Business Intelligence

2014 Gleansight Benchmark Report Business Intelligence

Content In 2014 almost all organizations own some sort of business Part 1: Topic Overview intelligence (BI) tools, if only financial software that is capable Part 2: Reasons to Implement of more than cranking out P&Ls and balance sheets. In the Part 3: Value Drivers context of this report, BI will be defined as more than just the Part 4: Challenges technology, but a structured methodology and framework for Part 5: Performance Metrics Part 6: Success Story transforming raw data into meaningful information that informs Part 7: Vendor Landscape business strategy. Seventy seven percent (77%) of respondents reported they were currently using a stand-alone BI technology Sidebars and another 17% reported plans to invest in BI tools by 2015. Survey Stats Benchmark KPIs Core Technologies Gleanster Numbers Vendor Quick Reference Guide

The concept of big data has gained considerable traction over the last few years. While most organizations don’t really have a “big data” problem (see the Gleanster Deep Dive on the 3 Tiers of Big Data), 89% of business leaders estimate they regularly use about 30% of the data that exists in their organization for informed data-driven business decisions. While it’s difficult to measure the accuracy of such claims, this theme continues to ripple through BI research over the years – organizations struggle to translate available data into strategic insights in a timely and efficient way. Only a small fraction of respondents indicated their organization was

Note: This document is intended for individual currently engaging in sophisticated reporting on finances or customer use. Electronic distribution via email or by marketing segmentation. In fact, far fewer have what could be classified as a posting on a personal website is in violation of the terms of use. well-integrated and architected BI platform, encompassing broad capabilities

for gathering, storing, merging, themes in the survey data. One, how purging, analyzing and distributing do Top Performing organizations data. The problem is the not the overcome issues with the data tools or technologies, but the quality quality and the perceived accuracy of of the data being analyzed. Both line business intelligence insights? Two, of business decision makers and IT the perceived competitive advantage respondents indicated information derived from business intelligence is frequently scrutinized based on practices. Can you ascertain the accuracy of the data analyzed. insights from business intelligence that improve operational efficiency, The 2014 Business Intelligence increase customer satisfaction, report explores Top Performing and improve business planning? organizations to understand two core

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Survey Stats Part 1: Topic Overview The research findings featured in this Gleansight benchmark report are derived from the Q2 2014 Gleanster Top Performers don’t simply gather and record data. They put it survey on business intelligence. to work. Data helps them optimize their sales, margins, inventory • Total survey responses: 238 and supply chains, informs their customer acquisition and retention

• Qualified survey responses: 194 strategies, and identifies new product and market opportunities.

• Company size: <$1M (11%); $1 In a time of economic turmoil, BI initiatives stand out for their potential to improve - 10M (23%); $10-250M (34%); corporate performance through better use of the data gathered by disparate $250M - $1B (23%); >$1B (9%) systems. Compared with many organizational IT projects, BI is relatively inexpensive. One of the most important trends in information technology has been • Geography: North America (67%); the emergence of a market for general-purpose business intelligence tools that can Europe (22%); Other (11%) be aimed at any sort of business problem.

• Industries: Financial Services (14%); CPG (13%); Most BI vendors sell vertical applications that build on top of their base platform, Education (11%); Healthcare providing a customizable starter set of analytics and dashboards for a given (10%); Government (8%); industry. An automotive sales dashboard, for example, might focus on vehicle Manufacturing (6%); Life Sciences accessory sales according to demographics, whereas a banking dashboard might (5%); Telecommunications graphically show the breakdown in risk and profitability across account types. (4%); Other (29%) Short of these extensions, the foundational value drivers for BI tools are more • Job levels: C-level (24%); SVP/ basic, such as the ability to pull data on the fly from operational systems or analyze VP (34%); Director (29%); the contents of a more neatly organized data warehouse or data mart. This makes Manager & Staff (13%) it possible to create analytic applications that don’t fit neatly in the confines of a packaged software system or that cross-reference data from multiple systems.

Sample survey respondents: An oft-cited goal of creating a broad-based BI platform is to achieve “one version of the truth,” by gathering and analyzing data consistently and creating standard Jody Belkowski, World Health definitions for common measures of corporate performance. Unfortunately, this is Organization, Public Health easier said than done. Many large organizations have several competing BI tools James McCormick, Director, in place, and new tools may come into the company over time through mergers, Data Solutions, Technology acquisitions or the purchase of packaged software with its own data handling and analytics formulas as well as presentation methods. In fact, respondents reported Sabahe Mrizag, Manager, an average of two internal BI tools were present inside their organizations. Clear Channel, Media

Manager, City of Las Vegas Data warehousing, data mining, and analytic modeling are as much a part of a comprehensive BI strategy as are query tools, dashboards and Web portals, since BI Architect, Charlotte Russe, Retail the results delivered by a query tool are only as good as the databases and data warehouses that feed them. Overtly, the bottom end seems to be under control, what with decades of RDBMS development and legions of database administrators at work around the world. However, most of that work has been put into routinization of traditional business tasks, and business “intelligence” can be anything but routine. Big data can expand into Big Data with more money and hardware, whether in-house or through distributed storage, but regardless must still meet information needs.

Note: This document is intended for individual use. Electronic distribution via email or by At the top end – the output of useful information – expansion is more difficult. posting on a personal website is in violation of Information does not scale as smoothly as data, nor is its development as the terms of use.

measurable as data. It demands models and definitions in topical or different ways of thinking about divisional data marts and company- information gathering, distribution, and wide data warehouses. They promote presentation, the latter including mobile standardization of the use of query access. All too often, “big information” tools and integration protocols wherever makes demands that traditional bottom possible, and promote those as criteria end data management methods cannot for selecting new applications. They meet. fight the difficult but necessary political battles needed to extract the information BI is as much about management they need from departments and discipline as technology. Even if the divisions who prefer to hoard and control creation of “stovepiped” systems with data for their own purposes. Finally, their data models can’t be avoided they coach top executives and middle (and often it can’t), Top Performers managers on how to use dashboards seek to reconcile different data effectively.

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What are Reasons to BI implementations are driven by a variety of immediate business needs Implement? and long-range strategic goals. Organizations in pursuit of operational Reasons to Implement are the excellence are often motivated to promote data-driven decision making. reasons Top Performers invested, Just as often, the move to establish or enhance the BI platform is or plan to invest, in a technology. driven by a recognition of gaps in current analytic capabilities, where These also represent the most information that should be readily available is too hard to obtain. Today, common ways to justify the Top Performers are turning to BI as a source of competitive advantage. investment. Superior operational efficiency, increased customer satisfaction, and improved planning provide the foundation for Top Performing success in 2014. Interestingly, only 34% of All Other organizations (compared Benchmark KPIs with 78% of Top Performers) believe BI provides a unique competitive Gleanster uses 2-3 key performance advantage. In this context, BI “informs” decisions, but managers are still indicators (KPIs) to distinguish “Top relying on gut feel. If business leaders can’t trust the quality of available Performers” from all other companies data it is difficult to showcase the value in aggregated insights. (“Everyone Else”) within a given data set, thereby establishing a basis for benchmarking best practices. Top Performers still place significant weight on the value of informed business By definition, Top Performers are decisions through analytics and business intelligence. For this reason access comprised of the top quartile of to data when and where business leaders need it has a meaningful impact qualified survey respondents (QSRs). on the value of the data: how quickly we can access the data, what data is The KPIs used for distinguishing available, what platforms are integrated, and how we can act on the data. Top Performers focus on When justifying BI initiatives the number one issue to address is not tool performance metrics that speak to year-over-year improvement in capabilities but the perceived quality of existing data. Top Performers are relevant, measurable areas. Not four times more likely than Everyone Else to conduct periodic surveys to all KPIs are weighted equally. ascertain the perception of data quality among business decision makers.

The KPIs used for this Gleansight are:

• Year-over-year increase in revenue

• Preceived employee performance / productivity

• Year-over-year increase in operating margin

To learn more about Gleanster’s research methodology, please click here or email [email protected].

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MOST COMPELLING REASONS TO IMPLEMENT BI FOR TOP PERFORMERS*

92% Demand for data driven decisions at Say: the executive level.

59% Reduce operational costs and waste. Say:

52% Identify new revenue / growth Say: opportunities

* According to Top Performers, based on 194 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q2 2014 survey on BI. **According to Everyone Else shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers

Demand for data-driven decisions BI promotes better interpretation of at the executive level. BI provides information. While no technology an organization with the opportunity can guarantee that executives and to run its business more intelligently. managers will always draw the right For the better part of a decade, BI conclusions or make the best decisions, reporting largely took on a “Field of the sea change in the survey data Dreams” approach: if you build it they suggests Top Performers are trying to will come. But business leaders were reduce risk from gut decisions. slow to flock to the dashboards and analytics, largely because of lack of Reduce operational costs and waste. trust in the data and lack of experience When it’s time to examine the budget, deciphering the data. This is starting all companies need to know where the to change because there’s job security money is going. While some of that in data-driven decisions. Advances in information is available in standard computing power and BI interfaces have financial reports, BI proves its worth by led to easier analysis and visualization allowing a drill-down from high-level of data. It’s no surprise; the number one summaries to more detailed information. reason Top Performers are investing Top Performers are 4 times more in BI is renewed demand from senior likely than everyone else to integrate leadership. By making the facts of BI with operational systems, and line the business readily available, BI of business resources can drill down dramatically reduces guesswork. And to individual transactions recorded in by making the meaning of facts and the ERP system to identify excessive statistical trends easier to understand expenses and the managers who Note: This document is intended for individual through techniques like visualization, approved them. At a minimum, one use. Electronic distribution via email or by can identify the areas with the greatest posting on a personal website is in violation of the terms of use.

cost growth to be scrutinized and the things. BI systems help Top Performers managers whose cost control discipline make important and commonly deserves to be rewarded. requested information readily available in a scalable way, improving the Identify new revenue/growth productivity of managers and workers opportunities. ABesides optimizing alike. Managers can spend more time its existing business, a company must focused on optimizing their numbers always look for new business. While rather than compiling them, and revolutionary breakthroughs may have knowledge workers of all sorts can get to await a flash of inspiration, often the more work done. At the same time, BI potential for new business is already can power a performance management written in the company’s numbers – for dashboard that tracks employee anyone who takes the trouble to look. productivity in general. Which products and categories are hottest now, based on total revenues Centralize data discovery to limit or growth? Where is there evidence of the distribution of misinformation. pent-up demand? What do customer The fastest way to kill the perceived service calls reveal about customer quality of data is to deliver two reports frustrations, or new and improved to an executive that showcase different products and services? Top Performers or even slightly different results. put a premium on this use of BI; Top Top Performers tend to divest of Performers know that opportunity can legacy systems or significantly limit be right under their nose. access to legacy systems. In some cases, acquisitions or changes in the Improve employee productivity. organizational structure may not reflect Time spent chasing down information is in legacy systems. Top Performers time employees can spend doing other

COMPELLING REASONS TO IMPLEMENT BI FOR TOP PERFORMERS*

49% Increase employee productivity. Say: ** versus 22% of Everyone Else

43% Centralize data discovery to limit Say: the distribution of misinformation.

37% Measure employee and departmental Say: performance.

Note: This document is intended for individual use. Electronic distribution via email or by posting on a personal website is in violation of * According to Top Performers, based on 194 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q2 2014 survey on BI. the terms of use. **According to Everyone Else shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers

create one repository that reflects “the by the same objective criteria that the truth” universally internally (regardless manager will be looking at) provides of whether it’s completely accurate). feedback. Ultimately, all of this feeds Keep in mind that in many cases the into the high-level dashboard used by value of analytical data is derived from the CEO. Top Performers are turning benchmarking changes over time, so to BI to improve operationally, and consistency in the way data is reported that includes tracking and reporting over time might be more useful than on the use of internal applications (i.e. nuances in the org chart. Additionally, BI, CRM, Marketing Systems, Vendor Top Performers are 2 times more likely Portals, etc.). to create metadata and taxonomy databases that track the source of data, Increase customer profitability. calculation definitions, and other context One of the best applications of BI is behind data within the centralized in the context of customer analytics, repository. specifically learning who are the most profitable customers and why. From Measure employee and departmental here it is possible to develop a strategy performance. Every game needs a for improving the average profitability rule book and a way of keeping score. of the customer base. Questions to ask The game of business is no different. include: Are we spending too much BI provides a consistent and systematic time trying to satisfy hard-to-please way to measure the performance of customers, frittering away potential companies, departments and people. profits? Are our most demanding A scoreboard that lets each player can customers also our most profitable see his or her own results (measured ones, suggesting that they deserve

LESS COMPELLING REASONS TO IMPLEMENT BI FOR TOP PERFORMERS*

29% Increase customer pro tability. Say:

23% Identify new competitive threats / risk Say: factors.

