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Category: Business Intelligence
November 17th, 2009
FusionOps launches business intelligence, process automation modules
FusionOps, an on-demand enterprise performance management company, will launch a new business intelligence module that may compete with the very ERP vendors it partners with.
If successful, FusionOps could be on to something big, but it has some tricky waters to navigate. FusionOps’ business intelligence tool—called Insight—promises to plug into a company’s enterprise planning system and deliver a return on investment in 12 weeks. FusionOps will first connect to SAP and later Oracle.
“Our initial focus is on SAP. then Oracle,” explained Ram Mohan, CEO and president of FusionOps. “We wanted to be very ERP centric with the ability to derive metrics and get data from ERP systems. We understand SAP data models and are a software partner.”
FusionOps’ business intelligence tools, which will be self-serve, will ride shotgun with a process automation service called Streamline. According to Mohan, the business intelligence module can be integrated and running in hours. FusionOps secret sauce is that it takes read-only access to SAP data documents, uploads them to a data center (hosted by RackSpace) and then provides a dashboard with metrics, reports and key performance indicators.
The company has priced Insight at $100 per user with enterprise data hosting of $3,000 a month per company. There’s minimum of 10 users.
The company also launched an on-demand service dubbed Streamline, which automates procurement and supplier management processes. FusionOps is pitching ROI in 8 to 12 weeks. Streamline is based on functionality needed and subscriptions start at $5,000 a month.
Here’s the pitch:
It’s hard to argue with the return potential with a SaaS-based business intelligence tool, but Mohan acknowledges some potential conflicts. After all, SAP bought Business Objects for business intelligence and Oracle owns Hyperion. Are these two giants really going to let FusionOps poach customers in the long run?
“I see the conflict with BusinessObjects,” said Mohan. “BusinessObjects is a tool that derives a lot of metrics, but it’s cumbersome. Customers can use BusinessObjects, but if they want to see metrics out of the box they can use our service.”
Mohan’s bet: FusionOps’ pitch of metrics in a day will trump a 6 to 9 month implementation. “Our biggest competition is ERP vendors,” said Mohan.
November 16th, 2009
IBM launches private business analytics cloud; Eyes 'easily consumable' BI for the masses
IBM on Monday will unveil Blue Insight, a massive business analytics cloud that will hold more than a petabyte of data. This internal cloud computing environment will be the basis for future external services.
Internally, IBM’s effort is dubbed Blue Insight, a business analytics cloud that will give 200,000 employees access to key corporate data around the world. Blue Insight will suck in data from 100 different data stores and warehouses. The data will then be dished out to salespeople and developers.
According to IBM, Blue Insight is a showcase of the “eat your own dogfood” mantra. The system is built using Cognos, IBM’s business intelligence software, and hardware systems such as System Z, the company’s mainframe (right).
Going forward, IBM said it will add structured and unstructured data to Blue Insight. Some of this data will include revenue forecasts and sales quotas, product breakdowns, queries from real-time data and inventory levels and defects.
Increasingly, companies like IBM and HP are revamping their internal operations and then using those learnings to sell to customers. In IBM’s case, the architecture behind Blue Insight will be used to form the Smart Analytics Cloud for customers.
The Smart Analytics Cloud aims to provide “easily consumable business intelligence services, systems and software.” The bundle will include business intelligence services, Cognos and mainframes.
IBM added that it plans on focusing on the easily consumable part. To make business intelligence easier to digest, IBM said it will use Web 2.0-ish dashboards. In a backgrounder, IBM writes:
A key focus area of the Smart Analytics Cloud is rapid service deployment and end user acceptance. With agile Web 2.0 toolkits, user registration applications are easily created. Corporate processes are automated using IBM freeware and guidance documentation.
Also: IBM launches business analytics services unit; Eyes predictive modeling
October 27th, 2009
IBM aims to connect corporate mashups and business intelligence
IBM on Tuesday launched a mashup service for its Cognos 8 business intelligence suite.
The offering, dubbed IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service, is an application programming interface (API) that can expose content from Cognos 8 as a Web service. That corporate data can then be used in other applications and mashups.
