Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 10/10/2013 -- Many IT markets work in cycles. For example, the centralized infrastructure of the mainframe was replaced with the broad de-centralizing effect of the PC, and the pendulum has swung back to centralized again as cloud services on central hosts take over. In the Business Intelligence (BI) market, focused best of breed products were the norm, followed by a period where many were acquired by the larger vendors and incorporated into a full stack. Recently, best of breed BI tools are back on the up. Premie Naicker, MD of Yellowfin South Africa says she's seen a really big shift from the full stack platform-based BI back to best of breed.

Business users pushing best of breed BI approach

"The pushback has come from business users," says Naicker. "Businesses are throwing up their hands and saying this doesn't work for us. To the business user, they seem a bit let down by the BI – by the tools and the results – because it's not innovating. The existing approach to BI in many companies, together with complexity of it, has meant that what happens is that business users are the ones that work around IT and get something that works for them. This ranges from using tools that aren't part of the enterprise platform, to only using a tiny element of what's available."

Traditional BI megavendors struggle with legacy code

Naicker says the reason that full stack BI isn't innovating as much as the smaller players isn't because the vendors wouldn't like to, but because these so-called 'megavendors' have an enormous amount of legacy code that cannot be rewritten – or thrown out.

"Some large stacks even contain COBOL code that was written in the 1970s," she says. "But the code simply cannot cope with the tremendous innovation over the last five years. Innovation that can be typified by the introduction of the iPad and consequent influx of Mobile BI. So the megavendors have a big problem: the legacy technology on which their platforms were built isn't compatible with many demands of contemporary BI development. That, and they also have to grapple with their large installed base. In contrast, BI and analytics vendor Yellowfin started off in 2003 as a server-based application written in Java by BI professionals. It still is – Yellowfin hasn't had to revolutionize the technology on which it's based to cope with the sweeping changes that are taking place in workplace BI usage."

Changing BI user demographics

Naicker says the other driver favoring the more agile player is the wider range of customers using BI products. While BI was once seen as another of the IT department's projects, today's business users are actively evaluating BI tools in this age of Big Data.

Hype around Big Data 'revolution' blunting BI spend

However, Big Data is quickly approaching the Peak of Inflated Expectations as measured on Gartner's Hype Cycle. Companies of all sizes think they need it and, as a result, many vendors are offering solutions that can crunch billions, or even trillions, of data points quickly so that businesses can unlock value. But the reality is that most organizations don't want to spend too much on Big Data because it's risky – they're not sure what they'll get back.

"At every Big Data conference I've been to, I've spoken to very few attendees who have got real value from it," says Naicker. "What the Big Data hype has done is created a far more complex marketplace for analyzing information: people are not spending money on Business Intelligence, but they're not spending money on Big Data either. Everyone is paralyzed and waiting to see what happens. I think the reason is that Big Data solutions can deliver little nuggets of insight for any organization but little nuggets are just that: little, and you can't run a business on them."

She adds that marketing hype around Big Data has resulted in confusion between the terms "Big Data" "BI" and "analytics". And that, with the hype around Big Data's potentially revolutionary nature, organisations are hanging back, waiting to work out how they can use Big Data in a revolutionary way.

"The reality is that it's most useful when applied to existing business challenges, in order to reach a result with a greater level of granularity," says Naicker.

For successful business analytics initiatives, look to data at hand

Naicker comments that the vast majority of organizations have all the information they need to understand their customers.

"Banks and retailers have transactional systems and customer service departments already. All they have to do is bring them all together – to create a unified, trustworthy and analyzable view of their data – to understand what their customers are doing and how to generate leads."

Combine location-based and regular data for context and deeper insight

These days, one of the ways in which companies can better understand their clients is through the location-based applications that abound on mobile devices. However, Naicker points out that this is one of the least used but most powerful aspects of company data: "Customers have a location. So do suppliers. So do your markets. More than 70% of your data has a location component. Traditional BI tools typically just offer tables, grids and charts, but this only tells part of the story.

With map visualizations, you can quickly relate BI data to locations that are meaningful to your business and detect geographic trends, such as customer clusters or outliers – there's no Big Data crunching required because you already have all this information."

