Six trends in business intelligence
Trend 2: Usability
Several factors are driving the BI stampede to the Web, including ease of use and cross-company data use.
Simply put, the focus is all about making it easy to disseminate and use the information across multiple companies, partners, suppliers, and so on.
To enable BI use across the enterprise, "the information presented needs to be personalised to the roles and responsibilities in a business process," says Neil Patil, director of product management at Brio Technology, a BI software developer.
Moreover, many potential users of analytical software are not technically astute, notes Clay Young, VP of marketing at ProClarity (formerly Knosys): "Unfortunately, not everyone has analytic training."
Eric Rogge, director of product management at WhiteLight, another analytic software provider, sees his software going into mainstream user environments. "Data display, viewing, interactive display, as well as the addition of your own rules and subsequent recalculation are becoming more necessary," he says.
Jagdish Mirani, senior director of marketing at Oracle, says nontechnical people do indeed need to use analytical software. "Render it all in a portal," he says. "It's a point-and-click world."
What it all means
Get familiar with Web communication protocols and display standards. Bone up on XML skills, because XML will assume an ultra- important role as data is exchanged among partners. Investigate Web portal technology as a delivery mechanism for getting just the right information, in the right amount, to the right people. Understand that not everyone is going to be at the same level, analytically speaking. Structure your offerings and services accordingly
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