Features to be developed over time will include:

1. BI best practices
2. Informative presentations and podcasts
3. Online events
4. Access to advisory services and vendor information
5. Community forums
6. Additional services

Your comments and ideas are important to help us develop the best community possible. In addition, if you’d like to be a beta tester or have early access to the community, please let me know.

Yesterday, Canadians lost a political giant – Jack Layton, the leader of the NDP and opposition – after losing his battle to cancer. Even though we lose public figures all the time, and sometimes with not much more than a mention, losing Jack is different. For those of you who know anything about the dryness of Canadian politics, it is fair to say that no matter which side of the fence a person falls on or who they voted for, Jack made politics interesting and had a true sense of integrity by actually making people believe that it is possible to be a politician and still care about people and by being committed to doing what is right. And more importantly, that it is possible to change the status quo while staying within the political framework to do so.

With all of the current global political turmoil, general economic uncertainties, environmental disasters, and the like, sometimes it’s important to step back and take notice of the people in the world of politics who maintain their integrity and really, truly care about those around them (whether or not you agree with their political views). And most importantly, because life can be so fleeting, losing Jack makes us take a step back and appreciate what we have and those we love around us and take stock of where we are, what we’ve done, and what we hope to achieve.

On an interesting note to those fascinated by social media, aside from Jack Layton becoming a top worldwide trend on twitter, it was estimated that in the hours following his death, over 10,000 tweets went out in the form of condolences, links to information, and the like. Social networking really has helped change the way people interact and share information. All of the incoming tweets were literally a blur within my TweetDeck, so it was hard to follow and a little overwhelming. It was probably the first time that I’ve ever really been affected by the power of social media and realized the full opportunity it provides for people to connect with others.

On August 20th, days before he passed away, Jack wrote a letter to Canadians that he wanted published should his treatment not go well. I am including some of the excerpts below:

“To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don't be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.”

“To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.”

“And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one - a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change.”

“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”

Teradata Third Party Influencers

This year a lot of the discussion focused on general strategy and growth. For instance, the recent acquisition of Aprimo enables Teradata to expand the use of business applications within their data warehousing platforms by integrating Aprimo’s integrated marketing management suite within their current processes, etc. with the goal of developing a more comprehensive suite of integrated analytics. With Aster Data, Teradata hopes to provide a broader level of support for big data projects within SQL MapReduce environments and provide support for complex data processing and high volumes of information that require processing in a way not natively available within Teradata’s product offerings.

In addition, although Teradata still holds on tightly to the importance of developing an Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), they are expanding their focus towards what they call an Integrated Data Warehouse (IDW), which implies starting small for companies not ready to implement an EDW and growing through data warehouse expansion into an eventual EDW. Even though not a total change to their general positioning, what this shows is that there is a greater focus on providing organizations what they need (or want) as many companies do not subscribe to a single EDW or do not find it feasible based on their BI use.

Overall, Teradata’s strategy is threefold which is highlighted by their recent acquisitions as well – it includes:

1. Helping customers integrate data for analytics (with an estimate of the data warehouse market being $27B)
2. Supporting big data -through the acquisition of Aster Data (estimated market of $2B)
3. Increasing the use of integrated applications with Aprimo being one example of the development of strategic partnerships (market estimate $15B)

TDWI

I really enjoyed catching up with vendors and colleagues at TDWI. Some interesting discussions centered on data management (i.e. governance, data integration and data warehousing platforms in the cloud, etc.) and its increasing relevance to SMBs as more expand their BI use and as technologies are more supportive of their environments – i.e. hosted offerings, and lower entry points. In addition, the demos I received from Roambi and Metric Insights were great. Roambi provides mobile BI applications and are expanding the offerings they provide on the iPad and eventually will provide mobile BI on other platforms. But despite their limitations, the look and feel of their offerings helps push the bar for companies looking for a self-service feel to BI interactivity and use through mobile access. Metric Insights, on the other hand, is deployed through a browser and reminds me of the Lyzasoft‘s and Yellowfin‘s of the world in the sense that founder Marius Moscovici has put a lot of focus into the integration of collaborative functionality while maintaining a high level of ease of use. As more and more vendors start to integrate collaborative features within their offerings, hopefully more traditional vendors will also move towards providing higher levels of interactivity as well.

• are we ready for BI?
• what do we need to do in order to implement a successful BI solution?
• how do we get past the initial implementation and move towards competitive advantage?

These are just some of the general questions SMBs have when evaluating the potential of BI. WiseAnalytics has put together a survey to help identify what small and mid-sized organizations are doing in relation to their BI projects. How do companies make their decisions, and are they satisfied with their solution provider(s) and actual implementation? Do vendors meet business expectations or are solutions falling short? What are important areas for SMBs when evaluating and expanding their BI use?

And although fairly common questions, WiseAnalytics wants to change things up a bit. Most analyst firms and information about BI online represents what a subset of the industry sees.  For instance, a consultant writes about their experiences or about business pains being faced by members of their client base. Analyst firms develop standardized reports….but nowhere in BI are research and analyst initiatives driven by SMBs and the pains that they identify.

So, when looking at this survey as just another general industry survey (as it partially is!), this survey is also the first step to change the way advisory and analyst services are provided to SMBs. It is no longer enough for SMBs to consume information about trends, vendor viability, or technologies. For SMBs to become successful and use BI as a competitive tool, they (you) need to be a partner in industry research and development by driving research initiatives and information gathering based on the needs of the company and business pains being faced. It is no longer enough to digest reports without having the power to direct those reports. This survey aims at providing the first steps to this change by taking the results to drive BI information based on what SMBs are encountering in the market.

