************************************************************ DSS News by D. J. Power November 4, 2001 -- Vol. 2, No. 23 A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM ************************************************************ Check Timo Elliot's article, Pfizer case at DSSResources.COM ************************************************************ Featured: * DSS Wisdom * Ask Dan! - What is business intelligence? * What's New at DSSResources.COM * DSS News Stories ************************************************************ 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. ************************************************************ 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/. ************************************************************ 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. ************************************************************ 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. ************************************************************ 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. ************************************************************ 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. ************************************************************ This newsletter is available online in the Subscriber Zone at http://dssresources.com/newsletters/ . ************************************************************ DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2001 by D. J. Power. Please send your email to power@dssresources.com. You have previously subscribed to the DSS News Mailing List. |