[LINK] strategic technologies

stephen at melbpc.org.au stephen at melbpc.org.au
Mon Nov 23 16:28:30 AEDT 2009


Frank writes,

> > Analytics is the new face of business intelligence, not just
> > processing data after the event, but analysing what's happening now
> > to predict what's going to happen in the future," Jones said.
> >
> > Advanced analytics is about using analytical tools and models to
> > maximise business process and decision. "It's about, for example,
> > predicting fraud instead of detecting fraud," Jones said.
> >
>
> Ahhh ... more Management Information Systems ... just what the world 
> needs to be a more productive, greener, more efficient and nicer 
> place.
> 
> Business Intelligence, OLAP, Analytics, MIS and the like has been one 
> of the GREAT disappointments of the last 20 years, and I see nothing 
> on the horizon to indicate this will change.


Thanks for your thoughts, Frank .. and just out of interest, it appears
that SAS-type analysis activities may become huge business, eg one core
business activity for IBM in future?

 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/business/22sas.html  (snipped)

SAS invested heavily in research and development, and even today 
allocates 22 percent of the company’s revenue to research. 

The formula has paid off in steady growth, year after year. Revenue 
reached $2.26 billion in 2008, up from $1.34 billion five years earlier. 

Yet the company also faces the classic challenge of being the innovative 
pioneer — enjoying rich profit margins but facing new competition from 
rivals seeking to gain market share with lower prices and substitute 
technology. 

In the last two years, the major software companies have scooped up 
companies in the business intelligence market. 

Among the larger moves, SAP bought Business Objects for $6.8 billion, 
I.B.M. bought Cognos for $4.9 billion and Oracle picked up Hyperion for 
$3.3 billion.

Still, those companies compete in the broad swath of the business 
intelligence market for reporting and analysis products. Such data on 
sales, shipments, customers and operations amount to a numbers-laden 
portrait of the recent past. 

The SAS stronghold is a more sophisticated kind of software typically 
called “advanced analytics and predictive modeling,” which uses 
historical and current data to try to peer into the future and model 
likely outcomes. 

The competitive thrust that really grabbed SAS’s attention came in late 
July, when I.B.M. announced that it planned to pay $1.2 billion for SPSS, 
a maker of predictive modeling software. 

I.B.M. has placed SPSS and Cognos into a new business analytics and 
optimization group. That business will be supported by 200 scientists, 
and the company has said it will retrain or hire 4,000 consultants and 
analysts to work in the group. 

“This is the big growth strategy for I.B.M., the company’s next big play 
for this decade,” says Ambuj Goyal, a computer scientist who is general 
manager of I.B.M’s business analytics software unit. “SAS comes from the 
legacy world of statisticians and programmers. The real opportunity is in 
deploying this technology broadly in corporations.”

--

Cheers,
Stephen



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