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit www.yellowfinbi.com

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 (0)3 8617 4954, +61 (0)431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/20/2013 -- Global Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics software vendor, Yellowfin, has had its native Mobile BI application for Apple's iPad identified among the six best in world by softwareadvice.com.

The enterprise IT media outlet asked the world's most prominent BI vendors to submit their best iPad application User Interfaces (UI) for review.

Softwareadvice.com Managing Editor, Michael Koploy, said that Yellowfin was selected among their 6 Best Designs in iPad BI Software shortlist because it "displayed both great design and thoughtful integration with Apple iOS".

Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie, said that Yellowfin's inclusion was reflective of its leadership status in the global mobile reporting and analytics marketplace.

"Yellowfin has worked hard over the past few years to offer a truly compelling Mobile BI experience," said Rabie. "Yellowfin's approach to Mobile BI is based on the firm belief that using a Mobile BI application should be as fun and easy as browsing an online magazine, or sharing ideas with friends across social networks.

"But, we know that effective Mobile BI is about more than just great design. It's about offering an intuitive and functionally rich user experience that enables business people to independently attain the data-based insights they need to make better, faster decisions – anywhere, anytime."Softwareadvice.com's 6 Best Designs in iPad BI Software ranking can be found on its "Plotting Success" blog, which offers "insights on how Business Intelligence can create intelligence businesses": http://plotting-success.softwareadvice.com/best-ipad-bi-designs-0813/

Koploy said that Softwareadvice.com was prompted to create a list of the BI industry's "best iPad UIs" following the release of Howard Dresner's 2012 Wisdom of Crowds Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study, which found that "65 percent of companies have iPad hardware as their organization's first or second Mobile BI priority."

"As more users clamor for iPad-based BI applications, UI design will become a key differentiator among BI vendors," said Koploy.

Yellowfin offers customers the ability to receive mobile analytics out-of-the-box, on any device or platform at no additional cost, via native applications for the iPhone, iPad and Android platforms, hybrid HTML 5 solutions or Web-browser.

For more on Yellowfin's Mobile BI capabilities, go here: http://www.yellowfinbi.com/YFWebsite-Mobile-Business-Intelligence-24436

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit www.yellowfinbi.com

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Yellowfin Communications Manager, on +61 (0)3 8617 4954, +61 (0)431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Global Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics vendor, Yellowfin, has secured a reseller deal with BI consulting, services and solutions provider, iOLAP.

Houston, TX -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/24/2013 -- The agreement will see the Texas-headquartered consultancy make Yellowfin's easy-to-use BI solution, and associated training and implementation services, available to its large customer base throughout the United States.

iOLAP CEO and Co-Founder, Doug Slemmer, said that making the decision to partner with Yellowfin was simple, because its BI solution addressed growing demand for flexible consumer-oriented reporting and analytics, with a unique pricing model.

"We see a new wave of technology companies entering the BI space offering better, faster and less expensive solutions," said Slemmer. "Simplicity and pricing are being carefully balanced with power and features to help companies achieve more in shorter timeframes. Yellowfin BI fits that profile, providing cutting edge technology and features, with a revolutionary subscription-based pricing model, that makes BI shelfware – a large problem in the BI industry – a thing of the past. For us, the decision to partner with Yellowfin was easy."

Senior BI Developer for iOLAP, Nikola Kostrencic, said that his team was pleasantly surprised by the breadth of world-class features offered by Yellowfin, particularly given preferential pricing when compared to other well-known BI solutions.

"Yellowfin really surprised us in terms of features and functionality," said Kostrencic. "At the price point, we expected to just get the basics – simple reporting and dashboards. Pleasingly, we found an extremely complete platform, with all the bells and whistles offered by the older generation of BI tools. Mobile BI, location intelligence and multi-source data sets – it's all there. Yellowfin's even breaking new territory with social and collaborative BI features – things other vendors are just now starting to discuss."

