Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence

As Business Intelligence (BI) technology offerings become more robust, companies are lining up to implement these tools to make the right business decisions at the right time. In fact, deploying BI systems is now one of the top three priorities of CIOs, according to Gartner. Companies using or planning to use business intelligence software expect to spend about 5 percent to 10 percent of their software budgets on these tools. However, new levels of transparency require new BI technology developments to turn insight into action. The ability to offer more insight to more action is why Business Objects ranked No.1 with the readers of CGT. In November, the company unleashed Crystal Xcelsius, which allows users to turn ordinary Excel spreadsheets into interactive visual analytics. Business Objects also unveiled its Intelligent Question offering this year, which claims to bring "BI to every worker -- regardless of technical skill or job title." At No. 2, Cognos has a firm grasp on what constitutes robust business intelligence. In 2005, the company landed on Gartner's "leaders" quadrant in both CPM Suites and Enterprise Business Intelligence Suites and Platforms. Furthering its growth in the consumer goods arena in 2005, Vendor Managed Technologies landed P&G, Rayovac and Elmer's Products, which all selected Velocity to improve in-stock levels with key retail partners. Both Microsoft and Oracle (through the acquisition of Siebel) also made significant BI product announcements in 2005. Microsoft said it "significantly increased and broadened its investment in BI." The company introduced Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005, which showcases BI capabilities in the next release of Microsoft Office products, Microsoft Office 12.

Breakout Winners
Customer Experience
Even though engine manufacturer Briggs & Stratton relies on disparate pieces of software to operate its business, including SAP R/3 and Oracle, the company relies on SAS for all of its business intelligence endeavors. "SAS puts me in the position to draw on a very high level of expertise, and the quality of the software is an enormous benefit to me and to Briggs & Stratton," says Grant Felsing, decision support manager, Briggs & Stratton.

Small/Midsize business
Paramount Cards, the third largest U.S. greeting card company, was spending too much time compiling, printing and mailing sales performance tracking reports to field sales personnel. Cognos provided an answer. "The time our IT department spends on this reporting has actually decreased," says Mark Deuschle, Paramount's EVP of sales and marketing. "We've eliminated the discussions about where data is. We've eliminated the re-keying of crude profit and loss information into spreadsheets."