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Business Intelligence
Matures
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Business
Intelligence is maturing in many ways - and we are seeing evidence of this in
naming conventions - ala BI 2.0. The market itself is undergoing a
consolidation from the perspective of vendors providing the underlying
technology that support Business Intelligence solutions.
Gartner Group is one of the consulting organizations that tracks this kind of
market movement, and makes predictions on how industries will react to the
changes. Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, updated
for 2008, shows a global snapshot in time, with recommendations as to who (in
Gartner's opinion) should be considered when an organization seeks to develop
Business Intelligence applications.
We're seeing changes based on the acquisition of some of the
BI leaders by other industry giants-think of IBM's acquisition of Cognos,
Oracle with Hyperion, and SAP with Business Objects.
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Some immediate questions come to
mind:
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How does SAP view Business Intelligence, and what changes will they make?
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How will Gartner view this market after the dust settles?
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How will some of the smaller BI players react to the perceived vacuum created
by the acquisition of the largest players?
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What about Microsoft and how will these changes be exploited?
Gartner had observed previously that there were "too many BI vendors." And,
according to a Gartner annual CIO survey, Business Intelligence remained the #1
topic for the second year running, followed by ERP.
Many technologies are emerging-and some amazing existing technologies are
shaping today's BI implementations. We've seen the emergence of dashboarding
and intelligent searching-will these capabilities become the norm? You need to
understand the impact of these emerging technologies, how they can make a
difference in your business, and-perhaps most important of all-how to tie it
all together.
Forrester Research observed that BI is moving to more users. A Forrester
Research analyst commented: "The new users of Business Intelligence are
everyone that makes a business decision. Frankly, they couldn't care less about
how to build a query."
This statement by Forrester is what leads to the crux of this article: BI
discussions often focus on the technology rather than the solutions that the
technology enables. Here's a case in point. A Google search on Business
Intelligence success stories yields about half a million results. Upon
investigating a few of these stories, about how different companies have used
Business Intelligence, you will find that most of the discussions focus on the
technology and what was wrong from an IT perspective. Little importance is
placed on what business problem the customer needed to solve, what the impact
was to their day-to-day activity and long-term strategy, and how this situation
was impacted by their BI implementation.
Of course, the technology is still important, and we don't want to lose sight
of "how we did it." But it's important to also know
"why we did it."
You have an excellent opportunity to learn more about BI 2.0-what it can mean
to you and your business-at
IBIS 2008. InfoSol has created a special
Business Intelligence Track that focuses on emerging technologies and
their application. You'll hear about:
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The future of Business Intelligence
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The newest collaboration tools and methods available to empower and grow your
user experience
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Search secrets and lesser known tricks for intelligent searching
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How simple keyword searches can be used to discover meaningful information
hidden in data sources across your organization
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How to manipulate hierarchies (without changing your data source) to find out
"what if I did this?"
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What's new in report publishing and distribution
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Ways to enhance your own web applications-plus, an example of how someone else
did it
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Enhancements that improve data warehouse life cycle management
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Customer Case Studies
BI 2.0 is more than just another buzzword-don't miss this opportunity to see
what's new and how your business can benefit from the latest innovations. See
you in Las Vegas!
For additional information regarding IBIS 2008 or
Business Intelligence, contact infosol@infosol.com.
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Special Education
Offerings
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SPECIAL
Receive $150 off the
July 7-9, 2008
DM310R2: BusinessObjects XI R1/R2: Universe Design
* This offer cannot be combined with other offers or
discounts and applies to new enrollments only.
Online registration will not reflect discounted pricing. Offer expires June 27,
2008.
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Special IBIS
Offerings - EXTENDED to June 30, 2008
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From now until June 30, 2008, we are offering the following
IBIS specials:
Option #1
$100 off a Pre-Seminar class of your choice and we will pay for your Saturday
night stay at The Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas.
Option #2
One FREE Pre-Seminar class of your choice.
View
Details and Agenda.
Register
Now!
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Ask the Expert -
Your Business Intelligence Questions Answered
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BusinessObjects Q&A
QUESTION:
When I produce Month End Reports, I do not want charges, which have
been waived throughout the month, to display. To make that determination, I
look at the "Charge Code" assigned. Anything with a "W" should not be charged
nor displayed. I tried using an "IF" statement, but the only way the "IF"
statement works correctly is if it is displayed in the table and then I get a
charge of $0. If I remove the "Charge Code" and "Charge Code Description", all
I get is #Multivalue. Is there a way to resolve this?
