Trends and Outliers
TIBCO Spotfire's Business Intelligence Blog
Category Archives: BI in the Cloud
2011
The Power of Cloud-based BI and Analytics
Thanks to the exponential growth in the use of unstructured data by companies, including social customer data, many decision-makers are wrestling with the most effective ways to analyze real-time data quickly and effectively.
These escalating data demands are just one of the reasons there’s growing market interest in cloud-based analytics. While Gartner forecasts the global business intelligence (BI) market to grow 9.7% this year to $10.8 billion, business analytics software-as-a-service (SaaS) is expected to grow three times faster than the total business analytics software market, according to Brian McDonough, research manager for IDC’s Business Analytics Solutions research service.
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Filed under: BI in the Cloud, Business Intelligence, Collaborative BI, Enterprise, SaaS BI, SMB
2011
The ABCs of Agile BI
A. What is it?
Agile BI increases a company’s flexibility by delivering value to BI projects at an accelerated pace, according to The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI). Agile BI includes self-service BI, cloud-based BI, and data discovery dashboards that let users begin working with data more quickly so they can better adjust to changing business needs.
Agile BI is a “fundamental rethink about how BI should work,” says analyst David Norris in a recent article. And it means giving users the tools to access the data they need—without IT intervention—to pull the necessary bits from that data, manipulate it to address their needs, then present the results so that they and their co-workers can use it to rapidly address business problems.
B. Why does it matter?
According to Gartner, 70 to 80 percent of business intelligence projects fail. According to a recent InformationWeek article on the 5 Factors in Agile BI, much of the failure can be attributed to a methodical and painstaking BI system development life cycle. Just as companies need to be agile to succeed, the process by which we deliver BI analytics also needs flexibility baked in.
Remaining flexible as your BI/DW environment matures is one of the keys to being successful and profitable, according to the blog Agile Scout (@agilescout). The popular blog also states that agile development supports techniques that use “iterative development for rapid delivery of systems with a minimum of rework and risk.” In fact, the agile concept applies to your BI/DW environment in a number of areas including team structure, project management, system design, development, and analytics techniques. The bottom line is agile BI can help you quickly respond to changing business conditions even when you’re asked to do more with less.
C. What’s next?
If you want to learn more about agile BI, TDWI is holding its World Conference in San Diego, starting today and ending on August 12th.
The focus of the conference is the evolution of agile. You’ll learn about the latest thinking on agile project management, methodologies, and modeling, and you’ll also have a look at the ongoing controversy: Does agile really work for BI and data warehousing?
You’ll be treated to six days of courses covering a wide range of BI/DW topics, including developing the agile BI environment, business analytics/performance management, data modeling, and data asset management (quality, governance, master data management, and integration).
You’ll also hear keynote presentations from Ken Collier (KWC Technologies) and Ralph Hughes (Ceregenics Inc.) And leading vendors in the field will be demonstrating BI/DW solutions.
This conference is the place to be if you want to know how these technologies are being implemented and the impact they’ll have on the future of the industry.
Linda Rosencrance
Spotfire Blogging Team
Filed under: Agile Business Intelligence, BI in the Cloud
2011
BI in the Cloud: Recap of Last Week’s Forrester Technology Trends Tweet Jam
Forrester Research is in the process of updating its annual report “The Top 15 Trends Enterprise Architects Should Watch” and is using last week’s Tweet Jam for research.
Brian Hopkins (@practicingEA), a principal analyst with Forrester Research who covers emerging technology and its impacts on business and IT for Enterprise Architecture Professionals, hosted the July 29th Tweet Jam (hash tag #forrtttj). Brian then dissected the chat data in a blog post and delivered a nice graph below that shows the top Tweets by topics and the Tweet initiator’s industry. Analysts dominated the conversation, followed by bloggers and independents.
And the trends being discussed fall right in line with what Hopkins predicted in a recent blog post – mobile, social, cloud and data.
2011
Making Sense (and Dollars) of Cloud-based BI
Remember when you were a kid lying on the ground under a shade tree looking up at the sky, watching the clouds float by and imagining they looked like hearts or faces or your favorite animal.
Well these days, organizations using business intelligence (BI) can look up and see dollar signs in the clouds.
Recently there’s been an increase in new providers that offer cloud-based BI as well as the migration of existing providers to the cloud, according to a blog post by David Linthicum (@DavidLinthicum).
In fact, the use of cloud-based BI is a “game changer.” But not because it adds any new BI functions, but because cloud computing makes BI affordable and accessible to those who need to access their companies’ information.
Filed under: BI in the Cloud, Cloud Computing
2011
Q & A on Cloud BI with Shawn Rogers
Today on the Spotfire blog, we’re sharing a Q&A on cloud BI with Shawn Rogers (@shawnrog), Vice President Research for Business Intelligence at Enterprise Management Associates. Rogers will join us tomorrow to record an On-Demand Webcast on “Cloud Analytics and the Consumer”.
Q: Who benefits most from cloud BI?
