PARIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

Actian
Corporation and Decideis,
a consultant and business intelligence (BI) systems integrator and a key
BI operator in France for the last 15 years, announced today that they
have signed a strategic reseller agreement. According to the agreement,
Decideis will now offer customers a ‘pure software’ solution that is
ideal for implementing affordable Big Data projects efficiently and
rapidly.

As an innovative in-memory BI pioneer since 2003, Decideis offers
customers agility in deploying BI projects by integrating the best
innovative solutions. With a lead over traditional IT service providers,
the company implements projects rapidly to help businesses take control
of their BI solutions. This innovative approach minimizes costs while
ensuring optimum customer satisfaction.

This agreement gives Decideis customers instant access to business
insight delivered by Vectorwise, the analytic database engine that
offers record processing speed. Vectorwise makes use of vector-based,
on-chip memory technology to process large volumes of data on standard
servers without requiring additional expense of resources and overhead.

“Vectorwise fits perfectly with our strategic vision of business
intelligence. Overcoming the lock-in constraints of proprietary
appliances, Vectorwise is the most agile pure software solution to cope
with new BI challenges in the face of increasingly large data volumes.
Our unique lead in this field will give our customers an impressive
price/performance ratio and value for money,” explained Yves Blake, CEO
of Decideis.

“Given that Decideis has managed to turn itself into a favourite among
French BI operators, it’s natural that we were so keen to establish this
agreement so as to round off their BI offering with a record breaking
analytic database,” commented Christian Raza, sales director France for
Actian. “Actian’s Vectorwise delivers fast speeds and is compatible with
most existing physical and virtual platforms while allowing users to
turn their corporate data into actionable insight and information.”

About Decideis

As a key business intelligence player over the last 15 years, Decideis
focuses on innovations that simplify and accelerate implementation of BI
projects. With a lead over traditional computer services firms, Decideis
has specialised in vector-based in-memory solutions since 2003. Rapidly
completing projects, promoting consultation with business experts,
adapting to structural changes… Decideis has created Agile
Intelligence: the leading agile method applied to business
intelligence, which ensures BI projects are systematically completed in
line with the objectives of decision makers while radically cutting
deployment costs and lead times. Choosing Decideis gives users the
benefit of broad experience from several hundred high value-added BI
projects, while also relying on a partner whose constant and ongoing
growth confirms its strategic vision, namely to make technological
innovation a driving force in improving efficiency for companies and
people. Further details are available at www.decideis.com.

About Actian Corporation

Actian
Corporation enables organizations to transform Big Data into
Business Value with data management solutions to transact, analyze, and
take automated action across their business operations.

Actian is the first to unveil a cloud development platform for building
Action Apps, lightweight consumer-style applications that automate
actions triggered by real-time changes in data to deliver actionable
business intelligence. Actian also incites action for 10,000 customers
worldwide with Vectorwise, the analytical database, and Ingres, an
independent mission-critical OLTP database. Actian is headquartered in
California with offices in New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam
and Melbourne. Stay connected with Actian Corporation on Facebook,
Twitter
and LinkedIn.

Actian, Cloud Action Platform, Action Apps, Ingres and Vectorwise are
trademarks of Actian Corporation. All other trademarks, trade names,
service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective
companies.

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/decideis-signs-agreement-actian-si-120000340.html

STERLING, Va., June 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Today Customer Relationship Metrics, L.C. announced the findings from a review of 7 businesses that failed the customer insights to action test.  

The companies stealing market share are (slightly) better at converting business intelligence information into tangible results. Companies are learning there is an orchestration of data science, business acumen, story-telling, and art required to unlock business intelligence potential. In our experience-based economy, business intelligence is poised to assist with delivering a unique customer experience.

After obtaining information on 7 different contact center operations, Customer Relations Metrics concluded that none of the organizations would be able to receive beyond the basic benefit from their business intelligence solutions.

“This does not bode well for software vendors. These organizations just do not know the possibilities and potential available to them; it’s an innocent tragedy. They are getting pressured for these insights but are unable to know how to deliver them,” said Jim Rembach, chief spokesman of Customer Relationship Metrics.

One exception to this finding may have revealed itself this week in a story covered by multiple media outlets.

