Business Intelligence (BI) sector is in the evolution period. In the past 15 years, the industry has become worth billions of dollars to create the industry, many of whom are operating managed, growing company.
BI is the enterprise software market, today's most exciting one of the areas, but the industry is changing. Cake bigger and bigger, more and more by the large number of user applications is becoming mission-critical elements to complete. Therefore, the user's needs and BI ecosystems are experiencing simultaneous growth.
In addition, over the past few years, technology use, whether in business or in the consumer world, have undergone significant changes. All of this will have a tremendous impact, in the BI market to create a lot of opportunities.
You must have heard of Web 2.0. Behind the well-known term in the Internet is undergoing fundamental change. The introduction of Web 2.0 to Web as a platform again become clear, let the user experience completely changed the commitments possible. Web 2.0 generally considered a consumer phenomenon, but its real impact is in the enterprises.
Because of these changes, BI will in the next few years undergoing a fundamental change. BI is about to begin a new era, which I call BI 2.0 is the reason why.
BI 1.0 has brought important benefits for the company to allow them to better manage their business. But the BI industry is far from mature, there are many unknowns. In the future, it will be a large range of opportunities for the user.
I believe that business intelligence industry will experience five major revolution in the next five years to achieve transformation.
- User Revolution
- Platform Revolution
- Network Revolution
- Application of the revolution
- Community Revolution
User revolution
The user is the center of revolution. This revolution involves the simplification of the limited patience, and ubiquitous.
We want simplification! We are complex matters can not stand, Ipods only one button, instead of several scattered technologies originally required by the three complex systems (PC, VCR and CD / DVD player) for processing. Simple Google search interface, using only the control buttons, drop-down menu provides the computer's browsing history project.
We can not have the patience! We are always looking for something right away can bring satisfaction. We'll soon be, not later. Instant messaging on the phone, BlackBerry instant e-mail, iPod's quick music downloads, watch TV through the Tivo program ... ... what we have not patience. If we can get something right away, why wait?
We also hope to have products for everyone! We look everywhere. Everyone wants the best things. Good technology should not be a privilege. Everyone at home can have mobile phones, eight children from the beginning ... ....
Nevertheless, the consumer revolution taking place in the world have not yet reached the business world. In fact, the gap is widening. Consumer technology has become more streamlined, more ease of use, and business systems is increasing its complexity. Internet has brought many benefits to consumers, but commercial software users, has brought a general disappointment. User interface in general, more slowly, poor mobility, the user experience frustrating.
But the user is the same in the office to complete a cost report brains of people, is to use Google to buy theater tickets, chat with friends through the computer the same group of people. Wait a few years, when the new generation into the world of work, the pace of this revolution will accelerate. Prepare a new generation of professional people only know what we call "new technology", while others are ignorant, they not only need to simplify and streamline look.
User revolution will affect business intelligence?
BI will be greatly simplified. The most frequent tasks will benefit from the highly simplified interface. Information will pass through the new channels become more realistic and more intuitive. Look at new product Crystal Xcelsius, you can understand what the future holds.
Everyone wants to get this product, it will be such a product. We will gradually achieve the goal of ubiquitous. An employee, is a BI system. Information consumption will be the working environment an integral part.
BI will be any time of day, on-demand to a user's device. No need to wait by the computer, handheld devices will be a BI platform.
This is the user revolution. The revolution started from consumers, will soon enter the commercial sector. Business Objects has ready to go in the forefront of this revolution.
Platform Revolution
Will the basic structure of a single standardized.
According to analysts of the survey results, is now commonly used by Global 2000 companies 5-15 different business intelligence tools, and sometimes reach 20 species. This situation will not be able to continue because this generated a lot of questions:
- First, the total cost of ownership, whether from the point of view, are too high
o According to Forrester Research Inc. survey generally felt that the software costs 40% -75% or more, the hardware cost is generally 15% -30% or more, the cost of management is generally believed that more than 30%, if the use of multiple BI products , end-user training costs will be quite considerable.
