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Business Intelligence and Analytics

The world of Business Intelligence and Analytics is evolving quickly. Increasingly, the emphasis is on real-time Business Intelligence to enable faster decision making, and on Data Visualization, which enables data patterns to be seen more clearly. Key technologies involved in preparing raw data to be used for Business Intelligence, Reporting and Analytics – including ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load), CDC (Change Data Capture), and Data Deduplication – support a wide range of goals within organizations.



Business Intelligence and Analytics Articles

Sybase has announced Sybase CEP, a complex event processing (CEP) technology for performing analytics on high speed streaming data. By integrating Sybase CEP with RAP - The Trading Edition, Sybase is providing a complete platform for trade lifecycle analytics. Sybase CEP extends the Sybase RAP platform's capability to store and analyze large amounts of real-time and historical data, by providing real-time intelligence on high speed streaming market and trade data with minimum latency.

Posted April 23, 2009

Sybase, Inc., announced that Sybase IQ 15, combined with Sun Microsystems' Sun Fire X4540 storage server and running the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS), recorded the best price/performance result in the TPC-H benchmark at 3000 GB scale factor for all non-clustered systems. The benchmark simulates decision support systems that analyze large volumes of data, executes queries with a high degree of complexity, and gives answers to critical business questions. Sybase says that the achievement illustrates the effectiveness of Sybase IQ 15 in helping to optimize IT asset utilization and significantly reduce ownership costs.

Posted April 23, 2009

Actuate Corporation, a provider of rich internet applications for business intelligence, has announced the release of Actuate Performancesoft Views 8.1. Performancesoft Views is a fully featured performance management application that can accommodate a wide variety of performance management frameworks, and the 8.1 release provides increased flexibility and ease of integration with the BIRT and e.Spreadsheet offerings included in Actuate 10. It also builds upon Actuate's multi-purpose performance measurement solution that supports scorecarding and KPI initiatives for a variety of industries, and offers many new features.

Posted April 21, 2009

SAP AG has announced the availability of enhancements to the SAP BusinessObjects Edge software portfolio, including new features in the release of SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI 3.1, its comprehensive business intelligence software for small businesses and midsize companies (SMBs). One of the main new Edge BI 3.1 features is the inclusion of SAP BusinessObjects Polestar software, a guided data navigation application that helps any business user to easily explore information and quickly answer important business questions via simple search.

Posted April 21, 2009

Infobright, an open source data warehousing company, has released Infobright 3.1, the latest version of its data warehouse product that offers simplicity, ease of use and low total cost of ownership. According to the vendor, the columnar database is ideal for analytics, and is available in two editions: a free, open source version named Infobright Community Edition (ICE) and a licensable version named Infobright Enterprise Edition (IEE). The version 3.1 product release contains two primary new features, one of which is available with both the ICE and IEE, and the other only with the IEE.

Posted April 21, 2009

The business intelligence (BI) market is big: at least $10 billion in 2008 and much more if you include data warehousing projects. The tough economic environment may slow the growth of the BI market, but cost constraints, compliance and similar measures demanded by the current economy require accurate and timely business data, so BI is expected to remain a vigorous market segment regardless of the macro-economic situation.

Posted April 15, 2009

Every data integration initiative—whether it supports better decision making, a merger/acquisition, regulatory compliance, or other business need—requires a set of processes to be completed before the data can be made available to business users. Though this set of processes is fairly well understood by industry practitioners, there are still many areas left unaddressed and, therefore, the process is time-consuming, inefficient, unpredictable, and costly.

Posted April 15, 2009

Sybase, Inc., announced that Sybase IQ 15, combined with Sun Microsystems' Sun Fire X4540 storage server and running the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS), recorded the best price/performance result in the TPC-H benchmark at 3000 GB scale factor for all non-clustered systems. The benchmark simulates decision support systems that analyze large volumes of data, executes queries with a high degree of complexity, and gives answers to critical business questions. Sybase says that the achievement illustrates the effectiveness of Sybase IQ 15 in helping to optimize IT asset utilization and significantly reduce ownership costs.

