Outlook Series | BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ARCHIVE

Information Governance

Even though standards for good governance are rising, much of today's focus around corporate governance leaves information out of the discussion. Carefully managing your growing volume of information carries both risk and opportunity for your enterprise. Furthermore, corporate leaders need to be active stewards of their companies' information and should know as much about their information assets as their CFO knows about their company's financial assets. By implementing a company wide information governance initiative, you can create and enforce policies that help ensure information quality, compliance, and protection while increasing business value. We interview Gregory Kosinski to gain EMC's perspective on Information Governance.
Gregory is the Director of Marketing for EMC SourceOne Products. 21 Minutes

Customer Intimacy

A wealth of data is in applications for order management, accounting and sales force automation. That data contains valuable customer insights, and more CIOs are looking to predictive analytics to uncover those insights. Furthermore, you cannot rely on selling and marketing to mass audiences the way you have in the past. Customers are asserting their individuality, and they want to engage in personal relationships that extend beyond the point of purchase, however and wherever those interactions occur. Today, a lot of digital noise is outside your organizations control. Few of those conversations are useful, but a few voices might determine the success or failure of your marketing campaigns, product development or operational efficiencies. We interview Erick Brethenoux to gain SPSS an IBM Company's perspective on customer intimacy. Erick is the VP of Corporate Development for SPSS an IBM Company. 47 Minutes

Microsoft Project 2010

In today’s challenging environment, teams and organizations of all sizes must select and deliver the right projects on time and on budget. Furthermore, reducing costs by enabling smarter and more informed decisions about budgeting and resource allocation is critical. Consequently, more and more companies are relying on project and portfolio management tools to analyze their current and future project performance. Also, it is important to leverage flexible work management solutions and the right collaboration tools for occasional and professional project managers, but you also need a pathway to more advanced project and portfolio management capabilities as your business needs evolve. We interview Seth Patton to gain Microsoft's perspective Project and Portfolio Management. Seth is a Senior Director with Microsoft. 30 Minutes

In – Database Analytics

Smart enterprises are driving risk management, fraud detection, business process management and investment strategies, as well as competitive product, marketing and customer relationship strategies with In –Database Business Analytics. In –Database Business Analytics removes application barriers to perform critical drill-downs that were previously impossible or impractical using outside the database approaches. In traditional approaches, end-users must transport data out of the database for processing. This activity often accounts for up to 75 percent of the cycle time and imposes severe constraints on throughput and timely delivery of results. We interview Joydeep Das to gain Sybase's perspective on In –Database Business Analytics. Joydeep is a Senior Product Manager with Sybase. 44 Minutes

Improve ROI with Uplift Modeling

Identifying waste in your marketing campaign budget and hidden incremental revenue are key to improving marketing campaign ROI. Achieve that mission, and you could realize a potential reduction of costs of up to 40 percent while simultaneously improving response by up to 35 percent. You can enjoy that kind of result by leveraging a statistical technique that can identify customers that will respond anyway, without the need for a campaign, as well as those who could be negatively affected by the marketing action. Moreover, Uplift Modeling can deliver higher response and incremental revenue simply by targeting fewer customers, effectively reducing campaign costs. We interview Dr. Mark Smith to gain Portrait Software's perspective on predictive analytics. Mark is the EVP of Sales and Marketing for Portrait Software. 36 Minutes

Business Process Mobilization

We have only just scratched the surface of the productivity gains that are likely to grow from the development of mobile technology. Furthermore, the paradigm is shifting from portable voice transmission and email delivery to a complete pocket office and control center that can replicate every function available at company headquarters. Companies that embrace the new technology will enhance their existing IT investments, increase their workforce productivity and put themselves at the forefront of the new business mobility that can help companies manage their business more effectively and more profitably. Moreover, you can now leverage a new level of access to information and management control of processes and operations than has previously been thought possible. We interview Bryan Whitmarsh to gain Sybase's perspective on business process mobilization. Bryan is a senior product manager with Sybase. 26 Minutes

Better Decision Management

One of the biggest challenges facing businesses is to make sure they can manage decisons with greater precision, agility, speed and consistency, all while driving down costs. To meet the challenge, Decision Management Platforms tightly integrate their capabilities with a company’s existing IT architecture. Moreover, DM builds on your modern IT architecture and allows you to manage decisons as a true corporate asset. Managing decisons as assets empowers business users, accelerates the time to value for business changes and helps build a new partnership between the business and IT. Furthermore, when it comes to making decisons in the face of uncertainty, it is critical to leverage analytics for more effective risk management. We interview Carole Ann Matignon to gain FICO's perspective on decision management. Carole Ann is VP Product Management at FICO. 43 Minutes

Outsourced Network Monitoring

Enterprise data centers not only need to keep their networks and business applications up and running, but also performing optimally. However, monitoring and managing these heterogeneous, and increasingly virtualized environments can be challenging -- requiring significant time and multidomain expertise. Given the complexity of these networks, IT organizations usually find it difficult to quickly troubleshoot network issues or determine the cause of application performance degradation. To meet this challenge, more and more organizations are turning to a SaaS model to improve application availability and proactive management. By doing so, they are reducing capital and operational costs, mitigate risk and improving service levels. We interview Nupur Thakur to gain Brocade's perspective on Network Monitoring. Nupur is a product manager for Brocade’s Network Monitoring Service. 21 Minutes

