Microsoft’s Dallas Copies BusinessObjects Information OnDemand

Just over two years ago, BusinessObjects launched Information OnDemand, an online store allowing you to buy information from premium providers such as Dun & Bradstree, the US Census Bureau, NewsTin, etc. And now Microsoft have launched their “Dallas” project, a variation on the same theme: “Microsoft’s Information Services business, enabling developers and information workers to instantly find, purchase, and manage datasets to power... [Read More...]

End of a LucidEra?

According to the company web site, on-demand BI vendor LucidEra was formed: “to shake up the stagnant business intelligence industry and traditional approaches to corporate information access and analysis by delivering business visibility as an on-demand service.” And LucidEra has indeed been innovative, developing deep expertise in the area of Sales Pipeline analytics with a 48h Pipeline Healthcheck service that in the words of Phil Wainwright,... [Read More...]

eBay Information on Demand

I’ve written before about the increasing importance of external data and benchmarking for the future of business intelligence. Business Objects today announced the launch of their information on demand store: With an easy-on-the-eyes flex-based interface, the store is designed to sell information on line that can be used to supplement internal data. Along with the Thomson Financial and Dun & Bradstreet sources already... [Read More...]

The Top 6 On-Demand BI Confusions

I’m a big believer in the future of on-demand BI, and yes, it’s hot.  But a lot of the articles promoting on-demand BI don’t always separate fact from self-interested fiction. Here’s my attempt to redress the balance. 1. On-Demand = Subscription Pricing = Mid-Market There are three different axes that are often discussed as if they overlapped: on-premise vs. on-demand perpetual license vs. subscription license enterprise... [Read More...]

How Am I Doing, Really? The Need for Information On Demand

Your business is up over 25% — great news!  Or is it? If the economy is also growing at 25%, you’re just keeping pace. And if your nearest competitor is up 50%, you’re losing market share… Despite the millions invested in corporate information systems, what executives really care about isn’t the internal numbers, but how they compare to external benchmarks. They want to keep track of financial numbers (revenue,... [Read More...]

BI As a Service: Ready to Explode?

A post by David Linthicum on the Intelligence Enterprise weblog called “SaaS Explodes…” has statistics on the growth of software as a service in large organizations that can give some hints about the future of BI as a service. It’s a cultural issue I wholeheartedly agree with David’s sentiments: “What’s significant is not that SaaS is growing, but that SaaS is gaining acceptance within businesses... [Read More...]