Posted April 14, 2009

Simba Technologies Inc., a provider of standards-based relational and multi-dimensional data connectivity drivers, has announced the beta release of its native Microsoft Excel 2007 connector to Oracle's 11g OLAP Option database. The solution, built using Simba's MDX 2005 Query Language technology, provides users with a high level of access and functionality that is the same as native Excel connectivity to Microsoft Analysis Services or SAP NetWeaver BW.

Posted April 14, 2009

BEZ Systems, a provider of predictive performance management (PPM) solutions for databases, has announced the availability of a new Performance as a Service (PaaS) program. Performance as a Service combines the BEZVision predictive performance software with in-depth knowledge and advice from database and performance experts to deliver advanced database performance intelligence. This combination allows IT departments to be more proactive in providing service delivery to their organizations, reduce costs, and improve IT efficiency so they can shift their focus toward providing business solutions and away from firefighting performance crises.

Posted April 14, 2009

Embarcadero Technologies, a database tools and developer software company, has introduced new and enhanced performance optimization tools to help companies detect, fix and prevent costly software errors. The tools include DB Optimizer 1.5 for SQL profiling and tuning, Performance Center for automated 24/7 database monitoring, and J Optimizer 2009 for Java profiling and optimization.

Posted April 14, 2009

Panorama Software, a provider of proactive business intelligence solutions, recently previewed the first fully supported release candidate of NovaView Version 6.0, scheduled for release this June.

Posted April 07, 2009

Sybase has announced Sybase CEP, a complex event processing (CEP) technology for performing analytics on high speed streaming data. By integrating Sybase CEP with RAP - The Trading Edition, Sybase is providing a complete platform for trade lifecycle analytics. Sybase CEP extends the Sybase RAP platform's capability to store and analyze large amounts of real-time and historical data, by providing real-time intelligence on high speed streaming market and trade data with minimum latency.

Posted April 07, 2009

MicroStrategy Inc., a worldwide provider of business intelligence software, has announced the release of MicroStrategy 9, which it describes as its most significant software release in nearly a decade. MicroStrategy 9 was introduced in January 2009 at the company's annual user conference and is now generally available. The new release delivers new technology and features to extend the performance, scalability, and efficiency of enterprise BI, to enable the rapid deployment of departmental BI applications, and to provide a seamless consolidation path from departmental BI to enterprise BI.

Posted April 07, 2009

SPSS, Inc., a global provider of predictive analytics software and solutions, has introduced the latest versions of its data mining workbench and text analytics software products, and renamed them to fit under a unified portfolio naming umbrella. Predictive Analytics Software, PASW, is the new name for the complete portfolio of SPSS Predictive Analytics products. This new naming standard unifies the product families under consistent and descriptive nomenclatures to reflect the broad functionality and seamless integration among all SPSS products.

Posted April 07, 2009

GoldenGate Software Inc., a provider of high availability and real-time data integration solutions, and Greenplum, a provider of database software for data warehousing and analytics, today announced that GoldenGate supports integration of operational data to a Greenplum data warehouse in real-time for improved business intelligence and reporting.

Posted April 07, 2009

DataDirect Technologies, a provider of data connectivity and mainframe integration, has released a new suite of 32-bit and 64-bit ODBC drivers that offer new enhancements intended to streamline application development, boost performance and reduce application certification costs. The updated suite, DataDirect Connect for ODBC version 6.0, integrates with the DataDirect Bulk Load and DataDirect Application Failover products.

Posted March 31, 2009

Attunity, Ltd., a provider of real-time data integration and event capture software, and Talend, a provider of open source data integration software, have announced a partnership aimed at jointly selling and marketing their solutions. This new partnership allows both companies to expand their market reach with new solutions created by combining their respective data integration technologies. This partnership-combining the power of Attunity's mainframe connectivity and non-intrusive change-data-capture (CDC) software, and the versatility of Talend's open source data integration solutions-will offer customers increased options for data integration.

Posted March 31, 2009

Pentaho Corporation, the commercial open source alternative for business intelligence (BI), has announced Pentaho BI Suite Version 3, aimed at making it cost effective for businesses to deploy easy-to-use, robust BI capabilities to users throughout the organization. Pentaho BI Suite Version 3 allows business users to easily create interactive dashboards-including Adobe Flash-based visualizations-without training. Also, based on existing customer successes and growing customer demand, Pentaho is introducing a Cloud Computing Edition, packaged for deployment on the Amazon EC2 Cloud, providing companies with another way to drive down the cost of bringing BI into their organizations.