Smarter Analytics with Sybase IQ 15

For more than 40 years, businesses have been using information technology to automate front office and back office operational systems. Throughout that time, businesses have made tremendous gains in productivity, but the technology has consistently failed to meet the needs of decision-makers throughout the enterprise. Meanwhile, the volume and complexity of transactional data has grown exponentially. In today’s environment, operational excellence is not enough to propel your business forward. Winners (and losers) are now determined by the quality of the decisions and predictions enabled by getting the answers you need. We interview Dan Lahl to gain Sybase's perspective on how to get smarter answers with column based analytical servers. Dan is the Director of Marketing for Sybase IQ. 52 Minutes

IT Financial Management

Capturing IT costs merely as general overhead keeps the enterprise from truly understanding the business contribution made by IT. IT Finance Managers need the means to assess IT spending as it relates to specific business initiatives. By mapping costs to architectural elements and then aggregating them in various combinations that are relevant to the business, IT can achieve a clear understanding of those costs. That can help identify potential savings that could free up financial resources. Not to mention create a defendable position against the preconception that IT organizations don’t understand financial planning issues. We interview Dr. Ulrich Kalex to gain alfabet's perspective on IT Financial Management. Ulrich is the VP of Product Line Management at alfabet. 35 Minutes

Extend the Reach of Traditional BI

Saving labor on tedious tasks and freeing employees for more thought intensive work generates a dynamic competitive advantage for your business. This is being accomplished by creating intelligent tools that supercharge the knowledge management process by enabling a Web2.0 ecosystem for accessing, sharing and delivering business intelligence. Moreover, the solution is powered by machine-intelligent software Agents that act as an extension for business staff to collect, aggregate and mashup near real-time data from reliable Web and enterprise sources. Furthermore, the next generation of BI applications provide on the spot extract transform loading which is created by non-programmers from intranets, email and documents. We interview Bruce Molloy to gain Connotate Technologies' perspective on how to extend the reach of traditional business intelligence with software agents. Bruce is Connotate's CEO. 35 Minutes

Enterprise Social Networking

Wikis have taken the Content Management System and Email revolutions to the next level by helping organizations optimize the sharing of collective knowledge, insights and creativity. Specifically, Wikis improve connectedness by tapping into community involvement. As you know, delegation is key to managerial success, but community delegation drives greater leverage and productivity. Furthermore, Wikis can improve business processes by capturing and disseminating the subtleness of informal knowledge. Finally, when selecting an enterprise-class wiki solution look to scalability, performance, reliability and a secure well-supported environment. We interview Devang Mehta to gain eTouch SamePage's perspective on enterprise social networking.
Devang is the head of marketing and business development for eTouch SamePage. 43 Minutes

Better Decisions With BI Reporting

A sales meeting is in full swing, but it immediately stalls because none of the sales figures in the PowerPoint presentation match the data compiled by the sales managers. Then reports generated within HR show an alarming increase in the rate of turnover. But further investigation uncovers information indicating that retention is at an all-time high. Which set of data is right? These scenarios are real and occur every day in businesses around the world. So what can be done to get consistent, trusted data to the people who need it?
We interview Tim Lang to gain insight into how to make better decisions with embedded reporting.
Tim is is a vice president of developer programs for Business Objects. 49 Minutes

Higher Business Performance

Enterprise BI solutions need to be efficient, reliable, and agile. To meet that requirement, leaders must leverage an architecture that is open and standards-based, platform neutral, location transparent, and that features peer-to-peer services that are loosely coupled, interface based, and coarsely grained. SOA, on the other hand, is ideal. Furthermore, with the right information-enabling technology and leadership, decision-makers can become performance managers. Reporting is key to catalyzing your performance management effort. We interview Meg Dussault, and Leah MacMillan to gain Cognos' perspective on turning information into higher business performance. Meg is the Director of corporate positioning, and Leah is the VP of product marketing both are with Cognos. 39 Minutes

Integrated Security Management

Traditional security management does not enable your security team to be aware of any evolving situation - in real time. However, integrated security management can deliver mission critical superior awareness and actionable intelligence. In particular, advanced sensor technologies can help you meet this challenge for homeland security, force protection and commercial applications. Furthermore, it is critical to integrate access control & identification, intrusion detection, video & analytics, building & fire controls, and third party products - together with sensors that detect chemical, biological, radiological, and explosive threats. Finally, to achieve a comprehensive defense, leverage ground radar, thermal imaging, and mobile platforms. We interview Kevin Wine to gain ICx Technologies' perspective on integrated security management. 30 Minutes

