Database Technologies......: April 2008

Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence
Platforms, 2008

http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/vol7/article3/article3.html

Gartner defines a BI platform as a software platform that delivers the 12 capabilities listed below.

Integration
BI infrastructure — All tools in the platform should use the same security, metadata, administration, portal integration, object model and query engine, and should share the same look and feel.

Metadata management — This is arguably the most important of the 12 capabilities. Not only should all tools leverage the same metadata, but the offering should provide a robust way to search, capture, store, reuse and publish metadata objects such as dimensions, hierarchies, measures, performance metrics and report layout objects.

Development — The BI platform should provide a set of programmatic development tools — coupled with a software developer's kit for creating BI applications — that can be integrated into a business process, and/or embedded in another application. The BI platform should also enable developers to build BI applications without coding by using wizard-like components for a graphical assembly process. The development environment should also support Web services in performing common tasks such as scheduling, delivering, administering and managing.

Workflow and collaboration — This capability enables BI users to share and discuss information via public folders and discussion threads. In addition, the BI application can assign and track events or tasks allotted to specific users, based on pre-defined business rules. Often, this capability is delivered by integrating with a separate portal or workflow tool.

Information Delivery
Reporting — Reporting provides the ability to create formatted and interactive reports with highly scalable distribution and scheduling capabilities. In addition, BI platform vendors should handle a wide array of reporting styles (for example, financial, operational and performance dashboards).

Dashboards — This subset of reporting includes the ability to publish formal, Web-based reports with intuitive displays of information, including dials, gauges and traffic lights. These displays indicate the state of the performance metric, compared with a goal or target value. Increasingly, dashboards are used to disseminate real-time data from operational applications.

Ad hoc query — This capability, also known as self-service reporting, enables users to ask their own questions of the data, without relying on IT to create a report. In particular, the tools must have a robust semantic layer to allow users to navigate available data sources. In addition, these tools should offer query governance and auditing capabilities to ensure that queries perform well.

Microsoft Office integration — In some cases, BI platforms are used as a middle tier to manage, secure and execute BI tasks, but Microsoft Office (particularly Excel) acts as the BI client. In these cases, it is vital that the BI vendor provides integration with Microsoft Office, including support for document formats, formulas, data "refresh" and pivot tables. Advanced integration includes cell locking and write-back.

Analysis
OLAP — This enables end users to analyze data with extremely fast query and calculation performance, enabling a style of analysis known as "slicing and dicing." This capability could span a variety of storage architectures such as relational, multidimensional and in-memory.

Advanced visualization — This provides the ability to display numerous aspects of the data more efficiently by using interactive pictures and charts, instead of rows and columns. Over time, advanced visualization will go beyond just slicing and dicing data to include more process-driven BI projects, allowing all stakeholders to better understand the workflow through a visual representation.

Predictive modeling and data mining — This capability enables organizations to classify categorical variables and estimate continuous variables using advanced mathematical techniques.

Scorecards — These take the metrics displayed in a dashboard a step further by applying them to a strategy map that aligns key performance indicators to a strategic objective. Scorecard metrics should be linked to related reports and information in order to do further analysis. A scorecard implies the use of a performance management methodology such as Six Sigma or a balanced scorecard framework.

Where the Microsoft BI stands

Strengths

Microsoft's pricing and integration with its Office (including its major CPM-led innovation of 2007, PerfomancePoint Server) and SQL Server products are especially attractive to organizations that have standardized on the Microsoft information infrastructure. The bundling and pricing of its BI products makes them an economically attractive offering that will be considered by many organizations.
Microsoft's BI products appeal to the large community of Microsoft application developers. Microsoft's BI platform provides developers with infrastructure, development tools, workflow and collaboration capabilities that are held in higher regard than those of many of its competitors.
Microsoft is benefiting from developing its indirect sales and services channel and market awareness of its SQL Server, Office and SharePoint Portal installed base. As a result, Microsoft estimates that it now has around 2,000 OEM/ISV partners for its BI products. Many departmental and business unit end users who hear the Office and SharePoint integration marketing messages for BI will likely ask for the products and associated support from their IT departments.
According to the customers we contacted as part of his research, Microsoft offers the best BI software quality of all the megavendors, with over half of them reporting no problems with software. This reflects Microsoft's focus on BI, the strength of its product line management team and the fact that much of its BI technology has been internally developed rather than acquired.

Cautions

Microsoft was late to join the BI platforms market and it is still playing catch up. According to customers, its still lags behind pure-play vendors in terms of metadata management, reporting, and dashboard and ad hoc query capabilities. However, Microsoft is in it for the long haul and Gartner expects that it will continue to grow its BI investments in order to become a stronger competitor. Organizations that have heterogeneous applications, information infrastructure and development environments will find Microsoft's BI-related marketing and announcements to be interesting but potentially distracting, since they may not easily integrate with their existing investments in infrastructure and applications. Despite its price advantage, Microsoft will face increasing competitive pressure as BI becomes a market where strategic sourcing, of more than just BI capabilities, takes precedence over features and functions, and as the other megavendors' acquisitions coalesce into their product stacks.

Database Technologies......

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Any BI Platform should deliver 12 capabilities

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Good Sites for understanding Data-Mining Therotical Concepts