Speaking about the partnership, Head of Operations for Yellowfin North America, Justin Wright, said that iOLAP's well-regarded reputation as a dedicated provider of Big Data and analytics solutions, would enhance Yellowfin's standing in North America.

"Unlike other general-purpose IT firms, iOLAP has specialized in delivering Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing solutions for the past 14 years – so they do it exceptionally well," said Wright. "We're confident that iOLAP's deep understanding of the BI marketplace will assist Yellowfin to meet growing demand for cost-effective, consumer-oriented BI."

About iOLAP
iOLAP, Inc. is a strategic data consultancy specializing in Data Warehousing (DW) and Business Intelligence (BI) strategy and solutions. They are completely focused on these markets and bring a client-centric and business-focused perspective to all of their engagements. iOLAP has been in business since 1999 with in-depth expertise across all DW and BI technology areas, including the newest leading-edge Business Analytics and Big Data architectures. They serve some of the world's largest companies across all major industries. While other consultants are still trying to figure it out, iOLAP has already delivered results, thanks to better people, strategy, delivery practices and methodology. Visit them online at www.iolap.com.

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit www.yellowfinbi.com.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Actian Corporation, pioneers of the record-breaking analytical database Vectorwise, have agreed to sponsor Yellowfin’s global Business Intelligence (BI) conference – Think Tank 2013.

Victoria, Australia -- (ReleaseWire) -- 02/25/2013 -- The 'Think Tank 2013' conference will run across two days, Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 March 2013, and will be held in Melbourne, Australia – Yellowfin's international headquarters.

For further details, and to register, Click here

Jason Leonidas, VP Sales and Services, Actian APAC said that Actian and Yellowfin's complimentary products and market ambitions made getting behind Think Tank 2013 an obvious decision.

"We're thrilled that Actian have come onboard as official sponsors of Think Tank 2013," said Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie. "We've built a strong relationship with Actian over a number of years, and we think that it's fitting that, as a true innovator and market leader, they're supporting Think Tank 2013 – an event centered on exploring inventive new ways to address modern BI challenges and opportunities."

"Yellowfin, like Actian, understand where the BI industry is heading," said Leonidas. "The future of BI is about making analytical information available as quickly as possible, to an increasingly diverse and large number of users. Together, Actian and Yellowfin are addressing that market demand by making BI faster and easier."

Director of Prodcut Management for Actian Vectorwise, Mark Van de Wiel, will also be presenting at Think Tank 2013. Van de Wiel's Best practices for Big Data analytics presentation will outline methods for analyzing and monetizing Big Data.

Think Tank 2013 will comprise over 30 best practice, use case and technical training sessions, to be held throughout Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 March at Karsten's conference and training center in Melbourne, Australia.

For more information, and to claim an early registration discount, Click here

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit www.yellowfinbi.com

About Actian: Take Action on Big Data
Actian Corporation enables organizations to transform big data into business value with data management solutions to transact, analyze, and take automated action across their business operations. Actian helps 10,000 customers worldwide take action on their big data with Action Apps, Vectorwise, the analytical database, and Ingres, an independent mission-critical OLTP database. Actian is headquartered in California with offices in New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Melbourne. Stay connected with Actian Corporation on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 02/21/2013 -- Leading enterprise IT analyst firm, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), has released an Impact Brief identifying global Business Intelligence (BI) vendor, Yellowfin, as an innovator in mid-market BI, with an emphasis on Collaborative BI.

To obtain a copy of the brief, entitled "Yellowfin Enhances Collaborative Features Set with 'Storyboard' in Version 6.2 Release", simply contact EMA here

The report details Yellowfin's commitment to widespread BI user adoption, by making reporting and analytics as consumable as possible, noting the continued addition of significant collaborative capabilities since its release of version 5.1 in 2010.

"Collaborative BI functionality, particularly when integrated with data presentation capabilities, is gaining popularity and Yellowfin's Storyboard has the potential to meet these needs," stated the report. "Its collaborative functionality fills a gap found in most BI platforms. This is a step in the right direction, and with this latest release and the addition of Storyboard, EMA considers Yellowfin to be a leader in the mid-market BI domain, and a strongly positioned innovator. EMA views Yellowfin and Storyboard, as a company and technology worth watching."

Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie, said that EMA's Impact Brief was the most recent of a string of analyst and media recognition of Yellowfin's pioneering efforts in Self-Service BI and Collaborative BI.

"This latest piece of research is a clear indication that industry experts now acknowledge Yellowfin as a leader in consumer-oriented Business Intelligence," said Rabie. "Yellowfin and Storyboard support collaborative data-based decision-making, and the communication of BI content, in a truly accessible, unique manner."

For further details on the EMA brief, contact EMA here

For more on Yellowfin's collaborative features and functionality

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Australian Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor, Yellowfin, has signed a reseller agreement with Australian enterprise software solutions and services provider, Praxa.

Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 12/27/2012 -- The agreement will see Praxa make Yellowfin's easy-to-use BI solution, and associated training and implementation services, available to its broad range of corporate and government organizations within Australia.

Praxa' s National Sales Manager, Carolyn Ingleson-Eames, said that its customers were demanding better self-service reporting and analytics capabilities, and that partnering with Yellowfin would advance Praxa's reputation as a provider of world-class software solutions.

"BI is one of the key pillars to our business, we are being asked more and more for software solutions that are more innovative in their design compared to traditional offerings and truly affordable to implement and maintain," said Ingleson-Eames. "Yellowfin will be a great addition to our portfolio in 2013, and we already have interest from our customer base."

Yellowfin CEO and cofounder, Glen Rabie, said that the strategic alliance would help to further expand Yellowfin's foundations in Australia, and meet marketplace demand for consumer-oriented BI technologies.

"Being an Australian-based BI vendor and developer, we choose our Australian partners very carefully," said Rabie. "Praxa has been a major player in the Australian IT market – and BI specialist – for more than 30 years. We're confident that Praxa's outstanding reputation, skills and understanding of Australia's ICT community will enable them to help grow Yellowfin's reputation and meet bourgeoning market demand for user-friendly, consumer-oriented BI."

Praxa is a specialized provider of BI, Data Warehousing, Enterprise Resource Planning and Budgeting & Forecasting solutions, as well as accompanying training and services. Praxa has offices across Australia, and is an endorsed and preferred supplier for New South Wales and Victoria state governments.

About Praxa
Praxa has been a major player in the Australian IT market for more than 30 years specializing in Business Intelligence (BI) and Data Warehousing, Enterprise Resource Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting and Training. The company focuses on technologies from SAP, Microsoft, Wennsoft, Yellowfin, ZAP and BIReady. Praxa has offices across Australia. For more information, visit http://www.praxa.com.au

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit http://www.yellowfinbi.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/28/2012 -- Global Business Intelligence (BI) developer, Yellowfin, has been identified as a leading "Dashboard vendor" and "Small to Medium Projects vendor" in the Business Applications Research Center's (BARC) The BI Survey 12 – the world's largest end-user BI study.

Download the summary report

"Yellowfin's commanding performance in BARC's The BI Survey 12 – the world's largest and must revered annual study of global BI software users – clearly demonstrates our inspired approach to BI," said Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie. "This unrivaled result proves the ability of our product to exceed peer performance in critical product and service metrics, and deliver the breadth of world-class features that modern BI users demand, while surpassing their expectations."

Yellowfin was ranked first for 13 criteria within the Dashboard vendor Peer Group, which contained eight vendors beside Yellowfin. Other vendors in this group comprised: Arcplan, BOARD, Decisyon, Dimensional Insight, Information Builders, MicroStrategy, Oracle OBIEE and QlikTech.

Yellowfin was ranked first in eight criteria within the Small to Medium (SME) Projects vendor Peer Group, which contained 18 vendors. Other vendors in this group comprised: Bissantz, BOARD, Cognos TM1 (IBM), Cubeware, Cyberscience, Decisyon, Dimensional Insight, Evidanza, Infor, Jedox, Microsoft SSAS, Microsoft SSRS, Pentaho, Phocas, QlikTech, Tableau and TARGIT.