CEO Barney Harford told CNN that Orbitz recommendation results are part of an attempt to pair customers with the hotel they’d probably pick. He stated, “What we have found is … that Mac users are 40% more likely to book four- or five-star hotels than PC users…”

“This is an example of using BI to make for a better customer experience and provides Orbitz with a differentiated customer experience. It’s brilliant to anticipate what your customers want – and to give it to them,” says Dr. Jodie Monger, President of Customer Relationship Metrics.

Dr. Monger added, “If Orbitz generates more revenue because it leveraged this insight for a better customer experience – that is what they are supposed to do!”

ABOUT CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP METRICS, L.C.

Founded in 1993, Customer Relationship Metrics, L.C., headquartered in Sterling, Virginia, is a provider of contact center analytics and advisory services. Customer Relationship Metrics fixes customer relationship data problems with their deep domain expertise in customer behavior and performance analytics. 

For more information, visit http://www.metrics.net or register for a risk-free data assessment to determine your insight to action capabilities.

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/business-intelligence-not-able-deliver-115700257.html

        For Lancet Software
        Spencer Bjorklund, 801-657-1685
        spencer.bjorklund@lumenohealth.com

Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/healthcare-business-intelligence-a-guide-to-empowering-successful-data-reporting-and-analytics-2012-06-26

LONDON, June 25, 2012 - Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today announced that it has acquired Zawya Limited, a regional provider of business intelligence and unique tools for financial professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This investment marks Thomson Reuters second acquisition in 2012 across the MENA region and further underscores the organization’s commitment to connecting and enabling the local financial community with leading edge information and tools.

The acquisition comes in line with Thomson Reuters long-term commitment to investing in the MENA region. Zawya, a privately owned company, is a leading online business intelligence platform. The firm enables professionals to find and connect to the right business and investment opportunities in the MENA region. The firm’s wide range of specialized content and tools include detailed profiles on the top companies in the MENA region, live news, comprehensive industry and asset class research, as well as an exclusive online network for professionals focusing on the region.

“Zawya has built a strong brand and impressive offering in MENA, and this acquisition builds on our commitment to this region which dates back to 1856 starting with news and expanding to comprehensive news and data coverage. We offer deep and broad coverage of MENA markets across a wide spectrum of content sets and data types,” said Basil Moftah, Managing Director for the Middle East, Africa and Russia, Thomson Reuters. “By joining forces, Thomson Reuters, Zawya’s clients, and the market will benefit from a unique offering. This synergy will result in an improved and diversified line of services across the MENA markets for a broader group of users.”

“This investment confirms Thomson Reuters role as a key contributor to the growth of local markets through enhancing transparency, offering quality content, helping companies function better, and assisting professionals to make informed business decisions across the MENA markets,” said Russell Haworth, Managing Director, Middle East and North Africa, Thomson Reuters. “By completing this acquisition, a wider group of users such as small and medium sized enterprises (SME), governments, family offices and financial institutions in and outside of the MENA region will have access to a single source of information providing rich content, research tools, deep subject matter expertise, and proprietary data.”  

Globally, Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. In MENA, Zawya complements Thomson Reuters offering exceptionally well by providing additional insight on local markets, covering a much broader spectrum of non-listed companies which is of value to regionally focused financial professionals.

In the area of Islamic finance, Zawya has an existing community which will further allow Thomson Reuters to harness and build on their experiences. Zawya’s Sharia scholar and Sukuk database is respected and well recognized across the MENA region. The combination of Thomson Reuters and Zawya represents the best of breed proposition for Islamic Finance content.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Notes to Editors
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.  We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare and science and media markets, powered by the world’s most trusted news organization.  With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com.

About Zawya Limited
Zawya is the leading online business intelligence platform focusing on the Middle East North Africa. Zawya’s wide range of unique content and tools include detailed profiles on the top companies in the Middle East and North Africa, live news, comprehensive industry and asset class research, as well as an exclusive online network for professionals focusing on the region. Thomson Reuters has acquired Zawya limited from a group of shareholders led by Saffar, a MENA focused financial services and investment group.

CONTACTS

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/idUS100254+25-Jun-2012+HUG20120625

Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/business-intelligence-not-able-to-deliver-competitive-advantage-and-customer-experience-differentiation-2012-06-29

STERLING, Va., June 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Today Customer Relationship Metrics, L.C. launches a partnership with Strategic Contact to create business transformation capabilities for companies to improve their customer experience performance.

Smart companies know customer experience is a competitive differentiator. Business intelligence enables a distinctive customer experience.