Semantics Battles Fraud

The perpetrators of financial crime are constantly modifying their tactics, and centralizing case management is an effective way to deal with them. Furthermore, by automating the case management process, you can monitor cases in near-real time and in-flight. This ensures that fraud cases don’t fall through the cracks, and that you are more efficient. Gaining greater business knowledge from existing fraud databases and legacy systems should be a key component of your strategy. Particularly, semantics can facilitate better trend analysis, and make it available immediately to fraud analysts. By leveraging semantics, fraud risk managers get the upper hand by obtain a contextual view of the fraud and risk exposure across your enterprise. We interview Jeff Dickerson to gain Metatomix's perspective on the role of semantics in financial services. Jeff is the CEO of Metatomix. 30 Minutes

Semantically Connected Intelligence

When you’re making an important business decision or reacting to a developing emergency, you want to concentrate on crucial information. Leverage typical search tools, data warehouses or publish-subscribe systems, and you might end up with a vague analysis, a slow response, and an unsound decision. Optimizing your decision process requires information from multiple sources which come in different formats, and which is organized in conflicting ways. Needless to say, the potential for confusion is huge. To makes sense this real-time information jigsaw puzzle, you need technology that understands the context of data. We interview Daniel Reininger to gain Semandex Networks' perspective on Semantically connected intelligence.
Daniel is the CEO of Semandex Networks. 37 Minutes

Semantics Drives Critical Intelligence

Jessica Lunsford was murdered by a known sex offender who did not inform the police that he had moved into her neighborhood, and who had been released earlier by a state court that did not have access to parts of his criminal record. This tragedy has caused new information-integration technologies to be adopted by the Florida court system. Those semantic technologies link data from existing disparate systems to create a more common understanding.

We interview Howard Greenblatt to gain Metatomix's perspective on how semantics drives mission critical actionable intelligence. Howard is the CTO of Metatomix. 35 Minutes

Semantic Tech Drives Actionable Insight

Semantic technology intelligently links customer data from existing disparate systems to create a common understanding of your customer across the enterprise. Using this contextual understanding, semantic solutions enable real-time analysis and insights, orchestrating coordinated responses amongst existing systems to optimize customer response and relationships. Furthermore, the semantic approach intelligently integrates existing systems in real-time to optimize and implement decisions based on the best data available. We interview Colin Britton to gain Metatomix's perspective on how turn data into actionable insight.
Colin is the CTO of Metatomix. 32 Minutes

Semantics Drives User Empowerment

Information workers have too many things to track across the Web and Enterprise. Furthermore, ignoring Information Fragmentation can cost you your competitive advantage. To meet this challenge, many companies are supercharging their knowledge management process by enabling a Web2.0 ecosystem within the enterprise. For example, Intelligent Software Agents can monitor, mashup and extract information from a variety of internal and external sources to deliver actionable insight. Collecting, aggregating and delivering normalized data from a broad range of structured and unstructured fast-changing sources is key to creating user empowerment. We interview Bruce Molloy to gain Connotate Technologies' perspective on information access technology. Bruce is the CEO of Connotate Technologies. 35 Minutes

Decision Services

When planning BPM systems and SOA, the role of business rules management needs to be examined and clarified. This is best achieved by creating a set of modular software applications that can work together and allow each component of the system to focus on what it does best. By leveraging SOA, organizations can create and implement new applications more quickly than with other development approaches. These new service-based applications can easily be designed to interact with other “services” both inside and outside of the organization. The next step in the SOA paradigm is to automate the answering of business questions for other services, applications or processes. We interview James Taylor to gain Fair Isaac's perspective on decision services. James is the VP of marketing at Fair Isaac. 46 Minutes

The Journey to Web 3.0

Web 3.0 is a collection of concepts, and inventions that have yet to be adopted by the masses. Furthermore, the missing links of vocabulary and event processing are preventing current solutions around SOA and Business Intelligence from completely delivering on their promise of agility, customer retention and growth. SOA is the enablement platform for Web 3.0 and Semantics will play a key role in its functionality. We interview Sam Ceccola to gain BEA Systems' perspective on how Semantics is the glue binding Social Computing, Business Intelligence and SOA to create Web 3.0. Sam Ceccola is the Deputy CTO of BEA Systems.
60 Minutes

Smarter Decisions with EDM

The need to make decisions with greater precision, consistency and agility is the driving force behind enterprise decision management. EDM leverages predictive analytics and business rules management to ramp up business intelligence to the next level from reporting to the execution of decisions. Adding EDM to BI extends the value of analytics driven insights, and allows businesses to make smarter strategic, tactical and operational decisions.

We interview James Taylor to gain insight into to making smarter decisions with EDM.
James is the VP of marketing at Fair Isaac. 43 Minutes

Driving SOA With Consistent Decisions

SOA's decentralized application environment provides a great deal of flexibility for business units, but it also creates difficulty in managing the consistency of business decisions delivered through various applications. Consequently, businesses must meet the challenge of how logic and rules relate to and can be expressed through through services. Business rules management systems provide a mechanism for managing decision logic and acts as a conductor in order to align application decision behavior.
We interview James Taylor to gain insight into achieving decision consistency across a SOA based enterprise.

James is the VP of marketing at Fair Isaac. 52 Minutes