In a nutshell, the business intelligence data can be portable to human resources, procurement and sales management applications. Think exporting a business intelligence or analytics report to a widget.
Meanwhile, IBM has updated its Mashup Center to include the following:
- New data sources via integration points with Microsoft SharePoint, WebSphere MQ and FileNet.
- Better security and governance. IBM said that its Mashup Center can now filter malicious content and unwanted widgets. IBM added that the Mashup Center is compliant with Federal security standards.
- Mashup library tools. The Mashup Center allows businesses to create collections of apps to share.
- Widget tools via a browser-based tool.
October 19th, 2009
Teradata unveils cloud strategy, answer for Oracle's Exadata machine
Data warehousing giant Teradata is outlining its cloud computing strategy including an internal cloud service and a public offering via Amazon Web Services. In addition, Teradata is rolling out an appliance it claims will provide a big performance boost.
The announcements, timed for Teradata’s partner conference in Washington D.C., this week highlight how the stakes are being raised in the data warehousing space. Teradata is battling larger foes like Oracle with its Exadata appliance, HP and smaller players such as Netezza.
Teradata is rolling out a bevy of new initiatives, but the most notable one is its cloud strategy. Teradata has a multi-pronged strategy that includes an internal cloud offering for customers—housed in the vendor’s data center—and a public rollout with Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).
Here’s the overview:
September 10th, 2009
SuccessFactors: Backing into business intelligence?
SuccessFactors, a human resources software as a service company, on Thursday will detail a series of moves to tackle “business execution” applications. Will the SaaS vendor ultimately play the business intelligence software game?
Here’s the theory behind the company’s repositioning to be announced Thursday: SuccessFactors launched as a public company based on its employee performance management (EPM) software. That people performance market is estimated to be about $15.9 billion by the company. With a move into business execution—sort of a lightweight business intelligence category—SuccessFactors can more than double its target market. The business alignment category is a $20 billion market.
Also see: SuccessFactors plots another course: Business execution software
It’s an interesting move. SuccessFactors is essentially saying that you can view the performance of your company through the human resources prism. In a nutshell, EPM boils down to employee reviews and evaluation. SuccessFactors has dabbled with business alignment through modules focused on employee goals and whether they are lined up with enterprise objectives.
September 1st, 2009
SmartPlanet: 3 of 4 executives say outsourcing necessary to maintain bottom line
Three out of four executives believe outsourcing is imperative for helping companies hold up their bottom line in the current economy, according to a new study.
Nearly the same amount agree that money saved by switching some processes to an outsourcing partner — IT, finance, human resources, customer service, etc. — can be applied toward growth.
Three of five execs indicate that outsourcing could make businesses more “agile and flexible.”
Agree or disagree? Read the whole article on SmartPlanet’s Business Brains blog, then sound off.
July 31st, 2009
Netezza launches new data warehouse appliance family
Netezza on Monday plans to launch its latest data warehousing appliance, dubbed TwinFin. The appliance, the first in a family of them, promises to scale to a petabyte of data at a lower price point.
TwinFin will be priced at less than $20,000 per terabyte. The appliance features Netezza software running on standard blade server components. Database accelerator cards will also be integrated. The TwinFin family will include entry-level, high capacity and memory-intensive systems.
There is some debate over whether Netezza is changing its hardware architecture. Monash Research writes that Netezza is substantially changing its hardware architecture:
Netezza has now decided that conventional Intel-based boards are a better companion to the FPGAs than its currently-used PowerPC chips. Obvious implications of Netezza’s move to Intel CPUs include:
- Pretty much any kind of software that runs on a data warehouse appliance can be built on or ported to Netezza, if it’s not there already.
- In some cases, analytic performance will be greatly improved (Netezza says 100X with a straight face, although that’s far from being an across-the-board claim).
The future roadmap will include software enhancements and better price for performance ratios.
Netezza product management and marketing chief Phil Francisco replies to Monash:
I think a more appropriate viewpoint would be that it’s “the same architecture with a new physical implementation”. That is, the concept of data streaming from disk through the system is just as important now as it ever was.
July 28th, 2009
IBM launches business analytics system
IBM on Tuesday unveiled a business analytics system—a bundle of preconfigured and optimized hardware and software—designed to cut deployment time.
