business intelligence 2.0

Business Intelligence: Thriving in Economic Uncertainty

A RT I C L E S A RT I C L E S A RT I C L E S A RT I C L E S

A RT I C L E S A RT I C L E S

C A S ES T U D I E S





N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 8 M I C R O S O F T

INtROductION There’s little doubt that the current economic situation presents challenges for businesses of all sizes in every industry. Around the globe, companies must cut costs and reduce risks as they confront slower sales, hesitant suppliers, and tighter credit. But with challenges come opportunities. If you maintain a long-term perspective—even as you take short-term steps to adjust to economic realities—you can sharpen your organization’s focus. Even with limited resources, it’s possible to achieve your business objectives if you reduce costs, make smarter strategic decisions, and continue innovating new products and solutions.

With Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI), you can focus your resources—whether they are people, technology, or capital assets—to achieve these goals and generate the maximum return for your organization. You get the right information to the right people faster. As a result, they make smarter, more informed decisions, increasing efficiencies in the short term and positioning the company for growth in the long term.

Because you probably already own much of the Microsoft Business Intelligence solution with Microsoft® Office 2007 suites and Microsoft® SQL Server®, it’s also the most cost-effective choice for deploying Business Intelligence throughout your organization.

thE BackdROp:

uNcERtaIN EcONOMIc tIMEs

In an uncertain economy, many companies feel the pinch of reduced business activity. Customer orders fall, scrutiny for management decisions rises, and suppliers and lenders seek safe, low-risk investments. As a result, it becomes increasingly important to do more with less, compete effectively for limited credit, and reassure stakeholders and investors. Doing more with less usually involves “belt-tightening” measures, such as hiring freezes and layoffs. Management examines budgets more closely, looking for ways to save money without compromising on quality or service. Executives reevaluate travel, computer, and supply expenses, and attempt to negotiate better rates for everything from freight contracts to insurance premiums.

Competing effectively in a tight credit market also raises new issues. Limited credit means fewer available funds for investments. Now is the time to carefully analyze investment options so that limited funds are put to the best use. And securing new funds requires forecasting an accurate return on investment—whether it’s an outlay for new IT infrastructure or new machinery. In addition, frozen credit can impact the entire supply chain, causing delays or limited availability to key raw materials. It’s crucial to have contingency plans for handling the potential impact of constrained trade.Finally, in an uncertain economy, stakeholders and lenders are less willing to take risks. They seek low-risk investments that keep their capital investment whole and return even a small profit. Before investors will approve additional funds, they want to know that management has evaluated multiple scenarios—such as worst case, most likely case, and best case—and aligned potential returns within a range of market uncertainty. During periods of upheaval, it’s essential to rely on solid financial analysis to assess risk and return. Armed with this analysis, it’s possible to reassure the stakeholders and lenders that are financing strategic initiatives.

thE cRItIcal succEss factORs fOR

suRVIVINg EcONOMIc uNcERtaINty

To address the challenges of doing more with less, competing for funds in a tighter credit market, and reassuring cautious

stakeholders and investors, you need to increase visibility into your financial and operational performance. This paper addresses how Business Intelligence can help you reduce costs, make smarter operational decisions, and continue innovating so you can survive—even thrive—within an uncertain economy.

Reduce Costs Business Intelligence can reduce costs in two ways: It helps you root out wasteful, expensive inefficiencies and it automates routine processes, saving you valuable time and resources.

Find InefficienciesTo identify areas of inefficiency, you need complete insight into your financial and operational performance. Powerful business intelligence tools improve financial visibility so you can better analyze your operations. Take for example, Culver Franchising Systems, Inc. (CFSI), a company that operates hundreds of restaurants and franchises throughout 17 states. With the help of Microsoft Business Intelligence solutions, CFSI helps franchisees lower food costs and improve the speed of service. The solution provides CFSI with better visibility into the performance of Culver’s restaurants and menu items, and identifies areas where restaurants can reduce costs without compromising quality or speed of service.

OpERatE sMaRtER, MORE stRatEgIcally

With effective Business Intelligence you not only reduce costs, you operate smarter and more strategically, building a foundation you can grow on when the economy picks up. A robust Business Intelligence solution supports your ability to operate smarter by helping you:

• Get real-time information to the right employees• Find profitable customers• Pivot on a dime

Get Real-Time Information to the Right EmployeesYou want to empower your employees with the real-time information they need to make better, more strategic decisions. Business Intelligence gets the right information to the right people faster. For example, customer support representatives can use Business Intelligence to review information that helps them identify cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. Sales directors can gain visibility into the pipeline and prioritize their efforts around their most profitable customers. And your CFO can set automatic alerts to warn of potential problems with cash flow. With access to real-time information, your employees—those that close deals, build customer relationships, and plan for the future—can quickly analyze what’s happening within the

Like CFSI, you can use Business Intelligence to understand variances and interdependencies and drill down into detail to find trends. Armed with this analysis, you can make smart, cost-reducing changes than improve operational efficiencies.

Save MoneyAnother way to cut costs is to automate routine processes so that you can reduce time-consuming manual intervention. Consider TAC Americas, a company specializing in energy management. It no longer manages multiple charts of accounts or relies on a host of macros to consolidate and report numbers. The company now uses a Microsoft Business Intelligence solution to simplify and automate its consolidated results. The time saving of such automation is significant: It’s slashed TAC Americas’ consolidation process from about four hours to fifteen minutes.

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly provides another dramatic example of using Business Intelligence to save money. They developed a Business Intelligence solution to pull data from an ERP system and other data sources, eliminating many hours of work. One newly automated visual presentation—a “relationship diagram,” which lets managers collapse charts for multiple drug projects into a program-level view—saves Lilly $500,000 a year in labor costs, the company says.

B u s I N E s s I N t E l l I g E N c E : t h R I V I N g I N E c O N O M I c u N c E Rta I N t y c o n t i n u e d . . .

directing officer of business intelligence. “With analysis services and the rest of our Business Intelligence environment on the Microsoft application platform, we can provide even better results within just a few days. The drill-through capabilities of analysis services are very important to our analysts.”

Pivot on a DimeYour ability to sense and react to shifting market dynamics can set you apart from the competition. You need to identify problems early on, so you can make quick decisions in response to changes in the marketplace. You need analytical tools that can help you turn data into powerful information, driving better, faster decision making. And you must be able to incorporate course changes into future forecasts and plans.

Detecting potential problems early is critical to altering course and improving operations. A powerful BI solution delivers an information-rich dashboard that helps you identify problems before they become insurmountable. Glenn Yaffa, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates notes, “The dashboard gives me an immediate view of the key performance indicators that I need to track. It enables me to act faster to address potential problems.”

business today and make decisions based on information that’s both current and relevant.

Find Profitable CustomersProfitable customers are the ones worth fighting for. In uncertain economic times, you simply can’t afford to waste precious time and resources on customers that are not in a position to buy. Business Intelligence helps you analyze customer profitability, so you can allocate your limited resources on those customers that are profitable now—and cultivate those customers most likely to grow your sales when the economy recovers.

PREMIER Bankcard, one of the nation’s largest credit card providers, uses powerful analytics to answer an endless array of “what if ” questions to identify the best mix of customers. “We just had a meeting earlier this week with a department that makes decisions on the credit worthiness of our customers,” says Dan Zerfas, vice president of software development. “Their question was: ‘What if we made a slight percentage point change in our approval rate for one element of customer qualification? What would this change?’”