ANSWER:
Yes, please refer to the example in the full version of this tech tip.
The first table displays the charges and the actual prices. An
"IF" statement was created to reflect the charges to be billed. Anything with a
"Charge Code" of "W" will be waived. Web Intelligence is not able to resolve
the value of the price without the "Charge Code" in the table.
Click
here to view full tech tip...
Crystal Reports Q&A
QUESTION:
I would like a user to have a menu option to select ALL values in a
dynamic prompt list, instead of having to set up the prompt to allow multiple
values and the user having to select the double-arrows, if they want to use all
the prompt values to run the report. How would I do this?
ANSWER:
In order to do this, you will need
to create a SQL command that grabs all the values you want for your prompt and
joins it to another query, that pulls the wildcard (*) value and the word ALL
that a user can select.
Click here
to view full tech tip...
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Submit your questions to the InfoSol expert by
e-mailing infosol@infosol.com. Also,
check out our BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, and Xcelsius technical tips by
visiting our web site.
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| Up and Coming Events |
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AZBOCUG Meeting - June 19, 2008
(Arizona Business Objects and Crystal Reports User Group)
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Click
here for a map
Register for the Upcoming
AZBOCUG meeting now.
AZBOCUG Meeting Schedule:
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| 12:30pm |
1:00pm |
Welcome and Registration
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| 1:00pm |
1:45pm |
Xcelsius 2008
See the new features and functions in the exciting new release of the best data
visualization and dashboard toolset available today - Xcelsius 2008.
Presented by InfoSol Inc.
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| 1:45pm |
2:30pm |
BusinessObjects XI Sharepoint 2008
Portal Integration Kit (PIK)
Integrate your Webi and Crystal reports to your SharePoint server.
Presented by Chris Sinkwitz of Meritage Homes
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| 2:30pm |
2:45pm |
Break
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| 2:45pm |
3:15pm |
360View
360View is a powerful and intuitive web-based tool, for implementing, managing
and documenting your XI R2 security, managing your universes, active users and
a lot more. This tool is making BO Administrators jump for joy!
Presented by Sebastien Goiffon, GB & Smith
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| 3:15pm |
3:30pm |
BusinessObjects Events Update
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| 3:30pm |
3:45pm |
Election of Steering Committee
Members
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| 3:45pm |
4:00pm |
Raffle |
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| IBIS 2008: August 10-13 |
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Join InfoSol for the 10th annual InfoSol Business Intelligence
Seminar (IBIS)
at The Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas Resort.
Track
5: InfoBurst / ProPublisher
Are you faced with the distribution and publishing challenges for reports and
dashboards? Existing InfoBurst users and those still searching for a solution
will find answers to your distribution and publishing questions. Here is your
chance to ask the experts about all things InfoBurst and learn how to maximize
the available features to your benefit. This track provides a thorough tour of
InfoBurst, covering the strengths of the solution and digging into report
bursting and dashboard solutions. Plus, you'll see a preview of the future
direction of InfoBurst. At the conclusion of Track 5,
attendees will have an understanding of the capabilities of InfoBurst and be
able to apply this knowledge to solve various distribution and publishing
challenges. Plus, learn more about how Xcelsius Dashboard solutions can enhance
your environment.
Track
6: Effective Administration and Monitoring your BOE Environment
BusinessObjects Enterprise System Administrators, IT Managers, BI Managers, and
BI Developers who need to find systematic approaches, methods, and ideas on
effective administration and monitoring will find this track to be
enlightening.
Individual sessions will:
. Suggest ways to troubleshoot your BOE system
. Suggest how to implement a viable and reliable backup strategy for your BOE
deployment
. Describe the auditing options available, and how they can lead to
optimization
. Includes a Customer Case Study, and more...
Track
7: Building and Deploying Effective BI Solutions
Business executives, managers, and key personnel need to know about Business
Intelligence (BI)-and how to build and deploy an effective BI solution. Track 7
is a dedicated dynamic and interactive seminar focusing on why Business
Intelligence is a critical and essential component in so many businesses today.
Topics address how to plan, build and deploy effective Business Intelligence
solutions-and why!
Track
8: Business Intelligence 2.0
BI 2.0 - the next generation of Business Intelligence - extends the definition
beyond traditional data warehousing and query tools to include dynamic
in-process and automated decision-making. This track will cover some of the
newest collaboration tools and methods available to empower and grow the user
experience. At the conclusion of Track 8, attendees will have
ideas for ways to control their own user experience and group collaboration in
the BusinessObjects environment.
View
Full Details and Agenda.
Register
Now!
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