The system is designed to complement and enhance IBM’s existing business analytics service. The system will also have optional business intelligence and data mining software. The IBM Business Analytics System will be available Sept. 29.
Big Blue’s goal is to move analytics from reacting to events to predicting them. The bundle, dubbed IBM Smart Analytics System, includes hardware, software, storage and services. The system promises to put diverse data points into a visualization system.
In April, IBM rolled out a services unit focused on business analytics. For the latest system, IBM counts the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Sterling Savings Bank and retail chain Dillard’s.
In an interview, Bernie Spang, director of product strategy and marketing information management, made the following points:
- The goal of the system is deliver a system designed, built and engineered for business analytics in days not months.
- The main selling point of the system is that customers can save on the labor that would be required to optimize a similar system. “There’s a time to value and cost reduction in taking advantage of a system designed for an analytics workload,” said Spang.
- Set-up and installation services are part of the package.
- The system isn’t tailored to any one vertical.
- Pricing will be revealed closer to the September availability date.
July 9th, 2009
On Wall Street, the time value of money has been redefined. It does not include you
An electric signal takes a nanosecond to travel a foot, essentially.
These days, that distance matters. At least on Wall Street.
If you want to discover prices on stocks first – and act on them first – you have to get them first.
Which means sweeping the market at speeds measured in the millionths of seconds. Every little hardware and software advantage you can think of matters. So does the distance that an electric signal travels, even if it is lightspeed.
Which is why you may want to take note of the data center that the New York Stock Exchange is setting up next year across the Hudson River in New Jersey.
If you’re running a competing electronic exchange or trying to make money on sizable chunks of “dark” investment capital that likes to remain unseen to the public at large, you are going to look seriously at sitting under the same roof as your ostensible competitor.
Why?
Because the nanoseconds (billionths of a second), microseconds (millionths) and milliseconds add up, otherwise. If your data center is, alas, on Wall Street, it might be a full three miles to get across the river to the NYSE’s data center. And three miles back.
Translate that into feet and it’ll take an electric signal – a piece of data – 32 millionths of a second to get there and back.
Those are 32 millionths of a second that you won’t squander, if you sit under the same roof. Your exchange and orders placed through your system will connect directly to the NYSE’s own operations. And the operations of any other exchange under that roof.
“We think of this as a game-changer for us,’’ Murray White, NYSE Technologies’ senior vice president, said in Securities Industry News.
What’s worrisome about a “single co-location environment” is that this will aid and abet Wall Street’s own implementation of Moore’s law.
Right now, it’ll be a big deal to have your exchange’s servers sitting next to that other exchange’s servers so that you save the 15,840 feet that your signals otherwise would have had to travel to get across the Hudson and back. Tomorrow, you’ll be fighting over where your servers are located within the co-location facility – so that your signals don’t have to travel 200 yards and back, if a competitor’s are traveling just 50 feet and back.
You’ll be trying to figure out how to put as much software back into hardware circuitry, to eliminate delay in crunching instructions. You’ll figure out how to route each piece of data in a message as fast as you can, in as direct a route as you can, to save more millionths of a second. So you can spot market opportunities, react and act, before any other high-speed traders do. And certainly the public investor, who still thinks “real-time” data means up-to-the-second information.
The problem here is there’s no semblance of a fair fight, any more. Time is money. And time is getting sliced way too thinly, thanks to increasingly aggressive trading programs. With high-frequency traders running the field with thousands of orders a second – each – everyday investors pretty much have to figure that they can’t really compete.
They pretty much have to buy, hold and pray that they catch broad movement in a stock correctly.
Because they can’t begin to profit – or compete — on the microsecond movement.
Unless they plan to rent space at the NYSE’s new co-location facility. And perhaps eat and sleep there, as well.
July 9th, 2009
In an economic downturn, prepaid mobile is big business
Why pay $100 or more each month for a two-year cell phone contract when you can pay $50 and keep yourself off the hook?
At least that’s the thinking behind the latest ad campaign by Boost Mobile, a prepaid, or “no-contract,” mobile service provider whose parent company is none other than Sprint Nextel.
