product that combines Polestar with SAP’s Business Warehouse Accelerator, a high-performance analytics appliance.

Extending the reach of BI is more important than ever in the current economic climate, he says. “True competitiveness is about people understanding goals and targets and knowing where they stand in relation to those goals and targets. That’s what BI can deliver and the more people you can extend BI to, the better. In fact, I’d say it’s a business must-have for 2009.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools

Organizations increasingly view investments in data integration tools as a strategic basis for enterprise data management. Vendors with capabilities across multiple styles of data delivery, supported by strong metadata management and service enablement, are becoming the focus of market demand.

Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, 2008

Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, 2008

The market for business intelligence platforms is moving away from a position of being dominated by pure-play vendors. This is being driven by a trend for consolidation, with several large application and software infrastructure vendors initiating major BI acquisitions in 2007.

Business Objects Positioned in Leaders Quadrant in Business Intelligence Platforms Report

Business Objects Positioned in Leaders Quadrant in Business Intelligence Platforms Report

Press ReleaseBusiness Objects Positioned in Leaders Quadrant in Business Intelligence Platforms Report
February 11, 2008

SAN JOSE, Calif. & PARIS & WALLDORF, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJ), an SAP company (NYSE:SAP) and the world’s leading provider of business performance optimization solutions, today announced that it has been positioned in the leaders quadrant in Gartner, Inc.'s latest “Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms1” report, published February 1, 2008.

All for One mit umfassender Expertise für SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence

All for One mit umfassender Expertise für SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence

All for One wurde von der SAP Deutschland zum "Special Expertise Partner SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence" (SAP NetWeaver BI) ernannt. Mit dem Special-ExpertiseProgramm zeichnet SAP ihre Partner hinsichtlich ihrer Beratungsqualität und der Zusammenarbeit in bestimmten Themen und Branchen aus. Dem Programm liegt ein umfangreicher Qualifizierungsprozess zugrunde, im Rahmen dessen die Partnerunternehmen den Nachweis erbringen, dass sie für die Lösung SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence eine fachliche Expertise aufweisen. SAP honoriert damit das hohe Produkt- und Prozess-Know-how sowie die fundierte Projektkompetenz von All for One im Bereich SAP NetWeaver BI.

"Ein zeitnaher Zugriff auf aktuelle und relevante Informationen ist für Unternehmen seit jeher ein entscheidender Erfolgsfaktor. Mit SAP NetWeaver BI können unternehmensinterne und externe Daten integriert und zügig in wertvolle Informationen umgewandelt werden. Diese sind Basis für fundierte Entscheidungen, zielgerichtete Aktionen und nicht zuletzt einen soliden Geschäftserfolg", berichtet Markus Kapler, Beratungsleiter SAP Netweaver Consulting von All for One.

Die Nachfrage nach Business Intelligence-Lösungen im Mittelstand ist stark gestiegen. Von den über 200 All for One-Systemhauskunden allein in Deutschland, setzen bereits über 40 SAP-NetWeaver-Business-Intelligence-Lösungen in unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen ein. Große Teile davon wurden in 2007 realisiert. Projekterfahrung von einzelnen BI-Auswertungen in Vertrieb, Einkauf und Bestandscontrolling bis hin zu umfangreichen Kennzahlensystemen zeigen das vielfältige Einsatzspektrum von SAP Netweaver BI. Dies hat auch den VDMA (Verband Deutscher Maschinen und Anlagenbau) bewogen, zusammen mit All for One das VDMA Cockpit zu entwickeln, welches das Prozesskennzahlensystem des Verbandes für die Mitglieder zugänglich macht.

"Wichtig für uns ist, BI-Lösungen gerade auch im unteren Mittelstand praxisgerecht umzusetzen. Hier haben sich unsere Business Intelligence Lösungspakete gut bewährt," fährt Kapler fort. Dabei lernen Interessenten zunächst Vorteile und Nutzen von SAP NetWeaver BI in Workshops umfassend kennen. Wenn sie von der Lösung überzeugt sind, wird diese zu einem Festpreis in ihr bestehendes SAP-System integriert.

