BI tools gain higher rank in enterprises

Computerworld - Business intelligence tools are pushing deeper into the enterprise as companies use them in projects ranging from large-scale user deployments to systems that supply key data to executive decision-makers.

Many companies are replacing disparate reporting tools with enterprisewide technology while adding corporate performance management (CPM) software to boost the visibility of transactional data.

For instance, the University of North Carolina system, which consists of 16 public educational institutions, chose Information Builders Inc.'s WebFocus technology for enterprise reporting that will eventually be used by more than 200,000 users.

Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC has completed 30% of a project launched in September to replace several different tools, including Crystal Reports from Business Objects SA, on its various campuses, said Vijay Verma, UNC's associate vice president for information resources and associate CIO.

Vendors Respond

Meanwhile, vendors are moving to meet user demands for new BI tools that can link disparate sources of performance data.

Hyperion Solutions Corp. this week will unveil its Compliance Management Dashboard, which marries internal control data with financial data to help companies track compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The new dashboard will accompany the unveiling of a new version of Hyperion's performance management offering.

Earlier this month, Actuate Corp. rolled out the Actuate Financial Performance Management Suite.

Spectra-Physics Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based manufacturer of laser systems, has been using an earlier version of Hyperion's performance suite to integrate inventory data from multiple systems into dashboards.

"The [dashboard] application provides summary and detail-level visibility to inventory worldwide," said Mark Rowell, Spectra's IT director.

Toronto-based Labatt Breweries of Canada is deploying CPM tools from Ottawa-based Cognos Inc. to give sales, marketing and finance organizations across the country access to data pulled from 11 systems and 74 transaction sets. The company went live with the first phase of its deployment in October, said Michael Ali, Labatt's enterprise BI manager.

"We are trying to drive targeted performance management—getting everybody looking at the same things ... throughout the chain of command, down to the territory manager," Ali said.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City in Missouri next month will migrate to the Business Objects XI BI and performance management platform to replace four reporting products for 275 users, said BI architect Erik Brokaw.

The health care organization expects the system to support as many as 450 users by the end of March.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City will also use Business Objects' CPM tools to begin giving executives access to consolidated analytics via dashboards.

Dashboard Deployments by Company Size

Source: AMR Research Inc., Boston, 2005