Data collection is nowadays an indispensable part of business in every industry. Virtually all companies, including the smallest ones, have their own data collection systems. An extensive set of platforms and solutions is used – from the simplest records in spreadsheets up to advanced ERP systems. Progressing globalization, increasing unpredictability of markets as well as numerous and complex relations between enterprises dramatically increased the volume of the data collected. However, its efficient and rapid acquisition also does not ensure a success.
SAP BusinessObjects' BI suite, BusinessObjects XI, for example, offers query, reporting, dashboarding and search capabilities, among others, in one package. The same goes for BI suites from IBM Cognos, Oracle and Information Builders.
An Oracle official at the Oracle OpenWorld 2009 conference gave a glimpse Tuesday into the volume of technologies coming out of the company. The company this week also detailed a host of software development related product plans.
Business Intelligence (BI), like Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Business Process Management (BPM), is a dimension of effective IT strategy, but must be considered within the totality of architecture. Acronyms have a way of becoming impotent when pursued as individual panaceas.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. This investment-prospectus lingo has never been more apt for business in general than in this post-financial-meltdown, pre-recovery economy. Yet now more than ever, top executives, corporate directors, and financial markets want no surprises.
This year, as in every year since the phrase “Business Intelligence” first came to prominence, there have been a rash of predictions about what will happen with the area in 2009.