19% Increase shareholder value. Say:

Note: This document is intended for individual * According to Top Performers, based on 194 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q2 2014 survey on BI. use. Electronic distribution via email or by posting on a personal website is in violation of **According to Everyone Else shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers the terms of use.

to be catered to even more? BI can asking this question when you make help with the process of segmenting strategic decisions on BI (investments customers according to common in data, BI software, etc.): How does characteristics and tracking whether our intended outcome in this investment changes in strategy or tactics are impact shareholders? having the desired effect on customer profitability. More than three out of four Reduce time to market of new Top Performers set this as a goal for products and services. By using their BI initiatives. BI to systematically track operational efficiency and tie it to a program of Identify competitive threats and continuous improvement, you should risks. By gathering the right information be able to impact operational metrics and presenting it in the right way to the like time to market. How fast can you right people, a company can expect pivot from identifying customer demand to have an early warning system for a new offering to delivering that for dangerous trends. Examples of offering? If it’s taking too long, measure this might include rising prices for a the stages of product development so commodity or increasing defections of you can start whittling down the time once-loyal customers. The data may required for each. This was one of the or may not suggest an obvious way to areas where we saw a gap between Top counter these threats, but at least the Performers and Everyone Else, with the threat will be visible. leading companies giving a 10% higher ranking to reducing time to market as a Increase shareholder value. While reason for implementing BI.. not the most compelling of reasons to implement, organizations should always be thinking about how decisions impact shareholder value. In a true customer centric organization, every function in an organization is a steward of the shareholder. It’s all too easy to conduct analysis to paralysis. Taken too far, this can result in an abundance of insights that overwhelm decision makers and turn them off to relying on data for decisions. In that context, consider

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Entire content © 2014 Gleanster, LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited. Gleansight: Business Intelligence 10 Part 3: Value Drivers What are Value Drivers? Investments in BI pay off the most for organizations that are serious Value Drivers represent the about doing it right. Top Performers take the time to fight the political processes, organizational and technical battles needed to ensure that the information they analyze considerations, and tactics that is complete. They root out errors to make sure the analysis the tools help Top Performers maximize produce is trustworthy. And most of all, they create custom views the return on investment in a of the data for key constituencies so that leaders from the CEO and technology initiative. CFO on down have immediate access to information on the trends, These are the things Top Performers opportunities, and threats they must address for better performance. would attribute to the successful The value of BI is contingent on the value of the data that is available. implementation and use of a Today BI platforms offer fundamentally similar capabilities, so organizations technology. should look to maximize the value of a BI investment by cleaning up the data, augmenting the data, and gaining quicker access to data before it is available for analysis. Users will be capable of better business decisions and analysis if the data is clean. Garbage in still equals garbage out (GIGO).

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MOST IMPORTANT VALUE DRIVERS FOR BI ROI ACCORDING TO TOP PERFORMERS*

Destination... MAX 100% ROI!

50%

94% 76% 65% Improve data Ongoing measurement Customize user quality. of improved planning, interface / dashboards operations and other to speci c employee outcomes. needs.

* According to Top Performers, based on 194 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q2 2014 survey on BI. **According to Everyone Else shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers

Continuous investment in data planning, operations and other quality. Data quality will never be outcomes. Nothing succeeds like perfect, but it can always be better. success. In the beginning, the best way Errors creep in through manual data to justify investments and improvements entry, as well as automated glitches in in a BI system is to demonstrate merging data from different sources. its impact with clear business Create a systematic process for improvements. Top Performers look for identifying and eliminating the majority areas of inefficiency that would benefit, of these errors. Tactics include quickly, from data-driven decision improving validation at the data entry making. Show how the company can stage, cross-checking reference data improve planning, tighten schedules such as customer addresses against and budgets, and boost productivity public databases, and employing and profits, identifying small achievable data cleansing software that looks for milestones. Target areas where your anomalies and contradictions. Where employees take pride or executives data must be entered manually, note could showcase the success of an that younger employees working with annual strategic initiative. This approach full-size monitors and proportional helps Top Performers ensure a type (e.g., Courier) may be far faster continuous investment in data quality. than managers at entering data, with a far lower data entry error rate. Top Customized user interfaces and Performers are 2 times more likely dashboards for specific roles. The than Everyone Else to invest in data CEO, the director of human resources and a call center manager should Note: This document is intended for individual validation and augmentation services use. Electronic distribution via email or by from third-party providers. have different, at-a-glance summaries posting on a personal website is in violation of and graphs of the key performance the terms of use. Ongoing measurement of improved indicators (KPIs) that are most relevant

to their responsibilities. Top Performers because executive level champions use this approach to personalize and at Top Performers not only value the contextualize data for consumption. investment, they value the insights and This also suggests Top Performers are therefore more likely to use them are keenly interested in targeting BI and demand improvement over time. applications to multiple constituencies If you have leadership that doesn’t within their organizations and identifying value data-driven decisions, it’s difficult the metrics that will help them do their to pull them down this path. You can jobs better. There is a cost/benefit lead a horse to water, but you can’t analysis here. Both mobile platforms make it drink. But how effective can and the means to present data on them leaders really be if they don’t value are in fast flux. Larger handhelds for data in support of their decisions? Your those who need them may be a cheaper organization may have bigger problems and more effective solution that trying to than learning how to maximize the accommodate every type of handheld. investment in BI. Top Performers indicated the three business functions demanding the Create a consistent platform across most investment in BI in 2014 included departments and applications. finance (59%), sales (40%) and the Particularly in large organizations, it’s executive suite (35%). common to have several different BI tools used by different departments. Secure an executive champion. Attempts to reconcile these disparities Executive support for BI initiatives has are often frustrated when the enterprise established a special place in extracting acquires another company that has value out of BI software investments. adopted yet another BI toolset. In such Again, it shows up in the top five value cases, to expect absolute homogeneity drivers for Top Performers. This is may be unrealistic. Still, the more

IMPORTANT VALUE DRIVERS FOR BI ROI ACCORDING TO TOP PERFORMERS*

Destination... MAX 100% ROI!

50%

60% 56% 28% Secure an Create a consistent Deploy alerts / executive platform across noti cations. champion. departments and applications. Note: This document is intended for individual use. Electronic distribution via email or by posting on a personal website is in violation of * According to Top Performers, based on 194 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q2 2014 survey on BI. the terms of use. **According to Everyone Else shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers

consistent the BI platform, the better. product. Such a notification system can The more that data extracted from be mapped to existing roles within the different systems can be reconciled and company. Additionally, individual users rolled up into common data warehouses can be granted the ability to configure and data marts, the easier it is to do their own alerts. Finance departments cross-functional and cross-departmental are not the only source of important analysis. The more that users can red flags; a useful alert can come out obtain all the data they need from a of almost anywhere, not just customer common portal or dashboard, the lower service or warranty departments, but the training required before they can use forgotten departments like shipping or the BI platform productively. Where data warehousing.. from current systems cannot easily be reconciled, sometimes the key question Improve analytics capabilities. is “will the software export to ASCII?” – Beyond the basics of streamlining the lingua franca of data – because if it routine reports and answering common can, then your internal coders or hired questions, one can maximize the gurus can convert it to a broader range value of a BI investment by adding of useful information. more sophisticated analytical tools and nurturing better analytical talent. Deploy alerts/notifications.Giving Uncover subtle, unexpected or managers the ability to retrieve data counterintuitive patterns by applying is not enough, particularly if they are data mining and predictive analytics. being tasked to respond quickly to Improve the interpretation of the results threats and opportunities. Consider by developing staff with the requisite proactively providing an alert when a knowledge and experience. And threshold is exceeded, say by a spike remember that Big Data is not just a in supplier prices or demand for a given buzzword. Data patterns that were too

LEAST IMPORTANT VALUE DRIVERS FOR BI ROI ACCORDING TO TOP PERFORMERS*

Destination... MAX 100% ROI!

50%

27% 24% 19% Improve Benchmark user Analyze the return on analytics adoption. BI investments. capabilities.

small to be statistically significant can the same training, the consequence suddenly become worthy of a test as can be to take people who already more data pours in. “get it” out of circulation, when the contextual understanding might have Benchmark user adoption. Top spread more effectively with the more Performers are 3 times more likely than experienced and trusted internal Everyone Else to measure BI software people acting as “go-to” coaches. This utilization among individuals who have contextual understanding is critical if licensed access. You should take line employees are going to learn how steps to determine whether users are to frame hypotheses that can be tested even logging into the tool or viewing within the BI system – rather than simply dashboards and how frequently. Over kicking every interesting question over time, benchmark data on usage may to the company analysts, or worse, alert system administrators about ignoring the questions altogether. issues with the data or dashboards that are no longer relevant or useful Foster a culture of data-driven for busy executives who don’t have decision making. As with any time to complain about it. In a way user technology intended for broad adoption is a benchmark for the value of deployment, it helps to have a push the insights derived. from the top that says, “This is how we’re going to do business.” Further, Analyze the return on BI if the CEO and other top executives investments. Top Performers are are firmly committed to managing 2x more likely than Everyone Else according to the key performance to conduct a total cost of ownership indicators (KPIs) tracked by the BI for BI investments. But only 47% of system, anyone who wants to get a Top Performers indicated they had raise or a promotion will have every conducted this type of analysis. While incentive to consult the BI system, too. this isn’t a common top three means of Celebrate decisions supported by hard extracting value from BI investments, data. Discourage decisions that run the data suggests it is unique to Top contrary to the available data – or that Performers. are simply made without consulting it. Conversely, acknowledge that Implement employee training. While sometimes decisions must be made in BI tools uniformly promise to be easy the absence of data or with data that is to use, some employees will require unreliable or ambiguous. Make it clear training. Make sure to budget for this, that using data to guide better business recognizing that employee learning decisions is an organizational goal. Top styles will dictate whether this training Performers assigned less importance should be in person, online, instructor- to this factor than Everyone Else. This led or self-guided. Formal training may be because those who have not yet sessions may or may not be efficient achieved this goal feel a greater need or effective. If formal sessions are for it – or, more worrisome, because cookie-cutter, they may merely teach they are simply buying BI tools to “keep BI features rather than how to use up with the Joneses.” the tool in the organization’s context. When all employees are locked into

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Challenges represent the various BI proponents must overcome many organizational and a few technical roadblocks to watch out for before, challenges to maximize the value of business intelligence investments. during and after a technology Departments and divisions need to be convinced of the benefits of sharing implementation. These are the information for analysis rather than hoarding it for political advantage. things that prevent Top Performers Data quality problems must be overcome before managers will have from maximizing the return on confidence in the analysis produced. And to produce better business technology investments. decisions, the analysis must be focused on core business problems. None of this is easy, and Big Data will push the limits of traditional understanding of relational database understanding. Some of these challenges have been noted elsewhere in this report; if they are repeated, it is because the Top Performers surveyed keep repeating them.

Achieving acceptable data quality. instincts are routinely right. These Data quality needs to be high enough managers are prototypes for improving that all the most important broad the entire BI system. measures of business performance are accurately and clearly reflected in the Siloed or fragmented data. BI system. The surest way to torpedo Consolidating data from many a BI initiative is to have it serve up databases can be a challenge, but data that looks obviously wrong or that it’s also one of the things BI tools are doesn’t stand up to closer scrutiny to built for. The technical challenges people who know better. Once users of often pale beside the organizational the system learn to doubt the accuracy ones, particularly in decentralized of the information contained within it, organizations and those built up through winning back their trust will be extremely acquisitions. Business units that have challenging. If past BI initiatives have been accustomed to managing their fallen short in this regard, additional own data may be reluctant to share it, work will be needed to demonstrate that concerned that sharing may show poor this time is different. performance, even when that sharing is essential at the corporate level. One Getting managers to use data over way of overcoming resistance is with a “gut instinct” decisions. Just because directive from top management – though the data is available doesn’t mean it that may be ignored if top management will be used. Managers who have been is not seen as being technical savvy. successful in the absence of good data Alternately, some BI practitioners say may have trouble adjusting to its easy demonstrating the value of their tools availability. Unless data-driven decision and negotiating for access can be making is integral to the corporate enough to convince renegade managers culture, many managers will continue that they would do better to join in the to go with their gut instincts – even corporate analytics effort than to fight when the data says those instincts are it. Still, this was the top challenge cited Note: This document is intended for individual use. Electronic distribution via email or by wrong. Conversely, BI can be invaluable by all companies surveyed. Internally posting on a personal website is in violation of for identifying managers whose gut written documentation can be a solution the terms of use.

MOST CHALLENGING ASPECTS OF BI FOR TOP PERFORMERS*

100%

50%

95% 85% 74% Quality of internal data Getting managers to Siloed or being use data over “gut fragmented data. warehoused. instinct” decisions.

* According to Top Performers, based on 194 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q2 2014 survey on BI. **According to Everyone Else shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers

in some cases, if it has a “this is about already integrate well with a minimum of us” feeling that vendor training may lack. custom programming.)

Integration with other internal Securing the right organizational systems. Much of the data that will be resources. To provide proper training consumed by the BI system is likely or build a BI competency center may to be found in packaged enterprise mean hiring employees or consultants, applications such as a Customer with the attendant costs. A consultant Relationship Management, Enterprise who can map a plan after a two-day Resource Planning (ERP) and now walkaround is a modest expense. analytical tools (Web analytics and Employees who take a vivid interest Social Media Monitoring). Gaining in BI are likewise a modest expense. access to that data through database Onslaughts of immature consultants can interfaces or application programming be less effective and far more expensive interfaces is usually not difficult for – and extend decisions that could have the most popular systems. But CRM been made quickly into protracted and ERP systems often include their monthly meetings. . own reporting tools, which may or may not be integrated with the rest Lack of analytic skills from business of your BI platform. An overarching users. Usually the data users need BI strategy needs to address these already exists in the organization, but integrated reporting tools and how they they either don’t have access to that can be coordinated with the broader data, or don’t know that they do. The platform. (Open source CRM systems ideal is a universally accessible and are promoted as more flexible in their understood roadmap. Obstacles to capability for integration, but open be overcome here include computer source CRMs are composites of the literacy; access to computers (for blue-collar or field workers); the time, Note: This document is intended for individual work of many different designers; a use. Electronic distribution via email or by niche-specific CRM designed by a tight, willingness, and ability of employees to posting on a personal website is in violation of add data to the system; and employees’ the terms of use. knowledgeable technical group may

CHALLENGING ASPECTS OF BI FOR TOP PERFORMERS*

100%

50%

64% 58% 53% Prioritizing internal Integration with other Lack of analytic investments. internal systems. skills from business users.