- Second, using a variety of tools, can not create a coherent information system across the entire enterprise.
o "real" there will be multiple versions of information
o information is stored in different departments or functions of the body and can not communicate
o In fact, the performance of the company not to consider the establishment of common standards
- Third, the dependence of small providers to bring a number of risks for the company
o BI market is in fairly quickly reorganized, which means that a large number of small software vendors will no longer exist, their products will be eliminated. After technical support, customers have no more choice but to look for a support side, it takes a considerable cost, and customer satisfaction will be significantly decreased.
Companies are rationalizing provider, will become a long list of suppliers only a few short list of strategic partners.
BI Standardization will focus on purely provider to achieve, why not?
Only to ensure cross-platform access, free from the constraints over the underlying system, standardization to achieve its value.
Companies generally have 5-7 different types of database systems, they need to run hundreds or even thousands of applications, which are only a small part of the scope of ERP type applications.
Run only one database, or use only one application group to achieve the best results when the BI system can never reach the level required by the Company values.
This BI system also will not be ISV / OEM industry, owing to this group created the application, always trying to run the largest number of databases and procedures for the environment should be.
Standardization will come, and has opened the curtain.
To the largest U.S. insurance company Allstate personal physical example. AllState decided to standardize by Business Objects, AllState now have a single platform to handle a variety of business applications, a variety of these services, such as deception detection, of the complaint, the Registration Report. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, Business Objects in the rapid and timely payment of compensation to the victims played a key role.
Another example is the world's largest financial services company Morgan Stanley. In its retail brokerage business using Business Objects, to achieve a 360-degree control of the business and improve revenue per customer. 15,000 financial advisers to use Business Objects to improve customer service, improve the professional level.
Platform revolution in progress, we hope to the forefront.
Network Revolution
Parallel with the user revolution, is the network revolution. Today, the Internet has become a powerful tool for personal access to knowledge, but the network functions as a business tool is still far from being achieved.
This is mainly because the accuracy of network data and network information on lack of duplication, as well as the fact that, in most cases, the company only for internal use BI.
Lack of accuracy
Search engine is to create a cumulative form of personal wisdom. We can access various forms of information to enhance our personal knowledge. If you want to go to the theater in the way, about "Giovanni," the story outline, you can go on the road, sitting in a taxi, browsing through the BlackBerry smartphone Synopsis, you can update the memory, reading Mozart all pass. Of course, in your organization, you will become the culture of the most knowledgeable people.
Therefore, this method is very useful, most people would love to win.
However, if you need to develop important business decisions, can only depend on static pages retrieved by the results obtained? In most cases not so, CEOs need accuracy, they only need an answer, not ordered by a Web page received thousands of algorithms answer.
For personal use terms, obtained by static search results pages is not a problem, as long as the results are correct, very good. The contents of the Mozart, not entirely accurate, as long as can give your friends impressed, enough.
However, if you need to share data submitted to the Board, if not reach 100% accurate, can it work?
Information duplication
Another problem today is unlimited duplication of information, just imagine that in many places, many times using the information about your company's financial information, we can prove it. In the analysis, in the data throughout the company's EXCEL table, the market research firm reports. Most of the content of these materials is to re-type the information the results, the best is to copy and paste. Think about your company's headquarters address is repeated countless times, if your company changes address what happens? All this information will immediately become invalid.
Duplication of information is clearly brought to the hardware vendor a good income, of course, the database and storage software company, but the company concerned, from the ideal state are still far away.
In the end consumers that already have a solution, such as Plaxo or Linkedin, these products can automatically synchronize outlook address book. But in the business community, has no such products.
Focus on the internal use of business intelligence
Finally, the company is basically limited to the use of business intelligence within their own context. Although the BI extranet in the past five years has become quite popular, but the vast majority of data stored in company database for internal use only, almost all of the BI application, only the data generated within the excavation.
Business requires a completely different model, using the information in the Internet. This model can constitute a global network of business intelligence.
In such a global network, companies can access the Internet a trusted repository of information. One way to achieve this functionality, an enterprise can use their own BI applications, mixed internal and external data.
Reliable sources of information
Global network must have a reliable source of information, these sources should be marked with the watermark and is dependable. So if you want information about the industry's market share, you can trust through a market research firm access to data. If you want to know a company's financial information, you can trust from the investment banks access to this information. If you want to compare with the performance of a company with business situation, you can get from a strategic consulting firm analysis of the performance.