“It used to take months to answer this type of question, assembling and analyzing the data,” says Ron Van Zanten,








Using a Microsoft Office PerformancePoint® Server 2007-based solution, GPX, a manufacturer of specialty tires, is better able to ensure consistent measurement of targets and track results throughout organization. “The integrated Business Intelligence solution is not only intuitive and easy to use, it helps deliver significant strategic value to our organization by allowing us to report current activities and better forecast for the future,” says Andy Soares, manager of business intelligence and data integrity.

INNOVatE tO cREatE a cONdItION

fOR gROwth

In any economy, innovation is essential to business success. While the economic downturn lasts, you need to cut costs and make better strategic decisions. You also must continue creating products and services that will drive greater revenues when the economy improves. With an effective Business Intelligence solution, you can identify buying patterns so that you can focus your resources on creating and producing only in-demand products.

For example, the success of a pharmaceutical company directly correlates to its ability to innovate needed treatments. Eli Lilly’s scientists, who work on several thousand potential new drugs at any given time, are always looking for the next

Yaffa credits his dashboard with providing an early warning when the company’s orders for imported wine appeared insufficient to meet anticipated demand. Because of the alert, Yaffa called his national sales manager and was able to address the potential problem before it actually cut into revenues. In addition to early detection, Business Intelligence offers sophisticated analytic tools that turn data into powerful information. Mark Kinkade, CIO at the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), explains how that agency’s Microsoft Business Intelligence solution drives critical decisions by providing users with the ability to slice and dice data and decisions. “With the Microsoft solution, IDOT can allocate resources more effectively and quantify the decisions we’re making. It’ll also allow our staff to make better decisions quicker,” says Kinkade.

Not only can Business Intelligence help you track key metrics and rapidly analyze data, it lets you forecast and plan based on multiple scenarios and changing business conditions. With integrated forecasting and planning, you can quickly test and map the best route through economic uncertainty. Further, you can use comprehensive scenario planning, for example, to provide assurances to stakeholders and lenders that you have thoroughly vetted funding requests for strategic initiatives.


insight and speed, which is especially critical in an uncertain economy. Business Intelligence solutions from Microsoft combine the best value, pervasive deployment, and complete integration you need to deliver the most cost-effective and feature-rich Business Intelligence solution. Best ValueMicrosoft Business Intelligence solutions deliver greater value at lower cost than many competitive products—making them particularly ideal in difficult economic times. When resources are limited, leveraging what you already own is a smart, cost-effective approach. A case in point: Ste. Michelle Wine Estates adopted its Microsoft Business Intelligence solution for just half the cost of alternative solutions. “The Microsoft Business Intelligence solution gave us the best combination of price and performance of any of the options that we considered,” says Alan Stefanin, the database architect at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. “We have a best-of-breed strategy, and Microsoft Business Intelligence fit into that perfectly. A significant share of our IT infrastructure is based on Microsoft technologies, and this solution will operate easily with what we already used.”

potential blockbuster. Eli Lilly adopted a new centralized portfolio management system, based in part on Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 for Business Intelligence and Office SharePoint® Server 2007 as a system portal, to facilitate that process. Scientists can now assemble portfolio information in a matter of hours, a process that used to take a month or two. “Our ability to access, apply, and manage information through the portfolio, from basic innovation to marketplace dynamics, has to advance dramatically, and this is one of those tools that will help us do that,” says CIO Mike Heim. “As a pharmaceutical company, your innovation engine and the ability to bring those innovations to market is crucial,” Heim says. “If we don’t innovate, we go out of business.”†

pOwERful, cOst-EffEctIVE sOlutIONs:

MIcROsOft BusINEss INtEllIgENcE

A new generation of flexible, cost-effective Business Intelligence solutions can help you reduce costs, make smarter operating decisions, and continue innovating in a down economy. Further, these solutions let you understand and respond to changing business conditions with greater








†InformationWeek 500: Orion Builds Efficiency Into Eli Lilly’s R&D System,

Mary Hayes Weier, InformationWeek, Sept. 15, 2008.

Office productivity tools—including Microsoft Office Excel® 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007, and other Microsoft Office applications. Microsoft SQL Server provides the data management and analysis platform, and Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 delivers powerful performance management capabilities. Because all of these products are built on the industry-leading SQL Server, they inherently work together from the beginning—not sometime in the future. Joe Gregg, the IT director for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, explains it this way, “The Microsoft Business Intelligence solution was a natural extension to our Microsoft-based environment, so integration was easy and we were able to take advantage of much of the software—such as SQL Server and Visio—that we already had.” The close integration between your Microsoft applications extends Business Intelligence capabilities throughout your organization, supporting rapid insight and action. It also facilitates a self-service Business Intelligence environment with analytics, content management, workflow, and collaboration embedded into key business processes.

cONclusION

During periods of economic uncertainty, your organization must cut costs and make more strategic decisions,

Microsoft Business Intelligence solutions provide the best value for your money by maximizing your existing IT investments and requiring only small, incremental investments in technology. And in the long run, Microsoft solutions offer lower support, training, and maintenance costs than competitive solutions.

Pervasive Deployment To reap the full performance-enhancing benefits of Business Intelligence, you need a solution that is easy to use and makes your employees smarter. Business Intelligence doesn’t need to be so complex that it shuts out regular business users. Nor does it need to eat up IT resources. Microsoft Business Intelligence has removed these barriers to usage, making Business Intelligence accessible to all your employees—from line-of-business managers to customer service reps. Because it’s so intuitive to use, you can deploy Microsoft Business Intelligence to all of your employees. With more employees able to review performance daily and make more informed decisions, the productivity of your workforce rises.

Fully integratedIn addition to providing the best value and enabling pervasive deployment, Microsoft Business Intelligence solutions come fully integrated with rest of your Microsoft


example, to nimbly act on Business Intelligence generated insights and “spread the wealth” with your co-workers, customers, partners, and suppliers. © 2008 Microsoft Corporation.

emphasizing low-risk investments that drive maximum value. Because you already own much of the Microsoft Business Intelligence solution, it’s cost-effective to deploy and easy to integrate into your IT environment. Microsoft Business Intelligence can offer your organization these compelling benefits:

• Lower total costs. Utilize your existing investments in Microsoft SQL Server, Office SharePoint Server 2007, and Microsoft Office 2007 to drive end-user adoption, dramatically reduce per-user costs, and generate unprecedented value.

• Empower employees to make better business decisions. Giving information workers quick access to data and enabling them to perform analysis with minimal hand-holding from IT lets them make fast, accurate decisions.

• Enjoy rapid deployment and faster time-to-benefits. Promote wide-spread adoption and benefits with the intuitive-to-use, yet powerful Business Intelligence capabilities embedded within the everyday productivity tools your employees already use.