In an economic downturn, consumers are reevaluating the privilege of paying mobile service providers — including Sprint — $50 to $150 (or more) per month for their cell phone. And according to Boost Mobile president Matt Carter, that’s a revolutionary idea worth calling someone about.
ZDNet: How much have sales of prepaid phones increased since the beginning of the economic downturn?
July 1st, 2009
Business intelligence comes to Kindle. Will companies care?
Business Intelligence provider MicroStrategy said today that it will make its business reports and dashboards accessible through Amazon’s Kindle DX reader, bringing one of the first business tools to a device that’s been mostly defined by its ability to display electronic books.
The company already has an iPhone/iPod Touch app to allow mobile access to reports and the dashboard.
For iPhone users, the app is just one of thousands that users can tap into to customize how their phones double as work or personal computers. But for the Kindle DX, the MicroStrategy advances the idea that the $489 device could have some legitimate business uses.
It’s too early to say how much of an impact this will have on Kindle sales in the business world. I tend to be a bit of a pessimist about the Kindle as a business document reader, largely because I don’t think it offers enough of a return on the investment, compared to the alternatives.
Plus, I also have issues with the Kindle’s colorless screen. That’s all fine for black-ink-on-a-white-page book but spreadsheets, graphs and other business charts tend to use color. I know it’s not that huge of a deal but, I can’t help it. It’s an issue for me.
Bottom line: the Kindle is more or less just a reader, a replacement for a folder full of documents. The iPhone, on the other hand, is a device that can be a reader, a phone, a gaming device, a music player and more.
Also see: Amazon Kindle’s $489 price tag makes iPod Touch a better buy
June 25th, 2009
With drop.io, real-time collaboration in the cloud
Is cloud computing a load of bull or the real deal?
For drop.io founder and CEO Sam Lessin, it’s everything…literally. Without it, his company and its eponymous service — which allows two-click sharing of anything with anyone, privately — might not exist.
I spoke with Lessin about drop.io (pronounced: drop-eee-oh) to find out how his New York-based tech startup helps businesses collaborate in real-time, all from the comforting arms of the cloud.
ZDNet: First things first: you named your company after your flagship service. What is drop.io?
Sam Lessin: drop.io is simple private sharing and real-time collaboration. A unit of exchange — a “drop,” a private URL — every drop has its own phone number, its own location, et cetera. It’s a place to collect media. The cool part about it is the technology behind it: one aspect of it is file conversion, the other is real-time messaging.
June 24th, 2009
Want To See (And Talk About) What Your Friends Are Buying? Zappos Set To Introduce 'Social Shopping'
Zappos, the online retailer of shoes and clothing, is about to become a social networking site, borrowing aspects of Twitter and Facebook and applying them to their customers’ particular passion: buying stuff.
CEO Tony Hsieh Wednesday confirmed to Between The Lines that it is working on an internal project that will “soft launch” in the next two weeks that will enable what he calls “social shopping’’ at Zappos.
Here’s how social networking for a purpose (shopping) will take place:
• Profiles. Akin to Facebook, Zappos’ customers will be encouraged to create personal profiles. On their profiles, customers will describe the types of shoes, clothing, accessories and other products they like and broadly speaking are interested in.
• Followers. Akin to Twitter, other Zappos customers can register to follow any other customer. They won’t have to ask the other customer’s permission.
• Closets. Unlike either Twitter or Facebook, customers will place products they are looking at in personal closets, housed online at Zappos.
• Socializing. Then, akin to both Facebook and Twitter, the customer can ask all friends and followers to comment on the footwear or jewelry or housewares they put in their closets and are thinking about buying. This will allow them to get responses from their “social shopping” network on what’s good or bad about each product or the maker of same, while they are making up their minds.
When customers who take part in the social shopping log on to Zappos they will see a constant feed of what’s been put in the closet of other people they’re following or the comments that have been generated by other customers. This will be similar to Facebook’s update stream, but Hsieh calls it an “activity stream.”
Read the rest of this entry »
June 23rd, 2009
Building high-performance, luxury computers in a recession
When the world is caught in a global economic downturn, exactly how does one build a business around the fabrication of high-performance, luxury computers?