Posted March 31, 2009

APT Solutions is a U.K.-based provider of web-enabled membership management software and associated specialist membership administration services to the not-for-profit sector. Its clients include member-based organizations such as trade unions, institutions, clubs, societies, charities and health plan providers. The company's Stratum Membership Management software solution helps organizations gain control over their member information and leverage the information to save money, increase efficiencies, boost member communications, retention, loyalty and donations and improve staff productivity.

Posted March 25, 2009

Noetix Corp., a software provider that automatically generates business intelligence (BI) content from enterprise applications, recently announced that fiscal 2008 was the company's fifth consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth. "We are pretty unique in our positioning and that is why even in a down economy such as what we are in now, our value proposition is still ringing very true," David Langston, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Noetix, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "We do something different than virtually any other company in the marketplace and that is focused around generating content for BI tools so it is a different spin than just customers investing in a front-end BI tool."

Posted March 18, 2009

Entrinsik, well known in the MultiValue arena for database reporting and analytics software and services for the UniVerse and UniData databases from IBM, will unveil the feature-complete beta release of a major new version of the company's Informer Web Reporting solution this month. The new release offers native access to multiple databases, including Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, DB2, Informix, and Microsoft Access, in addition to UniVerse and UniData, as well as easy navigation and dynamic linking for reporting across multiple data sources.

Posted March 17, 2009

At a joint press conference in New York last week, SAP AG and Sybase announced a partnership to deliver the new SAP Business Suite software to iPhone, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and other devices by integrating it with Sybase's mobile enterprise application platform. SAP unveiled SAP Business Suite 7 software on Feb. 4.

Posted March 17, 2009

Entrinsik, well known in the MultiValue arena for database reporting and analytics software and services for the UniVerse and UniData databases from IBM, is announcing the feature-complete beta release of a major new version of the company's Informer Web Reporting solution this month. The new release offers native access to multiple databases, including Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, DB2, Informix, and Microsoft Access, in addition to UniVerse and UniData, as well as easy navigation and dynamic linking for reporting across multiple data sources.

Posted March 15, 2009

Business intelligence (BI) and analytics solutions have been available for years now, and companies have learned to employ these tools for a variety of purposes, from simple report generation and delivery to more sophisticated data integration, executive dashboards, and data mining. They also recognize the need to get beyond spreadsheets, and to be able to provide more sophisticated, pervasive, and automated BI solutions to more end-user decision makers. However, most see their efforts stymied by the historically high cost of BI software and the complexity of available solutions.

Posted March 15, 2009

Information Builders, a leader in operational business intelligence solutions, and PBS&J, a multidisciplinary engineering firm with expertise in the design and implementation of information solutions, have announced an agreement to offer Information Builders' WebFOCUS BI platform as part of PBS&J's implementation and consulting services. PBS&J's Applied Technologies Group uses customized reporting and dashboard tools for many of its clients' solutions. With WebFOCUS, a proven and robust reporting solution, PBS&J will be able to speed up project timeframes, reduce certain implementation risks, and increase ease of maintenance.

Posted March 10, 2009

Aleri and Coral8, two providers of complex event processing (CEP) software and solutions, today announced that they have joined forces to expand the reach and increase the speed of innovation for next-generation, real-time event processing technology and solutions. The combined product family will offer a software suite for developing, implementing and delivering real-time analytics and business intelligence.

Posted March 09, 2009

Attunity, Ltd., a provider of real-time data integration and event capture software, has announced the availability of the public beta release of Attunity Oracle-CDC for SSIS. The beta product is "a bespoke solution" for the SQL Server and SSIS community that aims to make replication and real-time integration of Oracle data using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) robust and easy to deploy.

Posted March 03, 2009

ParAccel, Inc., provider of the ParAccel Analytic Database, a high-speed, low-effort, columnar database management system, has introduced the ParAccel Management Console (PMC), an integrated, easy-to-use system administration and configuration environment that includes a customizable system management report library built on Jaspersoft's JasperServer 3.0.