• Realize powerful synergies with other Microsoft applications. Deploy the unified communications capabilities within Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, for








Forecast: Business Intelligence, 2009 To 2014 New Categories Will Drive Growth To Nearly $13 Billion By 2014








w E d N E s d ay, f E B R u a Ry 4 t h , 2 0 0 9 F O R R E S T E R R E S E A R C HM E RV A D R I A N w i t h E R I C G . B R OW N , J A M E S G . K O B L I E L U S , B O R I S E V E L S O N , A N D R O B E RT M U H L H A U S E N

EXEcutIVE suMMaRy

The business intelligence (BI) market is a perennial evergreen. While it has seen ups and downs in the past decade, its growth vector remains strong, and aggregate revenues should exceed $12 billion by 2014. New categories continue to emerge and be absorbed into core BI: The current crop includes business performance solutions, text analytics, predictive analytics and data mining, and complex event processing. Each of these market sectors will grow at its own pace and will converge over time into core BI as newones emerge. Success in each sector will require differing strategies, but opportunity for smaller, nimbler players is clearly there despite the recent surge of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity.

expect that the art and science of BI is well understood and the market is now clearly mature. We can see these signs of maturity in the BI market today:

• Growth slows in mature markets. As markets reach saturation, vendors confront a leveling, and ultimately a falloff, in new revenues as most likely buyers have become customers. In the late 1990s, BI software revenues experienced explosive growth following the surge in enterpriseapplication sales in the earlier part of the decade. Observers might be forgiven for thinking that BI had reached its peak when a 2000 peak of 32% BI revenue growth was followed by a drop to 18% in 2001 and -1% in 2002.1

• M&A activity spikes as the leaders consolidate their positions. In mature markets, it is not uncommon to see the largest players combining products for feature enhancement, acquiring sales forces and customers for revenue enhancement, and sometimes acquiring competitors simply to remove them from the playing field. During the past few years, some of the industry’s largest software firms have spent heavily to snap up the leading independent BI

thE gaME Is faR fROM OVER fOR thE

MatuRE BI MaRkEt

Few software categories have existed as long as what is now known as business intelligence (BI). The second business application ever created was most likely a report on the transactional application that came first. So one might well

software players: IBM captured Cognos, Microsoft purchased ProClarity, Oracle acquired Hyperion, SAP bought Business Objects, and TIBCO Software snapped up Spotfire.

• Differentiation comes from niche offerings that fragment markets. Vendors in mature markets create offerings tuned to specific, more specialized market segments. The segmentationmay occur in multiple dimensions. In today’s BI software market, vendors are using product cost to differentiate the premium and full-suite offerings from the less full-featured; vertical specialization to target specific industry needs; platform or ecosystem affinity to ally the offering into specific targetable buying audiences; and new feature differentiation that targets specific activities or tasks over others.

RuMORs Of thE dEath Of BI aRE gREatly

EXaggERatEd

Far from declining, the BI market is showing once again that it is a perennial evergreen. There is ample revenue opportunity for BI vendors, and both leading vendors and emerging players are intent on capturing it. This may be seen by examining several indicators:

• BI revenues have resumed their growth. The brief aggregate revenue declines noted previously gave way to a rebound to 14% growth in 2003, followed by a few years

of single-digit growth and a return to double-digit growth in 2006. And at 19%, 2007 was the best growth year for BI since 2001.2 While the current economic troubles will impact all software, there is ample reason to believe that BI’s growth will continue as the economy recovers.

• The SMB market, once untapped, is ramping up. Vendors are increasingly targeting small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) with offerings geared to better integration with other applications, greater ease of use, and lower costs of entry. And they are meeting with success as more small customers sign on.3

• Demand from technology purchasers is strong. Enterprises and SMBs continue to put BI at the top of purchase intentions in Forrester’s Business Data Services surveys. In both 2007 and 2008, substantial numbers reported their intent to make BI purchases — for the first time (see Figure 1). Replacement and upgrade intentions were equally positive, but the first-time result is particularly telling in a market this well established, and it shows that there is plenty of life left. Indeed, enterprises typically have several installed BI products and will continue to install them, despite a growing buzz about consolidating them.

F O R E C A S T: B u s I N E s s I N t E l l I g E N c E , 2 0 0 9 t O 2 0 1 4 N E w c at E g O R I E s w I l l d R I V E g R Ow t h t O N E a R ly $ 1 3 B I l l I O N B y 2 0 1 4 c o n t i n u e d . . .

SMB 2007

2008 Small (6-99 employees)

Medium-small (100-499 employees)

Medium-large (500-999 employees)

(N=310)

(N=279)

(N=286)

(N=207)

(N=281)

(N=117)

First-Time BI Demand Remains SignificantFIGURE 1:

“In [2007/2008], will your company purchase any of the following?”(First-time purchases of business intelligence software)

Sources: Enterprise And SMB Software Survey, North America And Europe, Q3 2007; Business Technographics® September 2006 North American And European SMB Software

Survey; and Business Technographics 2006 North American And European Enterprise Software Survey

SOURCE: Forrester Research, Inc.

5%

11%

14%

5%

6%

14%

Enterprise

Global 2,000 (20,000+ employees)

Very large (5,000-19,999 employees)

Large (1,000-4,999 employees) (N=336)

(N=187)

(N=144)

(N=239)

(N=122)

(N=89)

12%

12%

8%

9%

7%

6%

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which are being successfully sold by many BI vendors, both established and new.

• The BI charter is expanding. New categories have emerged that represent uses of information technology beyond the traditional reporting and analysis activities associated with old school BI. Old and new vendors alike are targeting greater links to management’s view of business processes, predicting the future in addition to reporting on the past, improving and automating reach across more types of internal and external data, and enabling real-time business decision-making.

thE NEw BI MaRkEt: fIVE sEctORs wIth

dIffERINg tRaJEctORIEs

Forrester has built a sizing model to predict BI revenues over the next few years. To capture the emerging opportunities, the model looks not only at traditional BI but also at four emerging sectors. The largest vendors — IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and SAS Institute — have substantial portfoliosthat include entries in multiple sectors. Newer entrants are often focused on specific sectors and not others. Over time, these emerging categories, like many before them, will be absorbed into what we call core BI, but they will be replaced as new ones emerge.

INNOVatIONs aRE OccuRRINg — aNd

succEEdINg — IN thE shadOw Of thE

gIaNts

Healthy markets grow in multiple ways. Improved customer targeting, acquisition, and retention by established players can create significant revenue gains even in the absence of substantial innovation. But, for a market to sustain long-term growth, innovations are required, and the evidence is thatthe BI market will see innovations in product, market approach, and delivery that will continue its expansion for several years to come, as:

• New entrants abound, and existing players are making new commitments. Startups abound, and Forrester is seeing many of them achieve early successes with customers who already have other BI products in abundance installed. Industry giants that have not been forces in BI, such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), are making substantial investments in BI and related technologies.4

• New business models and form factors are winning customers. New business models are transforming product delivery; these include such innovations as software-as-a-service (SaaS), try-and-buy (download for free and pay when putting into production), open source, and appliances,








• Business performance solutions add specific business metrics, often for vertical industries. In combination with core BI features, business performance solutions provide tools and templates to help users in those industries with scorecards, metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs), what-if modeling, and budgeting. Leading firms include SAS; the core BI vendors previously mentioned; and others, including Clarity Systems, Infor, Lawson Software, and Longview Solutions.6

• Predictive analytics and data mining use models and statistical analysis for scenarios. These products extend core BI features and backward-looking business analytics with modeling, statistical analysis, clustering/set analysis, scoring, and simulation. Several of the previously highlighted firms, notably SAS, have offerings here, some relatively immature even though this has been an eagerly anticipated category for some years now.7 These products are still largely the province of highly sophisticated users, who employ them to identify meaningful patterns among variables in complex, structured data sets. Angoss Software, InforSense, KXEN, SPSS (with Clementine), and other vendors are innovating in this sector. In addition, open source codebases, such as the R statistical library, have gained a foothold here.

fOuR EXpaNdINg sEctORs wIll

supplEMENt cORE BI

For decades, business users have associated business intelligence with reports that described activity that had already taken place, as recorded in installed business applications. But the world has changed, and with it, business expectations. New requirements to get a tighter grip on business performance, grow top- and bottom-line numbers, and cast a wider net to use new data both inside and outside the organization for competitive advantage have inspired the growth of exciting new BI technologies. With these new offerings, the BI market is today composed of five market sectors:

• Core BI provides generalized reporting and ad hoc query and analysis. In addition to these, core BI players now typically provide online analytical processing (OLAP), analytic dashboards, and interactive visualization features such as drilldown, portal and Microsoft Office integration,and alerts — many of which started as distinct market sectors themselves. Core BI is a table stake for the large players, who increasingly add features from the following list, uppingthe competitive ante. Some representative vendors are IBM (Cognos), Information Builders, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, Oracle (Hyperion), SAP (Business Objects), and SAS.5


Note that these sectors represent the BI portions of the revenue in larger market categories. For example, business performance solutions represent a larger category that includes applications for consolidating multiple financial recording systems. Only some of that revenue can accurately be called BI.