Um der steigenden Nachfrage nach Business Intelligence-Lösungen zu begegnen, wurden nicht nur Kenntnisse und Projekterfahrung der bestehenden Mitarbeiter erweitert, sondern auch die personellen Basis deutlich ausgebaut. Die Qualifizierung zum Special Expertise Partner für SAP NetWeaver BI bedeutet für All for One einen weiteren Schritt in Richtung SAP-Komplettdienstleister, der mittelständische Kunden umfassend betreut.

30.01.2008, Dirk Sonntag, AC-Service AG

IBM Aims for the Business Intelligence Endgame With Cognos

IBM Aims for the Business Intelligence Endgame With Cognos

IBM will enter the business intelligence platform market through its planned $5 billion acquisition of Cognos. The buy would make IBM a serious contender in the BI and performance management markets.

IBM Aims for the Business Intelligence Endgame With Cognos

IBM Aims for the Business Intelligence Endgame With Cognos

IBM will enter the business intelligence platform market through its planned $5 billion acquisition of Cognos. The buy would make IBM a serious contender in the BI and performance management markets.

IBM Aims for the Business Intelligence Endgame With Cognos

IBM Aims for the Business Intelligence Endgame With Cognos

IBM will enter the business intelligence platform market through its planned $5 billion acquisition of Cognos. The buy would make IBM a serious contender in the BI and performance management markets.

FT.com / Technology - Spreadsheets meet the power of BI

FT.com / Technology - Spreadsheets meet the power of BI

Spreadsheets meet the power of BI
By Geoff Nairn

Published: October 15 2007 13:28 | Last updated: October 15 2007 13:28

If you can’t beat them, join them. After years of trying to wean businesses off spreadsheets and on to full-blown business intelligence software, Cognos has decided the spreadsheet is a pretty good tool – as long as you use it with a BI back-end.

Cognos 8 BI Analysis for Microsoft Excel 8.2 promises business and financial analysts the best of both worlds: the familiarity of spreadsheets with the power and functionality of BI.

Challenge to hackers
Hackers like a challenge and Dell has thrown them one by boasting it has the world’s most secure notebooks. Two models, the Latitude D630 and D680, now come fitted with encrypted hard drives and the Embassy Trust Suite of security software from Wave Systems. The complete solution includes a remote administration server so if a notebook gets lost, IT managers can check to see if the data were safely encrypted – or not.

Banking transactions
SAP has released an integration package to link its enterprise resource planning software into Swiftnet, the IP-based payments network.

The package lets companies manage banking transactions that originate from SAP ERP systems and then format them for transmission via Swiftnet. The aim is to replace the hotchpotch of leased lines and proprietary protocols that have been traditionally used for corporate-to-bank communications.

Managing ideas
IP.com of the US has launched InnovationQ version 3.0 to help businesses better manage their intellectual property. The software uses workflow techniques and a secure document repository to ensure ideas reach the right people in an organisation and protect potential trade secrets from being inadvertently revealed to outsiders. InnovationQ is available both as software-as-a-service (Saas) and as on-site software.

Website workspace
Office Live Workspace is Microsoft’s reply to the clutch of rival web-based productivity software offerings. Instead of sending PowerPoint decks or draft Word documents to colleagues by e-mail, Office Live Workspace lets them read or comment on the document in a password-protected website. Unlike Google Docs and similar online services, the files have to be prepared offline on a PC running Microsoft Office.

Windows XP reprieve
A short, largely symbolic, reprieve for traditionalists who prefer Windows XP: Microsoft has extended the cut-off date beyond which all new PCs will be sold with its successor operating system, Windows Vista, to June 2008, five months later than originally planned.

Vista has been criticised for being resource-hungry and containing bugs. Most off-the-shelf PCs now come factory-installed with Vista although Dell, for example, offers some models with XP.

A successor to Treo
Is there life after the Treo? Palm hopes so and it is called Centro, its first non-Treo smartphone.

Designed to be smaller and cheaper than the Treo, the Centro runs Palm OS rather than Windows and has a touch screen, full keyboard and 1.3-megapixel camera. It is so far only available in the US and costs just $99 if you take a two-year contract with Sprint, the only operator offering it at present.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007