The 'I' in BI : BI news

Loving the Videos on the BI Blog

Hayley — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:06:30 GMT

I would recommend taking a look at the BI Blog right now. Loving the Videos that Nic Smith has posted on there from TechEd with sneak previews of Gemini and the Power Hour…so easy to watch and brings the world of BI to life :) little snippet below…

http://blogs.msdn.com/bi/

Resources available to you……on the BI website

Hayley — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:23:00 GMT

http://www.microsoft.com/bi/aboutbi/default.aspx

Check out the new look of the Microsoft BI website …..www.Microsoft.com/bi

Hayley — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:28:54 GMT

Books available for Microsoft BI and Performance Point Server 2007

Hayley — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:09:09 GMT

I recommend "The Rational Guide to Monitoring and Analyzing with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Rational Guides)

I would also recommend having a look at the new Pro performance Point Server 2007 book (black cover). To find out more, either head to Amazon or your local bookstore :)

Great New Public Sector Video on Geospatial BI

Hayley — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:01:29 GMT

To view the Video, click on the link below. You can also view the data sheet by clicking here

The video is definitely worth watching, although not UK orientated the content is good.

Gartner Reveals Nine Fatal Flaws in Business Intelligence Implementations

Hayley — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:57:52 GMT

WEBWIRE – Friday, October 10, 2008

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=77100

Problems Tend to be People and Processes, Not Technology

Egham, UK — Most failed business intelligence (BI) efforts suffer from one or more of nine fatal flaws, generally revolving around people and processes rather than technology, according to Gartner, Inc.

“Despite years of investing in BI, many IT organisations have difficulty connecting BI with the business, and to get business users fully involved and out of the ‘Excel culture’,” said Bill Hostmann, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “Just one common mistake can destroy a BI programme, and there is far more risk in nontechnology issues — sponsorship, politics, data quality and so on — than in deploying the infrastructure, tools and applications that support BI. Forewarned is forearmed, so organisations must understand the common flaws that undermine BI projects and prepare an approach to avoid or minimise them.”
Gartner said the failure to achieve strategic results usually stems from one or more of nine common mistakes:

About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the indispensable partner to 60,000 clients in 10,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,000 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants in 80 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.

Microsoft Empowers Enterprises to Think Bigger About Business Intelligence

Hayley — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:56:27 GMT

An article not to be missed:

New “managed self-service” business intelligence technologies and enhanced enterprise-class data warehousing capabilities usher in era of truly pervasive BI.

SEATTLE — Oct. 6, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today kicked off its second annual Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) Conference 2008 by announcing groundbreaking new technologies that will enable enterprises to bring the power of BI to information workers organisation wide.

Click here to find out more

Check out the Webcasts from the Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference 2008

Hayley — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:50:53 GMT

Click on this link to be directed to the BI website and download the webcasts to find out more on Microsoft BI.

Microsoft are Sponsoring the BI Butler event 2008

Hayley — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:33:01 GMT

Intelligence Driven Operations, Performance and Risk Management 30 September - 01 October 2008, London

What will be covered?

The deployment of consistent, cross-enterprise BI to address operational reporting, performance management, and decision support, can deliver considerable returns on investment including improved efficiency, cost savings and new business opportunities. These are important outcomes that gain added significance at times of uncertainty and complex macroeconomic conditions that increase operational risks and threats to profitability. Another challenge is to stay on track and adapt to rapidly emerging technology trends that are changing the way that information is managed and used. Butler Group’s 2008 Business Intelligence Symposium will focus on these key issues, and will provide the latest thinking on BI, identify
important market and technology trends, and in doing so create the opportunity to relate these issues to the requirements of your own organisation. Business decision makers, Information Management professionals, managers, and team leaders will find the event stimulating, helping them succeed in achieving organisational objectives. The event is also an excellent forum for airing your questions, whether during the conference and panel debate, or in one-to-one sessions with our analysts. Not least is the opportunity to network with your peers and talk to vendors about their latest products.
This conference and exhibition focuses on use of BI to drive operations, performance and risk management and will cover the following areas:

Intelligence driven operations.
The many aspects of Performance Management.
Enterprise Risk Management.
Deriving value from analytics.
BI and new trends in Information Management.
Gaining business value from text mining.
Developments in data quality and data integration technologies.
The role of search and collaboration functionality in BI.
The convergence of BI with Business Process Management.
Application of BI to business process monitoring and optimisation.
Location intelligence.
The advantages and challenges of gaining a BI capability through Software as a Service.

Start using the customer case studies for MSBI.....

Hayley — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:18:50 GMT

Culver Franchising Systems, Inc.

Culver Franchising Systems, Inc. (CFSI) success depends on maintaining the integrity of the Culver’s brand and helping franchisees run efficient, profitable operations.

A Performance Management solution based on Microsoft BI technologies has given CFSI better visibility into the performance of Culver’s restaurants and menu items. Now CFSI has the data it needs to help franchise owners improve operations and profitability. Reports that once took franchise business partners hours to generate now take just minutes, and the company can now combine point-of-sale data with Site Operations and external data, helping the organization make decisions based on real information rather than intuition.

Click here to view this case study.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

Maintaining Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ (CMS) trajectory of exceptional student achievement required more than simply defining goals. The district needed a way to track the efficiency of its programs and initiatives – so that it could identify which succeeded and which failed to produce desired results. Rather than depending on ad-hoc reports manually produced by the central office a few times a year, the Board of Education needed a way to continually monitor and assess programs in real time.

Click here to view this case study.

The Holy Grail of Business Intelligence..

Hayley — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:56:49 GMT

Shane Robison, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at HP provided his take on 5 trends to watch in the cloud space. Specifically of interest were his observations surrounding enterprises and business intelligence.....

Read more by clicking on the picture below..

Gartner predicts slow growth in BI in 2008

Hayley — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:29:13 GMT

Gartner Research by Nigel Rayner.

Some interesting comments on Excel and the comment that it’s widely used because BI tools are too simple – I thought the reason why Excel was used was the fact that most BI tools were too complex…...

Analyst firm Gartner predicts a slow growth in the business intelligence (BI) market during 2008 because of its increasing maturity. Gartner expects the BI market growth rate to be at 12.5 per cent this year, and to move beyond $7bn by 2011.

Some interesting comments but not an article I would whole heartedly follow based on the thriving interest especially in the mid market space for BI.

BI in the News....

Hayley — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:16:14 GMT

The Great Debate: Business Intelligence - Seconding Speeches

The Great Debate is brought to you in conjunction with accountsIQ, your first choice for Online Accounting and Business Intelligence.

"This house believes that business intelligence technology is inappropriate for most UK small businesses.”

Second proposer:

Nigel Rayner, research vice-president, Gartner.

All of us taking part in this debate acknowledge that when it is implemented well, business intelligence technology can and does stimulate better management and innovation. I can point to numerous case studies where it has done so.

If you would like to find out more.... click below

Launch of SQL Server 2008...What the press have to say.....

Hayley — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:51:59 GMT

''Microsoft finally kicked its SQL Server 2008 out the door Wednesday, falling in line with its plan to release an update every three years. With the new offering, Microsoft has decoupled the dependencies with other product releases and even some key features.''

When Will BI Head Downstream?

Hayley — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:50:05 GMT

Interesting article with its take on the SMB sector:

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/When-Will-BI-Head-Downstream-63586.html

RE Microsoft:

Currently, of the big four vendors, Microsoft is the closest to providing a solution to overcome this obstacle. Microsoft Excel has become the most pervasive BI tool to address the needs of small businesses.

Microsoft has wisely leveraged Excel as the front-end to deliver its extensive BI offerings, by tying it to the more sophisticated stack of BI technologies it has acquired and developed.