BI wIll cONtINuE stRONg gROwth,

appROachINg $13 BIllION IN 2014

Forrester believes that the BI market will continue its strong growth, with each sector contributing at a different rate based on its maturity, target customer and deal size, and continuing vendor consolidation and proliferation (see Figure 2). For this forecast, we used Forrester’s business-tobusiness (B2B) market forecasting model, a logistic, or S-curve, modeling technique designed around three growth parameters: saturation level (the penetration a product can achieve in the market); the hypergrowth year (the year the product achieves 10% of that level, signaling takeoff); and the takeover time (the number of years to get from 10% to 90%).9 Our conclusions?

• Core BI will grow at single-digit rates, leveling off in 2014 at slightly more than $7 billion. Core BI is installed in most enterprises today, often several times; enterprise revenueincreasingly comes from replacements, not new installations,

· Text analytics extends the scope of BI to unstructured, textual data for richer analysis. Core BI does not typically encompass natural language processing, semantic analysis, or entity analysis, but these techniques can identify useful patterns in unstructured and semi-structured formats, especially when combined with powerful search capabilities. Acquisitions by Microsoft (FAST); SAP/Business Objects (Inxight Software); and SAS (Teragram); in addition to offerings from SPSS and other vendors — such as Attensity, Attivio, Autonomy, Endeca Technologies, and Thomson Reuters (ClearForest) — demonstrate strong vendor interest in this sector.8

• Complex event processing uses near real-time data for operational BI or activity monitoring. These products use event stream processing via low-latency middleware to support sub-second delivery of events — especially external ones — and other operational data. So far confined primarily to the financial community, such analytics hold the promise of more actionable results, moving beyond predicting the past to reacting in the present — and automating some business processes via closed-loop systems. Representative firms include Aleri, Altosoft, Coral8, SENACTIVE, StreamBase Systems, TIBCO Software, and Vitria Technology.








• Predictive analytics and data mining will also grow at a rapid pace to nearly $2.2 billion. Because it is so tied to an understanding of the business, this sector could provide a natural advantage to incumbent business applications players — mainly the same large players we named previously, which are indeed paying attention. Predictive analytics and data mining have been difficult to grow because users have been specialists — even more so than core BI, which has always struggled to expand its footprint beyond power users. But today, the field is awash with smaller innovative firms partnering to provide specific analytic solutions, like the recent Jaspersoft/REvolution Computing alliance targeting finance and healthcare, and larger players like Microsoft are driving to simplify their products for broader use. Forrester expects more partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions in the next year, especially at the depressed market prices that the current macroeconomic climate has caused. Winning firms must partner with services firms or build their own capabilities for domain expertise and crack the ease-of-usebarrier. We believe that they will do so, spurring rapid growth.

• Text analytics will continue to grow steadily, reaching $1 billion by 2014. Today only a few hundred firms (enterprises) are significantly invested in this sector, and their numbers will grow. The midmarket will crawl along and is

even though there is a sizable opportunity still for first-time installs. Moreover, while less than 30% of today’s core BI revenue comes from the midmarket, Forrester predicts that over the next five years that proportion will grow to 40% — but it must get there at a much lower price-per-install, driving averages down. To win, vendors will need to take share from competitors in the competitive enterprise space and substantially outperform them in the midmarket. While the largest players today are building rich suites in pursuit of the first of these goals, their pursuit of midmarket opportunities will be at least as important and more challenging — with lower price points and a different channel, for starters.

• Business performance solutions will grow at double-digit rates for the next several years. As it rises from a little more than $600 million to more than $1.8 billion by 2014, the market will be dominated by the largest players. IBM, Oracle, and SAP have strong incumbency advantages in the enterprise and can leverage IT’s desire to standardize and consolidate, while Microsoft attacks aggressively in the midmarket. Smaller players with innovative technology must compete with vertical specificity, usability, and quick install capability, appealing to business stakeholders both in enterprise and midmarket accounts.10


OthER factORs wIll EXERt dOwNwaRd

pREssuRE ON REVENuEs

A number of external factors will have an impact on revenues in all software spaces during this planning horizon, and we have made some adjustments to the model to factor them in.

• The world economy will depress buying. The next year will be a challenging one for vendors in all software categories. The US and many other economies are now officially in a recession, and predictions for spending — even those collected as recently as December 2008 — are likelyto be revised downward. Today’s budget plans may be as meaningful as children’s letters to Santa as the shape of the downturn becomes clear. We have inserted a deflator into the model to accommodate what we believe will be a significant early dampening in demand, and we’ve scaled back the deflator in 2010 in anticipation of recovery.

• New deployment models will change revenue streams. Increasingly, the shape of the lifetime revenue curve is flattening for software vendors. Customers are buying subscription-based products or downloading, testing, and then paying on production. We have built a growingpercentage of revenue from these alternative patterns into our model, and it pulls the curves down slightly over time. While

not likely to have hit its takeoff point before the end of this period. There will be ample room for consolidation among the smaller players, and for some targeted acquisitions for the long term by larger BI players for science projects designed to get experience with the market (like Business Objects’ acquisition of Inxight Software.) To win, pure-play vendors should make themselves embeddable in applications (like call center analytics, fraud detection, and brand monitoring) and suites, and they should work partnerships and alliances aggressively.

• Complex event processing will continue its growth within its niche. To date, this sector has not shown legs as a pure play outside of its early core financial market, and there is little to suggest it will do so. While complex event processing is often key to business activity monitoring solutions, we have not attempted to tease apart those numbers and incorporate them here. For now, complex event processing will remain a specialty market, and it will be far from its first billion in 2014. As with text analytics, vendors will succeed by alliance and embedding.








• Definitional changes will transform markets and vendors. The perpetual absorption of innovative features (and firms) into existing product suites will accelerate as pressure mounts for the largest vendors to improve their differentiation. Integration skills, effective partnering, and superior channel execution will be more important than ever — and they all will take a bite out of margins, even as prices are pressured by competition. Even the largest vendors

the total lifetime value of a customer may be similar, this shiftin procurement and payment habits will reduce the first revenue hit from each sale — and no doubt the leading vendors will be punished by Wall Street for this slower growth. Recent aggressive moves in application software maintenance pricing represent one response to this trend but will be difficult for vendors to sustain. Substantial customer resistance is evident.11


Forecast: Business Intelligence, 2009 To 2014FIGURE 2:

$0

$3,000

$6,000

$9,000

$12,000

$15,000

Text analytics

Complex Event processing Predictive analytics/data mining

Business performance solutions

Core BI

SOURCE: Forrester Research, Inc.

Forrester forecast

what It MEaNs

BI Revenue will grow for the vendors that change with the market Product categories follow an inevitable cycle of additive feature creep and transformation, and the BI market will be no exception. Already, yesterday’s categories like OLAP, mobile deployment, and interactive visualization are part of what Forrester calls core BI in this analysis. In the next fewyears, the definition will expand again: Microsoft has bundled

can’t do everything — they will have to make some bets and let others wait. Nimble smaller players will continue to spring up, even as they are doing today — dozens of firms are competing successfully, and more will spring up.