"Survey outcomes show that Yellowfin is a highly agile and intuitive BI solution, which enables customers to achieve expected business benefits and reach BI project goals in relatively short timeframes," said Melanie Mack, head of market research at BARC. "Yellowfin's pervasive BI features make it easy to use and deploy, facilitating swift business user independence, and resulting in remarkably high penetration rates throughout its client organizations.

"Yellowfin also performs very well in growly important feature – function areas, such as cloud and Mobile BI, making it a highly innovative and recommended product."

Dashboard vendor rankings

Yellowfin was ranked as top Dashboard vendor in:
- Business benefits achieved
- Business achievement
- Proportion of employees index (the highest number of employees using its BI solution as a proportion of total employees – 44%)
- Variety of data types
- Competitiveness
- User recommendation
- Cloud BI
- Mobile BI
- Innovation
- Vendor support
- Customer satisfaction
- Project length
- Agility

Yellowfin was also identified as a leading Dashboard vendor in:
- Goal achievement
- Competitive win rate
- Strategic selection
- Collaboration
- Visual analysis
- Performance satisfaction
- User satisfaction

SME Project vendor rankings

Yellowfin was ranked as top SME Project vendor in:
- Business benefits achieved
- Business achievement
- Proportion of employees index (the highest number of employees using its BI solution as a proportion of total employees – 44%)
- Strategic selection
- User recommendation
- Mobile BI
- Cloud BI
- Innovation

Yellowfin was also identified as a leading SME Project vendor in:
- Goal achievement
- Data volume
- Variety of data types
- Big data
- Competitive win rate
- Competitiveness
- Visual analysis
- Performance satisfaction
- Vendor support
- Satisfaction
- Project length
- Agility

The BI Survey is an annual worldwide study of BI software users produced by BARC.

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit http://www.yellowfinbi.com

About BARC
Business Application Research Center — BARC — is a leading independent software industry analyst delivering information to more than 1000 customers each year.

For over ten years, BARC has specialized in core research areas including Data Management (DM), Business Intelligence (BI) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM).

In April 2011, BARC merged with Le Centre d'expertise des Progiciels (CXP), France's largest business software analyst to form one group of companies. With more than 80 employees (40 analysts) and around 2000 operating companies as customers, the merger creates Europe's largest enterprise software analyst firm with offices in Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

CXP complements BARC's expertise in software markets for BI, DM and ECM with its extensive knowledge of technology for IT Service Management, HR, ERP and CRM.

About The BI Survey 12
Now in its eleventh year of publication, The BI Survey is an annual report based on the world's largest vendor-independent survey of Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management users. The BI Survey 12 attracted nearly 3000 responses.

The BI Survey 12 uncovers the truth about why real-world organizations select BI products, how they use them, and with what success. It also compares the leading products on the market across a number of headline criteria, such as performance, scalability and vendor support.

The survey is published independently by BARC and, unlike many other surveys, it is not sponsored by any vendor. The questions are devised entirely by BARC's BI analyst team.

The BI Survey 12 enables the comparison of leading BI products across multiple criteria, in order to establish which tools are the best fit for particular organizations and industries. It also reveals the best practices that lead to the most successful BI projects, saving time and money in research hours and consulting fees.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/19/2012 -- The Aberdeen Group's Data Management for BI: Fueling the Analytical Engine with High-Octane Information study underscores the growing demand for embedded BI capabilities, reporting that organizations are struggling to effectively utilize increasing data volumes. The report found that, in 2012, the average organization is experiencing a 41 percent year-over-year increase in data volumes, from an average of 15 different data sources.

More importantly, another Aberdeen report – Embedding BI in Enterprise Applications: Magnifying the Analytical Impact – found that organizations using embedded BI enjoyed a number of notable benefits, including:

- A 20% year-over-year increase in operating profit, compared with 10% for average organizations
- A 19% year-over-year increase in organic revenue, compared with 12% for average organizations
- A 16% year-over-year increase in operating cash flow, compared with 9% for average companies

It's also often argued that embedding BI functionality into existing software packages produces higher user adoption / acceptance rates (because this functionality is included in an environment that users are already familiar with), and hence supports higher levels of user engagement. Additionally, it's also commonly argued that embedding reporting and analytics functionality in existing applications throughout an organization is an effective way to instill a culture of widespread fact-based decision-making – or pervasive BI.

