Columnists Commentary

According to Guy Harrison, many of the claims for BI tools are overstated, and they are little more than GUI query-and-reporting tools with a limited ability to transform two-dimensional relational data into a multi-dimensional cubes.  Over time, functionality such as creating business reports will be performed by the base database management systems from companies like Microsoft and Oracle.  Nevertheless, he said, tools with deep analytic and predictive capabilities, like those from the privately held software company SAS, will continue to play an important role in the market.