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Tableau 6 Combines In-Memory Processing and Visualization

Posted by ISG Research on 28 November 2010
Tableau Software officially released Version 6 of its product this week. Tableau approaches business intelligence from the end user’s perspective, focusing primarily on delivering tools that allow people to easily interact with data and visualize it. With this release, Tableau has advanced its in-memory processing capabilities significantly. Fundamentally Tableau 6 shifts from the intelligent... Read More

Topics: Data Visualization, Enterprise Data Strategy, Tableau, Analytics, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, CIO, In-Memory Computing

Advantages and Challenges of In-Memory Databases and Processing

Posted by ISG Research on 28 November 2010
Interest in and development of in-memory technologies have increased over the last few years, driven in part by widespread availability of affordable 64-bit hardware and operating systems and the performance advantages in-memory operations provide over disk-based operations. Some software vendors, such as SAP with its High-Performance Analytic Appliance (HANA) project has been advancing with... Read More

Topics: Database, Enterprise Data Strategy, IT Performance, Analytics, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, CIO, Complex Event Processing, In-Memory Computing, Information Management, Information Technology

Happy BIRT Day

Posted by Robert Kugel on 28 November 2010
Actuate held its annual customer day in San Francisco amid the happy chaos of the World Series champion Giants’ ticker-tape celebration, and on that day the company’s ticker symbol changed from ACTU to BIRT (a shift, incidentally, botched by NASDAQ). There was a great deal of focus on its ActuateOne platform (which my colleague reviewed here) and the advancements in using open source software... Read More

Topics: Microsoft, Open Source Software, Analytics, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, CIO, Information Management, Microsoft Excel, Spreadsheets

Merced Systems’ European Event Showcases Best Practices and Customer Insights

Posted by ISG Research on 28 November 2010
Merced Systems provides software to support performance management in both sales and service. Its products extract data from various systems to produce business-related reports, dashboards, scorecards and analysis that help companies improve performance in these two key functions. To further its efforts, Merced recently invited around 100 partners, customers and prospects to its 360 Degree... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Merced Systems, Operational Performance, Analytics

SuccessFactors Takes a Calculator into the Cloud?

Posted by Mark Smith on 28 November 2010
SuccessFactors is known for applications in performance and talent management but has been working to expand its portfolio more broadly into business. This year the company expanded its focus to workforce analytics with the acquisition of Inform, which I assessed. I have assessed that Inform needed to improve the usability of its tools to compete better which is now more easily possible with a... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, SuccessFactors, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Performance, Financial Performance, Workforce Performance, Talent Management

Qlik Here for My View of QlikView 10

Posted by ISG Research on 28 November 2010
My colleague recently wrote about QlikView, noting its rapid ascent to providing a very robust support of mobile technology platforms among BI vendors and integration with SAP. On the occasion of its release of a major product revision, QlikView 10, I’d like to add my perspective on the company and its most recent release. I first learned of QlikView about five years ago while working on the TM1... Read More

Topics: QlikView, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Information Management, Mobility

Teradata Advances Personalized Marketing Using Analytics

Posted by ISG Research on 28 November 2010
Most people would describe Teradata as a data warehouse and analytics vendor as my colleague has reviewed its core technology. In addition to that, through its own development and by partnering, the company has branched out into the applications market. One such application is Teradata Relationship Manager (TRM) main purpose is to personalize customer interactions, regardless of channel or type... Read More

Topics: Marketing, Operational Performance, Analytics, CRM

Cicero Has Smart Agent Desktop for Contact Centers

Posted by ISG Research on 28 November 2010
My research over seven years persistently shows that the two main business objectives in a contact center are to reduce average call-handling time (AHT) and improve customer satisfaction. It doesn't seem unreasonable to ask why after all this time most companies haven't come up with solutions to these challenges. To find the answer, I think you have to look at the causes. I believe the big two... Read More

Topics: Operational Performance, Analytics, Contact Center

IBM Makes Major Buy in Analytics Market with Netezza

Posted by Mark Smith on 28 November 2010
IBM has announced its intention to acquire Netezza, one of the world’s fastest-growing providers of data appliances, for approximately $1.7 billion. Founded only 10 years ago, Netezza has over 500 employees and 350 clients including brand names Burlington Coat Factory, Con-way Freight, Estee Lauder, Marriott and Nationwide Insurance. IBM has been investing in analytics software for five years and... Read More

Topics: Data Warehousing, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Information Management, Netezza

ActuateOne Advances Information Platform with Analytics and Business Intelligence

