Managing Automation - December 2007 - (Page 25) [ COVER STORY ] traditional query-optimized data structures, the BI Accelerator lets end users, such as operations managers, form their own queries that can be executed rapidly. According to SAP NetWeaver Marketing Director Lothar Schubert, 50 organizations have deployed the BI Accelerator in the past year. Seventy percent of large enterprises will deploy such in-memor y quer y-optiNow, vendors are developing a wide mization products by 2012, according range of off-the-shelf tools that can be to a recent report by Gartner. BI software vendor Information used to create operational BI systems Builders is attacking the same query that are both powerful and flexible. optimization problem in a different way. The company recently updated its Webagers use all day, every day. It also means that FOCUS BI environment to include a feature they often don’t present data in a quick, easy-tocalled Active Reports, which automates the consume format, such as a dashboard, that delivery of real-time, interactive reports to most operational managers require. users. Not only do the reports tap into more real-time data, but also operational users can IN-MEMORY MOMENTUM slice and dice the data any way they need to. Providing real-time BI to operational users is The Hillman Group, a manufacturer and discertainly not a new idea. Banks and credit tributor of fasteners, keys, and other hardware card companies for years have combined rules engines with real-time transaction data to spot and even prevent fraud as it occurs. But those systems tend to be proprietary and expensive. Most manufacturers also are able to get limited real-time information from daily reKEEPING CURRENT ports generated by ERP and other transacHow frequently does/will your company update its data for dashboard tional systems. Such reports, however, are and scorecarding applications? typically static and don’t lend themselves to ad Hourly 7% hoc analysis by operational users. SERVICES COMPANIES: Now, however, vendors are developing a wide range of off-the-shelf tools that can be Real time 17% Daily 27% used to create operational BI systems that are both powerful and flexible. Some come from traditional BI providers and are intended to make data warehouses and other BI infrastructure more real-time and easier for operational managers to use. Others come from venMonthly 24% dors of composite applications and business process management tools and are focused Weekly 26% on monitoring business processes, alerting operational managers when something goes Hourly 4% MANUFACTURING wrong, and even automating responses that COMPANIES: can address a problem or exception. Enterprise applications giant SAP AG is Real time 12% one vendor attempting to make traditional Daily 28% data warehouses more real-time. The company last year began shipping its NetWeaver BI Accelerator, an add-on appliance that works Monthly 21% with the NetWeaver BI data warehouse environment. The BI Accelerator slashes the time it takes NetWeaver BI to respond to queries by loading data from the SAP data warehouse Weekly 35% directly into the memory of a hardware appliance, where it can be queried on the fly. ByNote: Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding. Source: AMR Research passing the need for data experts to build are intended for a handful of top managers and business analysts making long-term, strategic decisions, such as whether to make an acquisition or enter a new business. This means that, from a data presentation point of view, most BI systems aren’t integrated with the ERP, warehouse management, MES, and other transactional systems that operational man- data check 25 December 2007
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