According to research and analyst giant Gartner, less than 30 percent of the potential users of organizations' standalone BI tools use the technology. Other firms estimate that BI adoption rates for standalone BI solutions are even lower, languishing between eight and 20 percent.

Comparatively, Aberdeen's Embedding BI in Enterprise Applications: Magnifying the Analytical Impact report found that 60 percent of those embedded BI users surveyed came from organizations with a "strong analytical culture", where data-based decision-making is highly valued.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the same report indicated that those organizations utilizing BI embedded into existing operationally focused software (sales, HR, supply chain applications, etc), experienced higher user satisfaction compared to those organizations using on-premise BI solutions.

These benefits included:

- Higher perception of BI ease-of-use
- Higher perception of information relevancy
- Higher perception of reporting and analytics accessibility

TDWI on embedded BI

So what are the underlying reasons for such embedded BI benefits?

Respected analyst and researcher, Wayne Eckerson, argued in the TDWI paper Embedded Analytics: Closing the Loop Between Operational and Analytical Applications that "the best way to simplify and operationalize BI is to embed it directly into operational applications and processes that drive the business."

Eckerson went on to suggest that much of the future of BI, and its continued success in terms of user adoption and pervasive deployments, is reliant on embedded BI.

"Rather than using standalone BI toolsets that require setup and training, business users will leverage embedded BI functionality that is an integral part of a larger application or package," wrote Eckerson. "Users will no longer shift software contexts when moving from operational processes to analytical ones."

Eckerson intimated that because users of standalone BI solutions are required to exit operational applications in order to access relevant reports, then subsequently re-enter the operational application to take appropriate action based on the intelligence garnered from the BI tool, their productivity is reduced.

Eckerson said reduced productivity was a result of two key factors:

- Having to exit, enter and re-enter different applications breaks user "train of thought"; and
- Having to view analytical information via a separate BI application means the data is not viewed in its optimal context.

Eckerson suggested that these obvious impediments to the effectiveness of business analytics would see many organizations and software developers turn to embedded BI.

"In the future, users will gain analytic insight within the context and flow of a single, process-driven application," wrote Eckerson. "At this point, BI simply slips into the background of a primary application that users use to do their jobs. Users may no longer realize that they're using distinct BI tools to access and analyze information."

However, as Eckerson noted, embedded BI is a compliment to, rather than a replacement for, standalone BI software.

"Embedded analytics will not replace standalone BI tools," wrote Eckerson. "Rather, embedded analytics will make the functionality offered by such toolsets more readily available. By embedding BI functionality within operational applications and processes that drive the business, embedded analytics will make BI more operational, easier to use, and pervasive."

Summarizing the key benefits of embedding BI

There are a multitude of potential benefits that can be attained via embedding reporting and analytics functionality into existing operational applications and processes.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but embedded BI can:

- Boost BI user adoption: Embedding BI functionality into an existing software application enables users to access and interact with those analytical features within a framework that they are already accustomed to, thereby increasing ease-of-use and lowering resistance to adoption. Not only does replicating the look and feel of the core application reduce barriers to adoption, embedding BI into an existing operations-specific application also ensures the relevancy of the analytics produced for the user base.

- Boost BI effectiveness: Embedded BI can directly link reporting and analytics capabilities to operational processes to help improve the immediacy and relevancy with which users attain data-based insights, hence assisting to directly link insight to action.

- Support pervasive BI: Embedded BI enables more pervasive use of reporting and analytics – and facilitates and underpins the development of an organizational culture based on fact-based decision-making – because BI insights are delivered via the applications and processes that users already utilize on a regular basis to perform their job. Therefore, embedding analytical capabilities into existing applications and processes is an effective way to deliver BI to a wide range of business departments without having to purchase a standalone BI platform to meet the requirements of each user group.