Posted March 03, 2009

Microsoft Corporation has announced SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse, a new set of reference architectures for data warehousing that will help eliminate many of the barriers companies traditionally face while creating data warehouses. Priced on a per terabyte basis, SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse gives customers immediate access to pretested, preconfigured industry-standard hardware from partners Bull, Dell and HP that makes it easier and more affordable for companies to deploy enterprise-class data warehousing projects.

Posted March 03, 2009

Entrinsik, well known in the MultiValue arena for database reporting and analytics software and services for the UniVerse and UniData databases from IBM, plans to announce the feature-complete beta release of a major new version of the company's Informer Web Reporting solution next month. The new release will offer native access to multiple databases, including Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, DB2, Informix, and Microsoft Access, in addition to UniVerse and UniData, as well as easy navigation and dynamic linking for reporting across multiple data sources.

Posted February 25, 2009

TIBCO Software Inc. has announced two new products, TIBCO Spotfire Miner 8.1 and TIBCO Spotfire S+ Server 8.1, that allow enterprises to incorporate and deploy predictive analytics on very large data sets in a wide range of business applications. The two products encourage better, more informed business decisions across the enterprise by utilizing the TIBCO Spotfire Enterprise Analytics Platform to deploy business applications that utilize powerful data mining, statistics and predictive modeling to discover hidden patterns, anticipate opportunities in a volatile environment, and optimize investment in limited resources.

Posted February 24, 2009

Sybase has unveiled Sybase IQ 15, the next generation of its column-based analytics server. The new release is focused at "filling a critical need for enterprises, especially in this economy, that need to do more sophisticated real time analytics to drive decision making" and that "need to do that on large volumes of data, but without sacrificing their profit margins," Lisa Hopkins, director, product marketing, Sybase, tells 5 Minute Briefing.

Posted February 24, 2009

Oracle has announced availability of Oracle Hyperion Strategic Finance Fusion Edition R11, a financial modeling application that allows executives to understand the full financial impact of alternative corporate strategies.

Posted February 19, 2009

Decision-making is no longer restricted to the confines of the office. The need for critical financial metrics for an off-site board meeting, the latest market share reports for a client visit, or timely sales data for a supplier meeting are all examples that highlight the need for anytime, anywhere access to insightful information. If mobile technology is allowing users to check email, download ringtones, play games, manage schedules, and plan tasks, then why should work-related information be left behind? It is not. Mobile business intelligence (MBI), a convergence of business intelligence software, mobile technology, and Internet connectivity, is ensuring that information travels with the mobile workforce.

Posted February 15, 2009

Alvion Technologies provides a web-enabled platform that allows compilers, resellers and managers of marketing lists to easily deliver their product to end-users in support of targeted marketing efforts. Individual customers submit their data and then Alvion runs customer-specific data transformation and uploads the data to production servers, for access by end-users who are the customers of the data owners. If you need, for example, to find consumers within a 35-mile radius of your business that meet a certain profile, you can go online and find lists within Alvion, put in the criteria you are looking for, and those names will be provided to you, via electronic delivery, be it email or download.

Posted February 15, 2009

Decision-making is no longer restricted to the confines of the office. The need for critical financial metrics for an off-site board meeting, the latest market share reports for a client visit, or timely sales data for a supplier meeting are all examples that highlight the need for anytime, anywhere access to insightful information. If mobile technology is allowing users to check email, download ringtones, play games, manage schedules, and plan tasks, then why should work-related information be left behind? It is not. Mobile business intelligence (MBI), a convergence of business intelligence software, mobile technology, and Internet connectivity, is ensuring that information travels with the mobile workforce.

Posted February 15, 2009

Syncsort, a global leader in data integration, has announced the release of DMExpress 5.0, the latest version of its ETL data integration product for data warehousing, business intelligence, and other mission-critical applications. The new release combines functional enhancements and new platform support with ease of use, allowing customers to transform and aggregate even larger volumes of data from multiple, heterogeneous sources faster and at a lower total cost of ownership.

Posted February 03, 2009

Panorama Software, a global leader in proactive business intelligence solutions and the company that sold its OLAP technology to Microsoft, has announced that its BI product, NovaView, is immediately available as a long-term BI solution for Microsoft PerformancePoint Server and ProClarity customers affected by Microsoft's recent discontinuation announcement regarding those products.

