Middletown, Connecticut, April 7, 2003 - Ever since computers came on strong in the 1980s, companies have been trying to figure out ways to harness the power of all the data they created. In the late 90s, a new term started floating around the business world: business intelligence or BI. BI is the idea of getting information quickly and easily from the huge piles of data generated by business systems. Using special technology tools, businesses were able to scour their data and turn it into intelligent information.
"Like all things technical, some say that BI was going to have a short lifecycle," says Al Maza, a Senior Solution Developer with Pinnacle Decision Systems, a computer consulting and software development firm in Middletown, Connecticut. "But I see a very bright future for BI systems. We'll start seeing them play more central roles in business over the next few years. Business leaders have been clamoring for easy to use information portals, where they can get answers to a specific question, or snapshots of their entire operation, on demand. BI tools and system development methodology have improved to the point where they can start delivering on these long standing promises.
Maza outlined his thoughts on the future of Business Intelligence and what it means for business leaders:
Web Portals as Single Source of Information: "This is probably the most important trend, simplifying how BI is presented to people by consolidating a wide array of information into a few, well organized web pages," says Maza. "The BI tools can be extremely complex to use. So the key to having a successful BI system is having an interface that is simple to operate. If you can hide the complexity of tools through the browser and integrate multiple data sources and make the system more convenient, you have a winner. The trend now is for the use of 'digital dashboards,' which allow for a single point of entry for enterprise-wide information sharing that allows self-service information retrieval. Some of these dashboards can be set up in something as simple as Excel and ASP pages."
Standards To Develop: Part of the reason BI has been hard to understand is the lack of standardization among BI vendors. But Maza says he expects that to change in the near future.
"Companies like Microsoft and Oracle are the 800 pound gorillas that have started to enter the arena and this will give the BI market a huge boost," Maza says. "As the big players start to standardize BI interfaces, we'll see them integrate BI systems into their operational and data warehousing toolsets. Most BI vendors have already flocked to the vision of these two goliaths, releasing product versions that they claim are 100% compatible with Microsoft .NET or Oracle."
For example, Microsoft's release of SQL Server 2000 included a Pivot table engine that is shared by their popular desktop products, Access and Excel. Its BI framework attempts to put some structure around BI development methodology, and make information dissemination a more pivotal part of enterprise-wide system development strategies. The application of XML to BI systems provides a common data interchange platform that assists in the important task of integrating several data sources into a single user interface with a single point of entry.
"We're going to see the end of the 'flavor-of-the-month' BI technology, where companies end up with a multitude of proprietary tools that are often under-utilized, cost the firm hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees, and require large support teams to administer," Maza says. "Now that the bigger vendors are entering the field, there is no need for the small individual tools."
BI Projects Begin to Get Larger in Scope - Again: "There are plenty of horror stories about data warehousing projects of the 1980s that were huge, multi-million dollar efforts that never saw the light of day. They took too much time and money to develop, and the end product was often obsolete before being deployed," says Maza. "This led to the creation of smaller, more targeted datamarts and BI tools. But these disjointed attempts to deliver information to end-users resulted in dozens of non-integrated, often redundant or contradictory data sources within the same organization. This is why the new trend for BI will be to swing back to larger data warehousing/BI undertakings."
Maza says the technology that allows the delivery of information through a thin client system has improved tremendously in the past few years. When companies went to smaller systems, they ended up with very targeted but disjointed systems. When executives wanted to see the big picture, they couldn't. They had to go to four or five places to get answers, which wasn't an optimal solution. Now, development tools have shortened development cycles and planners are recognizing that BI considerations should be built into the enterprise-wide computing plan, rather than as an afterthought.
"We're also seeing decision makers in companies push for easy-to-understand, single point-of-entry sources for data," says Maza. "This is encouraging project planners to integrate many different reporting strategies into a single strategy. Enterprise information integration and real-time analytics will make centralization of information, and the need for corporate data administration, imperative to an organization's success. As a result, companies will seek to build single source, single delivery point BI systems that are accessible over a wide array of intranet, extranet and mobile devices."
Leveraging of Existing In-House Capabilities and Tools: As the economy continues to contract and corporate budgets get squeezed, Maza says the environment is changing to allow for the development of successful BI initiatives. "CIOs need to find a way to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for better organized, more integrated, easily accessible information, while keeping costs to a minimum," he says. "The need to turn a company's most vital raw material into a useful product will drive CIOs to seek out ways to develop more information flow capabilities, which in turn means more BI development."
The key to that development according to Maza will be getting the capabilities in a more productive manner than as been seen in the past. There will be less development of small, specific BI applications that do not communicate with each other, and often do not even share the same data sources and more for the larger systems.
"In the future, information delivery will become more standardized, among vendors and IT development shops alike," Maza says. "We will see corporate strategies that reduce the amount of proprietary tools and systems they utilize, and seek to use 'best-of-breed' toolsets that provide the best functionality, while incorporating all data into one BI system. Vendors such as Microsoft and their strategic partners, will benefit from this trend."
Maza says the losers could well be the other BI vendors who have already been losing market share over the past couple of years as Microsoft has risen to the forefront of the market. "I think a few vendors, such as Informatica and Cognos will hold their share in the near future, but many Microsoft-based consulting companies will eventually gravitate to an integrated Microsoft data warehouse/business intelligence solution that promises better integration with operational systems built on the .NET platform. I think that people who are buying into other BI solutions thinking that they're .NET compliant may get left out in the cold when Microsoft takes over 50% of the market."
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Pinnacle Decision Systems provides application development, technology consulting, and solutions integration services to help improve the agility of mid-to-Fortune 500 sized companies. As one of the Northeast's leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partners, Pinnacle's solutions focus on Microsoft's .NET initiative and utilize the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF). Pinnacle's senior team combines certified technical capacities with business application savvy and a dedication to MSF principles. This combination enables Pinnacle's clients to avoid the risks and delays typically associated with the deployment of next generation technology. Pinnacle Decision Systems is headquartered in Middletown, Connecticut and can be reached on the Internet at www.pinndec.com or (860) 632-7766.