... Through the public knowledge base to obtain the necessary
These information resources can be located through an Internet access to global knowledge base. Therefore, the user can select from a set of information resources and the combination, some of the information is free, while others charge for.
... By way of providing BI services, integrated into the internal BI applications
You ask the question, what this means novelty? Today, many information resources already exist, but most of the information can only be obtained through the website, or through EXCEL or PDF report generation process, and some time as a data entry. In the future, this information is obtained through BI services, so that information is always online, only with situations and time. More importantly, the information can be integrated directly into the internal BI applications without having to re-create these in-house information. This approach will eliminate manual data replication, greatly reducing storage requirements, eradication of a large number of error sources and information that is inaccurate.
In the Business Objects company, our mission is to lead the network business intelligence revolution, developed to provide standards on the Internet.
Application of the revolution
Enterprise applications, is generally considered a traditional packaged application suite, that is, ERP, CRM or SCM applications systems.
These systems provide the basic functions of that? Basically they can achieve the existing business processes, or an existing feature of automation, most of these programs are based on things to deal with.
For example, CRM system, one of the most common application is the Sales Force Automation. With this program, the company can achieve sales automation and customer interaction. This brought the company considerable value, especially companies can interact with the program save all the information. Activities for a customer sales information, sales staff left the company, will be completely preserved.
But more and more companies are packaged application suite near the end of the implementation stage, or at least at this stage: they are clearly in the implementation of the completion of what can be, not what.
Under normal circumstances, the conclusion is that they have now completed the transaction automation. Indeed, the previously completed by the officer in front of most of the task has been automated.
Of course, the promise of these applications has been far greater, ERP can be run to provide a unified view of enterprise, CRM customers can observe the ... ... 360, but these promises did not materialize.
Also, when more and more companies are installing their own version of the transaction processing procedures, it is difficult to highlight its competitive advantage. Now, this has become an indisputable fact.
Therefore, some companies now recognize that it is not enough light to do so. Elsewhere there must be something more valuable to seek competitive advantage is no longer using the ERP. The idea began in the top of the organization in the promotion of your company higher, the more you do not need to automate the contrary, you really need more of a vision.
Sales Manager required an application to control the performance of subordinate account manager, sales and other regional and industry best practices to compare, analyze the root causes of performance more accurately predict the business and take the necessary action based on an analysis .
It is precisely because of this reason, the application providers eager to increase their application of basic business intelligence features, the most common operation is the basic reporting capabilities. However, these functions can only provide these values.
Value is transferred to the analysis from the transaction up. The future, the most important applications will no longer be a traditional packaged application, but a new form of business applications, focusing on analysis and information. In the future, these applications will become an important driver of performance.
These applications are no longer just the company's existing standards to support the process, but will focus on the business activities are in progress, sometimes also concerned about a strategic move. Will no longer use the Sales Force Automation program, but use Channel Effectiveness, to follow the ongoing operational activities. Like quality improvement or customer to maintain such strategic initiatives will be supported by these applications.
The characteristics of these applications are many:
1) The new application can search multiple information sources, not only in the ERP system to search, including hundreds or thousands of applications, but these procedures are not in the business within the scope of ERP. New applications can not only search for information resources within the company, you can also search for resources outside the company.
2) The new application will rely on a strong platform, a mixture of the best business intelligence tools, performance management solutions and analysis of components, from basic reporting to the management strategy formation. Everything, are forecast to achieve a high-end simulation.
3) The type we call business intelligence, operations, Ying Yong program will immediately enter operational data, the program not only for analysis, mission complete specific De Jing Ying, Ru Qi Ye planning, and also to the insight into the basis of specific, start some of the Hang Dong .
4) The special significance of an enterprise's business activities, the application can be vertically oriented, and sometimes the depth of customization can be achieved.
5) Finally, these procedures can often be as a service provider. Customers no longer need to have these applications, the program has a party can be a software vendor, can also be an application integrator. This approach would greatly reduce the cost of ownership for these applications, the scope will become more widely used.
Today, Business Objects has launched the application of the revolution launched in the areas of retail Trade Spent Effectiveness program. We also with many applications providers and systems integrators to partner to design more such applications.