Posted February 03, 2009

Information Builders, an independent software vendor that provides operational business intelligence solutions, has announced a partnership with OnApproach, an independent systems integrator, to provide business intelligence and reporting capabilities to companies with less than $100 million in annual revenues. Through this partnership, OnApproach will provide the Information Builders WebFOCUS BI platform as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering to these smaller companies.

Posted January 27, 2009

Chordiant Software announced that Chordiant Decision Management, Recommendation Advisor and Enterprise Foundation are now available for the IBM WebSphere Application Server on z/OS and z/Linux operating systems.

Posted January 27, 2009

Altosoft, a provider of process-aware business intelligence software solutions, has announced a partnership with Netezza Corporation, which develops and sells data warehouse and analytics appliances. As a result of the partnership, Altosoft's InsightBI business intelligence solution has been certified with the Netezza Performance Server (NPS) data warehouse appliances, and the two companies will collaborate on marketing and sales. Many Altosoft customers have already been running the company's software on Netezza appliances, and this partnership formalizes that combination by providing the market with a fully certified interoperable solution. While the two products are not physically bundled together and must still be purchased separately from the respective companies, their integration has been tested and proven and Altosoft is now a Certified Netezza Partner.

Posted January 20, 2009

IBM has announced the availability of the IBM Retail Performance Analytics (RPA) portfolio of solutions that address complex information-based business problems across retail enterprises. The portfolio combines infrastructure products, business intelligence/performance management software, and consulting services to help retailers plan, manage, and optimize their businesses.

Posted January 20, 2009

Actuate has released Actuate 10 e.Spreadsheet, the final component of the roll-out of the new Actuate 10 platform for presenting structured data as rich internet applications (RIA). The e.Spreadsheet product is a complete platform for designing, generating, and distributing information from various data sources as interactive Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The new version introduces additional features that allow organizations to address a broader set of content creation and delivery requirements, and reduce application development times.

Posted January 20, 2009

MicroStrategy, a provider of BI software, last week introduced MicroStrategy 9 at its annual user conference in Las Vegas. The theme for the new release, which the company considers to be its biggest in nearly a decade, is support for all business intelligence—not just enterprise BI for which MicroStrategy is well-known in the market—but also for departmental and workgroup BI, Brian Brinkmann, director of product marketing, tells 5 Minute Briefing. With this release, he says, MicroStrategy wanted to make sure "that we not only enhance our enterprise BI software piece with higher performance, better scale and more efficient BI, but we also wanted to make sure that we did things for the BI needs of the department and the workgroup."

Posted January 20, 2009

Crowell Systems, through a recent partnership with Management Information Tools, Inc. (MITS), will offer users of the Medformix XXV system integrated ad hoc reporting and the opportunity to further enhance the system with custom business intelligence analytics and dashboards. Crowell Systems is a leading provider of integrated clinical and organization management systems for the healthcare industry, servicing both single-site and larger, multi-site Ophthalmic and Allergy practices. The Medformix XXV enterprise medical solution offers a practical solution providing healthcare providers with the tools needed to better manage the process of delivering care through flexible, reliable and comprehensive practice management software and unparalleled after-sale service and support.

Posted January 15, 2009

Netezza, a leader in data warehouse and analytic appliance, has announced its collaboration with Microsoft and the first part of its high-performance data integration strategy for Microsoft Business Intelligence As a result, according to the vendors, Microsoft customers can now take advantage of Netezza's high-speed terascale analytic capabilities and extend the value of their existing Microsoft BI investment, and Netezza customers will now have more choice through tighter integration and technology compatibility with Microsoft's SQL Server 2008.

Posted January 13, 2009

Noetix, a provider of software that automatically generates business intelligence content from enterprise applications, plans to hold a web seminar entitled "Get More from Oracle E-Business Suite." The seminar will show how Noetix provides instant access to information using metadata-driven technology for faster time to answers. The webinar will be held Tuesday, January 20, at 10 a.m. PT. To register, go here.

Posted January 07, 2009

The old maxim, "may you live in interesting times" certainly holds true for IT managers and professionals these days. The year 2008 was full of changes and challenges, and 2009 promises even more.

Posted December 15, 2008

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