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MicroStrategy Inc. - Business Intelligence Solutions -
Category Directory
(703)
848-8600
1861
International Drive
McLean, VA 22102
www.microstrategy.com
Sales
$176
million
Business Description
We
are a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence software that
enables companies to analyze the raw data stored across their enterprise to
reveal the trends and insights needed to develop solutions to manage their
business effectively. Our software delivers this critical information to
workgroups, the enterprise and extranet communities via e-mail, web, fax,
wireless and voice communication channels. Businesses can use our software
platform to develop user-friendly solutions, proactively refine
revenue-generating strategies, enhance cost-efficiency and productivity and
improve customer relationships.
Our software platform, MicroStrategy 7i, enables users to query and analyze
the most detailed, transaction-level databases, turning data into business
intelligence and delivering boardroom quality reports and alerts about the
users’ business processes. Our web-based architecture provides reporting,
security, performance and standards that are critical for web deployment.
With intranet deployments, our products provide employees with information
to enable them to make better, more cost-effective business decisions. With
extranet deployments, enterprises can use MicroStrategy 7i to build stronger
relationships by linking customers and suppliers via the Internet. We also
offer a comprehensive set of consulting, education, technical support and
technical advisory services for our customers and strategic partners.
MicroStrategy Solution: Business Intelligence for the Whole Enterprise
MicroStrategy offers MicroStrategy 7i, an integrated, industrial-strength
business intelligence platform that enables organizations to consolidate
business intelligence applications onto a single platform for reporting,
analysis and report delivery applications. The platform provides reliable
and maintainable solutions with a low total cost of ownership. Whether an
organization is seeking a departmental, enterprise or extranet deployment,
MicroStrategy 7i offers functionality, power and control for both users and
administrators. The MicroStrategy 7i business intelligence platform can be
used to identify trends, improve operational efficiencies, reduce costs and
increase profitability. Since businesses integrate information from across
the enterprise, solutions built on the MicroStrategy 7i platform give
analysts, managers and executives critical insight they need in optimizing
their business operations. Integrated web-based reporting, report delivery
and real-time alerting capabilities can enable the entire enterprise to work
smarter, faster and better.
MicroStrategy’s business intelligence platform provides the functionality
users need to make better decisions, and MicroStrategy’s business
intelligence technology increases reporting functionality dramatically. The
MicroStrategy 7i platform delivers a high-performance solution that meets
users’ demands and is highly functional, simple to use, scalable and easy to
administer. With one platform, users are able to perform all of the five
most popular styles of business intelligence, including:
• Ad Hoc Query and Reporting (ROLAP). Perform investigative analysis and ad
hoc queries using the online analytical processing (OLAP) functionality of
drill anywhere, page-by, pivot, subtotal, sort, filter, rank and export.
This allows analysts and management to have more insight into business
results.
• Statistics & Data Mining. Use statistical treatment and data mining
algorithms for predictive analysis. The MicroStrategy 7i platform allows
users to perform analysis that has typically required multiple software
packages.
• Cube Analysis (MOLAP). Perform OLAP analysis on predefined subsets of
data. Users experience increased speed and interactivity by working on
defined subsets of data.
• Report Delivery and Alerting. Disseminate reports and exception alerts on
an enterprise-scale through self-subscription or central administration.
Reports can be received via email, file server, portal, printer, text
message, PDA, fax, pager and voice.
• Enterprise Reporting. Create and distribute boardroom quality reports to
users across the enterprise and extranets. From the advanced requirements of
power users to the “at-a-glance” requirements of executives, MicroStrategy
can meet diverse reporting needs, including dashboards, scorecards and
operational reports.
Specific benefits of the MicroStrategy 7i business intelligence platform
include:
Industrial-Strength Business Intelligence. The MicroStrategy platform
enables industrial-strength business intelligence with enterprise-caliber
IT, high user scalability and high database scalability. MicroStrategy’s
enterprise-caliber IT translates to centralized administration, operations
and operations maintenance in a unified interface and unified backplane.