Our goal is to define the next generation of applications.
Community Revolution
Finally, Web 2.0 is one of the core can give full play to the direction of online content creation side, as users have the power:
- Blogs: blog so that people can more easily publish information online to receive this information feedback.
- Wikis: allow people to create content in a participatory manner. Wikipedia is in this way, every day thousands of users involved in the creation of the online encyclopedia.
- Folksonomic tagging: allows Internet users to categorize content such as web pages, online photographs, and network connections. Such as Flickr and de.licio.us this site, users can share and tag their photos, in order to achieve better sharing and retrieval results.
Finally, Web 2.0 is a core concept of the wisdom of the majority of people will add more than a few people. "New Yorker" magazine columnist James - Surowiecki in his book, this can easily bring confusion to explore the simple concept: add a large group of people smarter than an elite minority, whether elite How brilliant. Whether to solve the problem or make informed decisions, the concept is very applicable. This is also known as "wisdom of the masses."
Surowiecki provides the best example is called "Big Spender" television program, when a candidate for the production confusion on an issue, they can give expert advice to friends or the audience. The results show that the audience is almost always right, their approach better than the experts recommend.
So this idea and what kind of business relationship? It is clear that every decision about the value of the company are the crystallization of collective wisdom. However, the company's very difficult to gauge how best to build the wisdom to achieve a multiplier effect.
Therefore, a key factor in competitiveness is the company's ability to manage this new type of collective wisdom.
Business Intelligence in the realization of collective wisdom, will play an important role.
Access to Information
In the next area of business intelligence information received, the new network technology will play an increasingly important role. Search is one of the ways to access information. To date, the structural model has dominated the business intelligence world. With the popularity of Google and Yahoo, and everyone can use the search way to get consumer information. Retrieval methods can be implanted into the business intelligence, access to the data as a new standard method.
Second, the marking will also become a way the user classification information. Users no longer rely solely on the information into the BI administrator for the position, they can own hands, reports and information on add tags. In this way, information retrieval will become more convenient, as users of sites like flickr did.
Reliable data sources
Wiki types of ways to achieve online collaboration, in particular to increase the background information, increasing information accuracy. Former chief operating officer of Oracle, is now venture capitalist Ray - Ryan, recently gave a description, if he could interview each salesperson's sales figures on their individual comments made by then, Wiki type system will allow his sales have a better sense of prediction.
As early as the first version 6.0 release, Business Objects would have been the first to try to add a comment on the report of this feature. With this feature, users can collaborate online.
Allow all parties to provide evidence of data is an important factor to ensure data quality. Use of technology such as RSS input, you can connect people and data in real time. Without experience of such technology data staging process, there would be no increase in waiting time, the resulting error will not.
There, not just from people searching for answers from the data
From the database to find the right's answer is very difficult, we all know, over the past fifteen years, we are all together trying to gives the example Biande easy and Zhunque as possible, but we still Haihui keep on trying. The future, we not only experts in the fields where IT can help, hundreds of users will cooperate. Through the "wisdom of the masses," the most direct application of law, business intelligence system can not only gather information from business users can also collect information from the system itself. For example, a vice president hoping for this answer to the question, "Compared with our second competition, the last quarter we gained market?", The most likely situation is that the IT department and wait for someone calculations than he could from the house where a group of users faster and more accurate answers.
The power of community
Finally, business intelligence will increase the power of the user community to develop a more analytical applications. Users will be developers, rather than just consumers of information and applications. Business Intelligence is moving in the form of component-based development of more and more dependent on service-oriented architecture, developers must create applications based on a lot of resources. Analysis of these procedures is a function of the application, not only to use some of the business intelligence components, but also combined with some other technologies (such as Google Maps, Skype API, and many other types of technology) ....
I believe the community will soon start the revolution, Business Objects company will once again stand in the forefront of this revolution in the business intelligence space to promote the Web 2.0 technology.
Conclusion
In summary, the business intelligence industry in the next few years will be the most remarkable industry. In the future, BI 2.0 will be the formation of the new company a competitive force at the core.
The past fifteen years, we lead the development of modern business intelligence industry, and in the past decade into a number of core innovation. It has gone through major changes in the baptism, we will continue to shape the industry.
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