* According to Top Performers, based on 194 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q2 2014 survey on BI. **According to Everyone Else shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers

possible worries about giving away candidate for success to show how BI too much domain knowledge and then can improve process and profitability. being laid off. Testing BI bit by bit is usually best. Rolling out whole programs Lack of budget. Top Performers align company-wide is often “a bridge too BI investments with annual strategic far,” and even the best training may priorities. Recall that Top Performers not reach that last bridge to broad indicated finance, sales, and the acceptance. The goal is not merely executive suite are the top three most to generate more reports, graphs and demanding functions with respect to BI score cards. The data needs to be investment in 2014. You can use that to meaningful and suggest an appropriate your advantage. Any time the byproduct course of action. This means working of a BI investment will support a key with different constituencies to initiative that senior leaders are tasked understand what data they find most with executing and measuring, there’s useful and the ways that they commonly a case to be made for investing in BI. act upon it. It also means knowing One thing has always been true: there’s whether different constituencies are ALWAYS budget to help address a acting on data – reports and graphs can top three strategic priority for a senior easily become justifications for meetings leader or executive. rather than roadmaps to action. Developing a long-term strategy Making the business case in terms (preparing for trends like Big Data). of ROI. BI by itself does not improve We were actually expecting this business efficiency or profitability. challenge to have a higher priority Instead, it aims to promote better, more among Top Performers. The hypothesis informed decision making. Selling or was that big data, or the perception of expanding a BI initiative requires a big data, was a growing concern for convincing argument, one that ultimately organizations in 2014. Not the case. It Note: This document is intended for individual still showed up in top three challenges, use. Electronic distribution via email or by will translate into financial rewards. If BI posting on a personal website is in violation of is in its initial rollout, pick a slam-dunk but far less than expected. Bottom line, the terms of use. big data shouldn’t be your concern; any

LEAST CHALLENGING ASPECTS OF BI FOR TOP PERFORMERS*

100%

50%

47% 39% 16% Making the business Lack of budget. Developing a case in terms of ROI. long-term strategy (preparing for trends like Big Data).

* According to Top Performers, based on 194 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q2 2014 survey on BI. **According to Everyone Else shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers

data should be your concern. Senior on stopping the large-scale fiascos, leaders continue to be skeptical about the type that end up inconveniencing the quality of data, and therefore they and annoying thousands of customers, are reluctant to place much weight on making the six o’clock news, and aggregate insights produced with BI reducing trust in their brand. No tools. That must be addressed before organization is immune, as the NSA you tackle big data. The survey data demonstrated in late 2013 when a suggests that’s exactly what Top single employee “outed” vast quantities Performers are doing though. of data. The textbook example of data that should simply not be in a BI system Security. Who gets access to the data is credit card numbers, inconvenient and how robust does security need to though that may be. Repetitive billing be in the BI tool? An overly rigid “need or issues that need more than the last to know” policy can result in software four digits of a CC number should be settings that prevent employees from kicked over to accounting, where full using the BI system in innovative ways. CC numbers are stored on a separate Top Performers instead concentrate server.

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Entire content © 2014 Gleanster, LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited. Gleansight: Business Intelligence 19 Part 5: Performance Metrics Performance Metrics One of the main goals of BI is to organize and distribute metrics on These represent the most common the performance of the business. The conundrum is measuring the metrics Top Performers use to performance of the BI platform itself. If a division of the company is physically measure the success of a enjoying a surge in profitability, can this be attributed to the new BI system technology initiative before and/or and the insight it provided to decision makers – or not? Some statistics after the implementation. about BI performance are relatively easy to obtain and quantify, such as usage data drawn from the logs of specific tools or portals. But the remainder often relies on systematically gathering user opinions and tracking the change in those opinions over time. One trend continues to jump out from our survey results: Top Performers seem to be more focused on metrics tied to business outcomes, even though the impact of BI can be hard to measure. In short, Top Performers do their best to tie metrics to consequences and act upon these insights; Everyone Else is treating the BI output itself as “mission accomplished.”

One thing that is very difficult to quantify in BI initiatives is the effectiveness of the information produced. Frankly, your key concern should be ascertaining a qualitative understanding of decisions made with BI. To be sure, there’s a dramatic difference between justifying meetings with BI insights and actually taking action as a result of this information. If you crack the nut on measuring that, let us know. In the meantime it’s food for thought.

MOST COMMON METRICS FOR MEASURING BI ROI ACCORDING TO TOP PERFORMERS*

95% 88% 82%

Financial metrics Employee Operating margins (revenue, margins, performance / etc.) productivity

Financials (revenue, operating categories of customer service and margins, shareholder value, etc.). operations employees. Certainly, you All other things being equal, an can measure productivity on specific organization with superior analytics tasks. Pick a few benchmarks, such as ought to exhibit superior financial compiling a report that is due at the end performance at the level of revenue and of every month, and put a stopwatch on profits. Over the long term, the effect of them. Be sure to measure the results running a more efficient, intelligent, and before and after BI initiatives. Time data-driven business should show up in spent can be quantified by salary and the bottom line. Has overall corporate multiplied by resources involved. This performance improved in step with figure is often quite compelling when business intelligence initiatives? How aggregated globally over a number of well can we judge the contribution of years. BI to better decisions and strategies? Look for evidence that the BI strategy Operating margins. Top Performers is making the company more valuable. are 8 times more likely than Everyone If the evidence is not there, reconsider Else to rank operating margins as a top both the data and the models used three metric for measuring the success by the BI platform. Remember, Top of BI. That’s a staggering difference, Performers track whether decision and one that required further exploration makers are, in fact, using the BI. A than the survey revealed on the surface. system that is not being used will never Discussions with Top Performers achieve its intended results. revealed BI tools were frequently the only means of aggregating the disparate Employee performance/productivity. sources of information necessary for Employees ought to be more productive operating margin analysis. Operating when they do not have to waste margin is a measure of revenue minus time compiling reports or searching variable costs. It demonstrates what for information that is now readily is left over for the company to pay available through the BI platform. The fixed costs. The mere fact that BI effect should be measurable, at least tools were being used to calculate this for knowledge workers and targeted metric suggests that Top Performers

COMMON METRICS FOR MEASURING BI ROI ACCORDING TO TOP PERFORMERS*

79% 62% 61%

Number of active System usage (e.g., Total cost of users # of queries, ownership dashboard views)

Note: This document is intended for individual use. Electronic distribution via email or by * According to Top Performers, based on 194 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q2 2014 survey on BI. posting on a personal website is in violation of **According to Everyone Else shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers the terms of use.

are capable of correlating operational system usage as important metrics, excellence to the insights derived from a higher percentage of those in the NUMBERS BI. Everyone Else category focused on these things – over speed of decision- Number of active users. How many making or quality of insights. Percentage of Top users have accounts on the BI platform, Performers using BI for compared with the penetration you Total cost of ownership. Total cost of more than 5 years. would ideally like to see across the ownership (TCO) helps determine the 59 organization? How many of them direct and indirect costs of owning the are actually regular users, indicating BI software. We initially hypothesized that they find value in the information that Top Performers would be more provided? How frequently do they likely to conduct this type of analysis. access the system? But the data suggests that it is not a Percentage of Top Performers common metric for Top Performers publishing dashboards with System usage (e.g., number of or Everyone Else. However, Top BI and analytics tools. queries, dashboard views). How many Performers are 10 times more likely 100 times per day are BI tools employed, than Everyone Else to rank it as a overall and by targeted classes of top three metric for measuring the business users? Is that number rising? success of BI. TCO accounts for the What parts of the BI platform are getting initial short-term fees in a BI investment the most use? Are the performance (licensing, implementation, etc.) and Percentage of Top dashboards we’ve assembled truly the long-term expenses such as Performers that are providing the at-a-glance summaries maintenance, administration, user analyzing unstructured data our users require? When users initiate management, security management, 41 in BI. Less than half!?! specific queries, how long does it take configuration, dashboard management, them to find what they are looking data integration, etc. for? How long does it take for those queries to run? Could we do a better Number of users receiving reports. job of optimizing for the most common This metric should be measured as a queries? Note that while almost three ratio between the number of users who Percentage of Top Performers out of five Top Performers cited number actively consume reports/dashboards that make BI dashboards of users and technical measures of and the total number of users on the and reprots available on mobile devices. 71 LEAST COMMON METRICS FOR MEASURING BI ROI ACCORDING TO TOP PERFORMERS*

Percentage of all respondents that believe ease of use impacts the 92 return on investment in BI

59% 56% 55%

Number of users Number of reports Time required to receiving reports generated accomplish tasks – e.g., access data

distribution list. Of course, this also margins. Essentially you can benchmark doesn’t account for the quality of the time it takes to conduct tasks before decisions that can be made actionable and after BI software. By linking this from the population of recipients. time to an hourly salary, the frequency Volume of users is not an appropriate of the task, and the number of resources metric for the success of a BI initiative. conducting the task stakeholders can But Top Performers do monitor who estimate the cost of inefficiency over receives reports and how often they are a year or a period of years. For Top opened to determine whether insights Performers, scalable justification comes that are being generated are actually from prioritizing the most cumbersome getting consumed. tasks that can be easily replicated periodically in a BI system. Number of reports generated. The number of reports generated should Employee satisfaction. By be used as a benchmark metric making measures of individual and over time. An increase in report or departmental performance clearly dashboard creation (and consequently understood and readily available consumption) can be used as a metric of through dashboards and reports, the the success of BI initiatives. If users are organization provides employees with frequently using BI to analyze data and more control and eliminates uncertainly. validate assumptions, then an increase Look for evidence of overall increased in this trend would suggest the tool is employee satisfaction in worker indirectly delivering value. This was surveys. Specifically ask for feedback frequently cited as a secondary metric on satisfaction with BI tools, where for Top Performers who generally place appropriate. Qualitative person-to- more weight on more tangible metrics. person surveys may yield more insight than those conducted by email – or Time required to accomplish those conducted through the BI tools tasks – e.g., access data. This metric themselves. ties closely with measuring operating

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Allina Health is a not-for-profit healthcare system dedicated to the prevention and treatment of illness and enhancing the greater health of individuals, families and communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Allina Health has nearly 24,000 employees, 5,000 associated and employed physicians and 2,500 volunteers.

The Challenge is pulled from a data warehouse that has an estimated 2 terabyte worth of data Allina Health is one of only 32 and then put into various dashboards. organizations nationally that has been The ability to take this raw data and get selected to be part of the Center it into the hands of people who can use for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) it effectively has provided great benefits Innovation’s Pioneer Accountable Care to the organization. Organization (ACO) model. In March of 2011, the Department of Health and The Results Note: The original version of this Success Human Services proposed new rules Self-service BI allows us to maintain Story may have been prepared—and to help doctors, hospitals and other previously published—by an enabling a small and agile BI team,” said Mike solution provider. If so, it is edited and providers to better coordinate care for Doyle, Enterprise Data Warehouse reproduced here by permission. While Medicare patients through the creation Manager, Allina Health. “Self-service BI reasonable efforts have been made to verify of ACOs. is the most efficient way for a healthcare the accuracy of the information contained herein through independent fact-checking, Allina Health needed a scalable and organization to improve without greatly Gleanster disclaims liability for any content automated way to report on data in increasing its administrative cost.” that was developed and submitted by third five areas: patient consensus, patient Currently, there are approximately 1,000 parties. Success Stories are selected experience unique users based solely on the merits of the content as dashboard, who have used judged by Gleanster’s Research Oversight Self-service BI is the Committee. Vendors are not charged a fee ambulatory at least one of for inclusion and no preference is given to quality most efficient way for a the Allina Health vendors based on their ability to purchase measures, healthcare organization dashboards in other Gleanster products or services. patient “ 2012. Any questions or concerns regarding this to improve without particular Success Story–or Gleanster’s experience, greatly increasing its As a result of selection criteria or policies, in general– and potentially the initiative, should be directed to successstories@ administrative cost.” preventable Allina Health was gleanster.com. Case studies may be readiness. submitted for publishing consideration able to quantify using the Success Stories Submission Form. These reports would and measure have to allow users improvement of any kind - not only the IT department before and after reporting started. – to see, understand and analyze data The percentage of patients receiving critical to the organization’s continued optimal care for strokes increased by success. over40% between 2010 and 2012. The Solution Allina also saw a 12% increase in system-wide improvement in the overall In order to maintain ACO status, Allina HCAHPS rating and a 20% reduction Health needs a strong information in the appropriate length of stay for infrastructure. The company Cardiovascular care. Additionally implemented a user driven Business management was able to correlate Intelligence (BI) platform to help readmission with the high focus manage and visualize the enormous Note: This document is intended for individual population and the clinical reason for amount of data that will eventually be use. Electronic distribution via email or by the admission. posting on a personal website is in violation of reported to the government as a part of the terms of use. the ACO requirements. The information .