This enterprise-caliber infrastructure allows for data scalability and user
scalability with a zero-foot print web product, where business intelligence
can expand across and grow with the enterprise.
Five Styles of Business Intelligence. With the five styles of business
intelligence on an integrated backplane, users are no longer bound to
departmental reporting or solutions that offer only one style of business
intelligence or combine individual styles of business intelligence. The need
for multiple business intelligence or reporting tools is minimized when
users have access to all five styles for their enterprise business
intelligence needs.
Support for Large Data Volumes and All Major Relational Database/Hardware
Combinations. The MicroStrategy platform supports systems with very large
data volumes and is specifically designed to support all major relational
database platforms commonly used for business intelligence systems.
Important features of our solution in this area include:
• Structured Query Language (SQL) optimization drivers that improve
performance of each major database;
• The ability to support very large user populations;
• Highly reliable up-time, even in high volume applications; and
• The ability to work with and support nine languages for international
applications.
Powerful Analytics to Customer- and Transaction-Levels of Detail. We believe
that the MicroStrategy 7i platform incorporates the most sophisticated
analysis engine available today, capable of answering highly detailed
business questions. It offers support for information beyond the summary
level to include information at the customer transaction and interaction
level. This capability is critical to a wide range of applications,
including highly targeted direct marketing, e-commerce site personalization,
customer and product affinity analysis, call detail analysis, fraud
detection, credit analysis forecasting, trend metrics and campaign
management. The MicroStrategy 7i platform allows the creation of highly
sophisticated systems that take maximum advantage of the detail available in
a company’s databases.
Powerful Personalization Engine. The MicroStrategy 7i platform includes a
customer- and transaction-level personalization engine. The underlying
architecture is designed to generate personalization parameters based on
data gathered by an organization from a variety of sources, including past
customers’ transactions, customer clickstream information, stated user
preferences and demographic information. In addition, the MicroStrategy
personalization engine is able to determine when and under what
circumstances a person is automatically provided with a set of information
that proves useful in fraud detection and homeland security applications.
Powerful Narrowcast Server Distribution Engine for Information Delivery. Our
technology offers a high performance personalized narrowcast engine for
delivering periodic and alert-based information to users via Internet,
e-mail, wireless devices, printer and fax. The narrowcast engine includes
drivers for all major device types used in both domestic and international
markets, enabling the delivery of information to users when and where it is
needed.
Highly Stylized and Consolidated Reporting and Formatting Capabilities.
MicroStrategy Report Services™ technology delivers a wide range of
enterprise reports via the Web, including production and operational
reports, managed metrics reports and scorecards. The design capabilities
provide the precision necessary to deliver reports with boardroom
presentation quality, without any programming. By dragging and dropping
report components, users can create the high quality reports with complete
formatting flexibility. Unlike other popular reporting products, the modern
architecture delivers both traditional hierarchical banded reports and
newer, Web-oriented zone-based reports.
The MicroStrategy 7i platform’s advanced technology provides high
performance functionality in five key business intelligence areas:
• Speed and power;
• Functionality and ease of use;
• Report delivery and intelligent alerts;
• Packaged functionality and customization; and
• Security and scalability.
Products
We offer an integrated business intelligence platform, known as
MicroStrategy 7i, which is designed to enable businesses to turn information
into strategic insight and make more effective business decisions. Revenues
from sales of product licenses accounted for approximately $77 million of
total revenues during 2003.
MicroStrategy 7i. MicroStrategy 7i integrates a full range of reporting,
analysis, report delivery and alerting capabilities into a single
platform—providing central management of security, administration,
development and deployment.