47090

(US$ millions)

Core BI

Business performance solutions

Predictive analytics/data mining

Text analytics

Complex event processing

Total

2008

$6,826

$625

$694

$279

$59

2009*

$7,082

$775

$862

$357

$77

2010*

$7,356

$961

$1,072

$461

$100

2011*

$7,618

$1,183

$1,327

$596

$131

2012*

$7,591

$1,407

$1,588

$751

$167

2013*

$7,501

$1,641

$1,872

$940

$213

2014*

$7,332

$1,868

$2,163

$1,159

$268

$8,483 $9,153 $9,950 $10,854 $11,504 $12,166 $12,790

includes modifiable assumptions of variables such as number of BI opportunities in a business; percentage of systems replaced each year; a factor that takes into account the current economic downturn; percentage of new BI procured as a service; and average fees for license, services, and maintenance and support.

ENdNOtEs1 These numbers come from published and unpublished Forrester data and

Forrester estimates of revenue apportionment from vendors that do not break it

down specifically.

2 These numbers come from published and unpublished Forrester data and

Forrester estimates of revenue apportionment from vendors that do not break it

down specifically.

3 The 12 leading BI vendors have specific SMB packages. In addition, Forrester is tracking

roughly 50 open source, SaaS, and small vendors with specific SMB BI offerings.

4 For additional information about business intelligence innovations, see the

November 7, 2008, “OLAP: In Fashion Or Old Fashioned?” report; see the

June 23, 2008, “BI Workspaces: BI Without Borders” report; and see the June

21, 2007, “Continued Innovation In Business Intelligence: Data Discovery

Accelerators” report.

5 For a discussion of the features and functions provided by the leading vendors

in enterprise-class BI, see the July 31, 2008, “The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise

Business Intelligence Platforms, Q3 2008” report.

6 For a discussion of the features and functions provided by the leading vendors in

business performance solutions, see the October 10, 2007, “The Forrester Wave™:

features into SQL Server for years, and today that includes data mining.

What this means for the size of the market is simple: Revenue growth for the same features slows over time, driving continued innovation. Nobody can tread water in this market: Continued innovation (or acquisition and integration — ideally all of the above) will be required. On our chart, the line that matters is the top one — the aggregate. The borders between the sectors defined here will change, and new ones will emerge and take their place as the growth engines. Automated data discovery, integration into business-process-centric applications (context-aware BI), connection via rules engines into BI that drives process business action directly, and adaptive learning features that will tune BI to both roles and individuals’ needs will all emerge in the next five years and take their place as the new categories.

supplEMENtal MatERIal

Online ResourceThe underlying spreadsheet detailing the forecast in Figure 2 is available online.

The online version of Figure 2 is an interactive tool to forecast the business intelligence market over the next several years. It


Business Performance Solutions, Q4 2007” report.

7 For additional information on predictive analytics and data mining software, see

the November, 2, 2004, “Trends 2005: Predictive Analytics” report.

8 For a discussion of an important recent acquisition in this space, see the May

31, 2007, “Business Objects Buys Into Unstructured Information With Inxight

Software” report. For a look at the impact of search, see the May 5, 2008, “Search

+ BI = Unified Information Access” report.

9 For a detailed discussion of the forecasting model and its theoretical foundation,

see the April 8, 2008, “Introducing Forrester’s B2B Technology Market

Forecasting” report.

10 SAS, one of the largest players in this market, uses a product subscription

model. Forrester estimates that 90% or more of the current installations are still

using the more traditional model license-plus-maintenance approach.

11 For an example of this customer resistance, see the October 10, 2008, “Coping

With SAP’s Pricey Maintenance Hike” report.

© 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited








The Business Intelligence and Performance Management Spending Report, 2008-2009: Inside the $57.1B MarketA RT I C L E S A RT I C L E S A RT I C L E S A RT I C L E S







f R I d ay, M ay 9 t h , 2 0 0 8 A M R R E S E A R C H J O H N H A G E RT Y, J E N N I F E R H A C K B U S H

The Bottom Line: Total global spending for business intelligence and performance management programs will top $57.1B in 2008, with the U.S. market growing 4.2% from previous year.

Business intelligence (BI) and performance management (PM) are hot areas of investment, both with buyers and sellers of technology and services. During 2007, the software landscape fundamentally changed. Smaller firms were acquired by BI/PM market leaders; market leaders were then acquired by enterprise application and platform vendors. Throughout it all, technology and services buyers continued with big purchases without skipping a beat. Can this pace of growth continue in 2008 and beyond? Our survey results indicate yes, but growth will come from different areas.

In 1Q08, AMR Research conducted a detailed survey of 400 IT and business leaders across all industry sectors within the United States, Europe (France, Germany, and the UK), and China to gauge the adoption and effect of BI/PM applications, tools, and related technologies.

The data in this Report reflects each organization’s plans for expenditures and technology deployment as well as goals and objectives for BI/PM technology and services. Rather than relying on vendor revenue reporting, these market figures are based entirely on enterprise user statements and budget plans. Our findings are published in two sections: this Report, with its high-level conclusions, and the accompanying appendix, with the complete results of the spending survey, including further breakdowns by company size, industry, user type, and geography.

fINdINgs

Global BI/PM spending will top $57.1B in 2008. In the United States, BI and analytic infrastructure software shows double-digit growth at the expense of other categories. Global BI/PM services spending is back on track. Companies are split on the market consolidation effect. Broad BI/PM expansions are on tap for 2008. Initial 2009 spending plans look solid.

Global BI/PM spending will top $57.1B in 2008For the 2008 survey, we included a broader geographic swath of companies—the United States, Europe (France, Germany, and the UK), and China—in our sample to estimate total BI/PM spending globally. At over $57.1B, it’s a massive market (see Table 1). It has certainly attracted the attention of software and services providers looking for new sources of revenue growth and expansion beyond traditional boundaries. As this is the first year we measured spending globally, we are unable to calculate growth rates across the board. We have, however, determined U.S. growth rates for each category. Anecdotally, survey respondents outside the United States indicated their spending would increase at a faster clip than U.S. firms.

We queried companies about their planned spending in five major areas:

BI and reporting tools—These tools provide information gathering and analysis capabilities as well as presentation functionality to business users and/or IT staff that support those users.

Dashboards and scorecarding products—These applications and tools enable businesses to track metrics-based performance and/or key performance indicators (KPIs)

by providing a unified view of organizational performance data, either in a near real-time and integrated basis or in a highly structured business methodology, such as the Balanced Scorecard.

Planning, budgeting, and forecasting (PBF) applications—PBF applications provide a high degree of flexibility to model and align resources, activities, and finances to meet the strategic objectives of the firm. This includes operational as well as financial planning areas. Analytic infrastructure—This type of infrastructure stores, organizes, and prepares data for all manner of reporting, analysis, and performance management needs. This includes data warehouses and datamarts; extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL); data cleansing and standardization; and multidimensional data sources either custom-built or purchased as a packaged application.

Analytical applications—These applications accurately gather, unify, coordinate, and analyze content-specific information (supply chain, customer, IT operations, financial consolidations and reporting, workforce/HR, etc.) to support decision-making throughout the firm.

BI spending across all budget items maintains its traditional

t h E B u s I N E s s I N t E l l I g E N c E a N d p E R f O R M a N c E M a N a g E M E N t s p E N d I N g R E p O Rt, 2 0 0 8 - 2 0 0 9 : I N s I d E t h E $ 5 7 . 1 B M a R k E t c o n t i n u e d . . .

U.S. software growth by category, 2007-2008 in (U.S.) $M.