- Build a bridge between information and action: By combining analytical and operational functions, embedded BI empowers users with the context they need to understand the relationships between operational processes and business data, enabling them to react faster to emergent internal and external business threats or opportunities.

- Boost organizational effectiveness and efficiency by facilitating process automation: Embedded BI, directly linked to operational applications, can trigger automated actions and / or alerts that improve or address function-specific business processes (based on pre-determined benchmarks) in drastically reduced timeframes.

- Enhance the salability and value of your core applications: And, if you're a software vendor, adding an analytics module to your core application(s) can significantly increased the salability and value or your product(s).

Build vs buy: A note to ISVs

Essentially, unless you have substantial time, resources and specialist skills at your disposal, embedding a dedicated third-party BI platform into your core applications is the most realistic way to deliver enterprise quality reporting and analytics capabilities to your users.

For more about why buying an embedded BI module beats building your own, check out our formative blog post, 8 reasons why embedded Business Intelligence beats DIY.

But essentially, integrating a third-party BI solution into your core applications trumps building BI functionality in-house because:

- You have to provide all the support, maintenance and upgrades for home grown BI functionality: Think about it. Developing your own BI functionality involves a plethora of time, and finance, consuming tasks. Still skeptical? Go here to find out more

- If time-to-deployment, or time-to-market, is a factor, then building takes too long: Presumably you've decided that embedding BI functionality within your core application(s) will enable you to achieve some sort of competitive advantage. In-house BI development can take many months – even years. Will the final product be ready in the time required to address the marketplace opportunity originally identified?

- Replicating enterprise grade functionality available in standalone BI solutions is near impossible considering the time, resources and expertise specialist BI vendors dedicate to continuous product development: Purchasing a purpose-built BI solution enables you to leverage the knowledge and interminable product investments of that third-party vendor, whilst simultaneously removing the need to become an overnight BI expert, allowing you to focus on maintaining and managing your core applications. The bottom line? Building BI functionality requires significant IT resources that could be better redeployed elsewhere. In fact, Aberdeen research found that 44 percent of ISVs considered lack of resources as the number one challenge in delivering embedded BI.

- Replicating the look and feel of your core application within an embedded BI module is difficult: A key to embedded BI success is to ensure a seamless and consistent user experience. If your integrated BI module is not able to replicate the look and feel of the core application, usability and user adoption will suffer. Are you up to the challenge?

In a recent media announcement, publicizing the launch of a new report entitled Build vs. Buy with BI: Key Strategies for Embedded Analytics, the Aberdeen Group's Research Director for BI, Michael Lock, said that research supported the notion that integrating third-party BI functionality into existing applications boosted adoption, salability and deliverability.

"Our research demonstrates that companies buying off-the-shelf BI functionality saw a greater adoption rate of their CRM tools than those using homegrown BI," said Lock. "Having BI as part of the pre-deployed CRM tool increases the attractiveness of the solution, and ultimately boosts its adoption.

"The majority of our survey respondents use a hybrid approach where they tailor a pre-built BI package provided and supported by a BI vendor, to meet their needs. While this approach does create integration challenges – which in itself shows the importance of a pluggable BI architecture, companies who choose a hybrid approach vs. a fully home-grown solution are well positioned not only to deliver an easy-to-use analytical tool to their key decision makers, but do so at a substantially reduced burden of IT expertise and time."

For that reason, another research report by the Aberdeen Group, entitled Embedded BI: Boosting Analytical Adoption and Engagement, found that only 17 percent of ISVs that had integrated BI functionality into their core application had built that functionality in-house.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 10/24/2012 -- Global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor, Yellowfin, will host a series of embedded BI best practice Webinars throughout Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 November.

Register for a Webinar time

The upcoming Embedded BI Best Practices Webinar series will explore:

- The BI features required for embedding reporting and analytic capabilities into an existing software suite

- The features, processes and support required to take an integrated analytic module to market quickly and win new business with ease

- The strategies required to successfully introduce BI to existing customers and end-users in a way that stimulates interest, adoption and delivers value quickly

"It's no secret that demand for reporting and analytics capabilities has spread across enterprise, and even customer-oriented, software throughout almost all major industries," said Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie. "However, a degree of mystery and confusion still obscures the processes and features required to effectively and efficiently integrate analytical functionality into existing software applications.

