Business Intelligence / News

We have been talking about it for years but it looks as if it’s finally happening; CEOs and CIOs are aligned in their thinking around the future challenges and complexity and IT plays a critical role.

Marc Bailey wants to kill the spreadsheet. At least, that’s what the research fellows at Macquarie University asked for when he first stepped on board as CIO in late 2009.

With more than 30 years in technology consulting, I feel I can safely make a few observations about the field. The first is, alas, I'm growing old with the industry. The second is that I've had quite a lot of experience with customer/consulting relationships over the years, both good and bad, from my early days in statistical consulting to my current position in professional services management at OpenBI.

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.

Teradata and Information Builders have developed a data warehousing package that bundles the latter's WebFOCUS BI (business intelligence) software with a Teradata analytic appliance, the companies announced Friday.

Global spending on BI (business intelligence), analytics and performance management applications jumped 13.4 percent in 2010 to US$10.5 billion, according to figures released Wednesday by analyst firm Gartner. The results reflect the BI market's continued strength throughout the world's economic downturn, as customers looked to such software to find efficiencies and gain competitive advantage.

SAP announced Friday it has integrated its in-memory HANA (High-Performance Analytic Appliance) with IBM's DB2 database, a move that underscores the companies' increasing alignment against rival Oracle and its Exadata platform.

SAP strengthened its eager embrace of in-memory computing on Wednesday, announcing plans for a series of applications that include programs it calls previously "unimaginable" as well as some that overhaul existing software.

SAS Institute is teaming up with mobile BI (business intelligence) vendor Mellmo to bring analytic applications to Apple's iPhone and iPad, the companies announced Tuesday.

Teradata said Thursday it plans to buy data warehousing startup Aster Data Systems, continuing a run of consolidation in the market for technology that can process ever-growing amounts of "big data."

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.

Information Builders upped its ante in mobile BI (business intelligence) software on Tuesday, announcing a product suite that includes native capabilities for Apple and Android devices.

SAP is hoping to gain ground in the increasingly heated market for BI (business intelligence) software, announcing a suite on Wednesday that focuses on areas like mobility and real-time data analysis.

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

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.

Oracle is offering a data warehouse tailored for the needs of the financial services industry, the company announced Thursday.

SAP saw revenue rise 27 percent in the fourth quarter but profits dropped by more than a third due to increased provisions linked to litigation with Oracle related to its former TomorrowNow unit, the company said Wednesday.

The utilities sector has been quick to adopt the real-time vision, particularly those organisations that have made an early move to smart grid deployments. Australian-born CIO, Joe Locandro, says the organisation has long used real-time monitoring — or what it calls condition-based monitoring — for its power plants and infrastructure. Thousands of sensors measure variables such as vibration, heat and voltage consistency, and feed them into OSIsoft’s PI System enterprise infrastructure management software.

Health insurance company, HCF, initially implemented QlikView to create a monthly report for its chief executive.

Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft's unveiling Wednesday of a series of data warehousing appliances has some observers sounding the death knell for HP's Neoview platform.