I spoke with Chris Morley, chief technical officer of Maingear Computers, to find out. When it comes to external circumstances, Morley says success is all about working with the hand you’re dealt — and remembering to play your strengths.
ZDNet: How do you position luxury, high-performance electronics in economy? What’s your strategy?
Chris Morley: Luxury goods have a flexible demand curve. Our ASPs (average selling prices) have actually shot up, and we’ve actually have had some pretty darn good months. This economy has taught us that we need to focus on our core competencies: focusing on the best experience and customer service that we can provide.
We are standing in a field with few others. Demand isn’t going away, but companies that are playing this field are leaving, falling off, or just flat out giving up. While business was very good before this economic downturn, we’re asking how can we increase our brand awareness, how we can expand.
The past year we have done very well with the ePhex, which is our Halo [desktop] product. Reviewers, I hope, will take note that a killer review really makes a difference. If you love their product, have nice things to say about it!
June 18th, 2009
Enterprise ripe for green disruption, Samsung VP says
When it comes to adopting green technology, the enterprise is ready for a “disruptive” approach to innovation, said Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing at Samsung Semiconductor.
In a presentation yesterday at the Time Warner Center in New York City, Elliott explained that the industry is in need of a “holistic,” rather than “incremental” approach, and detailed the myriad limits businesses face in manufacturing and adopting green technology.
Consumers aren’t willing to pay much of a premium for green tech — though geography plays a part, with Seattle residents willing to pay more than other markets, for example — and that a break even point with traditional technology must come quickly for the green solution to be successful, he said.
“The products themselves must perform,” Elliott said. “Green itself cannot supersede [the product].”
June 12th, 2009
Dell's Twitter outlet generates millions in revenue
As Twitter continues to grow and companies tap into is as a means of sharing their news, engaging with customers or promoting their products, others are looking for ways to turn tweets into dollars.
Dell, it seems, has found one.
In a blog post this week, the company revealed that it has generated more than $2 million in revenue from @DellOutlet, one of its many Twitter sites. Late last year, there were some headlines about Dell crossing the $1 million mark via Twitter. It’s only gotten bigger since then.
The secret formula for Dell has been to use Twitter as a way to extend exclusive offers, discounts and other forms of savings. Everyone loves a bargain, right? Before you knew it, thousands of people were following @DellOutlet -and it’s numbers are now in excess of 600,000. (see chart below) The company wrote in a blog post:
Deal-hunters are especially attracted to Dell’s Twitter presence. Dell Outlet sells refurbished Dell products at great prices, but inventories fluctuate, making it difficult to know when products are available or on sale. Dell Outlet uses Twitter as a way to message out coupons, clearance events and new arrival information to those looking for Dell technology at a discounted price.
And while not everyone jumps on a deal for a refurbished machine or other outlet-style bargains. the company has been able to track sales that originated from a Twitter click and led to other parts of Dell.com. If you count those sales, @DellOutlet has led to more than $3 million in revenue for Dell.
June 5th, 2009
Behavioral Data: Valuing Customers. Then Avoiding Them.
There’s little question that just about every profit-making company out there would like to know exactly what you’re doing on the Web, all the time.
And that there’s a clear (profitable) market to be had in data that captures your “behavior” on the Internet.
There is in fact, a street value for behavioral information, as Gartner analyst Andrew Frank, points out. And it’s captured in “cost per thousand” calculations on data exchanges such as BlueKai and Exelate.
These relate to the anonymous IDs, aka cookies, that Web sites use to track sale, purchase and other activities. Advertisers pay ad networks anywhere from $1.50 a thousand to about $10 a thousand, for the information, which then lets them target their pitches better and get higher returns on the “cost per thousand” they in turn pay for placing ads.
The latest company to get caught in the crossfire of using this behavioral data is Sears, the once-proud retailer of all things American. Even kits to build houses (way back in its early catalog days).
Its current incarnation, the Sears Holdings Management Company, in fact, put a price of exactly $10 on being able to attach some sort of code that would track very precise details about a person’s “online browsing.” This, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, included details about online shopping, drug-prescription records, video rentals, library-borrowing histories, names and addresses of e-mail correspondents as well as bank statements.