Posted by Mark Smith on 28 November 2010
Actuate has announced a major new version of its software called ActuateOne. Its technology is integrated in a single platform and set of tools for performance management, analytics, business intelligence (BI) and information applications; the product can be managed on-premises or in the cloud and is accessible via mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone and iPad. Actuate has been in the BI... Read More

Topics: Operational Performance, Analytics, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Performance, Information Management

Contact Center Analytics Help Reduce Average Call-Handling Time

Posted by ISG Research on 28 November 2010
My research continues to show that the most important key performance indicator (KPI) for call centers is average call-handling time (AHT). Furthermore, second in importance only to improving customer satisfaction is the challenge of reducing operating costs, which invariably involves trying to reduce AHT, which contact centers need to do without negatively impacting customer satisfaction. An... Read More

Topics: Operational Performance, Analytics, Call Center, Contact Center, CRM

Agent Performance Management Is Important to the Customer Experience

Posted by ISG Research on 27 November 2010
My research into Customer Experience Management shows that four of the top five factors that influence a customer’s experience in dealing with a contact center relate to agents: their attitudes, understanding of the customer’s issue, ability to resolve issues the first time and general knowledge (third on the list was average queue times). The research also shows that the largest volumes of... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Operational Performance, Analytics

Knowlagent Increases Agent Effectiveness

Posted by ISG Research on 27 November 2010
My benchmark research into agent performance management (APM) found that the number-one objective of companies trying to improve the handling of customer interactions was to utilize agents more effectively; this also was their top objective in creating agents’ work schedules. In the latter case, the research uncovered a primary reason for difficulties in achieving this objective: Only 36 percent... Read More

Topics: Knowlagent, Operational Performance, Analytics, Call Center

CallCopy Emerges as a Player in Agent Performance Management

Posted by ISG Research on 27 November 2010
Last year I carried out research to discover how companies manage their workforces in handling customer interactions; I investigated their best practices, technologies being used and priorities for the future. The findings led me to define agent performance management (APM) as an extension of what other observers call workforce optimization; APM includes call routing, call recording, quality... Read More

Topics: Call Copy, Operational Performance, Analytics, Call Center

SAS Helps Companies Make Sense of Social Media Comments

Posted by ISG Research on 27 November 2010
I often read and hear today that social media is the new channel for marketing and customer service channel and also that companies must improve customer satisfaction to survive (I agree with the second proposition). Several observers have put the two ideas together and concluded that in the future all marketing and customer service will happen through social media – that I don’t agree with. My... Read More

Topics: Social Media, Operational Performance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, CRM

Merced Systems Customer Summit Advances Sales and Customer Service Organizations

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010
Many organizations want to improve the performance of their sales and customer service operations but have difficulty increasing efficiency and producing better results. One barrier to improvement is sticking with the status quo of managing sales operations and performance through spreadsheets, as 47 percent of organizations still do, according to Ventana Research’s benchmark research on sales... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, Merced Systems, Operational Performance, Analytics, Sales Performance Management

iWay Software Deepens Information Management Expands to Cloud Computing

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010
At the Information Builders 2010 conference I spent some time to learn about the latest in its business intelligence (BI) technology and also performance management, which my colleague has analyzed recently (See: “IBI’s Eye Popping New Performance Management Software”). But I focused more on information management, which is becoming a strategic component of the company’s portfolio. Its iWay... Read More

Topics: IT Performance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Integration, Information Builders, Information Management

SuccessFactors Takes a Calculator into the Cloud?

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010
SuccessFactors is known for applications in performance and talent management but has been working to expand its portfolio more broadly into business. This year the company expanded its focus to workforce analytics with the acquisition of Inform, which I assessed. I have assessed that Inform needed to improve the usability of its tools to compete better which is now more easily possible with a... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, SuccessFactors, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Performance, Financial Performance, Workforce Performance, Talent Management

IBM Makes Major Buy in Analytics Market with Netezza

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010
IBM has announced its intention to acquire Netezza, one of the world’s fastest-growing providers of data appliances, for approximately $1.7 billion. Founded only 10 years ago, Netezza has over 500 employees and 350 clients including brand names Burlington Coat Factory, Con-way Freight, Estee Lauder, Marriott and Nationwide Insurance. IBM has been investing in analytics software for five years and... Read More

Topics: Data Warehousing, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Information Management, Netezza

ActuateOne Advances Information Platform with Analytics and Business Intelligence

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010
Actuate has announced a major new version of its software called ActuateOne. Its technology is integrated in a single platform and set of tools for performance management, analytics, business intelligence (BI) and information applications; the product can be managed on-premises or in the cloud and is accessible via mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone and iPad. Actuate has been in the BI... Read More

Topics: Operational Performance, Analytics, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Performance, Information Management

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