business intelligence Predictive Modeling Organizations constantly analyze their data to understand and predict profits and costs, enabling informed decisions at the top level. “To accomplish this, the first step is making sure that the relevant data is accessible—and that data must be the single version of the truth,” explains Matthew Smith, president/ CEO, 3C Software. Leaner organizations and a movement toward the streamlining of business process- es to improve organizational efficiencies and profitability while increasing revenues fuel demand for BI, suggests Michael Cassettari, VP of marketing, Dimensional Insight. Simply collecting the data is not enough. The ability to perform meaningful analysis and reporting on data to facilitate and de- liver pertinent information throughout the organization is a core focus of BI today. “Historically, companies cobbled to- gether spreadsheets and reports to help a select few within the organizations—ana- lysts and IT staff—better manage their cus- tomer data, but as required data has become more detailed and complex, the weaknesses of these custom-designed solutions became increasingly apparent,” suggests Patricia M. Hennel, director of global marketing ser- vices, Silvon Software. In addition, she points out that the use of operational-level visibility to better manage supply and demand requirements is imma- ture because most companies don’t have best practice experience in this area. This raises the need for software applications that leverage best practice planning and performance anal- ysis to help line-of-business managers drive strategic decisions. Businesses recognize the competitive advantage provided by advanced use of BI. “There is a realization by corporations across industries that analytics and BI can be used to add value to their core business, and this competency will be increasingly used by lead- ers in each industry as a source of advantage over their competition,” says TIBCO Spot- fire’s Mahmood. There is no doubt the social era affects business operations. With the proliferation www.softwaremag.com Information Builders provides its customers with BI and analytics, information integrity, and integrated solutions. of social and collaborative BI technologies, organizations capitalize on the power of the people—their customers. “Social and collaborative BI promises to transform decision-making, leveraging the power of the collective intelligence of a group, organization, or department to accel- erate better decisions with greater alignment and transparency,” says QlikTech’s Deighton. He explains that by leveraging new tech- nology, users are no longer limited to pre- defined paths. “Users ask what they need to ask and explore up, down, and sideways rather than only drilling down. It gives them the same intuitive experience they are accus- tomed to in applications they frequent, like Google, Facebook, or Apple iTunes,” he adds. This enables everyone in an organization to create insight from information and analy- sis. Businesses extend insight to the edges of their organizations, enabling every person to work more effectively. George Mathew, president/COO of Al- teryx, notes that traditional BI platforms and data warehouses, which typically require im- mense time to conform massive amounts of data into predefined schema, will give way to nimble analytics platforms. This in turn en- ables business leaders to integrate all sources of data—including internal, external, and so- cial media—rapidly making sense of relevant information to make strategic decisions. Expanded Accessibility BI solutions are not new. However, the ad- vancements of technology highlight the weaknesses of traditional solutions. Addi- tionally, trends such as mobile, cloud, and social networking affect how people—both businesses and customers alike—consume, access, collect, and react to data. BI tools continually evolve to meet new business demands. “Historically, BI has been used to make sense of enterprise data reports on recent activities—a look back at what hap- pened in the last quarter, or last year, for ex- ample. As BI systems became more sophisti- cated, they began showing a real-time or near real-time snapshot of the business so organi- zations could make faster and more informed decisions,” shares Sergey Shestakov, head of product marketing, Prognoz. Rado Kotorov, CIO, Information Build- ers, points out that monitoring and archiving information is no longer enough. “To be successful in today’s economy, organizations need to treat their enterprise data as an in- vestment, much the same way they would financial or human capital. And to realize the maximum return on their information capital, BI and data analysis capabilities must be extended to operational employees and external partners, customers, and suppliers. This need to share information beyond the firewall is a key driver of innovation in the September 2013 | Software Magazine | 11