MicroStrategy 7i is designed to integrate the two leading business
intelligence approaches, ad hoc query and reporting (ROLAP) and cube
analysis (MOLAP), delivering quick response time against almost any size
data set, full access to transaction-level data and a myriad of options for
complex analysis. Additionally, MicroStrategy 7i is designed to provide a
single interface for reporting, analysis, report delivery and alerting for
all business intelligence applications. MicroStrategy 7i is enabling
organizations to consolidate business intelligence applications onto a
single platform, resulting in reliable and maintainable solutions with a low
total cost of ownership.
The following are the components of the MicroStrategy 7i platform:
MicroStrategy Intelligence Server. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is the
foundation for our business intelligence platform. We believe that
MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is the most sophisticated analysis engine
available in the market, capable of answering highly detailed business
questions. Its robust relational analysis technology enables organizations
to conduct large-scale product affinity and product profitability analyses,
research customer preferences through sales, contribution and pricing
analysis, and compare present and historical customer retention data with
forecasting and trend metrics. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server generates
highly optimized queries through its very large database drivers, enabling
high throughput and fast response times.
MicroStrategy Intelligence Server has been built with the scalability and
fault tolerance required for sophisticated analysis of multi-terabyte
databases and can be deployed to thousands of users through complete user,
object and data security and management. It contains thousands of specific
optimizations for all major relational databases and includes the load
distribution, prioritization and system tuning capabilities demanded by
large-scale implementations.
MicroStrategy Intelligence Server contains an analytical engine with over
240 different sophisticated mathematical, financial and statistical
functions with the flexibility for further function extensions.
MicroStrategy Intelligence Server combines the power of its analytical
engine with the scalability of a relational database to perform complex data
analysis with maximum efficiency. All the other products in the
MicroStrategy 7i platform integrate with the MicroStrategy Intelligence
Server and benefit from its broad functionality.
MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is designed to be fault-tolerant to ensure
system availability and high performance. Through an enterprise management
console, MicroStrategy Intelligence Server provides a sophisticated array of
enterprise management tools, such as caching and query prioritization to
streamline performance and batch job scheduling, which helps to maintain
disparate and diverse user communities. Administrators can automate the
dynamic adjustments of system and user governing settings, such as user
thresholds and database thread priorities, in order to smooth the database
workload and ensure the high performance that large user communities
require.
MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is designed as a services oriented
architecture (SOA) to easily augment functionality and capabilities
throughout the platform. MicroStrategy OLAP Services™ and Report Services™
employ this services-oriented architecture design.
MicroStrategy Report Services. MicroStrategy Report Services is the
enterprise reporting engine of the MicroStrategy business intelligence
platform that delivers an entire range of enterprise reports, including
production and operational reports, managed metrics reports and scorecards.
Its design capabilities provide the precision necessary to deliver these
reports with desktop publishing quality and drag-and-drop simplicity. Users
can create reports using intuitive design features without programming or
outside help.
MicroStrategy 7i OLAP Services™. MicroStrategy 7i combines the speed and
interactivity of multi-dimensional OLAP analysis with the analytical power
and depth of relational OLAP. MicroStrategy 7i OLAP Services is an extension
of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server that allows MicroStrategy Web and
Desktop users to manipulate Intelligent Cubes™. End users can add or remove
report objects, add derived metrics and modify the filter—all with
“speed-of-thought” response time against Intelligent Cubes. MicroStrategy 7i
OLAP Services enables full multi-dimensional OLAP analysis within
Intelligent Cubes, while retaining users’ ability to seamlessly drill
through to the full breadth and depth of the data warehouse.
MicroStrategy Web and MicroStrategy Web Universal. MicroStrategy Web is a
patented zero-footprint web interface providing query, reporting and
analysis through a platform independent architecture. MicroStrategy Web’s
interface provides a familiar look and features drag-and-drop report
creation, spreadsheet formatting, advanced printing and exporting and right
click menus for drilling, pivoting and sorting. All of this is accomplished
without ActiveX, Java™ Applets or client side installations or downloads,
ensuring the highest levels of security.