At the high end, the BI market is dominated by a few large enterprise software vendors who (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, SAS, IBM) continue to round out their analytical portfolios. Despite that, BI continues to see innovation from smaller players promoting deeper insights by Vendor & Solution Showcases vertical or function (analytics for expense management or health care costs, for example), advanced visualization techniques, and new modes Browse the BI of delivery. Software as a Service BI is attracting attention from small Research Portal businesses, and as an alternate deployment mode for larger ones, but shows no signs of taking over the BI market wholesale over the next Visit www.gleanster.com to access few years. That said, cloud computing continues to uproot traditional vendor and solution showcases for this topic area, where you’ll find: models in CRM and ERP, so we would be remiss not to mention the • Vendor Descriptions potential for change in BI. Limited BI resources still spend significantly • Analyst Commentary more time maintaining hardware and managing software upgrades • Related White Papers than deriving insights for business users. It seems only likely that the • Videos & Presentations total cost of ownership of traditional on-premise solutions may force • Solution Demos the entire industry into cloud based offerings for competitive parity. • Other Related Research • And much more... From an innovation standpoint, a available centrally in tools that are It’s everything you need to make smart technology decisions. All in one place. handful of trends stood out in the linked to BI – business users want data including continued demand autonomy to analyze data that may be for visual data discovery, cloud unique to their group or role computing, mobile BI, ease of use, and self-service BI. These will continue to • Support for BI is fragmented and shape the adoption of BI in 2015. Most closely tied to business functions – notably, respondents reported their leading to separate investments (and organization had invested in an average budget) of 2-3 different BI software tools. This • Existing tools are lacking in some challenges the notion that even the way most robust BI platforms are capable of delivering a one-size-fits-all offering. • Business users don’t have access to The current BI market is peppered with existing BI tools or the expertise to unique offerings that are compelling use them enough for buyers to seek multiple BI solutions to address their needs. This • Data necessary for insights isn’t trend leads to a handful of different available centrally in tools that are hypotheses. linked to BI – business users want autonomy to analyze data that may be • Business users don’t have access to unique to their group or role existing BI tools or the expertise to use them • Support for BI is fragmented and Note: This document is intended for individual use. Electronic distribution via email or by closely tied to business functions – posting on a personal website is in violation of • Data necessary for insights isn’t leading to separate investments (and the terms of use.

budget) The current vendor landscape also opens the door to BI in small and • Existing tools are lacking in some midsize organizations that have been way largely underserved by solutions that were too complex or too expensive Bottom line, themes like simplicity and to adopt. At present, the industry is self-service are phenomenal signs that undergoing a series of changes akin the prevalence of BI is expanding in to what we saw when Apple launched organizations. This is ushering in a new the iPod. While not the first mp3 player age of data-driven decision making that on the market, the iPod proved to will continue to transform the industry be the simplest and most innovative from an innovation standpoint. approach for widespread adoption. For buyers this is leading to increased Similar trends are happening in BI. competitive pressures among vendors, Simplicity, ease of use, mobile access, which will likely manifest itself in more cloud access, and self-service will likely competitive pricing. When investing in offer capabilities that have existed in technology, your evaluation process suite solutions for years, but in a ways should account for how the offering fits that are so accessible and easy it your business needs, not the other way makes more robust solutions obsolete around. The vendors are going to lose or inappropriate. At the same time, some control in the buying process as this should open the door to a larger buyers weigh alternative offerings that population of more sophisticated buyers may not map 1:1 to the buyers’ short-list in the future who will ultimately be alternatives. capable of extracting the full value from more robust BI offerings.

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5000fish (Yurbi) interact with live data from their Help Desk http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/5000fish systems in Microsoft Outlook.” “5000fish, Inc., a Business Intelligence (BI) Gleanster Skinny: 5000fish designed Yurbi FAQs About Gleanster software company, creates innovative products around a self-service model to cut operations Vendor Rankings for business users to make data-informed costs and make BI more affordable and easy to business decisions. Current products include: use for businesses of any size. There are three Yurbi, an enterprise BI platform that allows editions: Community, Team and Enterprise. What is Gleanster’s Users of Community, the vendor’s free edition methodology for capturing organizations to access, integrate, and deliver data from multiple systems securely to users targeted at small businesses, get a free 30-day vendor rankings data? who need it in real-time and without requiring trial of any of Yurbi’s premium pre-built apps Vendor rankings are crowd-sourced by end programming or database expertise; Yurbi and features. The vendor makes it easy (and users in Gleanster surveys. Respondents Connect, a drag and drop process to automate enticing) for users to upgrade and unlock new are asked to rank their current or past the integration of application data, both features without having to go through the ordeal experience with relevant vendors on a on-premise and cloud-based; and MailSync, an of reinstalling the software. Yurbi can be installed scale of 1-5. A minimum of 8 user reviews on an on-premise server, in the cloud, or on are required to show up on the chart. This Outlook Plug-In that lets Help Desk Analysts is not a statistically valid sample size, but it’s quite difficult to get in front of actual users. Gleanster promotes this survey BI VENDORS RANKED BY EASE OF independently AND allows vendors to promote the survey link prior to publication DEPLOYMENT to drive customer participation. The top 8 highest survey responses are taken into account on the rankings. All vendors have equal ability to be covered on the rankings charts. Vendors do not pay Gleanster to be covered and cannot influence BASED ON EXPERIENCE FROM USERS placement with an analyst relationship.

How do I interpret the data on this chart? GOOD BETTER BEST Eight users with current or past experience with one or more solutions from this vendor gave them an average score of “x” based on the criteria of this chart. This information should (1) be taken with a grain of salt given the sample size and (2) be married with other sources of rankings data available in the market research industry.

If a vendor isn’t ranked as PENTAHO INETSOFT JEDOX “Best,” what does that mean? 3.0 out of 5 3.7 out of 5 4.9 out of 5 The Good, Better, Best rankings are a JASPERSOFT MICROSOFT ALTERYX 2.9 out of 5 3.7 out of 5 4.4 out of 5 way to segment user feedback in easy to digest buckets. Any vendor with more than MICROSTRATEGY QLIKTECH LOGI ANALYTICS one customer has a technology offering 2.9 out of 5 3.3 out of 5 4.4 out of 5 that is successfully addressing the needs of a satisfied customer base. Regardless SAP TARGIT BOARD 2.9 out of 5 3.3 out of 5 4.1 out of 5 of the score, placement on the vendor rankings charts is a good thing. It means ARCPLAN IBM TABLEAU you get insight into user perception from 2.8 out of 5 3.1 out of 5 4.1 out of 5

* Gleanster Research 2014 Business Intelligence Gleansight Benchmark Report Vendor Rankings FLASH chart © Gleanster, May 2014 Note: Vendor rankings are determined by the experiences of industry practitioners, according to survey feedback, and not by the assessment or opinion of Gleanster analysts. The omission of a particular vendor may be due to lack of sufficient data and may be no indication of that company’s performance relative to other solution providers. Information on the research methodology used for vendor rankings is Note: This document is intended for individual available elsewhere in this Gleansight benchmark report and also in the FAQ section of the Gleanster website. use. Electronic distribution via email or by posting on a personal website is in violation of the terms of use.

the client’s own desktop. One of the vendor’s Major software players such as Cisco, Infor, key strengths is administration. Administrators Siemens, Taleo and VeriSign have embedded a tiny sub-set of the vendor’s users who were willing to provide feedback. But don’t maintain version control when reports are shared BIRT’s data analysis and reporting into their own assume the score is indicative of ALL and can limit data access to team members. products. In 2013, Acutate and BIRT Company customers – be that a top ranking score Yurbi’s auditing and logging capabilities provide integrated the AcutateOne, the BIRT-based or a lower ranking score. Again, use the usage information, enabling administrators to suite of commercial products for development data as one of many pieces of information know how team members are manipulating data and deployment of custom business analytics that may influence your decision. Our goal is to help buyers, not bias buyers. and generating reports. With the latest release applications, and BIRT onDemand Actuate’s of Yurbi, administrators can also now update/ SaaS version of ActuateOne. The combined If a vendor isn’t ranked at refresh the raw data as needed. Another strong offering delivers incredible scalability for suit is spreadsheet management. Yurbi is tightly widespread reporting to large volumes of users all, what does that mean? integrated with Microsoft Excel and Comma (i.e. millions of users). BIRT is offered both Not showing up on vendor rankings is Separated Value (CSV) files and plans as part on-premise and on-demand (as well as mobile). merely an indication that Gleanster did of its product roadmap to integrate OpenOffice, Actuate has a strong presence in financial not capture enough user reviews for Google Docs Spreadsheets, and Zoho Sheets. services, government, education, ecommerce, inclusion on the report. Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn’t. The vendor gets high marks on customer retail, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, But we’re determined to keep trying so service, with a separate help desk solution for and telecommunications. you can make informed decisions on users of Microsoft Outlook. The company offers technology spend. You will, however, a tool, called Yurbi Connect, for integrating data ADVIZOR Solutions notice that these vendors are covered between applications to improve data quality in our Gleansights and usually have a http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/advizor-solutions and automating processes. Yurbi Connect is Gleanster Skinny covering their solutions. available as part of the BI platform and also as a “ADVIZOR Solutions® is today’s leading provider stand-alone product. of easy-to-use business analysis software. Why does Gleanster provide From the desktop to the enterprise, business rankings in this way? managers and analysts can easily load data, do Actuate analysis, and share results within minutes – and You have access to an abundance of http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/actuate data from analysts who provide context all they need is a mouse!” about vendors based on the solutions “Actuate provides software to more than three offered and market presence. It’s more million BIRT developers and OEMs who build Gleanster Skinny: ADVIZOR Solutions’ data difficult to capture user feedback based scalable, secure solutions that save time discovery tool, which combines data visualization on criteria buyers consider when investing with in-memory data management and predictive in technology solutions. Our rankings are and improve brand experience by delivering based on end-user feedback and should personalized analytics and insights to over analytics, is built upon technology originally be used as a directionally relevant data 200 million of their customers, partners and developed at Bell Labs. Targeted at business point in your decision – one of many. employees. Actuate founded and supports BIRT users as opposed to IT, the primarily audience is The data may not be statistically valid, – the open source IDE – and develops BIRT US-based companies operating in the education but it’s better than a sharp stick in the sector. Other clients include companies in eye. It’s up to you to determine if it merits iHub™ – the world-class deployment platform – the financial services, fundraising/non-profit, any weight in your decision process. to significantly improve productivity of developers working on customer facing applications. healthcare, retail, and technology industries. Deployments are typically small, so this solution Can the data be biased? Actuate’s BIRT Analytics™ delivers self-service predictive analytics to enhance customer is a good option for businesses with limited Vendors have the ability to promote the engagement using Big Data. The Actuate amounts of data. Released in May 2013, version survey link prior to publication. Technically Customer Communications Suite™ empowers 6 introduces a series of visual improvements, they could encourage 8 customers to bias “color modes” for unique chart rendering, and the data. However, survey responses organizations to easily transform, process, are anonymous, and generally users are personalize, archive and deliver high volume a cookie crumb feature (introduced in release quite honest – which ultimately impacts content and individualized correspondence. 5.5) that allows users to track selection criteria. the average score for vendors. Also, Actuate is headquartered in Silicon Valley ADVIZOR can run on windows clients and buyers are savvy. Gleanster does capture with more than 5,000 enterprise customers in over the web (or locally from any hosted SaaS personally verifiable data on survey solution). ADVISOR is available for individual use respondents to validate the accuracy of financial services, technology and government.” user feedback, but analysis is always at for $999 per seat. an aggregate level. Personal data from Gleanster Skinny: A leading provider of open respondents is put in a special lock box source BI solutions, Actuate founded and Altosoft that Al Gore keeps under his bed. co-leads the Eclipse BIRT (Business Intelligence http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/altosoft and Reporting Tools) open source project, which has emerged as the premier development “Headquartered outside of Philadelphia, Altosoft environment for web-based data visualization. It Note: This document is intended for individual delivers business intelligence and informatics use. Electronic distribution via email or by is used by more than one million developers and solutions for commercial and government posting on a personal website is in violation of recently passed the 10 million downloads mark. organizations worldwide. Altosoft’s products the terms of use.

elevate business intelligence to a higher level, drag-and-drop interface.” delivering advanced functionality while making BI systems work faster, easier, and more Gleanster Skinny: Altosoft offers an cost-effectively. A typical Altosoft solution is end-to-end business intelligence platform that Vendor Landscape Quick implemented in one-tenth the time and at less provides everything from agile data integration Reference Guide than one half the cost of ordinary BI projects. to visualization. The company began in the financial services sector, then shifted its main 5000fish (Yurbl) Altosoft’s revolutionary, 100% codeless approach Actuate features ultra, low-latency data monitoring focus to healthcare after the 2008 financial ADVIZOR Solutions and analysis across operational databases, crisis, although it continues to offer a version Altosoft warehouses, and other data sources; integrates of its solution to the financial services sector. arcplan real-time event monitoring and business Altosoft delivers what it calls “process-aware” BIME process intelligence; and enables dashboard BI software. Its so-called Process Intelligence Birst development and customization by non-technical engine graphically visualizes business processes BOARD International by converting data into a sequence of events. Connotate end-users in minutes with a browser-based, Deloitte Managed Analytics Dimensional Insight Domo Entrinsik GoodData BI VENDORS RANKED BY IBM EASE OF USE iDashboards InetSoft Infor Information Builders JackBe Jaspersoft (acquired by TIBCO) Jedox BASED ON EXPERIENCE FROM USERS Kalido (now Magnitude Software) Logi Analytics Looker Microsoft MicroStrategy GOOD BETTER BEST Oracle Panorama Software Pentaho PivotLink Prelytis QlikTech Quiterian SAP SAS PENTAHO ARCPLAN JEDOX SiSense 3.3 out of 5 3.6 out of 5 4.7 out of 5 SpagoBI Sybase JASPERSOFT MICROSOFT BOARD Tableau 3.0 out of 5 3.5 out of 5 4.6 out of 5 TARGIT QLIKTECH SAP LOGI ANALYTICS TIBCO Software 3.0 out of 5 3.4 out of 5 4.4 out of 5 Vitria Yellowfin MICROSTRTEGY IBM TARGIT 3.0 out of 5 3.4 out of 5 4.4 out of 5 SAS INETSOFT TABLEAU 2.9 out of 5 3.4 out of 5 4.1 out of 5

* Gleanster Research 2014 Business Intelligence Gleansight Benchmark Report Vendor Rankings FLASH chart © Gleanster, May 2014. Note: Vendor rankings are determined by the experiences of industry practitioners, according to survey feedback, and not by the assessment or opinion of Gleanster analysts. The omission of a particular vendor may be due to lack of sufficient data and may be no indication of that company’s performance relative to other solution providers. Information on the research methodology used for vendor rankings is Note: This document is intended for individual available elsewhere in this Gleansight benchmark report and also in the FAQ section of the Gleanster website. use. Electronic distribution via email or by posting on a personal website is in violation of the terms of use.

