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DSS News
by D. J. Power
November 4, 2001 -- Vol. 2, No. 23
A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM
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Check Timo Elliot's article, Pfizer case at DSSResources.COM
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Featured:
* DSS Wisdom
* Ask Dan! - What is business intelligence?
* What's New at DSSResources.COM
* DSS News Stories
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This newsletter has more than 700 subscribers from
50 countries. Please forward this newsletter to people interested in
Decision Support Systems or suggest they visit DSSResources.COM.
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NOTE: Paper submissions due November 30, 2001 for IFIP WG 8.3 Conference
on Decision Support Systems (DSS), Decision Support in the Internet Age,
Cork, Ireland, July 4-7, 2002. Check http://afis.ucc.ie/dsiage2002/.
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DSS Wisdom
In 1993, Len Jessup and Joe Valacich noted, "It is difficult to even
begin to ask what effects GSS will have or how they will be used because
the term Group Support System is somewhat nebulous. Indeed, there are
marked differences from one GSS to the next. By 'Group Support System'
we mean computer-based information systems used to support intellectual
collaborative work." (p. 5)
Jessup, Leonard M., and Joseph S. Valacich, Group Support Systems: New
Perspectives, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993.
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Ask Dan!
What is business intelligence?
In the previous DSS News (Vol. 2, No. 22), I briefly discussed the term
business intelligence and mentioned that "business intelligence" is my
favorite IS/IT oxymoron. Well that comment lead to a few emails and this
follow-up column.
The general thrust of the emails was that business intelligence is a
term like military or competitive intelligence. And hence, the purpose
of BI is to gather information to help managers make more "intelligent"
decisions and not to make managers more intelligent. This
interpretation of the term may be appropriate for describing a staff
group tasked with gathering information, e.g., a business intelligence
unit, but it works less well for explaining IS/IT technologies and
applications.
Information Systems vendors and analysts tend to use the term for a
category of software tools that can be used to extract and analyze data
from corporate databases. The most commonly used business
intelligence software is known as a "query and reporting" tool.
Also, Business Intelligence is a term that some financial analysts and
commentators use for categorizing a small group of software vendors and
their products. A number of commentators identify the following
companies as major BI tool vendors: Brio, Business Objects, Cognos,
Hyperion/Essbase, and MicroStrategy.
>From a historical perspective, business intelligence is a popularized,
umbrella term introduced by Howard Dresner of the Gartner Group in 1989
to describe a set of concepts and methods to improve business decision
making by using fact-based support systems. In the early 1990s, the term
was sometimes used interchangeably with briefing books and executive
information systems.
SDG Computing's (http://www.sdgcomputing.com/) Business Intelligence and
Data Warehousing glossary defines Business Intelligence Tools ver
broadly as "software that enables business users to see and use large
amounts of complex data". SDG Computing categorizes three types of tools
as Business Intelligence Tools: 1. Multidimensional Analysis; 2. Query
Tools; and 3. Data Mining Tools.
Well, so much for agreement on the meaning of the term Business
Intelligence and related terms like Business Intelligence Tools. What
do the major BI vendors say about their BI products and services?
Brio doesn't claim to sell Business Intelligence Tools, rather according
to the website Brio "markets business performance software, comprised of
three subcategories that includes ad hoc query and analysis,
reporting/OLAP, executive information systems and analytical
applications.
Business Objects claims it is the world's leading provider of business
intelligence (BI) solutions. According to their website, "business
intelligence lets organizations access, analyze, and share information
internally with employees and externally with customers, suppliers, and
partners." Business Objects was founded in 1990 and it "pioneered the
modern business intelligence industry by inventing and patenting a
"semantic layer" that insulates users from the technical complexity of
database systems".
Cognos claims it is the leading provider of enterprise business
intelligence solutions. Cognos defines business intelligence as "a
category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing,
analyzing, reporting on and providing access to data to help enterprise
users make better business decisions".
Hyperion is positioned as "a global leader in business intelligence
software". It creates solutions that help businesses measure performance
and drive profitability. Hyperion sells a database product called
Essbase and financial analysis, performance management and eCRM analysis
solutions.