MicroStrategy Web provides users with a highly interactive environment and
low maintenance interface for reporting and analysis. Using this intuitive
HTML-only web solution, users access, analyze and share corporate data.
MicroStrategy Web provides ad hoc querying, industry-leading analysis, quick
deployment and rapid customizability, making it even easier for users to
make informed business decisions.
MicroStrategy Web Universal features the same powerful functionality users
are familiar with in MicroStrategy Web with the added benefit of working
with all major operating systems, application servers, web servers and
browser interfaces.
MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server. MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server is a
proactive report delivery and alerting server that distributes personalized
business information to recipients via e-mail, printers, file servers,
portals, wireless devices, fax and phone. MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server
delivers targeted information to individuals on an event-triggered or
scheduled basis through the communication device that is most convenient. It
provides an engine to implement targeted messaging to acquire and retain
customers and a platform for distributing information to corporate
departments, the entire enterprise and other stakeholders including
customers and suppliers.
MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server has a web-based interface that can be used
with existing web applications. Users can subscribe to information services
by providing personal information and preferences, ensuring they receive
personalized information relevant to them.
In addition to proactively delivering reports from the MicroStrategy 7i
platform, MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server’s open information source modules
enable it to deliver information from a multitude of information sources to
the business user. The multiple information sources can be combined to
provide users with requested information in one personalized e-mail, message
or document.
MicroStrategy Office. MicroStrategy Office lets every Microsoft® Office user
run, edit and format any MicroStrategy report directly from within Microsoft
applications such as Excel, PowerPoint® and Word. MicroStrategy Office is
designed using Microsoft .NET technology and accesses the MicroStrategy
business intelligence platform using XML and Web services. MicroStrategy
Office gives business users open and straightforward access to the full
functionality of the MicroStrategy platform—all from familiar Microsoft
Office applications. MicroStrategy Office serves as a Microsoft add-in, with
MicroStrategy functionality expressed as a single tool bar in Microsoft.
MicroStrategy Desktop. MicroStrategy Desktop is a business intelligence
software component that provides integrated query and reporting, powerful
analytics and decision support workflow on the personal computing desktop.
MicroStrategy Desktop provides a rich set of features for online analysis of
corporate data. Even complex reports are easy to create and can be viewed in
various presentation formats, polished into production reports, distributed
to other users and extended through a host of ad hoc features including
drilling, pivoting and data slicing. The interface itself can be customized
to different users’ skill levels and security profiles. MicroStrategy
Desktop comes in two versions:
• Desktop Analyst. A simplified version that provides interactive slice and
dice required by managers; and
• Desktop Designer. A full-featured version that lets users design complex
and sophisticated reports.
Applications developed within MicroStrategy Desktop can be easily deployed
throughout the MicroStrategy architecture bringing integrated query and
reporting capabilities, powerful analytics and decision support workflow to
analysts, quantitative users and end users throughout the enterprise and
beyond.
MicroStrategy Architect. MicroStrategy Architect is the MicroStrategy 7i
product in which applications are modeled through an intuitive graphical
user interface. MicroStrategy Architect provides a unified environment for
creating and maintaining various aspects of web reporting and business
intelligence applications. MicroStrategy Architect is highly automated and
is based on an open, flexible architecture, which can greatly reduce the
cost and time required to implement and maintain systems.
MicroStrategy Administrator. MicroStrategy Administrator enables
administrators to efficiently develop, deploy, monitor and maintain small,
medium and enterprise-scale systems supporting thousands of users. Project
migration utilities help administrators develop, test and deploy systems.
Performance analysis enables administrators to monitor and tune systems for
maximum performance and availability. MicroStrategy Administrator has been
designed to ensure easy management of application objects and users across
multiple development, testing and production environments. MicroStrategy
Administrator eases the burden of maintaining users and security by using
textual commands that can be saved as scripts. These commands and scripts
can be executed from either a graphical interface or from the command line
giving system administrators the flexibility and ease-of-use necessary for
efficient systems management. MicroStrategy Administrator tools consist of
Object Manager, Enterprise Manager and Command Manager.