Click here to take the survey*

*In addition, WiseAnalytics will be launching a BI4SMB community with built-in analyst services in fall of 2011. Survey completion entitles you to a free 6 month membership (value $750) and access to the full report. More details to follow shortly.

In the general BI market place, I usually get the feeling that vendors are jockeying for the first spot in the market – mobile, in-memory, big data, advanced analytics, and the buzz words keep going. Taking advantage of these to state that they can be everything to everyone and continuously announcing improvements to their products without mentioning the cost related to upgrades and changes that customers constantly face. And even though this represents one of the reasons that makes BI an exciting market from a technology standpoint, I sometimes feel that customers get lost in the shuffle.

On the other hand, I always wondered why out of all of the vendors I speak to regularly, Information Builders was never one to follow the pack.  Throughout my history of meetings with IBi, I always come away feeling that the meeting was productive, but not with that same drive that other vendors have of marketing their wares.  Part of me was actually beginning to wonder what the deal was! After attending the summit, however, I understand. This was the first time I saw Information Builders as a company differently and with a unique value proposition within an already crowded market. Aside from being the most business focused end user event I’ve ever attended within business intelligence (as mentioned above), customers were probably some of the most engaged I’ve seen – excited about technology, the new features and functions, roadmap, ease of use, and wanting to share their stories.

Although within different industries and doing different things with business intelligence, the customer benefits seem to be consistent across Information Builders customers. These include:

1. Best value for software costs – with the three customers I spoke with formally, each had different goals with BI and evaluated multiple vendors – some just 2 or 3 and one actually evaluated 15 BI vendors. In each case, these customers felt that Information Builders provided the best cost in relation to the products they received.
2. A strong focus on business intelligence as a driver of information visibility, decision making, and corporate strategy. Information Builders sees itself as the enabler of business intelligence and data visibility as opposed to a point solution and this shows in terms of the value they provide to customers through helping them define the business value they hope to achieve through WebFOCUS adoption.
3. And finally, the ability to make organizations feel like a special customer. Many SMBs desire a more personal connection to the vendor regarding implementation and services.

And in addition to vendor satisfaction, Information Builders is focusing their efforts on building technology that addresses industry trends, while ensuring ease of use and high levels of interactivity. For instance, WebFOCUS is enabled for mobile devices with automatic device recognition, meaning that developers can create what they need to once, without having to change code to account for different devices. Or their new partnership with Teradata to address the increasing focus on the data warehousing appliance market and the ability to provide customers with an end-to-end BI offering through the use of a data warehouse appliance. Overall, any vendor and solution offering will have their challenges, but overall I came away from the summit feeling that Information Builders is headed in the right direction with a high value proposition for customers.

1. Database  and analytical database capabilities that now give SAP the ability to provide customers with a full BI platform outside the scope of SAP and SAPBW users.
2. Mobile technologies and the ability to SAP to leverage that market and integrate its applications within a mobile infrastructure.

Both of these areas highlight the benefits of the Sybase acquisition to SAP and showcases where they will continue their focus in relation to development efforts and providing products and services to their current and future customer base. General messaging centered around the complementary nature of both companies and their ability to build out cohesive offerings due to their previous collaboration (integration capabilities), and lack of overlap in regards to general product offerings.

When looking at BI specifically, as mentioned above, SAP can now provide an overall BI solution that can be deployed independently of SAP only data.  With 20% of cross over customers and Business Objects being Sybase’s largest front-end partner in terms of adoption, it remains to be seen how other partnerships will continue or maintain their presence over time.  What can be said is that for Business Objects companies looking for stronger analytics and the integration of a columnar data warehouse, the acquisition may be of benefit.

Overall, due to the previous integration capabilities between BI solutions, integration efforts needed are far from robust. The benefits of this include the ability to take advantage of a full BI offering without having to wait years for proper integration to exist.

1. BI as a service vs. the effort required to develop and deploy an in-house solution
2. No additional hardware required
3. Lower initial implementation costs
4. Subscription licensing models
5. Professional services expertise

These areas represent common benefits for companies interested in SaaS offerings.  For smaller businesses and targeted applications, the use of SaaS may be the most practical way of integrating new BI applications within the organization due to quicker implementation times and lack of dependence on IT for long-term maintenance.

On the other hand are considerations that organizations should look at to identify whether SaaS BI represents the right choice for them:

1. Growth over time – many SaaS providers charge based on users and data storage.  Initial implementations take into account current requirements but may not consider future growth, additional historical data captured, or end user expansion.  All of these areas can increase the yearly subscription fees astronomically.
2. Full BI suites – although some exist, the reality is that most SaaS BI offerings are limited in overall scope of offering.  With Salesforce plug-ins being the most common application within the realm of analytics, organizations may have limited expansion options when trying to expand their BI use over time.
3. Integration – Integration considerations remain a challenge for any organization.  Depending on the type of data sources required, limitations might exist.

Although an attractive choice for many, the value of SaaS doesn’t exist for every organization in the same way.  Businesses should use the above areas as a guide to determine and weigh the benefits and costs of SaaS versus traditional BI offerings.

But the key to selecting the right BI vendor is through a proof of concept (POC). Organizations should require a POC when selecting a vendor for the first time. By incorporating personalized data within a solution, companies are better able to identify whether there is a fit.  In reality, most solutions can meet the general needs of many companies, but the level of customization and details required will differ.  A POC lets organizations see what needs to be done, what is realistic, and the intricacies involved.  When evaluating more than one solution, this helps limit the choices and provides greater insights into the differentiations between solution offerings.

Although not all businesses choose to include a POC within their software selection, it may help provide the greatest window into which solution will best meet the needs of the organization.  Although a small piece of the overall project is being used, it still helps give broader visibility into the potential. When looking at BI for the first time, this becomes essential to being able to see the potential of the solution.

Here is the link to the video interview.