This ability to integrate real-time event monitoring of the platform tailored for specific departments and business process optimization provides a and functions within a multifaceted healthcare key differentiator. Another advantage relates organization, including clinical research and to Altosoft’s approach to data integration. The investigation, pathology, and radiology, where solution can combine multiple data sources, Altosoft has displaced such heavy hitters as automatically updating itself when the data BusinessObjects and Cognos. Altosoft offers changes. It reduces clutter for users with multiple specialized solutions tailored for Metastorm, data marts by identifying common metrics among Opalis, and Microsoft SharePoint and System client companies’ different service lines and Center. performing various other analytical operations. Configuring the software requires no coding, arcplan and it can be deployed on-premise or in a hybrid http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/arcplan cloud configuration. With the introduction of Altosoft Infinity, Insight can now be distributed “arcplan software solutions enable you to deploy across multiple computers for shared access business intelligence, analysis, and planning and optimal performance. There are versions applications that meet all of your organizational

BI VENDORS RANKED BY FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY

BASED ON EXPERIENCE FROM USERS

GOOD BETTER BEST

QLIKTECH JEDOX ALTERYX 3.1 out of 5 3.7 out of 5 4.9 out of 5 SAS MICROSOFT BOARD 3.0 out of 5 3.5 out of 5 4.6 out of 5 ORACLE PENTAHO INETSOFT 3.0 out of 5 3.5 out of 5 4.3 out of 5 TABLEAU ARCPLAN MICROSTRATEGY 2.6 out of 5 3.2 out of 5 4.0 out of 5 IBM SAP JASPERSOFT 2.5 out of 5 3.2 out of 5 3.8 out of 5

* Gleanster Research 2014 Business Intelligence Gleansight Benchmark Report

Vendor Rankings FLASH chart © Gleanster, May 2014. Note: Vendor rankings are determined by the experiences of industry practitioners, according to survey feedback, and not by the assessment or opinion of Gleanster analysts. The omission of a particular vendor may be due to lack of sufficient data and may be no indication of that company’s Note: This document is intended for individual performance relative to other solution providers. Information on the research methodology used for vendor rankings use. Electronic distribution via email or by is available elsewhere in this Gleansight benchmark report and also in the FAQ section of the Gleanster website. posting on a personal website is in violation of the terms of use.

needs. Our open approach to data connectivity visualization tool. Users can connect to data sets provides direct access to more than 20 data located anywhere – on premise or online, from sources in their native environments. arcplan a local database or spreadsheets. The solution does not require you to extract your data and primarily functions as a user-friendly front-end aggregate content into a proprietary data source. interface for huge databases like MySQL, SQL Instead arcplan products connect directly to Server, and Oracle. Back-end data can also numerous relational and multidimensional data be sourced from platforms like Salesforce. sources from vendors such as SAP, Oracle, IBM, com, Google Apps, Google Analytics, and even Microsoft, Teradata and others.” Facebook Insights. The ability to mine web and social media data is important, and it’s an area Gleanster Skinny: arcplan’s unified platform where BIME has focused significant development offers a wide range of capabilities for agile efforts. Google BigQuery, a new web service decision-making, including guided analytics that allows users to perform queries against (dashboards and scorecards), self-service enormous data sets. BIME is the first company analytics (ad-hoc reporting), and collaboration. to offer a BI front-end for Google BigQuery, This last piece is delivered via a solution called which is widely considered to be easy-to-use, arcplan Engage, which incorporates rating, highly scalable, and affordable. Other BI commenting, and tagging functionality based vendors such as QlikTech have since followed on popular social networking and e-commerce suit. BEIM pricing starts at $180/m for standard platforms, making it easy to use. The data sources to $720/m for “big data sources collaboration functionality has been expanded (including Google, Amazon, SAP, and more).” with features that inform users in real time Discounted pricing is available for longer term about new content, reports, and ratings. Survey commitments. respondents give arcplan high marks on data access and integration as well as collaboration Birst features. The vendor offers over 20 connectors which provide access to relational and http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/birst multidimensional data sources from traditional “Birst is the only enterprise-caliber Business BI vendors like SAP, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft. Intelligence platform born in the cloud. Less Support for in-memory appliances, including costly and more agile than Legacy BI and SAP HANA and Kognitio Pablo, enables users more powerful than Data Discovery, Birst is to further import and analyze big data and is engineered with an automated data warehouse a highlight of the latest release. arcplan also and rich, visual analytics, to give meaning to data stands out for its integrated planning capabilities. – all types and sizes. Coupled with the agility of A product called arcplan Edge lends budgeting, the Cloud, Birst gives business teams the ability planning and forecasting capabilities to the to solve real problems. Fast.” platform and also provides web-based reporting, dashboards, and workflow management tools. Gleanster Skinny: Birst is widely recognized for its prowess in “friction-free analytics,” which involves “reducing and eliminating the barriers BIME that stand in the way of business users to find http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/bime the analytical insights they need.” The vendor “Founded in 2009 in Montpellier, a hotbed of has done a good job in bringing the promise of academic R&D in the South of France, BIME (We agile BI to fruition, allowing business users to are Cloud) powers the first pure cloud BI service use state-of-the-art self-service BI tools to create for the age of Big Data. BIME delivers simple- their own dashboards and reports, add new data to-use yet powerful data analysis, visualization sources on the fly, and take advantage of a large and dashboarding as a fast, easy and low-cost number of easy-to-use capabilities, diminishing service. BIME allows you to connect to both their reliance on IT. In 2013 Birst expanded the online and the on-premises world in the its global footprint, adding offices in the UK, same place. Create connections to all your Australia, South Korea, China, and the Middle data sources, create and execute queries and East. As a multi-tenant cloud solution, Birst is view your dashboards easily – all within BIME’s among the world’s most robust BI instances, beautifully intuitive interface.” serving up over 80,000 dashboard views a day with over half a million fact tables that combine Note: This document is intended for individual Gleanster Skinny: BIME is an all-in-one solution use. Electronic distribution via email or by 25,000 data sources. This single instance posting on a personal website is in violation of offering a browser-based data mining and data housed in a SOC II, Type II security compliant the terms of use.

infrastructure supports more than 10,000 Headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland, BOARD organizations. Birst depends on a robust partner International has additional offices in Germany, network for industry vertical solutions and Italy, Spain, Singapore, United States, UK, rapidly established a strong “agile BI” presence Australia and India and a worldwide resellers in healthcare, high-tech, financial services, network.” manufacturing, life sciences, government, and retail. Gleanster Skinny: BOARD offers a platform that integrates BI and CPM capabilities, delivering what the vendor calls “Management BOARD International Intelligence.” BI capabilities include multi- http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/board-international dimensional analysis, ad-hoc querying and “Founded in 1994 BOARD International is the dashboarding, and reporting. CPM capabilities provider of the industry’s only programming-free include budgeting, planning and forecasting, and toolkit for rapid and cost-effective development other finance-related activities. One key benefit of Corporate Performance Management of the Management Intelligence platform is that it and Business Intelligence applications. provides a shared view of corporate performance Note: While Gleanster strives to include all of the most relevant and noteworthy solution providers in the Vendor Landscape section, the list is by no means comprehensive in nature. Omissions may occur due to BI VENDORS RANKED BY lack of sufficient market presence, as judged by the Gleanster research OVERALL VALUE analyst team. Space constraints may necessitate some amount of paring of even those vendors that do have sufficient market presence. Simple oversights may also happen on occasion. To submit information about BASED ON EXPERIENCE FROM USERS a solution provider, please complete the Solution Provider Information Form. To schedule a vendor briefing, please email research@gleanster. com. Vendor descriptions are taken BEST verbatim from company websites GOOD BETTER or from vendor-submitted profile information. Gleanster Skinny (GS) commentaries are based on vendor briefings, customer interviews and Gleansight research findings as well as on company press releases and various other information sources.

SAP PENTAHO JEDOX 3.1 out of 5 3.9 out of 5 4.8 out of 5 ORACLE MICROSOFT MICROSTRATEGY 2.9 out of 5 3.8 out of 5 4.5 out of 5 TABLEAU JASPERSOFT QLIKTECH 2.9 out of 5 3.6 out of 5 4.2 out of 5 ARCPLAN SAS BOARD 2.6 out of 5 3.2 out of 5 3.9 out of 5 IBM ALTERYX INETSOFT 2.5 out of 5 3.2 out of 5 3.9 out of 5

* Gleanster Research 2014 Business Intelligence Gleansight Benchmark Report

Vendor Rankings FLASH chart © Gleanster,May 2014. Note: Vendor rankings are determined by the experiences of industry practitioners, according to survey feedback, and not by the assessment or opinion of Gleanster analysts. Note: This document is intended for individual The omission of a particular vendor may be due to lack of sufficient data and may be no indication of that company’s use. Electronic distribution via email or by performance relative to other solution providers. Information on the research methodology used for vendor rankings is posting on a personal website is in violation of the terms of use. available elsewhere in this Gleansight benchmark report and also in the FAQ section of the Gleanster website.

throughout the organization. While integrating solution helps non-technical users collect, planning, budgeting and forecasting tools serves analyze and distribute high volumes of as a differentiator of sorts, BOARD is not the unstructured Web data via a patented visual only vendor on this landscape to provide these abstraction technique and an easy-to-use, capabilities as part of its BI platform. But BOARD point-and-click interface. The solution can be was the first provider to organically develop deployed in a hosted or on-premise environment. these capabilities from the start, leading to a Connotate’s patented technology enables competitively unique purpose built platform. The companies focused on big data to consume vendor’s “toolkit approach” allows customers data from outside their firewall and combine to create and manage customized BI and it with data from their existing systems. The Corporate Performance Management (CPM) vendor’s tools and services for automating web solutions without programming expertise. It’s an data extraction are used by organizations with integrated all-in-one approach whereby BOARD mission-critical applications, including tools brings all the necessary tools for building an focused on competitive intelligence, financial analysis application, including a highly scalable intelligence, compliance, credential checking, multidimensional database, data reading and market research, pricing intelligence, and online transformation tools (ETL), application user advertising creation and spend reporting. Agent interface environment (client and web), security Community can extract data from Web pages in and a multi-tier architecture for system delivery, any language, which naturally puts the vendor into a unified development framework. Drag-and- in a good position to further expand its global drop functionality makes it easy for users without footprint. Connotate counts among its customers technical backgrounds to create applications. some of the world’s largest and most respected The platform’s interactive user interface also innovators in news, publishing, retail, financial provides self-service capabilities around the services and content aggregation. end-user creation of reports and dashboards. While the offering is typically deployed in smaller Dimensional Insight environments, BOARD has been getting traction http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/dimensional-insight in some larger firms over the past few years, adding established brands like Puma, Giorgio Dimensional Insight is the leading provider of Armani, Nike, Pepsico, and GlaxoSmithkline to integrated business intelligence and performance its client roster. BOARD International is a global management solutions that empower information organization. As a Swiss-based company, the consumers throughout the enterprise with vast majority of customers are in Europe, but data-driven decision making abilities. Our BOARD continues to gain momentum in the worldwide presence has allowed us to service United States. the information delivery needs of more than 2,600 customers and thousands of users from around the globe.” Connotate http://www.gleanster.com/vendor/elcom Gleanster Skinny: Dimensional Insight’s BI “Connotate, Inc.’s patented, advanced science suite, the Diver Solution, is an end-to-end and Web scraping technology powers an platform for role-based BI, designed to make it extraction platform that can turn the almost 1 possible for users to source data from multiple billion websites registered on the Web today systems into interactive reports, dashboards, into a flow of clean, structured, and aggregated scorecards, and analytical tools. The vendor’s Webdata. Our growing customer list includes customer base is largely comprised of hospitals news and content aggregators such as McGraw- across the US. Its suite of hospital-specific Hill, Associated Press and Thomson Reuters, solutions encompasses all functions and as well as major consumer goods companies, departments: clinical, pricing, surgery, quality financial institutions, technology companies, and control, operations, and financial. There are healthcare/pharma. Connotate’s Webdata helps physician and surgery scorecards, a tool for support better decisions and deeper insights evaluating patient satisfaction, and a new in marketing, pricing, competitive intelligence, Physician Performance Advisor solution. finance and investing, human resources, sales Dimensional Insight also offers industry-specific and lead gen, and much more.” applications for supplier, manufacturer, and distributor organizations, including a revenue Note: This document is intended for individual use. Electronic distribution via email or by Gleanster Skinny: Connotate’s Agent and expense tracking tool, productivity analysis posting on a personal website is in violation of Community Web data monitoring and collection tools, and a suite of executive dashboards. the terms of use.