Most organizations don’t have the time or resources to uncover insights and act on them. They are consumed with routine report generation and day-to-day demands. Many lack the tools, budget, and skilled staffing for “big data” technology investments.

This partnership fills that gap to enable companies to fix problems that are damaging their brands.

“Strategic Contact is excited about the opportunity because analytics and BI is such a strong need for our clients. This partnership opens the door for contact centers to gain insights and act on those insights,” says Lori Bocklund, President of Strategic Contact.

Dr. Jodie Monger, President of Customer Relationship Metrics, says, “Tangible changes are what make business intelligence valuable. Strategic Contact has the experience, project processes, and tools to help clients implement changes because they lack the time, resources, or knowledge to pursue. This partnership fills the void between strategy and business results.”

These two companies create powerful results whether clients desire an enhanced customer experience, cost reduction, or increased revenue. The extensive experience, industry recognized thought leadership, and innovative solutions presented by this partnership form a valuable offering for those who want to win.

Dr. Monger added, “Value is not generated from uncovering insights – it is generated from taking action on insights.”

ABOUT CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP METRICS, L.C.

Founded in 1993, Customer Relationship Metrics, L.C., headquartered in Sterling, Virginia, is a provider of contact center analytics and advisory services. Customer Relationship Metrics fixes customer relationship data problems with their deep domain expertise in customer behavior and performance analytics. 

For more information, visit their award-winning blog at http://www.metrics.net/blog, or website at http://www.metrics.net. Don’t miss registering for your risk-free data assessment.

ABOUT STRATEGIC CONTACT

Strategic Contact is an independent consulting firm that helps companies optimize the value of their customer contact technology and operations by developing and executing plans tied to business goals.

For more information, visit http://www.strategiccontact.com.

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/customer-experience-transformation-using-business-121400473.html

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Yardi announced today that it received a prestigious Digital Innovation
(“Digie”) Award from Realcomm in the Real Estate Technology Innovation
category. The award recognizes the breakthrough role Yardi
Orion™ for SharePoint^® is playing in advancing the
automation of real estate business intelligence, document management and
portals.

“Digie Awards recognize companies, real estate
projects, technologies and people that have gone above and beyond to
positively impact our industry through the use of technology, automation
and innovation.”

Yardi Orion, which Yardi unveiled in March 2012, integrates Yardi
Voyager™ with Microsoft SharePoint. It provides unprecedented business
intelligence by including a data warehouse, business intelligence cubes
and out-of-the-box dashboards. By automatically synchronizing Yardi
Voyager’s security and entity hierarchies with SharePoint, Yardi Orion
accelerates SharePoint deployment and provides integration with the
property management system that is not possible using SharePoint alone.
Other key features of Yardi Orion, which is offered as Software as a
Service, include expanded access to information and documents across an
entire organization with non-redundant document access from both Yardi
Voyager and SharePoint. Yardi Orion also offers preconfigured employee
intranet portals, portals for property marketing and portals for
resident and tenant services. Because Yardi Orion leverages the
SharePoint platform, dashboards and portals are highly customizable.

“Orion was conceived to solve an industry-wide problem. Companies were
struggling to implement SharePoint in a way that it could be used
effectively with a property management system,” said Rob Teel, senior
vice president of commercial and investment management for Yardi. “The
Orion framework solves the problem of security and integration between
SharePoint and Voyager.”

According to Realcomm, “Digie Awards recognize companies, real estate
projects, technologies and people that have gone above and beyond to
positively impact our industry through the use of technology, automation
and innovation.” Realcomm announced the Digie Award winners for 2012
this month at its Conference Expo in Las Vegas.

This is Yardi’s fourth Digie in seven years, following citations in
2005, 2008 and 2009.

“We are pleased that Orion is giving our clients new dimensions of
insight into their business and helping them collaborate smarter with
all stakeholders, including tenants, employees and prospects,” said
Terri Dowen, senior vice president of sales for Yardi. “The Digie
represents well-deserved recognition for hundreds of Yardi employees
whose hard work and innovation produced Orion.”

About Realcomm

Realcomm Conference Group LLC is a worldwide research and event company
at the intersection of technology, innovation and real estate
operations. Through our annual conferences, webinars, workshops, CIO
Forums and other strategic services, Realcomm provides networking and
collaboration opportunities, while educating industry professionals
about the latest business solutions and technologies to improve
commercial real estate development, leasing, management and operations.
To date, our global events have been attended by more than 20,000
industry professionals and our magazine and weekly newsletter have been
distributed to over 50,000. For more information, visit www.realcomm.com.