FIGURE 2:

Budgeting intelligence

Dashboard and scorecards

Planning, budgeting and forecasting

Analytics applications

Analytics infrastructure

SOURCE: AMR Research, 2008

CHANGE

20082007

2000

$1,712

$1,542

$1,403

$1,386

$1,027

$1,135

$866

$857

$1,060

$948

11.0%

1.2%

11.8%

1.1%

-9.5%


2008 global BI/PM spending by category, in (U.S.) $B.TABLE 1:

BUDGET ITEM AnalyticsInfrastructure

Internal labor and head count

Software

Integration

Hardware

Outsourcedservices

Total Spend byCategory

$2,097

$2,354

$1,881

$2,107

$1,850

$ 10,288

$3,130

$3,685

$2,929

$2,975

$2,713

$15,432

$2,666

$3,060

$2,390

$2,600

$2,416

$13,133

$2,068

$2,318

$1,819

$1,979

$1,839

$10,022

$1,706

$1,954

$1,540

$1,631

$1,449

$8,280

$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156

BudgetingIntelligence

Dashboardsand Scorecards

Budgetingand Planning

AnalyticsApplications

Total

2008 global BI/PM spending by categoryFIGURE 1:



U.S. BI/PM spending, 2006-2008, in (U.S.) $M.TABLE 2:

APPLICATION AREADollar Spend ($M)

2006 2007 2008


Software

Integration

Hardware

Outsourcedservices


$2,097

$2,354

$1,881

$2,107

$1,850

$ 10,288

$3,130

$3,685

$2,929

$2,975

$2,713

$15,432

$2,666

$3,060

$2,390

$2,600

$2,416

$13,133

$2,068

$2,318

$1,819

$1,979

$1,839

$10,022

$1,706

$1,954

$1,540

$1,631

$1,449

$8,280

$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156

Percent Spend Dollar Spend ($M) Percent Spend Dollar Spend ($M) Percent Spend

$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156

2007 to 2008Growth

No. 1 position (see Figure 1), followed by dashboards and scorecards. The same ranking holds true for software spending; companies plan to buy nearly $13.4B worth of BI/PM-related software products in 2008.

U.S. market will surpass $24.7B, up 4.2% from 2007 This year, U.S. respondents report they plan to increase BI/PM spending by 4.2%. While growth may appear meager, it is larger than the anticipated overall growth estimates in 2007,

when companies indicated they would increase spending by 3.6% (see Table 2).

In the United States, BI and analytic infrastructure software shows double-digit growth at the expense of other categories.

Overall software spending will reach $6.07B for the U.S. market, a relatively modest growth rate of 3.4% (see Figure 2). This is significantly down from 2007’s growth prediction of 8.3%. This data, collected in early 2008, reflects company expectations of uncertain economic times ahead. In 2008, companies outside the United States will buy nearly 55% of BI/PM software.

Software emphasis has changed yet again in 2008. Like a pendulum, it has swung back to tools and infrastructure. In 2007, it was all about information in context, with analytic applications, dashboards, and planning systems growing significantly. We’ve seen this switch repeatedly over the years—it’s now something we’ve come to expect. But the slip in spending for PBF software was not anticipated to be as steep, given the interest generated through market consolidation moves.


FIGURE 2:







CHANGE

20082007

2000

$1,712

$1,542

$1,403

$1,386

$1,027

$1,135

$866

$857

$1,060

$948

11.0%

1.2%

11.8%

1.1%

-9.5%





Software

Integration

Hardware

Outsourcedservices


$2,097

$2,354

$1,881

$2,107

$1,850

$ 10,288

$3,130

$3,685

$2,929

$2,975

$2,713

$15,432

$2,666

$3,060

$2,390

$2,600

$2,416

$13,133

$2,068

$2,318

$1,819

$1,979

$1,839

$10,022

$1,706

$1,954

$1,540

$1,631

$1,449

$8,280

$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156





Total






2006 2007 2008


Software

Integration

Hardware

Outsourcedservices


$2,097

$2,354

$1,881

$2,107

$1,850

$ 10,288

$3,130

$3,685

$2,929

$2,975

$2,713

$15,432

$2,666

$3,060

$2,390

$2,600

$2,416

$13,133

$2,068

$2,318

$1,819

$1,979

$1,839

$10,022

$1,706

$1,954

$1,540

$1,631

$1,449

$8,280

$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156


$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156

2007 to 2008Growth









FIGURE 2:







CHANGE

20082007

2000

$1,712

$1,542

$1,403

$1,386

$1,027

$1,135

$866

$857

$1,060

$948

11.0%

1.2%

11.8%

1.1%

-9.5%





Software

Integration

Hardware

Outsourcedservices


$2,097

$2,354

$1,881

$2,107

$1,850

$ 10,288

$3,130

$3,685

$2,929

$2,975

$2,713

$15,432

$2,666

$3,060

$2,390

$2,600

$2,416

$13,133

$2,068

$2,318

$1,819

$1,979

$1,839

$10,022

$1,706

$1,954

$1,540

$1,631

$1,449

$8,280

$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156





Total






2006 2007 2008


Software

Integration

Hardware

Outsourcedservices


$2,097

$2,354

$1,881

$2,107

$1,850

$ 10,288

$3,130

$3,685

$2,929

$2,975

$2,713

$15,432

$2,666

$3,060

$2,390

$2,600

$2,416

$13,133

$2,068

$2,318

$1,819

$1,979

$1,839

$10,022

$1,706

$1,954

$1,540

$1,631

$1,449

$8,280

$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156


$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156

2007 to 2008Growth

Global BI/PM services spending is back on track In 2007, external consulting spending (a combination of outsourced services and integration) was down significantly, as companies hired internally to meet anticipated needs. For 2008, external services have bounced back in a big way. We estimate these two categories combined will surpass $20.8B, or 37% of total BI/PM spending.

The integrators and consultants themselves are scrambling to fulfill demand any way they can. They report that revenue for this segment is booming. With so much emphasis, we anticipate that some BI/PM services consolidation will occur this year, especially as advisory firms with limited delivery capacity in BI/PM consulting expand their capabilities.

Companies are split on the market consolidation effect More than half (54%) of the companies surveyed reported that recent market moves have affected their BI/PM deployment plans, ranging from the wholesale reevaluation of BI/PM strategies to the accelerated deployment of acquired company products. Dampening but not eliminating the ramifications any disruption may cause, 46% said recent market moves have no effect on their 2008 plans.


The nearly 50% of companies that indicated no effect would be felt will proceed with existing plans.

As part of our ongoing advisory work with customers, we already see these trends in everyday BI/PM strategy discussions. However, many indicate their budgets are fully committed for 2008, with any additions or changes to the product portfolio not kicking in until 2009 at the earliest.

Broad BI/PM expansion on tap for 2008 Only 16% of survey respondents indicated they planned no expansion of their BI/PM initiatives in 2008, a figure that’s far lower than past years. The other 84% are planning to push out more functionality to more users in a variety of ways led by PBF software and dashboards and scorecards. There are significant differences by geography:

European firms are the most conservative, with 27% reporting no planned expansion. BI and reporting tools will be the beneficiary of expansion in that region.

Virtually all Chinese enterprises plan for expansion in 2008, with PBF and analytic infrastructure as top priorities.

Additionally, 44% of companies indicated market changes have accelerated adoption plans for products sourcing from acquired companies. This finding bodes well for IBM, Oracle, and SAP, with potentially incremental software and services revenue flowing their way.

But the next three considerations—slower adoption, strategy reevaluation, and project delays—collectively add to over 52% of the potential effects. Companies report that a stick has been wedged in the spokes of the BI/PM wheel. For some, it simply slowed them down, but for others, it stopped them dead in their tracks.