MicroStrategy SDK. MicroStrategy SDK is a comprehensive development
environment that enables integration of MicroStrategy 7i features and
functionality into any application on multiple platforms, including
UNIX-based systems using a Java-based Web API. Through sample code,
documentation and reference guides, the MicroStrategy SDK enables an
application developer to quickly learn to use the APIs to implement
easy-to-use web reporting and powerful business intelligence applications.
All the API interfaces within the MicroStrategy SDK reflect XML
architecture. MicroStrategy SDK’s Portal Integration Kit™ includes pre-built
samples for embedding MicroStrategy 7i analysis into a corporate portal. The
Web Services Development Kit™ provides sample code enabling MicroStrategy 7i
functionality to be accessed via standard Web Services.
MicroStrategy BI Developer Kit. MicroStrategy BI Developer Kit is a package
of products that includes MicroStrategy Desktop Designer, MicroStrategy
Architect and modular analytic applications. The analytic modules are
starter kits designed to streamline business processes through the use of
business intelligence. Each of the modules ships with a sample data-model
and numerous reports and key performance indicators. The analytic modules
are designed to enable portability and the ability to work against existing
data warehouses without the need for additional data extraction and loading
concerns. The modules are easy to extend and modify and reflect a decade of
business intelligence implementation experience and best practices of the
most common business analysis applications.
MicroStrategy MDX Adapter. MicroStrategy MDX Adapter opens the analytical
power and scalability of the MicroStrategy 7i Platform to other business
intelligence reporting tools. With MicroStrategy MDX Adapter, reporting
tools that use the OLE DB for OLAP (ODBO) standard created by Microsoft can
connect through MicroStrategy Intelligence Server and access any major
relational database. Companies such as Cognos®, Hyperion Solutions, Business
Objects, Alphablox™ and arcplan® provide ODBO compliant front-end reporting
tools.
MicroStrategy MDX Adapter helps companies that have reached the data
scalability and analytical limitations of their current business
intelligence solution. Unlike MicroStrategy, many business intelligence
applications depend on replication of pre-calculated data into
multidimensional, physical cubes. These proprietary cubes can reach data
storage limitations quickly. Furthermore, the process to build and load
cubes uses valuable time and resources. By eliminating the need for physical
cubes, MicroStrategy MDX Adapter gives users access to terabytes of data in
any major relational database without costly modifications to the physical
cubes or expensive data replication.
MicroStrategy MDX Adapter allows organizations to standardize on a reporting
and analysis platform, while still enabling users to access the platform
from a variety of user interfaces. Companies that have hit scalability,
administration, security and analytical limits with their existing analysis
tools can continue to provide users with their interface of choice, while
replacing the underlying business intelligence engine with the more robust
and reliable MicroStrategy 7i business intelligence platform. This leverages
investments in databases, software and training and removes some of the
traditional burdens of cube-based architectures.
MicroStrategy Transactor™. MicroStrategy Transactor is a workflow server
that allows users to turn insight gained from their MicroStrategy business
intelligence applications into actionable decisions. MicroStrategy
Transactor directs and manages the workflow required to take business
intelligence information from a web report, email, wireless message or voice
alert and complete a closed-loop transaction with all major back-end
information systems.
Product Support and Other Services
MicroStrategy Technical Support. MicroStrategy Technical Support provides a
diverse set of support options to meet the needs of customers and projects
and offers product upgrades when available. Our product experts help support
MicroStrategy implementation from development to deployment to the
production environment. Our support offerings include access to our highly
skilled support team during standard business hours, around the clock access
to our online support site, and options to secure dedicated technical
support at any time of the day. Revenues from technical support services
accounted for approximately 37%, 35% and 26% of total revenues during 2003,
2002 and 2001, respectively.