Clients outside of the healthcare industry http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/deloitte include Roland, Mutual Distributing and New Balance. Last year, Diver received top rankings “DMA accelerates the delivery of business insight in multiple categories of The BI Survey 10, through a comprehensive range of managed issued by the Business Application Research analytic solutions and complementary advisory/ Center (BARC). In terms of agility, the solution implementation services. DMA managed analytic offers a point-and-click reporting interface and a solutions are focused on end-user needs and broad selection of customizable report templates easily integrate multiple data sources to provide for self-service reporting. Administrative tools faster access to critical business information such as automated report distribution, event and speed client time-to-value. The DMA scheduling, and real-time alerts require minimal portfolio of managed analytic applications is IT involvement. based on deep vertical industry and functional domain knowledge, acquired through years of experience, research and client engagement Domo success. As a result, DMA analytics include http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/domo tailored reports, scorecards and dashboards ““Domo is a cloud-based executive management designed to meet the needs of specific users platform that gives users direct, real-time access and leading-practice benchmarks that could to all the business information they care about, otherwise take years of analysis to develop. all in one place. With $250 million in funding, DMA clients can benefit from greatly accelerated Domo is backed by an all-star list of angels and overall solution delivery, and gain actionable investors including Benchmark Capital, IVP, insights into their revenue and profitability, Andreessen Horowitz, Ron Conway and David customer behavior, supply chain performance Lee of SV Angel, Hummer Winblad, plus the and after-market services performance. DMA who’s who of SaaS and Internet technology.” business analytic applications are built on our secure, hosted data integration and data Gleanster Skinny: Domo is the new kid on the warehousing platform and delivered over the block. Sort of. Founded in 2011 by Omniture Web to eliminate the need to procure, configure co-founder Josh James, the vendor is actually or manage additional hardware. DMA analytics the combination of data dashboard specialist applications complement your current business Corda Technologies and a BI company, called intelligence and data management infrastructure Shasho, which James himself founded shortly so you can drive additional value from these after selling Adobe to Omniture to address the existing investments and capabilities.” challenge he faced of gaining access to real-time information about his own business. Domo’s Gleanster Skinny: Deloitte Managed Analytics founding team additionally includes talent (DMA) is part of the Deloitte Analytics portfolio from Amazon, American Express, Ancestry. of solutions. DMA business analytic applications com, eBay, Endeca, Facebook, Linkedin, MLB. are built on Deloitte’s secure, hosted data com, and Salesforce.com. Domo’s investors integration and warehousing platform and include big names in SaaS, venture capital and delivered over the web. The apps are focused Internet technology. Domo’s turnkey Executive on revenue and profitability, customer behavior, Management Platform is designed to collect and supply chain performance and after-market integrate data from a variety of systems, such as services performance. The DMA platform offers ERP, CRM, HR and financial databases – any robust tools for data discovery, mapping and data repository or current reporting system, for analysis. DMA takes a model-driven approach to that matter – to deliver real-time intelligence. data integration: Once data arrives in the system, Intelligence is delivered across any device, it is analyzed, pattern-matched and mapped to including mobile platforms such as the iPhone the platform’s Intelligent Data Schema (IDS), a and iPad (sorry, still no support for Android). predefined data model optimized for business Domo competes with other pure-play vendors analytics. This approach eliminates the need on this landscape such as Birst, GoodData and for complex ETL tools and custom data models PivotLink. Domo has already established an when building a data warehouse. Using business impressive client roster, comprised of leading relevance as a guiding compass, the DMA brands such as Nisson, Merrill Lynch, Luminex, platform drives data quality and relevancy, and helps reduce data volumes. The DMA platform Note: This document is intended for individual Walt Disney, and Comcast. use. Electronic distribution via email or by also comes with powerful security features posting on a personal website is in violation of and Data Exporter for SAP, which extracts the terms of use. Deloitte Managed Analytics

data from SAP systems and transport it into a supports both IT’s need for Data Governance, cloud-based analytical data store for on-demand security and oversight and business users’ reporting and analysis. The platform can be desires for self-service Data Discovery. The (and frequently is) deployed on a global scale. platform consolidates data of any size, typically Industry specific solutions exist for consumer found both inside organizations and in the cloud, packaged goods and manufacturing. creating an analytic experience that is both fast and agile for users, yet protected, managed and Entrinsik secured for IT.” http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/entrinsik Gleanster Skinny: GoodData offers an “end-to- “Entrinsik develops, implements, and supports end data governance and discovery” architecture Information Management Solutions that enable for collecting, storing, combining, analyzing, organizations to maximize performance and and visualizing data. GoodData boasts 30,000 improve bottom lines. Entrinsik’s Informer is customers and 100,000 users. GoodData BI is an innovative, award-winning reporting and a cloud-based platform designed for analysis operational business intelligence solution of marketing, sales, and customer service in used by tens of thousands around the world. midsize to large organizations. It’s capable of Entrinsik’s Semtek ERP and Registration accessing structured and unstructured data and software drives many of the nation’s largest includes packaged integrations with Facebook, continuing education profit centers and Twitter, Oracle, SAP, Marketo, Eloqua, Zendesk seminar event planning industries. Over 1000 and Salesforce.com to name a few. organizations around the world use Entrinsik’s software every day.” iDashboards Gleanster Skinny: Having developed http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/idashboards information management systems for more than “Beautiful Dashboards. Powerful Insights. a quarter of a century, Entrinsik is a true pioneer Founded in 2003 in Troy, Michigan, iDashboards in the BI space. While higher education accounts is a pioneer in the data visualization space. for the lion’s share of its customer base, the Through award winning engineering and company’s products also have a strong presence patented technology, we’re making it easier to in insurance, government, employee benefits understand your data. At iDashboards we don’t management, distribution, and construction just provide richer, more visually engaging ways management. Entrinsik Informer offers reporting to display your data. We offer easy-to-build, and operational business intelligence software. dynamic dashboards that create context for any Since its initial release more than a decade user – in any organization – so they can draw ago, Informer has grown from being a leading real meaning from raw data. No matter who player in the relatively small MultiValue space, you are, or what industry you work in, we can specifically with users of U2 and D3 databases, rapidly reduce the time it takes to build beautiful to a strong solution in the wider SQL space. dashboards and discover powerful insights. From It has proven itself to be a quick and easy sales to development to support, we look at web-based alternative to traditional BI solutions. every situation as an opportunity to innovate, to Entrinsik has established a strong presence respond quickly and be flexible enough to meet as a provider of self-service reporting, ad-hoc our clients’ needs by giving them a hand… or data analysis, and interactive dashboard two.” capabilities. Informer consolidates data from diverse databases without building separate Gleanster Skinny: iDashboard features both data warehouses or cubes. It also allows users on-premise and on-demand offerings. The to create customized reports from real-time company offers a turnkey way to create easy-to- production data through a web-based browser. build, dynamic dashboards that offer context The vendor has more than 25 global partners, for any user – in any organization – so they can many of which have embedded Informer into draw real meaning from raw data. iDashboard their own applications. offers industry specific and function specific dashboards. Today, iDashboards is used by over 2,000 customers from all company sizes. If all GoodData you’re looking for are some scalable dashboards Note: This document is intended for individual http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/gooddata that don’t frequently change and require very use. Electronic distribution via email or by posting on a personal website is in violation of “GoodData powers the All Data Enterprise little contextual drill-down, iDashboards should the terms of use. by offering an Open Analytics Platform that definitely be on the short list.

3,000 organizations worldwide, including 25% IBM of Fortune 500 companies, spanning all types of http://www.gleanster.com/vendor/ibm industries.” “Make better and smarter business decisions faster with solutions that take business Gleanster Skinny: InetSoft has been providing intelligence (BI) to a whole new level. Innovations business intelligence tools for more than 15 in BI from IBM provide broader analytic years, making the company a pioneer in this capabilities so that everyone has the relevant space. Its Style Intelligence solution consists of information they need to drive your business three key technologies: Visualization, Publishing, forward. IBM business intelligence products are and Data Block, which is essentially a data designed to integrate with one another and with mashup engine that provides drag-and-drop many third-party solutions, including leading big functionality. InetSoft has a strong data access data platforms. So, you can start addressing layer with a self-service functionality that appeals your most pressing BI needs almost immediately to both the causal user and the power user. with the confidence that you can seamlessly The solution offers an easy to use interface for grow your solution over time to meet future non-technical business users in marketing, sales, requirements.” and supply chain. The drag-and-drop dashboard capabilities and visualization complement the Gleanster Skinny: IBM continues to make self-service platform for business users. InetSoft significant headway in a full-featured portfolio of boasts globally known brands in healthcare, BI offerings. To be sure, IBM offers everything financial services, government, education, from BI tools, predictive analytics, hardware, manufacturing, and telecommunications, and even professional services. IBM can literally including Thomson Reuters, Blue Cross Blue meet the needs of any buyer. Cognos comes Shield, AT&T, Citigroup, and Lockheed Martin. in a variety of versions which are designed to incrementally offer more advanced features Infor demanded by organizations of increasing sizes. http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/infor Buyers can choose between Cognos Insights (a desktop app for $530 per year), Cognos Express “Infor is fundamentally changing the way for midsize organizations, Cognos Enterprise, information is published and consumed in the and Cognos TM1 for budgeting and financials. enterprise, helping 70,000 customers in 194 The solutions can be implemented on premise or countries improve operations, drive growth, and in dedicated software-as-a-service environments quickly adapt to changes in business demands. hosted by IBM or on server hardware. Infor offers deep industry-specific applications and suites, engineered for speed, and with an innovative user experience design that is simple, InetSoft transparent, and elegant. Infor provides flexible http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/inetsoft deployment options that give customers a choice “Since 1996 InetSoft has been delivering easy, to run their businesses in the cloud, on-premises, agile, and robust business intelligence software or both.” that makes it possible for organizations and solution providers of all sizes to quickly deploy Gleanster Skinny: Business Intelligence (BI) or embed visually-compelling, interactive 10x delivers advanced analytics and planning dashboards, analytical data visualizations, and capabilities, self-service dashboards, and social pixel-perfect report publishing. InetSoft’s data collaboration for a modern, mobile, and social access platform includes a unique approach experience. At its core, Infor BI 10x includes core to in-memory database technology to meet technologies such as Infor ION and Infor Ming.le. big data and high performance needs and Infor offers a self-service in-memory dashboard a patent pending Data Block™ technology creation tool that incorporates an application that enables data mashups of almost any engine for forecasting and predictive analytics. data source. A unique capability for end-user The new HTML-5 based interface offers a defined data mashup combined with InetSoft’s modern and fresh approach to BI. Infor offers visual analysis technologies allow maximum an in-memory OLAP server for multidimensional self-service that benefits the average business analysis, as well as integration with Microsoft user, the IT administrator, and the developer. Excel for data manipulation that doesn’t require Note: This document is intended for individual help from IT. use. Electronic distribution via email or by InetSoft solutions have been deployed at over posting on a personal website is in violation of the terms of use.

platform, Presto, mashes and visualizes data into Information Builders live dashboards for desktop, mobile, portals and http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/information-builders SharePoint. Armed with real-time intelligence, “Information Builders helps organizations executives and operational managers can make transform data into business value. Our immediate, informed decisions to changes that software solutions for business intelligence and impact the business.” analytics, integration, and data integrity empower people to make smarter decisions, strengthen Gleanster Skinny: The nursery rhyme “Jack be customer relationships, and drive growth. Our nimble, Jack be quick...” could well have been dedication to customer success is unmatched written about Agile BI. For its part, JackBe has in the industry. That’s why tens of thousands emerged as a provider of real-time operational of leading organizations rely on Information intelligence software, a new segment of business Builders to be their trusted partner. Founded in intelligence that analyzes live feeds and event 1975, Information Builders is headquartered in data, with the aim to enable managers to make New York, NY, with offices around the world, and smart decisions faster. The vendor’s signature remains one of the largest independent, privately platform, Presto, renders BI analytics as held companies in the industry.” mashables – web applications that combine information from two or more sources. This Gleanster Skinny: At Information Builders’ approach makes it possible to incorporate many 2012 user summit, the company discussed how sources of data not typically associated with it’s addressing today’s most pervasive trends in data warehouses. In its newest form, Presto enterprise BI: support of Big Data, social media, can detect the platform on which it is running, cloud, and mobile. In early 2012, Information including mobile devices and tablets, and display Builders improved the ability of WebFocus its content accordingly. The program creates to process big data sets faster by adding an dashboards by compiling data from multiple embedded column-oriented database to its live information sources. Presto is designed to BI platform. The company has also continued encourage rapid decisions informed by relevant to add interfaces for big data sources such data – this is achieved by presenting dashboards as Teradata, EMC Greenplum, HP Vertica, that can be personalized by the user to fit the and 1010data through its partner program. In relevant market and key performance indicators. terms of social media, Information Builders Presto has a large user base that spans a recently introduced the ability to process and range of industries including financial services, perform sentiment analysis on both structured government, healthcare, and manufacturing. and unstructured content, including content Recent client wins include Proctor & Gamble, from platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Dell, and the National Aeronautics and Space LinkedIn. Information Builders offers subscription Administration. pricing that allows its customers to avoid the substantial upfront costs associated with Jaspersoft (acquired by TIBCO) implementing new applications in the cloud. The http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/jaspersoft latest iteration of its BI platform, WebFOCUS 8, comes with multitenant capabilities and more “Jaspersoft empowers people every day to make granular security for managing data in the better decisions faster by bringing them timely, cloud. Released in April 2012, it also comes with actionable data inside their apps and business support for HTML5 to provide device-agnostic, processes. Its embeddable, cost-effective author-once, render-anywhere capabilities. The reporting and analytics platform allows anyone to vendor also offers an iPad app called Mobile quickly self-serve to get the answers they need, Favs that provides off-line capabilities. Another while scaling architecturally and economically new focus area is industry-specific master data to reach everyone. Thanks to a community that applications. The first was released at the 2012 is hundreds-of-thousands strong, Jaspersoft’s user conference and is tailored to the healthcare commercial and open source software has been industry. downloaded millions of times and is used to create the Intelligence Inside apps and business processes.” JackBe http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/jackbe Gleanster Skinny: In April 2014, TIBCO Note: This document is intended for individual Software announced it acquired Jaspersoft use. Electronic distribution via email or by “JackBe is the leading provider of Real-Time posting on a personal website is in violation of Actionable Intelligence. JackBe’s enterprise Corporation. Jaspersoft has a reputation as the terms of use. one of the foremost open source BI solution