The recipient also would be able to take part in a “dynamic and highly interactive online community” where they could converse with Sears and its sister retailer, Kmart.
June 2nd, 2009
CircuitCity.com Is Back Online. And, Yes, You Can Return HP, IBM and Toshiba Products. Now.
CircuitCity.com was reborn on May 22, brought to you by the Systemax folks who bought remnants of the CompUSA chain and operate TigerDirect.com.
When CircuitCity.com first came back, its return policy came under fire from The Consumerist and other sites such as MaximumPC and CrunchGear.
The object of the ire: What looked like then and still looks now like an iron-clad policy against returning products from Compaq, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, and Epson, among other manufacturers. Hard to believe that anyone that intends to sell computers or printers or electronics, in general, would try to make such a policy stick. It’d be smarter not to carry a brand at all, than not accept any returns at all from a particular make. Particularly brands with such weight.
But here’s what the policy was (and it was laid at the manufacturers’ feet):
Some manufacturers have implemented returns restrictions that prevent CircuitCity.com from being able to accept returns or offer exchanges, replacements or credits on their products for any reason. Products from manufacturers such as Compaq, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Epson, and others are not returnable to CircuitCity.com FOR ANY REASON.
But Between the Lines noticed yesterday that this statement nor anything naming any specific brand was in the CircuitCity.com return policy that now exists. The policy clearly has changed and includes, for instance, a potential 25% restocking fee, as The Consumerist’s Carey Greenberg-Berger notes.
Systemax declined to put any of its executives on the phone with Between The Lines. But did respond by email.
Read the rest of this entry »
June 2nd, 2009
Businesses gain access to Google data through Local Business Center
Starting today, Google is putting valuable information in the hands of local business owners, giving them access to Google query data that led a customer - or potential customer - to the company’s online listing.
Google’s Local Business Center is the place where local businesses have been able to keep tabs on their Google listings to ensure that the phone number, street address and all the links - to the website, for driving directions and even online reviews - are up to date. My favorite neighborhood pizza joint has a lot invested in its Google listing (see image) but, until now, it was just information that the business owner could put out there for others to see.
Now, Google has expanded the service to provide access to the granular data that business owners would want to know about those listings. Example: What was the search query that led to the listing in the results? Where - aggregated by zip code - were people coming from when they requested driving directions? How many of those directions requests originated from a mobile device? How many times did users click through to read reviews, check out the menu or research store hours?
It’s different from Google Analytics, which provides usage metrics for a web site. It provides a deeper dive look into both the online and offline worlds - and not just what potential customers are doing but whether marketing efforts are paying off, as well.
Say, for example, a small business places an ad in the local newspaper or is a sponsor at a community event. Sure, the business owner can measure the results of that investment by looking for an uptick in traffic at the store - maybe there was a coupon or event promotion associated with it. But did that ad or sponsorship lead to an increase of Web traffic, as well?
Google’s Local Business Center, as well as access to the data, is free for businesses who claim their listing through Google. For any business looking for a deeper analysis of online customer behavior, Local Business Center is a no-brainer.
If nothing else, the price is right.
May 26th, 2009
How IT can help save the global financial system
The ongoing global economic downturn, or “Great Recession” as it has been billed, exposed weaknesses in the U.S. financial system and the widespread interdependence of global financial markets.
But what about the weaknesses in the information technology infrastructure that makes the global financial system what it is today? How do we remedy the inefficiencies that led to delayed reactions to unbalanced balance sheets by firms in crisis?
I sat down with Sybase’s Dr. Raj Nathan, CMO and SVP; Irfan Khan, CTO; and Sinan Baskan, Director of Business Development for Financial Services, at ZDNet’s New York headquarters to speak with them about their new book, The New Data Imperative: Managing Risk Real-Time Risk in Capital Markets, and how IT can save the global financial system from itself.
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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- Email Security and Archiving - Clearer in the Cloud Google The time is NOW for businesses and organizations of all sizes to implement ... Download Now
- The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now
- The Impact of Virtualization Software on Operating Environments VMware Today's use of virtualization technology allows IT professionals to ... Download Now
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