MicroStrategy Consulting. MicroStrategy Consulting offers a broad range of
business intelligence and data warehousing expertise gathered from helping
thousands of customers across diverse industries implement departmental,
enterprise and extranet applications across various types of databases. Our
consulting staff identifies the optimal design and implementation strategy
that includes detailed business requirements, user interface requirements
and performance tuning. By leveraging our best practices, strategic
visioning, project planning and platform expertise, we assist customers’
technical staff in successfully completing projects and developing solutions
that business users will adopt. Revenues from consulting services accounted
for approximately 14%, 16% and 28% of total revenues during 2003, 2002 and
2001, respectively.
MicroStrategy Education. MicroStrategy Education offers goal-oriented,
comprehensive education solutions for customers and partners. Through the
use of self-tutorials, custom course development, joint training with
customers’ internal staff or standard course offerings, MicroStrategy’s
Education Consultants develop an ongoing education program that meets our
customers’ specific education needs. Our team of education consultants
delivers quality, cost-effective instruction and skill development for
administrators, developers and analysts. Revenues from education services
accounted for approximately 5%, 6% and 6% of total revenues during 2003,
2002 and 2001, respectively.
MicroStrategy Technical Advisory Services. MicroStrategy also offers
Technical Advisory Services as an advisory service for enterprise customers
seeking to maximize their investment in the MicroStrategy business
intelligence platform. MicroStrategy Technical Advisory Services consists of
delivering business intelligence advisory and audit services over the course
of a year and providing members with a comprehensive program of advisory
services, knowledge capital and corporate support. MicroStrategy Technical
Advisory Services has been designed to help provide the optimal opportunity
to experience success and the highest return on investment on
MicroStrategy’s business intelligence platform. MicroStrategy Technical
Advisory Services deliver subject matter expertise, project management,
strategic consulting and expedited resources to enhance the success of
customer deployments. Revenues from MicroStrategy Technical Advisory
Services are included within revenues from consulting services above.
We also have two development stage units, Angel.com and Alarm.com, that are
engaged in non-core business intelligence activities. The financial results
of Angel.com and Alarm.com are not material to our worldwide financial
results.
Competition
The markets for business intelligence software, analytical applications and
information delivery are intensely competitive and subject to rapidly
changing technology. In addition, many companies in these markets are
offering, or may soon offer, products and services that may compete with
MicroStrategy products.
MicroStrategy’s most direct competitors include providers of:
• Business intelligence software;
• OLAP tools;
• Ad-hoc Query tools;
• Web-based reporting tools; and
• Report delivery and proactive alerting.
Each of these markets is discussed more fully below.
Business Intelligence Software. Makers of business intelligence software
provide business intelligence capabilities designed for integration,
customization and application development. Companies such as Microsoft,
Oracle, Hyperion Solutions, SAP AG,
Computer Associates and SAS provide business intelligence software.
OLAP Tools. Companies that build software to perform online analytical
processing (OLAP) provide offerings competitive with the core MicroStrategy
7i platform. Whether web-based or client-server, these tools give end users
the ability to analyze underlying data sources without having to hand code
structured query language queries. Most OLAP tools allow users to build
their own calculations and specify report layouts and other options.
Additionally, OLAP tools provide users the ability to navigate throughout
the underlying data in an easy, graphical style, often referred to as
drilling. Additional OLAP capabilities include pivoting and filtering.
Providers of OLAP tools include Cognos,
Hyperion Solutions,
IBM, SAP and
Microsoft.
Ad-hoc Query Tools. Ad-hoc query tools allow large numbers of end users to
gain access to pre-defined reports and queries for simple analysis. Often
each end user is able to specify some personalized run-time criteria that
customize the result set for that particular person. Some limited drilling
is also provided. Some ad-hoc query tools allow users to access databases
and create their own database queries using structured query language. Users
are then able to export the resulting data into other formats such as
Microsoft Excel for their own use. Companies that produce query and
reporting tools include Business Objects,
Cognos, Oracle,
Hyperion Solutions and Information
Builders.