A: The benefit is two-fold to users and companies. Research shows that companies get to skip much of the up-front costs when they go with BI in the cloud. And in the long-term, it requires less head count in maintaining and operational costs. Additionally, projects often get off the ground faster because standing up cloud BI solutions happens more quickly.
End-users also benefit from the SaaS vendors’ purpose-built BI software. These solutions typically offer the user a better interface, newer features and ease-of-use. Additionally, users benefit from the web-based solutions because they are more mobile and offer anytime access to data.
Filed under: BI in the Cloud, Cloud Computing, Self-Service BI
2011
BI Training – An Important Factor at All Company Levels
According to a recent Computerworld article by Sandra Gittlen, complex BI and analytics tools are headed the way of the big box store – out of the picture. Today’s BI vendors are embracing the midmarket and SMB markets because accessibility is the market demand.
Self-Service Impacting BI Adoption
As Forrester advanced analytics analyst, James Kobielus (@JamesKobielus) says in the article, “The industry evolution toward self-service BI and SaaS BI is having a big impact on adoption in companies of all sizes.”
Additionally, he says these cloud-based platforms offer companies huge advantages in lean times – from pay-as-you-go models, a broader user base, less IT involvement and lower capital costs.
While these advantages signify a move to smaller accounts, BI still
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Filed under: BI in the Cloud, SaaS BI, Self-Service BI
2011
3 Tips for Delivering Mobile BI to Your Company
It may not surprise you that BI is a top of mind technology for many CTOs, but did you know that goes for CFOs as well? A new Gartner survey reveals that 65% of CFOs ranked business intelligence as the technology in highest demand. One driving force behind this demand is the fact that today’s knowledge workers can now access data and information themselves via collaborative, cloud based and mobile BI solutions. These workers are into self service and aren’t waiting around for a corporate sign off.
So as an enterprise or SMB executive how do you manage the madness while simultaneously empowering your workers to capitalize on innovative BI solutions? In upcoming blog posts and webcasts, we’ll tackle empowering your team with collaborative, cloud-based solutions. For now, here are three tips from Information Management on how best to roll out mobile BI.
1) Pay attention to mobile BI security concerns. The top concern in mobile BI adoption is
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2011
BI Wisdom Twitter Chat Recap: Collaborative BI
It’s time for a Tweet chat recap that’s all about collaboration and the wisdom of some industry experts including host Howard Dresner. Each Friday at 1 p.m. Eastern, the #BIWisdom chat focuses on a specific BI topic. The past two chats centered on collaborative BI – a topic we blogged about last month in a post titled Social BI – Less About Social Data and More About Collaboration.
How to Follow the Entire Conversation
The Archivist transcript and visualization is available here. Another useful tool for generating a Twitter transcript is TweetReports.com. Just be sure to pull the transcript within three days to get the full conversation.
The Elite Eight (in percentage of Tweets)
- Howard Dresner – an independent analyst and moderator, 31.82%
- Mark Bradbourne – a BI architect for Forest City Enterprises in Cleveland, Ohio, 13.64%
- Kiran Oza – a business integration manager at the University of Dundee in the UK, 9.74%
- Suzanne Hoffman – VP of sales at Simba Technologies, a BI systems integration firm, 7.79%
- GenesisSAP – a BI consulting firm – 7.14%
- Jillene H. – a business analyst at FORUM Credit Union in Indianapolis, 4.55%
- Jeff Huckaby – supervisor of BI at Pilot Travel Centers in Knoxville, 4.55%
- Mike Ferguson – managing director at Intelligent Business Strategies Limited (an analysis and consulting firm), 4.55%
Filed under: Analytics and Twitter, BI in the Cloud, Social BI
2011
The ABCs of BI Implementation
A: What is it?
“Implementation” covers the start-to-finish activities associated with any Business Intelligence project. That includes projects of every size, from replacing a single report to building a BI infrastructure from the ground up.
Implementation can be viewed in terms of four typical phases:
- Planning and discovery: Defining the need(s), deciding on solutions, detailing what to do, how to do it, and who will be involved.
- Project preparation: Risk assessment, budgeting, purchasing, staffing, establishing project management, etc.
- Development: Requirements, installation, coding, documentation, testing, etc.
- Deployment: Training, roll-out, support, etc.
2011
Earth Day: How Green BI has Become a Reality
Nearly 74 percent of companies said that green IT initiatives are important in considering IT services, according to a report from CompTIA, a non-profit trade association for the IT industry.
The Second Annual Green IT Insights and Opportunities study reveals that IT companies are considering power management or the potential to save on energy costs to be the prime driver of green IT initiatives. Additionally, more than half of the companies surveyed “look to IT companies for a variety of green solutions.”
We think Green IT makes sense both environmentally and financially. And we’re doing our part to reduce carbon footprints and energy waste with a “green BI” concept. In celebration of Earth Day and Spotfire’s commitment to environmental protection and sustainability, let’s explore how green BI can help your company.
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