Will one trend offset the other? Simply put, no. Consider the following:

The vendor-related financial benefits of users’ accelerated adoptions will outweigh the downside effects of delayed decisions. Across the BI/PM market, we see the balance of power has tipped slightly in the direction of the acquirers. But vendors continue to have some downside risk as well, since they could be caught up in the buyer inertia (for example, confused customers or slow product uptake) that accompanies any fundamental change in market dynamics.









U.S. plans mirror global numbers, with PBF, BI and reporting tools, and analytic applications seeing the most extension this year.

Initial 2009 spending plans look solid When we asked buyers to peer into their crystal ball to anticipate 2009 BI/PM spending, they responded with a fairly

strong outlook. Across all categories, 84% indicate that BI/PM spending will grow or remain the same next year; only 9% foresee a decline in 2009. Given this outlook, we predict sustained BI/PM spending growth through 2012.

There were significant differences by geographic region. Not surprisingly, Chinese firms predicted the broadest expansion.


FIGURE 2:







CHANGE

20082007

2000

$1,712

$1,542

$1,403

$1,386

$1,027

$1,135

$866

$857

$1,060

$948

11.0%

1.2%

11.8%

1.1%

-9.5%





Software

Integration

Hardware

Outsourcedservices


$2,097

$2,354

$1,881

$2,107

$1,850

$ 10,288

$3,130

$3,685

$2,929

$2,975

$2,713

$15,432

$2,666

$3,060

$2,390

$2,600

$2,416

$13,133

$2,068

$2,318

$1,819

$1,979

$1,839

$10,022

$1,706

$1,954

$1,540

$1,631

$1,449

$8,280

$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156





Total






2006 2007 2008


Software

Integration

Hardware

Outsourcedservices


$2,097

$2,354

$1,881

$2,107

$1,850

$ 10,288

$3,130

$3,685

$2,929

$2,975

$2,713

$15,432

$2,666

$3,060

$2,390

$2,600

$2,416

$13,133

$2,068

$2,318

$1,819

$1,979

$1,839

$10,022

$1,706

$1,954

$1,540

$1,631

$1,449

$8,280

$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156


$11,666

$13,371

$10,559

$11,292

$10,267

$57,156

2007 to 2008Growth

Again, European companies conservatively estimated significantly more budget declines than both the United States and China.

cONclusIONs Global spending for 2008 is strong, but U.S. software purchases have slowed substantially. External services account for an increasingly large share of the spending pot. BI and analytic infrastructure is poised for more investment as emphasis returns to tools and technology rather than information-driven and content-specific applications. Market consolidation has influenced buyer demand, as companies assess their mid- to long-term plans in light of vendor change in ownership and increased emphasis. Long-term sustainable growth is likely for BI/PM spending for the next three to five years.

Copyright © 2008 AMR Research, Inc.








Neudesic’s 30 Day Business Intelligence Cycle








Neudesic’s SQL/Business Intelligence practice helps extract actionable information from your varied data sources, to drive more accurate and timely decisions. Our specialized development teams create unified Business Intelligence platforms that integrate ERP, CRM, ERM, POS, inventory management, HR and payroll data systems so you can rapidly analyze and leverage information.

Enterprises large and small sit atop massive volumes of operational, customer and strategic data. Yet, very few have the technical expertise required to deliver the right information to the right users. For information to be useful, it must be provided in a timely, readily consumable format through a useful user interface. Neudesic’s SQL/Business Intelligence practice is specifically designed to shorten product development cycles and lower costs by leveraging existing technologies and software investments.

Neudesic’s SQL/Business Intelligence practice has built a reputation delivering results-based solutions and cutting-edge technology using the Agile Methodology. With Agile Methodology, we are not married to any one technology

or tool set, but can focus on meeting specific needs and delivering the optimal solution. In addition, Neudesic employs a specific Agile method called Scrum. Scrum is based on a “Sprint,” which is a 30-day period for delivering a working part of the system. Each Sprint starts with a two to three-hour planning session that includes the customer, facilitator (ScrumMaster) and the cross-functional team. At the end of the Sprint, the results are delivered and reviewed, and the next Sprint is started. Neudesic’s Certified ScrumMasters have extensive experience implementing Scrum and can deliver high-value software projects in a controlled and adaptable fashion.

There are many benefits to utilizing a 30 day cycle for delivery. Some of the benefits of Neudesic’s utilization of Scrum-Agile within our SQL/Business Intelligence practice are:

Constant Knowledge Transfer – Time is set aside for discussing the work completed, the logic behind the solution, the benefits to the approach, and how the customer could repeat the process after we have finished.

Constant User Feedback – End users see working versions of the deliverables, so there is consistent opportunity to provide feedback. End users also have the opportunity to report any bugs, inconsistencies in data, illogical naming or ordering of values, etc.

Constant Progress Reporting – Progress is monitored in a clear and tangible fashion. If progress, or the quality of the deliverables fall behind expectations, the issues can be addressed and corrected for the next cycle.

Rapid Visible Results – Typically, it could be 90 – 120 days from inception before an end-user would have a fully working scorecard, but with the 30 day cycle approach, the end-user can see a partial result within 30 days. This gives them an idea of what the final product will look, perform, and function like.

The Neudesic Approach Based On Scrum-Agile Guidelines Includes:

Iterative development »Adaptability and flexibility »Close collaboration between programming teams and business »expertsFace-to-face communication »Early delivery of working software »

Typical 30 Day BI Cycle Deliverables Include:A single scorecard »Reports focused on single subject matter »An ETL system that will continue to populate the newly »constructed data martHigh level documentation from business interviews »Early delivery of working software »

Fidelity National Information Systems








Fidelity National Information Systems provides customers with the very best view of real estate values and surrounding community information through Cyberhomes.com, a Web 2.0 version of real estate and geography analytics software built by Neudesic.

thE cOMpaNy

Fidelity National Information Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of core processing (ledger, transactions, accounting, reporting, and maintenance) for financial institutions whose software applications process more than half of all U.S. residential mortgage loans. Fidelity has an annual revenue of over four billion dollars. Fidelity was in need of increasing their broker/agent and customer base.

thE challENgE

Fidelity’s customers were losing lead volume and market share to a competing Linux/JAVA based solution. Fidelity needed to respond to this market challenge from concept to completion in less than four months. Fidelity needed to not only deliver the same functionality, but surpass the features provided by competitors.

thE sOlutION

Neudesic envisioned a best in class, easy to use solution that provided extremely accurate estimates. Fidelity needed a system that extended into other internal businesses and helped brand the Fidelity name. This solution would require a more user-friendly web experience, better, more expansive data, and innovative algorithms to exceed customer expectations. These requirements provided an excellent opportunity for Neudesic to leverage the features of Web 2.0. The system was built to pull together a wide variety of data sources that provided property information across the US, and a host of services to support homeowners in the home-buying process. Using Microsoft technologies such as a highly customized version of Virtual Earth, MapPoint, AJAX.NET, ASP.NET, SQL Server, and Visual Studio 2005’s Team Suite and Team Foundation Server, as well as interactive web-based charting utilities and sophisticated address standardization/correction software, Neudesic deployed the Web 2.0 version of real estate and geography analytics software to give the customer the web tool that they desired. Keeping in line with Neudesic’s culture of implementing the latest in Microsoft technology, this solution utilized Visual Studio 2008’s Orcas IDE to code JavaScript for the Cyberhomes web site. The end result was a fully co-branded web application that was engineered to integrate directly with participating affiliates and designed to increase Fidelity’s customer base of brokers, agents and consumers.

thE BENEfIts

Fidelity is not only able to compete in the marketplace, but is now offering the best solution in the industry. Visitors to the web site can receive up-to-the minute valuations for over 100 million homes across the United States with the capability to customize property searches by price, property features, dwelling type, and the year built. Users can perform a property search and browse comprehensive property reports. Dynamic re-estimation capabilities allow users to refine or adjust the supplied property facts such as bedrooms, bathrooms and living area. Dynamic geospatial data, provided through the use of Virtual Earth, provides a bird’s-eye view of the property from up to four orientations (north, south, east and west aerial views). According to Google Analytics, the average session time on Cyberhomes is over 30 minutes and over 50% of visitors are repeat visitors. With the use of Microsoft tools implemented by the Neudesic team, Fidelity is increasing market share and achieving their goal of growing their base of brokers, agents, and customers.

