Summary

Many organizations want to bring data insight closer to front lines, where hundreds, even thousands, of employees and partners interact with customers and supply chains. Information Builders, Inc. (IBI), is in a race with other providers of business intelligence (BI) software platforms to enable such operational BI, which merges dashboard interfaces, event alerts, metrics, search and other new features with BI reporting and analysis to create an environment tailored to nontechnical users’ decision-making requirements. In late May, the company introduced technology upgrades and software partnerships directed at meeting demand for operational BI. Ventana Research believes that IBI’s latest developments will improve its competitive position in the marketplace.

Assessment

At its annual user conference in Las Vegas (May 20-24), Information Builders played up a “no barriers” marketing theme to highlight directions it is taking with its FOCUS family of products for business intelligence and reporting. CEO Gerald Cohen noted several developments in current and upcoming releases that point to a convergence of tools and technologies. Cohen said that the era of “every new piece of software essentially inventing a new interface” is largely over; thus, the company is developing WebFOCUS to offer customers a common user interface and experience across mobile devices, browsers, Adobe PDFs, Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets, rich Internet application (RIA) frameworks (such as Adobe Flex), e-mail and other application platforms.

Nearly all BI tool and platform vendors are grappling with increasing demand for operational BI, which shortens the time it takes to get the right information into the hands of decision makers on the front lines of an organization. Operational BI puts pressure on the information management infrastructure, including database, data warehousing and data integration systems, to deliver information in something closer to real time. At the same time, successful operational BI tools and platforms must make it much easier to for nontechnical users to access, interpret and share data quickly and consistently as they move from desktop systems to disconnected mobile devices and back again.

The custom programming and other difficulties associated with providing these capabilities have been a significant reason why organizations have been reluctant to give BI tools to “the masses.” In response, IBI demonstrated how, for example, users of its Active Reports and new Active Dashboards technologies can employ its Quick Data technology from within Excel to refresh spreadsheets at timed intervals. IBI’s “analytical engine” supports the same approach across other tools and platforms, which is important for reducing the need for costly custom design and programming. Users can set filters and otherwise determine, with the help of guidance wizards, how they want to consume and share data. IBI demonstrated how the analytical engine can support disconnected users who desire fuller functionality on their mobile devices and laptops, including through implementation of RIA technologies such as Flex. Search engines are also critical for operational BI because front-line users need to employ their natural language to quickly narrow data discovery to relevant results. IBI announced iWay Enterprise Index, which employs Google Search Appliance and application and data integration technology previously developed by IBI’s iWay subsidiary to allow users, for example, to search through transactions recorded and managed by multiple applications. Users can then build reports based on the search results.

Dave Berry, CIO of Coty, Inc., winner of one of IBI’s four customer awards presented at the conference, described in a session how his company is using iWay’s integration technology to ease migration to SAP by leaving the data where it is rather than moving it all into SAP’s Business Information Warehouse. At the same time it is doing the SAP move and incorporating systems acquired as part of the company’s purchase of Unilever, Coty is focused on establishing operational BI in its supply chain so decision-makers there can see market trends before producing and shipping cosmetic products that are “dead on arrival” because they missed the latest consumer trend. Berry said that while categorization is a challenge, incorporating search is on Coty’s agenda “so that managers don’t have to call 15 people to find something out.”

At the event, IBI also announced a partnership with IBM to distribute WebFOCUS as part of System i, the line of packaged business computing platforms formerly known as the iSeries or AS/400. BI vendors are all pursuing the small-to-medium business (SMB) sector, but frequently overlook System i’s longstanding position in this market, which generally prefers packaged systems. The dashboarding and other operational BI features of WebFOCUS will be significant to SMB and departmental organizations that are looking to use reporting and analytics to upgrade their responsiveness to business events.

Market Impact

Business pressures are pushing organizations to demand that BI vendors provide more than traditional historical analysis. Vendors must respond by developing technology or partnering with others to provide faster access to information. In addition, companies want to gain operational BI capabilities quickly, without the long cycles associated with implementation of traditional BI and data warehousing. To do this, BI must interoperate with users’ favored tools and interfaces, such as spreadsheets, browsers and mobile devices. And they must get serious about supporting search, since nontechnical users are likely to employ search first to find both transactional data and unstructured information. By enhancing Active Reports with Quick Data and features for building portable, self-service dashboards, IBI is responding to customers’ interest in operational BI, as well as their desire to produce this capability at a reasonable price and with as little disruption as possible.

Recommendation

We believes that IBI’s technology introductions and partnerships unveiled at its user conference have the potential to bring customers closer to operational BI goals and to deliver incremental results. Being able to deliver return on investment incrementally is critical since broader strategies to implement service-oriented architectures, business process management and other operational intelligence systems may take years to implement fully. Ventana Research recommends that businesses considering deploying operational BI systems consider IBI’s offerings as part of their evaluation process.

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