providers. The combined offering should traditional approaches which treat the symptoms complement the existing TOBCO Spotfire of bad data, Kalido targets the root cause by discovery and analytics solution. Jaspersoft is keeping bad data from infecting the business a full-featured platform which users indicate environment. The outcome is better data to is more cost effective relative to competitors. improve business performance.” Its solution is primarily used by small and medium-sized companies, ranging from Gleanster Skinny: In April 2014, Noetix, ecommerce websites to the City of Amsterdam, the largest independent provider of instant which is where Jaspersoft got its start. To date, operational reporting and packaged analytics more than 400 OEMs and SaaS providers for Oracle Applications, and Kalido, the have integrated Jaspersoft BI components leading provider of business-driven information into their software offerings, and many other management software, announced they have businesses incorporate Jaspersoft into their combined their businesses in a merger of equals. internal applications, as well, taking advantage The combined business is called Magnitude of the solution’s highly embeddable architecture. Software, and is a leading provider of Enterprise Although Jaspersoft is known for delivering Information Management (EIM) software, with traditional BI capabilities, it has increasingly 10 award-winning enterprise class EIM products added more agile features to its solution. Its and over 600 active enterprise clients with more software supports the top distributed database than 200,000 users in 100 countries worldwide. management systems, including Hadoop-Hive, Kalido included three primary offerings: Kalido MongoDB, Hadoop HBase, and Cassandra. Information Engine (a data foundation for analytics featuring graphical modeling, 90 day implementation, and auditing), Master Data Jedox AG Management (featuring business-centric data http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/jedox governance across the enterprise) and Business ““Turn the most frequently used BI tool into the Information Modeler (with a user interface for most efficient one” – that is our vision. Based drawing, structuring, and defining attributes of on the notion that Excel is the de facto standard types of business entities). Kalido is used by for planning and analysis in most companies, 20% of the world’s most profitable customers Jedox empowers specialists to use their Excel in banking, insurance, life sciences, retail, and know-how to create complex planning and BI consumer packaged goods. solutions – not just in Excel but also on the web, on mobile devices and in the cloud. Founded Logi Analytics in Freiburg (Germany) in 2002, Jedox is one of http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/logixml the leading providers of Business Intelligence and Performance Management solutions. The “We are a business intelligence company that powerful BI & PM software is based on Excel began with a vision about how the web could and combines planning, analysis, and reporting be used to transform the way people see and in one single easy to use product.” use data. Today, our technology supports the BI initiatives of over 1000 companies around the Gleanster Skinny: Recognized as one of the globe that are delivering meaningful information primary publishers of BI and CPM Software to their employees, partners, and customers in Solutions in Europe, Jedox offers an all in one a faster, more flexible, and less expensive way. platform, that allows users to plan, report and In addition to companies using the technology analyze with one integrated tool. Jedox 5.1, internally, we are also a leading provider to the available in excel, web browsers, and mobile ISV and SaaS industries, where our technology devices, impresses with data-driven modelling, is used on an OEM basis to seamlessly embed extended planning, predictive analysis & data visualizations directly in our customers’ own R-Integration and more than 50+ new features. software and services, increasing their revenues as well as customer satisfaction.” Kalido (now Magnitude Software) Gleanster Skinny: In March 2013 LogiXML http://www.gleanster.com/vendor/kalido changed its name to Logi Analytics, but remained “Kalido is the leading provider of agile a well-known leader in embedded BI. The information management software. Kalido technology’s open web standards architecture Note: This document is intended for individual enables companies to manage data as a makes it easy to add interactive dashboards and use. Electronic distribution via email or by posting on a personal website is in violation of shared enterprise asset by supporting the reports directly into existing applications. The the terms of use. business process of data management. Unlike modular design, low cost, opened up the solution

for OEM usage early on. Outside of traditional organizations build, deploy, and maintain mobile drag-and-drop functionality dashboards and apps across a range of solutions by embedding visualization, Logi Analytics also includes intelligence, transactions, and multimedia process and workflow management capabilities, into apps. MicroStrategy’s social intelligence including email notifications, schedules, alerts, platform includes a number of applications that as well as data integration. The dashboard and help enterprises harness the power of social reporting features are the most robust. Although networks for marketing and e-commerce, as well most features and functionalities are primarily as a suite of free consumer friendly apps that tailored to BI developers, IT managers, and use MicroStrategy’s enterprise technologies. analysts, the Ad Hoc reporting solution targets The MicroStrategy Cloud offering combines nontechnical business users. Logi’s customer MicroStrategy and third-party software, base is largely comprised of are ISVs or SaaS hardware, and services to enable rapid, vendors that incorporate the product into their cost-effective development of hosted BI, mobile, own offerings. Logi Analytics is a great fit for and social applications.” SMBs and or departments in mid-to-large organizations. Notable industry focus includes Gleanster Skinny: Everyone knows Excel, and manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, that exactly what Microsoft is banking on in the and government. Microsoft BI self-service offering. Microsoft BI includes features in Excel 2013 as well as a cloud-based platform called “Power BI” which Looker integrates with SharePoint for collaboration. http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/looker Power BI includes modeling, visualization, “Looker is run by a lean team of high-tech collaboration, and scalable delivery of insights. upstarts. Pioneering a new kind of business As Microsoft continues to push Office 365 the intelligence (BI) that gives anyone the ability to pervasiveness of Excel may prove to create interact with live data, Looker is creating true disruptive force in the market. Microsoft BI discovery-driven businesses and unlocking the continues to generate considerable buzz over the value of their data, one customer at a time.” last year, and should be a short-list contender for companies looking for self-service BI, particularly Gleanster Skinny: Founded in 2011, looker when SQL Server, Sharepoint, and Office offers an innovative approach to aggregating are already present. For large organizations disparate data. Looker connects with analytics demanding more intimate domain expertise in data live, in real time. Then data is available for vertical or functional insights, Microsoft will be discovery, exploration and business intelligence heavily relying on a partner network – which may on any device – collaboratively. Looker is easy not be as attractive as turnkey solution offerings for non-technical users to run, and requires no from established players. coding or SQL knowledge. Looker operates 100% in-database, enabling manipulation of raw data at the point of analysis in a transformation MicroStrategy that is transparent to the raw data. Pricing is not http://www.gleanster.com/vendor/sdl listed on the website, and Gleanster has yet to “Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a leading brief with Looker. provider of enterprise software platforms for business intelligence (BI), mobile intelligence, Microsoft and social intelligence applications. http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/microsoft MicroStrategy’s BI platform enables leading organizations worldwide to analyze the vast “Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a leading amounts of data stored across their enterprises provider of enterprise software platforms for to make better business decisions. Companies business intelligence (BI), mobile intelligence, choose MicroStrategy BI for its ease-of-use, and social intelligence applications. sophisticated analytics, and superior data MicroStrategy’s BI platform enables leading and user scalability. MicroStrategy’s mobile organizations worldwide to analyze the vast intelligence platform helps companies and amounts of data stored across their enterprises organizations build, deploy, and maintain mobile to make better business decisions. Companies apps across a range of solutions by embedding choose MicroStrategy BI for its ease-of-use, intelligence, transactions, and multimedia Note: This document is intended for individual sophisticated analytics, and superior data use. Electronic distribution via email or by into apps. MicroStrategy’s social intelligence posting on a personal website is in violation of and user scalability. MicroStrategy’s mobile platform includes a number of applications that the terms of use. intelligence platform helps companies and

help enterprises harness the power of social management applications. In an effort to deliver networks for marketing and e-commerce, as well a more comprehensive on-demand offering, as a suite of free consumer friendly apps that Oracle combined eight platforms under the use MicroStrategy’s enterprise technologies. Fusion Business Intelligence Foundation Suite The MicroStrategy Cloud offering combines 11g (BI Enterprise Edition, Essbase, Essbase MicroStrategy and third-party software, Analytics Link, Scorecard Strategy Management, hardware, and services to enable rapid, Exalytics, BI Publisher, Office Integration, and cost-effective development of hosted BI, mobile, BI Mobile). Release 11.1.1.7.0 features more and social applications.” than two hundred enhancements adding new functionality, improved performance, and an Gleanster Skinny: With a long and highly enhanced end-user experience. Oracle also successful track record of enabling enterprise offers Oracle BI Enterprise Edition and Oracle BI deployments, MicroStrategy has embraced BI Applications in on-premise and on-demand the notion of agility in its platform development. offerings. For organizations with existing Oracle Its integrated platform supports not only large infrastructure (in ERP or CRM) Oracle supports data volumes and complex analytic applications, a very cool integration that automatically delivers but also easy-to-use self-service capabilities for operational and analytical BI with reporting from business users. While it has become common ERP. For large enterprise organizations with true practice for BI vendors to integrate third-party big data challenges, Oracle is one of the few capabilities in order to expand functionality, all providers to deliver a comprehensive solution of MicroStrategy’s technology is home grown. with the Oracle Exalytics offering. Oracle is a MicroStrategy became one of the first vendors great fit for organizations that have fully invested to invest heavily in deploying BI applications in Oracle products across other business on mobile devices with the debut of the functions, but from a long-term scalability MicroStrategy mobile application, which was one standpoint it’s worth noting the architecture is of the top-rated business applications in 2011. largely based on concepts that date back to MicroStrategy has largely grown organically 1980 – yeah, that’s 30 years ago. For this reason and has successfully led the market in early users sometimes experience clunkiness or speed investment market trends. MicroStrategy offers issues with modeling and visualizations. a comprehensive suite of products on a single platform that include: Self-Service Analytics, Panorama Software Business Intelligence, Big Data Solutions, Cloud, and Mobile Apps. The comprehensive platform, http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/panorama-software open architecture, and rapid deployment make “With Panorama’s unbeatable expertise and MicroStrategy a good fit for organizations of support, companies have a BI solution that fits all all sizes. MicroStrategy boasts customers like their needs, not just their technical requirements. Nationwide, Hallmark, Lowe’s, and Pfizer in a With Panorama, companies go beyond BI variety of industries including manufacturing, insights and engage in proactive business government, education, health care, media and management. Panorama allows the entire entertainment, retail, and technology. organization to leverage and use the BI system. Panorama’s Business Intelligence solution Oracle provides advanced analytics for power users http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/oracle and with self-service features such as Social BI, Contextual Discovery and process automation “Oracle provides the world’s most complete, for business users. Regardless of BI experience, open, and integrated business software and users can get easily focus on important and hardware systems, with more than 370,000 relevant data to for business decision making.” customers – including 100 of the Fortune 100 – representing a variety of sizes and industries Gleanster Skinny: Panorama Software’s in more than 145 countries around the globe. flagship BI product suite, Necto (previously Oracle’s product strategy provides flexibility NovaView), is specifically designed for the and choice to our customers across their IT Microsoft BI platform (Microsoft has managed infrastructure.” Panorama globally since 2010), although the solution can also be used as a front end for Gleanster Skinny: The enterprise software other OLAP databases, including Oracle. Note: This document is intended for individual behemoth whose name has long been use. Electronic distribution via email or by Necto leverages related Microsoft technologies posting on a personal website is in violation of synonymous with business intelligence supports including SQL Server, Analysis Services, the terms of use. more than 80 distinct BI and performance

PowerPivot, SharePoint and Office to deliver PivotLink robust analytics, reporting, dashboarding, scorecarding and visualization capabilities. Necto http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/pivotlink provides a social-enabled structure designed “PivotLink is the leader in on-demand retail to facilitate collaborative interaction around performance management applications for BI content. The self-service application offers customer-centric retailers and retail-related recommendations for content and analysis based companies such as Fifth & Pacific Companies on the behavior of other users. This contextual (formerly Liz Claiborne), Kelly-Moore, Timbuk2, data discovery feature is significantly more Party City, Car Toys, Rossignol, Shaklee, and powerful than the search capabilities offered by Zones. Encompassing retail best practice traditional BI solutions and is truly collaborative in reporting, customer performance analytics the sense that it allows companies to harness the and marketing optimization, PivotLink’s suite collective intelligence of the entire organization, of retail applications and third party content helping users streamline their analyses and learn empower business users with actionable insights from best practices. Necto also includes KPIs, to serve their increasingly connected, mobile, workboards/dashboards, reporting, advanced omni-channel consumers. PivotLink is a privately analytics, and mobile BI. While the concept of held company backed by Trident Capital, collaborative BI is not revolutionary, Panorama Emergence Capital Partners, StarVest Partners Software seems to have executed it well. and Pelion Venture Partners.”

Gleanster Skinny: PivotLink, a pure play Pentaho startup in the SaaS BI space, was acquired http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/pentaho by SmartFocus in May 2014. PivotLink was a “Pentaho is delivering the future of business unique player in the BI space due to a singular analytics. Pentaho’s open source heritage focus on the rapidly growing retail industry drives our continued innovation in a modern, segment of SaaS business analytics. At the integrated, embeddable platform built for the core of PivotLink’s suite was a product called future of analytics, including diverse and big data RetailMetrix (formerly ReadiMetrix portfolio), requirements. Powerful business analytics are a set of off-the-shelf retail best practice made easy with Pentaho’s cost-effective suite for analytics. RetailMetrix comes with 30 reports data access, visualization, integration, analysis and dashboards encompassing over 60 key and mining.” performance metrics designed to provide best practice retail business analytics in the Gleanster Skinny: Pentaho was founded in areas of sales, orders, finance, inventory, and 2004 by five BI industry execs who set out merchandising. Additionally, PivotLink Customer to transform the data management industry PerformanceMETRIX helps retailers become by opening up BI to a broader set of users more customer-centric by giving them a deeper and markets. To a large extent, they’ve been understanding of customer preferences and successful in achieving their lofty goals. Built buying behavior. The new integration with on an open-source framework, Pentaho’s BI SmartFocus is promising news for marketers. solutions have received widespread accolades SmartFocus offers a robust omni-channel for their ability to enable agile decision-making. marketing platform that facilitates personalized Pentaho’s flexible deployment options make the interactions across email, social, mobile, and solution a good fit for deployments of all sizes the web. Analytics and ad-hoc analysis remain a and in varying environments. All components core challenge for business users in marketing of the platform are managed from a central BI who lack technical expertise to operate more server deployed either on-premise or in the robust BI solutions. It remains to be seen how cloud, with end-user access via the Web or SmartFocus will support PivotLink, but deeper mobile devices. Pentaho features a core base integration between campaign execution and of customers in financial services, government, segmentation/targeting analytics should be a healthcare, and retail. Pentaho is increasingly high priority. reaching enterprise level adoption with core growth in big data and embedded analytics. The Prelytis vendor completely re-architected Pehtaho 5.0 which features the industry’s first “just in time big http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/prelytis Note: This document is intended for individual use. Electronic distribution via email or by data blending ‘at the source’ solution.” “Prelytis is a Business Intelligence vendor. For posting on a personal website is in violation of ten years, we have been innovating and creating the terms of use.