About Yardi

Yardi has been committed to the design, development and support of real
estate investment management and property
management software for 30 years. With the Yardi Multifamily Suite™,
Yardi Commercial Suite™, Yardi Investment Suite™, and Yardi Orion™ for
SharePoint^®, Yardi Voyager™ is a full business real estate
management platform that includes operations, accounting, and ancillary
processes and services with portfolio-wide business intelligence. Yardi
serves clients around the world from offices in North America, Asia,
Australia, Europe and the Middle East. More information about Yardi
products and services is available at www.yardi.com.

Article source: http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20120628005193/en/property-management-software/business-intelligence/Yardi-Voyager

Embedded Analytics – Dig a Little Deeper with Embedded
BI

Embedded BI (business intelligence) is making a
splash as the latest and greatest way to leverage data for operational decision-making. But there’s
one thing that the proponents of this approach to real-time data reporting don’t necessarily
mention. It’s this dirty little secret: Your embedded business intelligence is only as smart as you
are. That’s right. Embedded BI will not help you
connect with customers, speed products to market, increase profitability, mitigate risk, overcome
obstacles, promote better choices, or point the way to your company’s future – unless you are doing
it right. That’s why it is critical to move beyond the idea of embedded BI as a set of reports or
tools and into the deeper principle of embedded analytics. After all, without critical analysis,
information is just noise.

How
Does Embedded Analytics Differ From Embedded BI?

At first glance, these might seem like two
different terms that mean basically the same thing. However, the practice of embedding analytics
into both business processes and business applications is actually the more foundational concept.
Embedded BI is the ideal end product – a set of actionable insights gleaned from the real time
reporting and appropriate analysis of business
data.

Embedding Analytics Means Asking the Right Questions

In order to incorporate analytics into business
processes and enterprise software, an organization must look beyond the way they currently
aggregate and interpret data. Yes, the information you are already collecting with embedded BI
tools is important and a good starting place for experimenting with embedded analytics. However, in
order to truly revolutionize how your business operates, you need to start asking even more
questions. These queries fall into several categories. Of course, we’re assuming you’ve already
determined the short term operational objectives and long term strategic goals for your business as
a starting point. Those goals serve as the framework within which to answer all the following
questions:

Data
Quality, Availability, and Use

What data are we
currently collecting via embedded BI and other tools? Is this the data that we need? Who decides
what we need to know?

Is there a set of key
performance indicators we could be collecting and analyzing that we are neglecting? How might we
figure out what data we are missing (blind spots)? Can we drill down into each set of data far
enough to glean all important information?

What are we currently
using this data for? Are these uses in alignment with our goals? Can we make comparisons in
performance/outcome (one of the most important types of analysis) based on the real-time data we
are collecting?

Is the data we are
collecting correct and complete? What checks and balances are in place to ensure this?

Are we collecting data
at the right point in the workflow? Would collecting it earlier provide more time for decision
making? Would collecting it later provide a more accurate picture upon which to base a
decision?

Do we have control
over each source of data, or are we dependent
on third parties for any information? If so, what impact does this have on timeliness and accuracy
of this data?

Existing Embedded BI Tools

How do our various BI
tools interact? Is there an overarching program that permits us to use these tools across
applications or is each one simply a standalone product?

Do our employees
understand the purpose and importance of our embedded BI tools? Do they know how to use them correctly to support business objectives?
Are they actually using the BI tools as intended? How
are we tracking this (that’s where embedded BI goes “meta”).

Are our embedded BI
tools easy and intuitive to use with visual representations the average user can understand? If
not, how can we improve them?

Is there a process in
place for re-evaluating and refining our embedded BI tools as circumstances change?

Business Process Evaluation

Are there any core
business processes that don’t lend themselves to
scrutiny with embedded BI and analytics? If not, why? What changes are needed to enable embedded
analytics in these business processes? What would the ROI be if such changes were made?

Are any new core (or
peripheral) processes being designed for our business? How can analytics capabilities be structured
into these processes from day one?

How will making
decisions based on embedded analytics affect existing processes and workflow? What challenges might
this create?

What aspects of
embedded analysis should be automated when it comes to directing the flow of business processes and
tasks? Which aspects should be done under human supervision (or trigger an alert) for real-world or
common sense decision making that a computer can’t handle?

