Setting Enterprise Standards

Measuring Success

Success with BI initiatives is predicated on the fast and efficient exchange of information. How will you know when you get there?

1.	Employees will be self-sufficient in asking and answering difficult questions.
2.	Managers will be able to understand where the business stands and manage it proactively, not reactively.
3.	Business partners will be able to perform as if they were internal employees.
4.	Customers will find new value through direct access to information about your products and services.

Key Business Drivers: The "Three Cs" of Business Intelligence

Three key factors are driving today's organizations to adopt strategic business intelligence applications:

Competitive Advantage – The effective use of crucial corporate information can deliver a significant competitive advantage. For example, companies can leverage their data to provide value-added services that can improve customer satisfaction and retention. Additionally, they can generate revenue and boost profits by offering fee-based information services.

Compliance – New legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has brought financial reporting and forecasting to the forefront. At the same time, industry-specific regulations are imposing unique demands for reporting in just about every sector. For example, financial institutions must comply with an ever-increasing number of regulatory mandates that impact both customer and capital information – such as the USA Patriot Act requirement to gather customer information, and the Basel II directive to track capital adequacy across the enterprise.

Cost – there are compelling monetary reasons for consolidating information systems. At most large companies, different business units own different BI tools, and each product was acquired in response to individual needs. Corporate mergers and acquisitions result in even greater overlapping functionality, which is why many large companies have multiple reporting products and thousands of applications. It's expensive to maintain all these different business intelligence products. Each type of application generally requires its own server, along with all the associated costs for hardware, maintenance and updates.

WebFOCUS: The Corporate Standard

Information Builders sets the standard for enterprise Business Intelligence and reporting. The WebFOCUS product is a fully integrated suite that enables customers to make fast decisions based on complete information. Information Builders provides more access to more data sources and runs on more platforms than any other BI vendor.

Ease of migration – WebFOCUS is optimized for native deployment in dozens of different operating environments.

Resource efficiency – With WebFOCUS, no client-side software is required, simply a standard Web browser with no plug-ins.

No license fee surprises – WebFOCUS server software is licensed on the designated CPU. Additional user licenses are only required for domain-based reporting or individual security.

More effective user capabilities – A parameter-driven reporting environment allows the bulk of the user population to easily generate complex reports while power users create customized, ad hoc reports.

Ability to leverage existing knowledge and investments – WebFOCUS customers can take advantage of a worldwide service organization for local technical support, training classes, and sales support.