smart and pragmatic solutions to help companies strengths include its in-memory technology, improve decision-making cycles, enterprise associative search capabilities and interactive performance and information chain. Our data visualization capabilities. The vendor’s Headquarters are located in Paris and Bordeaux self-contained BI platform has been praised for area in France.” its ease of use and data visualization. It includes built-in ETL capabilities that dramatically shorten Gleanster Skinny: Prelytis was acquired by the time-to-value from raw data in transactional Access, a provider of business management systems or spreadsheets to user-driven insights. software. The acquisition is the first in a series of This unique approach is superior to traditional planned moves to enter the SaaS space. Prelytis relational or multidimensional databases that offers a Business Performance Management require specialists committed to lengthy data solution, called LiveDashBoard, which leverages modeling projects. QlikView offers a very unique in-memory technology and a web interface to data visualization engine that associates any-to- provide tools for creating and delivering business any relationships between attributes in the data dashboards, indicators and alerts to managers. model. This gives non-technical users instant There’s an enterprise version and a team version visualization of trends, relationships and insights. targeted at business work groups. The team Qlik stresses “it’s not about the visualization, version designed as a professional alternative it’s about the freedom to explore the data and to dashboards built with spreadsheet office make discoveries you would not have made solutions, and is reportedly the first free business in a constrained environment.” QlikView is intelligence hosted solution based on Google predominantly used by business users in sales, Docs. Prelytis adds HTML capabilities to the marketing, finance, and supply chain. With Access product portfolio and places an emphasis roots in small business adoption, QlikView grew on real-time data integration and visualization. organically in the small-to-midsize market until Another draw is the promise of delivering Qlik made a push into the enterprise over the last business insights anytime, anywhere, and on any 3 years. Today traction in enterprise continues to platform. The combined pool of sales, marketing, grow year-over-year. Small business users can and product development expertise and expect to pay $10-20k annually ($1k per seat). resources should help drive product adoption. Midsize pricing generally ranges from $50-$100k At the time of the acquisition, Prelytis reported a per year and enterprise pricing is customized total of 300 customers, most of them located in based on the commitment and volume of users. Europe. Quiterian (now part of Actuate) QlikTech http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/quiterian http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/qliktech ““Quiterian Analytics software adds the power “Qlik simplifies how people explore their data of advanced and predictive analytics to the to help them make better decisions. With natural intuitiveness of the human mind, by its QlikView Business Discovery platform analyzing and integrating large volumes of raw people quickly bring data sources together to data at record-breaking speeds in their maximum create dynamic visual applications that can be granularity with no restrictions, no matter navigated and searched intuitively. Fundamental their origin. Quiterian provides solutions in all to making next-generation BI accessible and business analytics areas to public institutions and useful for a broad range of users is QlikView’s leading companies of different sectors around Natural Analytics™ approach, which taps into the world.” the natural human ability to process complex information. It supports the way human curiosity Gleanster Skinny: Quiterian has not briefed with naturally searches, filters, questions, and Gleanster. finds associations in data to find meaning in information – more easily revealing insights and SAP enabling decisions in the process.” http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/sap Gleanster Skinny: QlikView is a leading data “Empower your people with easy access to the discovery tool that competes against Tableau and business intelligence (BI) and data visualization TIBCO Spotfire and has enjoyed phenomenal tools solutions they need to make faster, more Note: This document is intended for individual growth over the past few years. QlikView’s informed decisions. Our BI platform and software use. Electronic distribution via email or by posting on a personal website is in violation of the terms of use.

can boost your organization’s collective IQ by environment. SAS has a strong presence among giving all users the information necessary to large enterprise clients, and would be a good fit drive smarter processes, improve performance, for the most demanding BI requirements. and become more effective in everything they do.” SiSense Gleanster Skinny: SAP offers an eclectic mix http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/sisense of BI solutions and related products, effectively “SiSense is an award-winning, full-stack delivering something for everyone across the Business Intelligence and Analytics software portfolio. In fact, there are over a dozen BI that’s leading the way into a new era of BI. Our products at SAP. SAP HANA offers in-memory software is creating quite a buzz for its powerful multi-dimensional reporting and cloud delivery. technology as SiSense is the only fully-functional Then there’s Sybase IQ, which is the ideal data Business Intelligence tool that lets non-techies warehouse platform for SAP Business Objects join multiple large data sets, build smart Business Intelligence Suite. SAP also offers a dashboards with great data visualizations, and complete data management portfolio with master share with thousands of users.” data management, ETL, data warehousing, and data quality management. Business Objects has Gleanster Skinny: SiSense has grown quickly to always had a happy customer base and robust become a global player in the Big Data analytics capabilities that include self-service and cloud and data discovery space, going head-to-head delivery. SAP continues to invest heavily in with everyone from SAP to Tableau Software. individual products, a strategy which at times can Processing data with SiSense’s In-Chip lead to a lack of integration between products. technology is 100 times faster than processing That said, buyers can rest assured they will have it in-memory. Most in-memory solutions use many options for best-of-breed solutions and can RAM and disk space, SiSense utilizes memory scale incrementally as the need arises. available in the CPU. Memory found in the CPU is faster than in RAM memory allowing the tool to move data at 50-100 time faster than SAS in-memory solutions. That means a single server http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/sas can process considerably more data. SiSense “SAS Business Intelligence gives you the also features a drag-and-drop interface for data information you need, when you need it, in the transfer and dashboard creation. The solution is right format. By integrating data from across your available on-premise and on-demand. enterprise and delivering self-service reporting and analysis, IT spends less time responding SpagoBI to requests and business users spend less http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/spagobi time looking for information. SAS Business Intelligence also offers an integrated, robust and “SpagoBI is the only 100% open source, flexible presentation layer for the full breadth of complete and flexible Business Intelligence suite. SAS Analytics capabilities, including statistics, It includes not only usual reporting and charting predictive analytics, data and text mining, tools, but also unique and innovative solutions forecasting, and optimization – all integrated for the location intelligence, visual inquiring, within the business context for better, faster collaboration, KPIs, interactive dashboards, decision making.” real-time BI and mobile BI. Conceived and realized by Engineering Group’s SpagoBI Gleanster Skinny: While most BI platforms Competency Center, it is part of the software are designed solely for historical analysis, SAS stack managed by the international OW2 has one of the few offerings designed to bridge Consortium (www.ow2.org), which promotes historical trends with predictive insights. SAS professional open source solutions, suitable to offers a comprehensive BI stack complete with enterprise contexts.” ETL, master data management, and data quality management capabilities. SAS has long been Gleanster Skinny: SpagoBI’s platform was a dominant player for very robust statistical created by Engineering Group, one of Italy’s analysis from highly skilled statisticians and leading IT consultancies. For many users, pricing data scientists. But for buyers looking for a tool is a major selling point: the open source software Note: This document is intended for individual that is capable of rapidly growing as expertise is 100 percent free, with no user lock-in and no use. Electronic distribution via email or by customer obligation to buy. Engineering Group posting on a personal website is in violation of expands, SAS also offers a self-service BI the terms of use. data visualization inside a Microsoft Office uses the product to build out vertical applications

and specific projects on behalf of its customers, accelerating the real-time analytics reality. and charges separate fees for related services and support. The solution is typically deployed Tableau departmentally, in small workgroups. The latest http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/tableau-software release, SpagoBI 4.2, allows admins to manage multi-tenant environments and customize, save, “Put together an Academy Award-winning and manage private data analysis. professor, a brilliant computer scientist at the world’s most prestigious university, and a savvy business leader with a passion for data. Add Sybase, an SAP Company in one of the most challenging problems in http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/sybase software – making databases and spreadsheets “Sybase, an SAP company, is an industry understandable to ordinary people. You have leader in delivering enterprise and mobile just recreated the fundamental ingredients for software to manage, analyze and mobilize Tableau.” information. We are recognized globally as a performance leader, proven in the most Gleanster Skinny: Tableau ranks as one of data-intensive industries and across all major the fastest growing makers of visual analytics systems, networks and devices. Our information software. Tableau’s hugely popular data management, analytics, mobile messaging and discovery tool provides interactive visualization enterprise mobility solutions have powered some for analysis, dashboards, information delivery of the most mission-critical systems in financial and managed analytic applications. While services, telecommunications, manufacturing the product’s main strength is interactive and government. With Sybase, enterprises can visualization, it is also known for its easy to use, manage the high volumes and variety of data, intuitive interface and for being simple to deploy analyze this vital information and mobilize it so without IT assistance. Tableau is a desktop people can conduct business, regardless of application that is user-friendly for technically where they are located or what devices they minded users. The desktop app allows users are using. And since all Sybase solutions are to publish stats to web or mobile. One downfall built using open standards, organizations can is that the desktop app is not available for Mac leverage the IT investments they depend on (Requirements: Microsoft® Windows® 7, Vista, today, along with the ones they’ll need tomorrow.” XP, Server 2012, Server 2008, Server 2003, or Microsoft® Windows® 8). Like any software, Gleanster Skinny: Sybase IQ 16 is a disk-based robust features run the risk of complicating the column store analytics server for data learning curve for line of business users, but warehousing and Big Data analytics. Sybase IQ Tableau boasts an impressive set of features is capable of working with massive volumes of and rapid results that make it ideal for more structured and unstructured data, making it ideal analytically minded users. Because it lacks the for Big Data needs. The solution is distinguished ability to perform some of the broader backend from conventional databases by its column- enterprise BI functions, Tableau’s solution is oriented, grid-based architecture, patented data typically deployed departmentally alongside compression, and advanced query optimizer. In existing BI platforms. fact, Sybase IQ is credited with pioneering the commercialization of column-store technology, TARGIT which makes it possible to analyze enormous http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/targit volumes of data in a low-cost, high-availability environment. The new release is reportedly “TARGIT is Europe’s largest pure-play developer achieving record performance query time on of Business Intelligence (BI) products and the petabyte volumes of data. Sybase boasts a fastest growing in terms of revenue according strong customer base, and the updates in 16 to IDC. TARGIT is included in Gartner’s “Magic should make real-time and historical data on Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms” mission-critical intelligence far more accessible. TARGIT Business Intelligence gives you the In fact it’s designed to fit as a near-line-store courage to act and the capability to deliver for the in-memory HANA platform. For large business direction via a common world-view, enterprise clients with existing SAP investments visually seen through clear graphs, diagrams and massive databases, particularly in industries and dynamic tables which are automatically Note: This document is intended for individual accessible for anyone in your organization no use. Electronic distribution via email or by such as financial services, telecommunications, posting on a personal website is in violation of and retail, Sybase IQ 16 offers a great option for matter their IT skills.” the terms of use.

Gleanster Skinny: TARGIT’s product http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/vitria development philosophy – to make BI easier “Vitria provides the industry’s leading Operational to use – is inspired by the Computer Aided Intelligence platform, empowering partners and Leadership & Management theory. The idea customers alike to develop innovative operational is to dramatically increase the speed with intelligence solutions to analyze streaming big which a user “travels” through the observation- data, complex events, and business processes orientation-decision-action loop to arrive at in the proper context and take real-time action. the better decisions more quickly. To that end, The result is faster, better decision-making. With interactive reports are generated in TARGIT’s a rich heritage as a BPM technology pioneer, BI suite, and all the components are integrated, Vitria’s award-winning process integration reducing the need to move between different solutions provide the backbone for many Global tools. An autonomous agent, or wizard, guides 2000 companies’ mission-critical business the user to the desired analysis by asking a processes. Vitria’s technology is available to run series of questions, then saves the preferences on premise or in the cloud.” for future use. Tables and graphs can easily be customized to specific tasks and roles. Gleanster Skinny: Founded in 1994, Vitria is a provider of BPM and Operational Intelligence TIBCO Software solutions. Vitria Operational Intelligence is a http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/tibco-software tightly unified platform designed to integrate CEP, BPM, & BAM in real-time. Leveraging “TIBCO Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TIBX) is a an XML-based analytics engine, the solution provider of infrastructure software for companies provides visibility and insight into areas such to use on-premise or as part of cloud computing as Big Data, complex events and business environments. Whether it’s optimizing claims, processes based on continuous analysis of processing trades, cross-selling products based multiple data sources, both static and dynamic. on real-time customer behavior, or averting Data sources can include event streams, a crisis before it happens, TIBCO provides social media activity streams (such as those companies the two-second advantage™ – the from Twitter and Facebook), data from smart ability to capture the right information at the right grid meters, RSS feeds, server networks, time and act on it preemptively for a competitive and Apache Hadoop implementations. Vitria advantage. More than 4,000 customers Operational Intelligence is built on an open, worldwide rely on TIBCO to manage information, platform-agnostic web architecture, allowing it to decisions, processes and applications in real be deployed in traditional enterprise computing time.” environments or in the cloud. Applications Gleanster Skinny: TIBCO is focused on include real-time service assurance, SLA making statistics, predictive analytic models management, cyber-security, proactive customer and forecasting algorithms easier to digest and experience management, and social media consume in reports, dashboards and analytic monitoring. applications. Spotfire is known as one of the easiest data discovery tools on the market and Yellowfin would give any competitor a run for its money. http://www.gleanster.com/vendors/yellowfin Spotfire is an in-memory analytics platform “Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) and offers the most complex analysis of the software vendor passionate about making BI leading data discovery vendors. To help widen easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed deployment, a new, lower-cost version of Spotfire in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly was added to TIBCO’s product portfolio. The intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and latest release of Spotfire, Spotfire 6.5, includes analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response a new desktop app (starting at $1,999). The to the complexity and costs associated with vendor also released a mobile BI solution and an implementing and using traditional BI tools, enterprise social platform called Tibbr. Like some Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and other data visualization players, Spotfire doesn’t embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence offer the breadth of scalability as more robust and data visualization.” enterprise BI options and therefore TIBCO is frequently used in addition to other BI tools. Gleanster Skinny: Since 2003, Yellowfin has Note: This document is intended for individual use. Electronic distribution via email or by designed BI software for clients in more than posting on a personal website is in violation of 50 countries. The Australian vendor seems to the terms of use. Vitria

be shifting away from serving just SMBs; it just switched from a license-based pricing model to a new subscription-based model to make BI more accessible to a wider range of companies and to encourage larger deployments. The company has also recently forged ahead with collaborative, or social, BI, in addition to mobile applications. Collaborative BI is at the center of Yellowfin’s platform. Features for adding comments and feedback to reports, annotating data, subscribing to relevant analyses, and discussing results are all designed to enable better decision-making.

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Nicholas Carrol Research Analyst

Ian Michiels Principal Analyst

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