Web-based Reporting Tools. Companies that offer software to deliver
pre-built reports for end user viewing and consumption can also compete with
MicroStrategy. Extensive formatting capabilities ensure that users can
easily consume the information contained in the reports. There is limited
user interactivity with these reports generated by reporting tools.
Reporting applications built with these tools often lack the sophistication,
robustness and scalability of the MicroStrategy platform, but can be
attractive for small departments. Vendors in this category include Actuate,
Business Objects,
Microsoft and SAS.
Report Delivery and Proactive Alerting. Companies that focus on the
proactive delivery of information, via e-mail, website, or other medium can
compete with MicroStrategy’s offerings. Typically, these tools serve to push
out compiled reports on a scheduled basis to sets of users based on job
type. MicroStrategy software has integrated this technology into the
MicroStrategy 7i platform. Vendors of such technology include Actuate and
Business Objects.
Many of our competitors have longer operating histories, significantly
greater financial, technical, marketing or other resources, and greater name
recognition than we do. In addition, many of our competitors have strong
relationships with current and potential customers and extensive knowledge
of the business intelligence industry. As a result, they may be able to
respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer
requirements or devote greater resources to the development, promotion and
sale of their products than we can. Increased competition may lead to price
cuts, reduced gross margins and loss of market share. We may not be able to
compete successfully against current and future competitors, and the failure
to meet the competitive pressures we face may have a material adverse effect
on our business, operating results and financial condition.
Current and future competitors may also make strategic acquisitions or
establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with others. By
doing so, they may increase their ability to meet the needs of our potential
customers. Our current or prospective indirect channel partners may
establish cooperative relationships with our current or future competitors.
These relationships may limit our ability to sell our products through
specific distribution channels. Accordingly, new competitors or alliances
among current and future competitors may emerge and rapidly gain significant
market share. These developments could limit our ability to obtain revenues
from new customers and to maintain technical support revenues from our
installed customer base.
Industry Background
Business intelligence software offers decision-makers the opportunity to ask
and answer questions about their business using data that has been captured
but not yet exploited to its fullest extent.
Four key trends have driven demand for business intelligence tools:
• Need for Increased User Access: In the past, dissemination of information
has been limited to a few power users or analysts. Now a wide range of
information customers—from customer service representatives to the CEO and
from customers to suppliers—demand the insight that business intelligence
can provide. The wide acceptance of the Internet as an information source
has also fueled demand for enterprise data to be accessible over the Web.
• Increased Data Scalability: Increasing information intensity, and in
particular, the need to capture electronically and store every business
transaction, has made terabyte-size data warehouses commonplace.
Terabyte-size data warehouses store one trillion bytes of data or more and
are among the largest databases in the world. Since transaction-level
information is now routinely captured, organizations struggle to make
productive use of such massive data stores. Organizations need to view data
within the operational context of the data—making even the most detailed
information meaningful and comprehensive to business users. As a result,
users are easily able to discover trends hidden in these very large
databases, and verify these trends by reviewing the underlying transaction
detail.
• Improved Supply Efficiency: Supplier transactions become more efficient
with direct access to inventory and other related data. For true
vendor-managed inventory and collaborative commerce systems, vendors need to
have access to key information about how their products are performing
against business metrics. For example, vendors should be able to see how
their products are selling in each geographic region so as not to over-ship
products that are slow-moving or under-ship products that are selling
quickly. By opening vendor performance information to the vendors
themselves, buyers and sellers of goods and services become partners in the
quest to optimize sales, margin and inventory.
• Improved Distribution Efficiency: Business partners collaborate more
effectively with access to shared data. By granting access to information
such as the manufacturing pipeline and build schedule, partners can be more
effective at satisfying demands of end customers and setting expectations.
