Strategic advice to leverage new technologies
Technology is at the heart of nearly every enterprise, enabling new business models and strategies, and serving as the catalyst to industry convergence. Leveraging the right technology can improve business outcomes, providing intelligence and insights that help you make more informed and accurate decisions. From finding patterns in data through data science, to curating relevant insights with data analytics, to the predictive abilities and innumerable applications of AI, to solving challenging business problems with ML, NLP, and knowledge graphs, technology has brought decision-making to a more intelligent level. Keep pace with the technology trends, opportunities, applications, and real-world use cases that will move your organization closer to its transformation and business goals.
Insight
Executive Report
How Simulation Enhances the Power of BI
Abstract
Simulation is not new to business intelligence (BI), but its significance is evolving. The BI utilities of modeling and scenario analysis involve simulation, and the highly networked modern enterprise is more measurable and predictable with simulation than it was without it. Yet intelligence and a learning organization are different things.
Executive Summary
How Simulation Enhances the Power of BI
Simulation is not new to business intelligence (BI), but its role is evolving. Within BI, it is evolving to create more realistic scenarios for analysis; outside of BI, it's being engaged for learning and enhanced reality. In whatever way a company uses simulation, it can drive superior performance and adherence to business rules.
Consider this: if you could upgrade all the software on your computer for free, would you do it? It's not a trick question -- give it some thought for a moment. I posed the question at a forum in Chicago earlier this year, and some of the responses were quite intense. That was not what I had expected.
While EA and service-oriented architecture (SOA) have their own advocates and camps of followers, recent developments have seen many of the EA approaches and frameworks looking to offer increasing support for SOA. The fact that business is increasingly conducted in a collaborative fashion, using distributed Internet technologies, makes this very welcome.
Last week, I discussed SAP AG's new Business Objects tool that combines BI reporting and analysis with functionality that is like an Internet search engine: SAP Business Objects Explorer (see "SAP Business Objects Explorer: BI Search Meets ERP, But Will It Accelerate Adoption of BI Search?," 19 May 2009).
Executive Update
Architectural Challenges in Transforming to SaaS Solutions
To fully understand the advantages and challenges in software as a service (SaaS), we must analyze the emerging model thoroughly from the viewpoint of customers and independent software vendors (ISVs). The aim of such scrutiny is to reap the benefits and mitigate possible risks of SaaS.
Executive Update
Implementation Strategy for Portal Adoption
Portals provide a common user interface (UI) platform for federating varied content and applications. In addition, portal server products offer out-of-the-box features such as personalization, security, and administrative control. The portal server also provides several customization hooks for layout, themes, skins, security, and so forth.