The NeuGuest Platform for the hospitality industry opens the door to comprehensive visibility across systems and provides the means to effectively act upon information and monitor the metrics that drive profitability. The NeuGuest platform

operates using two focus actions. The first is that NeuGuest provides organizations the ability to quickly respond to their guests’ requests and needs by tracking real-time events. The second focus action is that the platform is a “user-friendly” business application for all employees creating a team approach to guest relationship management and ultimately, hotel profitability.

BENEfIts Of NEuguEst platfORM

The NeuGuest Platform capitalizes on Microsoft solutions and technologies to deliver many benefits to the hotel business. The platform allows all hotel employees to provide a significantly enhanced guest experience by anticipating preferences through the guest profile. The guest profile is fully searchable based on your requirements enabling every staff member to answer your guests’ questions no matter who has served them in the past. The profile also maintains guest preferences such as room type, stay history, along with name, address, loyalty membership information, and total spent during each stay.

The enhanced experience the guest feels during their stay and increased guest communication leads to customer loyalty.

Another benefit to using the platform is the increased efficiency of employees. Recent user interface improvements make NeuGuest even easier for the end-user to complete tasks

NeuGuest








and print reports with fewer clicks and without IT support. The platform is flexible and easy to use and can be integrated to Kiosk or web portal for self service capabilities. NeuGuest also allows transactions to be recorded in localized currencies. The system maintains a list of international exchange rates and automatically converts currency amounts to a base currency for reporting purposes.

The applications that enable NeuGuest experience are broadly grouped into four categories: Guest Profile, Marketing and Communications, Guest Loyalty Management and Business Intelligence.

guEst pROfIlE

Guest profile is a detailed account of guest information and allows you to retain ANY information you think to be of value in serving your guests. The events manager allows you to print or email customized itineraries that occur during a guest’s stay. Concierge view enables users to quickly see guest preferences and history to provide the best experience when communicating with a guest. Guest profile includes a messaging system you can use to send yourself, other employees, or a department reminders about tasks that need to be performed, updates about events, policy changes, etc. It also works seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook for calendaring, emails, and tasks.

MaRkEtINg aNd cOMMuNIcatIONs

NeuGuest will allow your marketing team to build detailed targeted campaigns based on a complete guest profile and provide you with robust data cleansing and segmentation tools.

Execute Direct mail and Email campaigns »Complete guest profiles for targeted marketing campaigns »Group or Event sales management »Drive closed-loop campaign execution by tracking responses to »every campaign activity.

N E u g u E s t c o n t i n u e d . . .

guEst lOyalty MaNagEMENt

Based on the program parameters, rewards are automatically calculated based on program earnings and posts customer activity. Program rules, award levels and promotion timeframes can be altered — all with minimal time and effort.

Member enrollment and management »Elite-tier management »Bonus accrual, Point aging, and Point posting »Point transaction history »Ability to quickly integrate into website or portal for »automated registration and claim administration

BusINEss INtEllIgENcE

NeuGuest provides performance management in a single, integrated application including dashboards, management reporting, analytics, planning, budgeting, forecasting, and consolidation. The NeuGuest platform experience consists of the property application functions that directly focus and interface with the guest experience during and after their stay in a hotel, use of property services, or dining at a restaurant. This enables employees to take advantage of deep reporting and analysis capabilities to track response rates, measure interest levels, and monitor costs for every campaign and activity in real time.

Additional business intelligence benefits provided by the platform include real-time service alerts, real-time production alerts, and real-time system alerts. These services monitor operational hotel data. Business rules are applied, and actionable messages are sent to hotel or restaurant associates. An example of this actionable type of messaging is when an over-booked situation may occur based on the trend of arrivals for a particular day. These messages can be looked at and appropriate action can be taken in advance (i.e., a back-up hotel can be notified and rooms reserved and arrangements made to handle overflow before the guests arrive). Customer service times can be monitored in a foodservice restaurant and an appropriate message sent to management if service levels are not being maintained.

South Orange County Community College District turns to Neudesic’s SQL/Business Intelligence team to build an Enterprise-wide Data Warehouse, reducing system management costs, improving data accuracy, and providing end users with accurate reports.

South Orange County Community College District















thE cOMpaNy

The South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD), founded in 1967, is one of 72 community college districts in California. It is a multi-campus district comprised of Saddleback College in the City of Mission Viejo, Irvine Valley College in the City of Irvine, and the Advanced Technology & Education Park (ATEP) in the City of Tustin. Saddleback College and Irvine Valley College are accredited, offering associate degrees and providing academic major prerequisites that are transferable to four-year colleges and universities. Vocational education programs, continuing education courses, and cultural opportunities are also available at each campus. ATEP is the newest SOCCCD campus which offers technology-oriented courses. The SOCCCD currently serves over 37,000 students each semester and employs more than 2,300 faculty and staff.

thE challENgE

The SOCCCD Information Technology department consists of a number of legacy systems which are used throughout the district. These systems (such as the Student Information System, Class Scheduling system, Admissions and Records, Human Resources and Finance, etc.) were designed to collect and process data for daily operations. However, the nature of the transactional data structures and limited analytical tools made this network of disparate systems inadequate for

reporting purposes. Data was being maintained in various formats and locations which increased the IT maintenance and support costs. District executives and college researchers needed information delivered quickly and accurately to produce internal management reports, State/Federal reports, and to also provide ad-hoc analytics across all the colleges. Overall, the increased data volume and system complexity provided limited decision support capabilities.

thE sOlutION

For years the district Information Technology department discussed the need for a true Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) to resolve their challenges. The timing of the project was partially in response to the development of the new Student Information System and Neudesic quickly utilized Microsoft’s SQL Server platform of Business Intelligence (BI) tools to architecture and develop the EDW. Integration Services was used to develop the ETL and consolidate distributed data elements. Analysis Services was used to create the multi-dimensional cubes, specifically structured for querying. Customized Enrollment and State/Federal reports were developed using Reporting Services, while Report Builder, ProClarity Web Professional, and Excel provided the flexibility for ad-hoc reporting and analytics. Finally, SharePoint was implemented as the central portal for the new EDW/BI intranet site.

s O u t h O R a N g E c O u N t y c O M M u N I t y c O l l E g E d I s t R I c t c o n t i n u e d . . .

thE BENEfIts

By utilizing Microsoft’s powerful Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence set of tools, college and district researchers are now able to produce accurate reports and executives can make precise decisions. The EDW has become the new platform for all operational, college, district, and State/Federal reports.

End-users have the ability and flexibility to access the cleansed and pre-aggregated data using various methods, Microsoft Excel, Report Builder, or ProClarity Web Professional.From the Information Technology departments’ perspective, consolidating related transactional data into the Data Warehouse helps eliminate multiple data stores. In turn, the overhead required to maintain the EDW is much less and significantly reduces ongoing system management costs.








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