business intelligence - News, Features, and Slideshows

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  • Has business intelligence failed?

    To help businesses get smarter and stronger, business intelligence (BI) systems analyse and synthesise huge pools of corporate data to create terabytes of performance-enhancing information for enterprises of all sizes.

    Written by Todd R. Weiss21 June 11 08:18
  • CallPlus makes it to Global CIO 100 awards

    CallPlus' internally-produced business intelligence solution propelled it to become the sole New Zealand company to make it as a 2011 CIO 100 winner.
    IDC, which conducts the annual search, says the award honours companies and their IT teams for innovations that advance business results.

    Written by CIO New Zealand01 June 11 22:00
  • Oracle adds iPhone support to BI, analytics software

    Oracle has introduced support for Apple's iPad and iPhone as part of a slew of enhancements to its BI (business intelligence) software, the company announced Tuesday.

    Written by Chris Kanaracus04 May 11 01:00
  • CIO priorities reflect NBN opportunities in ANZ: Gartner

    Organisations are looking to make the most of opportunities associated with the National Broadband Network (NBN), with Gartner Executive Program’s annual CIO agenda survey showing that networking, voice and data communications are a higher technology priority in Australia and New Zealand than globally.

    Written by Georgina Swan13 April 11 23:45
  • How SaaS will impact six key software categories

    As more sourcing executives consider incorporating SaaS solutions into their overall technology vendor landscape, the potential to significantly disrupt the current software market grows. And while SaaS adoption is expected to expand in the coming years, the challenge for sourcing professionals will be a lack of uniform adoption across the whole software market. In some software categories, SaaS will be a disruptive technology, in others the only option, and in many cases SaaS will have minimal impact.

    Written by Liz Herbert and Andrew Bartels, Forrester Research02 March 11 06:12
  • BI in the cloud

    Shifting business intelligence and analytics off-premise can make financial sense, as it does with other applications. Instead of buying servers and software licenses up front as a large, sunk capital cost, paying monthly fees from operating budgets can be less expensive over the life of the application. But doing BI in the cloud also carries some particular challenges, one of which is that it can be hard to define in advance every type of report you want to run using cloud-based data.

    Written by Kim S. Nash23 Feb. 11 22:00
  • HP buying Vertica for analytics

    Hewlett-Packard announced Monday it plans to buy data warehousing and analytics vendor Vertica for an undisclosed sum.

    Written by Chris Kanaracus15 Feb. 11 02:26
  • SAP preps 'huge' BI upgrade

    SAP is gearing up to launch Business Objects 4.0, its biggest BI (business intelligence) release in roughly three years, later this month at an event in New York.

    Written by Chris Kanaracus09 Feb. 11 02:29
  • IT consulting tops IT industry sector in 2011, says Randstad

    IT consulting and telecommunications top Randstad’s list of IT industry sectors for 2011, closely followed by banking and finance.
    According to Paul Robinson, Randstad’s general manager, “the improving economic conditions will lead to increased business confidence in systems investment, which will in turn fuel growth in technology professional services firms in 2011”.

    Written by CIO New Zealand19 Jan. 11 22:00
  • Top 10 business predictions for 2011

    It's the time of year for bold and brazen predictions, so I'm jumping on the bandwagon with my forecast of the Top 10 trends, priorities and events of 2011:

    Written by Michael Friedenberg24 Nov. 10 10:00
  • Travelling targets

    Along with the imminent opening of its upgraded and expanded international terminal, Sydney Airport now has a new business analysis system, one that allows its management to understand much more than just the comings and goings of passengers.
    The new system has given the business a better understanding of customer needs and preferences and will help to grow revenue not just for the corporation, but for the 500 other businesses operating at the airport.

    Written by Alexandra Cain11 May 10 22:00
  • The CIOs' Sisyphean challenge

    BI remains atop business managers' wish lists and, not coincidentally, on IT's to-do list. The demand for BI and analytic tools is unlikely to abate any time soon.
    For many CIOs, however, delivering new and innovative BI apps has been a bit of a Sisyphean challenge: Ballooning data volumes combined with complex IT environments have stressed legacy BI tools. Consequently, IT has been scrambling to keep up with users' desire for intuitive, easy-to-consume BI apps that incorporate all of the latest bells and whistles and corporate information sources.

    Written by Thomas Wailgum26 April 10 22:00
  • BI's dirty secret revealed

    The pressure on CIOs to deliver business intelligence tools and analytic applications -on the cheap and ASAP - has been building steadily for years. In 2010, survey results point out that that demand has reached a fever pitch with which CIOs are very familiar.
    "The interest in BI, use of it and sophistication of the use just grows every year," says Bill Swislow, CIO and SVP for product at Cars.com. "There are always business problems, and people are always looking for new BI tools to solve old problems."

    Written by Thomas Wailgum03 Feb. 10 22:00
  • Five tips for using predictive analytics software

    It can create new business. The Navy Federal Credit Union has applied predictive analytics technology from SPSS to the design of new products. Analysing how ATM withdrawals spiked just before and after a deployment led to the introduction of a checking account with ATM fee rebates for members on active duty. CIO Jerry Hermes says that other business units have since invited the analytics unit into their planning process.
    You can't really know the future. Predictive analytics forecasts about your business are useful only as long as you understand that they describe probabilities. "The weatherman gets it wrong some times, even though we've spent hundreds of years collecting data and looking at correlations," says Royce Bell, CEO of Accenture Information Management Services.

    Written by David F. Carr27 Oct. 09 22:00
  • Beware spreadsheet complacency

    They are cheap, widely used, highly effective, and dangerous if not used under proper supervision.
    Spreadsheets, starting in the 1980s with the humble Lotus 123, have evolved into formidable analytical engines, and are heavily used for planning and forecasting in businesses and for drawing up statutory accounts and reports.

    Written by Kevin Chinnery20 Sept. 09 22:00