Finally, the MicroStrategy website notes the company helps "corporations
transform their operational data into actionable information".
MicroStrategy's Business Intelligence platform, MicroStrategy 7, helps
meet query, reporting, and advanced analytical needs.
What does all of this mean to IS/IT staff and business managers?
Confusion and "hype". Broadening the Business Intelligence umbrella is
continuing and is increasing the conceptual confusion. For example,
LexisNexis and iPhrase are partnering to deliver Business Intelligence
solutions based on documents in the LexisNexis Advertising Red Books
directories. Also, a Reuters news story dated 10/19/01 states business
intelligence software allows companies to determine, for example, which
of a group of customers is most likely to buy a car this year.
Richard Hackathorn, a pioneer in the field of Decision Support Systems,
had some comments about Business Intelligence in the November 2001 DM
Review. Hackathorn reminds us that information itself is pure overhead
and that it delivers no direct value to a business. He says that today
the issue is making BI actionable. He argues that "if your BI projects
are not changing the way that you do business, then they should not be
considered BI". Apparently, we still need to "institutionalize" decision
support technologies to gain benefits.
Business intelligence services are "big" business. Research firm Gartner
Dataquest predicts business intelligence services will grow from $9
billion in 2000 to $18.5 billion in 2005. IDC estimates BI is currently
a $5.5 billion market. By the year 2005, IDC expects the
business intelligence services market to nearly triple, reaching $15.7
billion annually.
Commentators, IS/IT staff and managers are having problems with the term
Business Intelligence. Let's show some mercy and at a minimum add
descriptors like services, tools, department or industry to the phrase.
Business Intelligence has replaced OLAP as the "hot" buzzword and some
vendors want to capture the data mining and customer relationship fads.
In general, I have a problem with all of the various interpretations of
the term Business Intelligence. Some BI vendors stress one
interpretation and some stress another. Some vendors are moving to the
term analytics, but decision support is what it is all about. The most
common "business intelligence" software sold is for querying a database
and creating a report ... I'd recommend vendors focus on supporting
decision making rather than providing "intelligence" to managers or
making managers "smarter", "more capable as decision makers" or "more
intelligent".
For my part, I'll continue to focus on examining and researching various
types of DSS, including Data-Driven Decision Support Systems. Let's
build a decision support industry that provides organizations with a
variety of decision support products and services and let's help
managers build information systems that meet their decision support
needs.
Hackathorn, R. "Making Business Intelligence Actionable," DM Review,
November 2001, p. 32.
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What's New at DSSResources.COM
10/28/2001 Posted article by Elliot, T., "Enterprise Analytic
Applications: A Guide to the Latest Developments", DSSResources.COM.
10/27/2001 Posted case by Alphablox Staff, "Pfizer uses Alphablox
Web-based platform to create Sales Analysis Decision Support
application", Alphablox, Inc., 2001.
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DSS News Stories: October 22 to November 4
11/01/2001 Artemis introduces ViewPoint, a new web-based project and
resource collaboration solution.
10/30/2001 eProject releases new version of project management and
collaboration software suite.
10/29/2001 LexisNexis and iPhrase partner to deliver Business
Intelligence solutions.
10/29/2001 Crystal Analysis Professional provides analytic application
front-end for iBaan BI Solution.
10/25/2001 BITS endorses framework for managing outsourcing risk.
10/24/2001 SAS receives 2001 DM Review Readership Award in the category
of Business Solutions and Analytic Applications.
10/24/2001 The Oak Group announced contract to license its MCAP Criteria
to Massachusetts General Hospital.
10/24/2001 US Air Force selects BroadVision to power enterprise-wide
portal initiatives.
10/23/2001 Alphablox leading provider of infrastructure software for
Inline Analytics to financial market.
10/23/2001 Business Objects awards five customers for excellence in
Business Intelligence.
10/22/2001 Boeing Space and Communications Division to roll out Cognos
to 2,000 employees.
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