As you can see, these questions are important to
answer whether you intend to overhaul your existing processes yourself or hire a consulting firm to
revamp everything for you. It’s a lot to think about, but the results are worth it. By the time
you’re done analyzing how your organization currently operates with embedded BI and where you want
to go with embedded analytics, you’ll have a deeper understanding of your business than ever. 

28 Jun 2012

Article source: http://www.theserverside.com/feature/Business-Process-Evaluation-with-Embedded-Analytics-and-Embedded-BI

Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/customer-experience-transformation-using-business-intelligence-now-available-for-resource-strapped-organizations-2012-06-28

Most of the time, selecting items in a PivotTable in a PowerPivot or SSAS 2012 Tabular model works in the way you want: if you select more than one item from a column it acts as an OR filter on that column; selecting items on another column acts as an AND filter on the selection. Consider a simple PowerPivot model built from the following Excel tables (where the only relationship is on the FruitKey columns):

With a measure that sums up the Sales column, such as:

Sum of Sales:=SUM(SalesFact[Sales])

You can built a PivotTable like the one below that shows the sales of Citrus fruit that are Orange or Yellow (Citrus=Yes and (Colour=Orange OR Colour=Yellow):

So far so good. What happens if you want to see the sales of fruit that are either Citrus OR Yellow? If you know the selection in advance, or you have control over how your DAX is generated, you can build an expression like this measure that does the job:

Sum of Sales Citrus or Yellow:=
CALCULATE(
  SUM(SalesFact[Sales])
  , FILTER(ALL(Fruit1), Fruit1[Citrus]=”Yes” || Fruit1[Colour]=”Yellow”)
)

But what if you don’t want to hard-code the filter you’re using, and want to let your users control what they are ORing? Here’s how…

First of all, you need to have two identical tables in your model that allow the user to make selections for the two conditions they are ORing. Here’s an example with the data from above:

Here I’ve got two tables, Fruit1 and Fruit2, for controlling the OR selection; only Fruit1 has a relationship with SalesFact though. Next, you need a measure that will apply the OR filter. The way this needs to work is as follows: take the whole of the Fruit table and if the user has selected something on Fruit1 then allow those rows through, and if the user has selected something on Fruit2 then allow those rows through the filter as well. Here’s the final DAX measure:

OR Sales:=
IF(
  OR(ISCROSSFILTERED(Fruit1[FruitKey]), ISCROSSFILTERED(Fruit2[FruitKey]))
  ,CALCULATE(
    SUM(SalesFact[Sales])
    , FILTER(
      ALL(Fruit1)
      , IF(ISCROSSFILTERED(Fruit1[FruitKey]), CONTAINS(Fruit1, Fruit1[FruitKey], [FruitKey]), FALSE())
      ||
      IF(ISCROSSFILTERED(Fruit2[FruitKey]), CONTAINS(Fruit2, Fruit2[FruitKey], [FruitKey]), FALSE())
    )
  )
  , SUM(SalesFact[Sales])
)

The key points here are (starting from the inside of the expression and working outwards):

• I’m using ALL(Fruit1) to get all the rows from the Fruit1 table, regardless of what has been selected, and then passing that table to the FILTER() function
• I’m then using the ISCROSSFILTERED() function on the FruitKey columns on both tables to see if the user has selected anything from any columns on those tables; if they have, then the FruitKey column will be filtered in some way
• Then, if something has been selected on either table, in my filter of ALL(Fruit1) I’m allowing a row to pass through the filter if the value of FruitKey is present in the user-selections on Fruit1 or Fruit2. This preserves the original selection on Fruit1 and adds the selection on Fruit2 to it. It would be much easier to do this if there was a way of unioning table expressions in DAX!
• Finally, I’m using the resulting table in the CALCULATE() function to get the sum of Sales for that selection. If nothing has been selected, however, the outer IF() simply returns the sum of Sales Amount with none of this logic applied.

Here’s a PivotTable using this measure with Citrus from Fruit1 on rows and Colour from Fruit2 on columns:

And, if you don’t want this OR functionality, all you need to do is ignore the Fruit2 table. Here’s a PivotTable with Citrus and Colour from Fruit1 on rows and columns:

I’m not sure this is the most elegant solution to this problem… if I think of one I’ll blog about it, and if you can think of one then please leave a comment!

Like this:

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wordpress/Cpjz/~3/Msqti02noTQ/