Opening invoice and purchase order information to partners can enable them
to reduce the overhead associated with channel management, resulting in cost
savings and time efficiencies. For example, notifying channel sales partners
of changes in the manufacturing schedule allows them to reset end customer
expectations or to increase selling activity.
The emergence and widespread acceptance of the Internet as a medium of
communication and commerce have changed the way businesses interact with
each other and their customers by allowing businesses to establish new
revenue streams, create new distribution channels and reduce costs.
Simultaneously, the amount of corporate information stored in databases
continues to grow exponentially, and companies are giving an increasing
number of employees, customers and partners access to their information.
Business intelligence tools are one of the gateways to this information. For
example, companies are using Internet-based systems to facilitate business
operations, including sales automation, supply-chain management, marketing,
customer service and human resource management. Consumers are also becoming
increasingly sophisticated in their use of the Internet, relying on the
Internet not only to make online purchases, but to perform price
comparisons, analyze recommendations from like-minded individuals, educate
themselves about relevant products and offerings and enter into transactions
that were once conducted face-to-face or via the telephone. The integration
of the Internet into business processes and increased consumer
sophistication create opportunities for companies to use business
intelligence applications as part of a more dynamic business model. Factors
driving demand for these applications include:
Increased Electronic Capture of Transaction, Operational and Customer
Information. The rapid growth in the electronic capture of business
information and the increased availability of related profile data on the
parties or products involved in each transaction are providing businesses
with a rich data foundation for performing various analyses and making
decisions. Powerful data analysis and mining tools are required to sift
through massive amounts of data to uncover information regarding customer
interactions, trends, patterns and exceptions, in turn enabling
organizations to provide superior service and products to customers.
Need to Create a Personalized, One-to-One Customer and/or Supplier
Experience While Maintaining Privacy. Many companies are initiating
strategies that establish personalized relationships with each customer
and/or supplier based on individual needs and preferences, and earn their
loyalty by providing superior service, security and convenience. In order to
successfully acquire, retain and upgrade customers, organizations need to
understand their profiles, their transaction history, their past responses
to marketing campaigns, and their interactions with customer service.
Retrieving information from widely dispersed and complex data sources and
providing a holistic view of the customer can be challenging. At the same
time, while businesses have the opportunity to collect a variety of
information that could improve targeting, customers are increasingly
concerned about the potential for loss or abuse of their privacy.
Need to Integrate Online and Traditional Operations. While there are
substantial benefits to conducting business electronically, companies need
to ensure that their online operations work in combination with their
traditional operations. Companies are seeking to ensure that an order placed
online can be reliably fulfilled according to the expectations of the
customer and to develop and maintain consistent interactions with customers
across different channels. Maintaining the integrity of, and enhancing, the
customer experience are crucial to fostering customer loyalty and supply
chain relationships.
Increased Openness of Business Intelligence Applications to Customers,
Suppliers and Partners. Business intelligence systems are no longer confined
to the corporation. Today, companies are extending their business
intelligence insight to suppliers, channel partners and customers via
extranets. Business partners can have up-to-the-minute access to sales
histories, inventory status and billing information through their web
browsers.
Emergence of Wireless Internet and Voice Technologies. Information can be
more valuable if there is untethered, ubiquitous access to the information.
The development of wireless standards and improvements in text-to-speech and
voice-recognition technologies have created a technology platform for
delivering Internet- based information and services to mobile devices. An
integrated platform reduces the need for relying on multiple vendors for
these products and services. This development is expected to generate new
business opportunities for companies by providing an additional channel for
existing services and creating opportunities to provide new services that
can be delivered any place and at any time to anyone that has access to a
wireless device.
Ticker
MSTR
Business Intelligence
Companies in the Directory
Business Objects
Cognos
Hyperion Solutions
Informatica
MicroStrategy
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