Overview
Business intelligence (BI) refers to applications and
technologies that are used to gather, access, and analyze data
and information about company operations. Although data
is available in desktop spreadsheets, front-office customer
relationship management (CRM) systems, enterprise resource
planning (ERP) applications and databases, these data sources
are hardly ever used effectively for the simple reason that
these "point" information assets address their own needs, and do
not share information across the organization. The result
is "silos" of data - with each system controlling and reporting
largely on just its own set of data.
Organizations cannot gain complete and timely views
of everything they know about customers, products, suppliers
or other objects of interest. Many different and often,
incompatible formats and ways of handling data create management
challenges for the IT staff. Generally "reports" become
a business's primary tool for turning raw data into
understandable information but that, too, is constrained by the
data residing in silos. Web-based reporting can deliver the data
inside portals for distribution across company intranets.
However, if each reporting system is tied to a particular point
application or database and the data isolated inside it, the
reports may conflict; at best, they provide merely slices
of information, forcing users to move from tool to tool in
a time-consuming effort to get the full picture.
The information inefficiency that is the inevitable result
of isolated systems often gets further compounded when business
managers rely primarily on spreadsheets for data analysis and
for collaboration with colleagues and presentations. Once data
leaves its source system and is manipulated in a spreadsheet
to fit the planning, forecasting, and budgeting needs of
a particular manager's line of business or function,
synchronizing the information with other applications and
systems of record becomes exceedingly difficult. As a result,
line-of-business managers end up making decisions based
on partial or even erroneous information. In addition,
spreadsheet systems do not provide the drill-down capability
that is essential to management decision-making.
Regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act also demand
transparency and demonstrable integrity of data. The several
data models, definitions and interfaces that proliferate
information infrastructure, force IT to reconcile the
technologies to enable data access and analysis. Querying
disparate data marts and other databases presents similar
challenges.
Business Intelligence offers a data analysis and reporting
platform that is separate from individual applications and data
sources but can access them all and, thus, can deliver the
integrated information managers and operational employees need
to improve business performance.
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Octillion Technology sells and implements following Business Intelligence solutions:
1. Oracle Business Intelligence
Standard Edition One
Oracle Business Intelligence
Standard Edition One includes:
- Oracle BI Server
- Oracle BI Server Administrator
- Oracle BI Answers
- Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards
- Oracle BI Publisher
- Oracle Database Standard Edition One
- Oracle Warehouse Builder (core ETL)
Oracle Business Intelligence Collateral:
Oracle BI is a complete, integrated and attractively priced
BI solution in a box for the small to medium sized business.
It is based on the exact same technology platform as Oracle
Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, making it simple
to scale as your business needs grow. Oracle Business
Intelligence Suite Standard Edition One features the basic
components to manage and build your departmental BI solution.
Oracle BI Standard Edition One provides comprehensive business
intelligence functionality-interactive dashboards; highly
formatted reports, self-service ad hoc analysis, data
integration, and server administration - all delivered on one
common, modern web architecture. Oracle BI Standard Edition One
is compatible with Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise
Edition, protecting your investment as your usage requirements
grow.
2. IBM Cognos
Good decisions are the building blocks of great business
performance. The performance management system from IBM Cognos,
integrates software, services, best-practices, and partners. IBM
Cognos 8 Business Intelligence delivers the complete range of BI
capabilities on a single, service-oriented architecture (SOA).
Author, share, and use reports that draw on data across all
enterprise sources for better business decisions.
While enterprise BI solutions were designed for use by corporate
analysts and power users, operational BI requires
a straightforward interface that can be used by anyone. IBM
Cognos Now! is an operational BI solution that delivers highly
visual and self-service interactive dashboards, data
integration, analysis, and reports, all prepackaged in
a hardware appliance. Cognos Now! includes easy-to-use
Operational Dashboards that continuously display up-to-date
information in an intuitive, graphical format. Cognos Now!
is the industry's first BI appliance designed to monitor
business operations and provide immediate visibility
to operational users and managers at the lowest possible total
cost of ownership (TCO). As a single product that contains
Operational Dashboards, reports, analysis, alerting, ETL, and
data integration, Cognos Now! eliminates the key barriers
to delivering operational BI at a cost that can finally make
it a reality.
3. CUBOT
from Robust Designs
CUBOT is an easy-to-use, web-based decision support system that
combines the power of Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
technology. It is designed to enable organizations tap data from
different sources such as different company databases,
spreadsheets and the like; and merge this data in the form
of graphs and reports that help you monitor the health of your
operations.
With CUBOT you can:
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Gather information from various sources such as existing
software and databases and transform this data into a management
dashboard that will alert key managers of the health of the
business.
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View data in the form of graphs or multi-dimensional reports.
Easy to use drill-down features allow for zooming into any
aspect of the business instantly.
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Review targets vs. achievements of business performance so as to
analyze why certain business areas perform well while others do not.
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Download report data and import it directly into Microsoft®
Excel® or Open Office. Graphs can also be pasted into Microsoft®
Word® or PowerPoint®.
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Personalize your dashboard and reports.
4. Customized Analytics
Most optimal solution for your environment and infrastructure
Customized solutions using high-end analytics are built
to optimize your resources and fully leverage your environment.
Customized analytics can be developed using transactional and
secondary data enabling process optimization and decision making
in the context of a given application. Customized analytics
is recommended for implementations such as decision support
system for treasury optimization, anti-money laundering through
pattern recognition, determining the value of derivatives, risk
assessment in insurance, default risk assessment, and debt
collection effectiveness using decision trees. Customized
solutions can provide specific look and feel required by the
users.
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