"This Webinar will outline how to quickly enhance the value and salability of core product suites by adding an analytics module, whilst simultaneously avoiding stressful and common deployment, support and maintenance impediments."

Rabie said that embedded BI produced a range of benefits for software vendors, including:

- Enhanced value and salability of core product(s)

- The ability to extend the reach of core product(s) into new market segments

- A source of competitive advantage compared to other industry specific software solutions

- Increased customer satisfaction

A March 2012 report by the Aberdeen Group, entitled Embedded BI: Boosting Analytical Adoption and Engagement, found that "adding value to existing software investments" was a major driver and outcome for software vendors incorporating reporting and analytics competences with core products.

There are three concise forty minute Webinars scheduled throughout Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 November.

Following the Webinar, attendees will receive a copy of the presentation slides and a recording for on-demand viewing.

To register for a session

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit http://www.yellowfinbi.com

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 03 9090 0454, 0431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 10/16/2012 -- Global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor Yellowfin, an official Microsoft ISV partner, has announced its formal support for Microsoft SQL Server 2012.

SQL Server is a relational database developed by Microsoft. The announcement means that Yellowfin is one of the first Australian ISVs to offer support for all editions of SQL Server 2012.

"Yellowfin is always looking for ways to make reporting and analytics as accessible as possible to the widest audience possible," said Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie. "Microsoft is a leader in relational databases, so ensuring that our customers were able to utilize the latest version of its pervasive relational database technology, SQL Server 2012, was critical.

"This partnership will enable us to cater for our customer's future reporting and analytics needs, and help us to continue making BI faster and easier."

Microsoft ISV Alliance Manager Australia, David Sajfar, said that Microsoft was always looking to partner with leading solution providers, and that Yellowfin's support for SQL 2012 furthered that ambition.

"Modern BI solutions need to be able to deliver insights on increasing data volumes and types, while embracing the consumerization of reporting and analytics," said Sajfar. "Yellowfin's unique Collaborative BI components and ease-of-use address the demands of an increasingly diverse BI user base, and the new ways in which those users want to discover and collaborate around BI content on a daily basis.

"Microsoft's SQL Server 2012 ensures that those users can access all of their critical data at the speed of thought," said Sajfar. "Together, Yellowfin and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 offer a complete enterprise reporting and analytics package that addresses the demands of today's and tomorrow's BI marketplace."

SQL Server 2012, codenamed 'Denali', was released in March 2012, and is the latest version of SQL Server.

Yellowfin connects to SQL 2012 via a JDBC driver.

SQL Server 2012, like Yellowfin, also enables Big Data exploration with native support for Hadoop – a free open-source Java-based framework from the Apache Software Foundation that supports the distribution and running of applications on clusters of servers with thousands of nodes and petabytes of data.

SQL Server 2012 incorporates a number of enhancements specifically designed to improve BI performance, including complete fault tolerance and disaster recovery with its 'AlwaysOn' feature, as well as significant performance improvements for analytics and data warehousing (of 10x – 100x) with its new 'xVelocity' in-memory technologies, which allows users to explore unprecedented amounts of data in real-time.

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit www.yellowfinbi.com

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft's Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/24/2012 -- Information Management's third annual "Forty Vendors We're Watching" list was compiled in collaboration with a panel of 12 industry experts and analysts, including Yellowfin as one of only seven dedicated BI vendors.

Global Business Intelligence (BI) vendor, Yellowfin, has been recognized by venerated enterprise technology publication, Information Management, in its 2012 top 40 list of innovative enterprise software solution vendors.

The 40 finalists, cut from an initial list of "well over" 100 nominees, represented "up and coming vendors on our radar that are doing their part to shape the groundswell in information management technology in the 21st Century."

The article, written by editorial director of Information Management, Jim Ericson, justified Yellowfin's inclusion in the list by outlining its unique Collaborative BI functionality, simplified approach to reporting and analytics and swath of industry awards.

"Elevating BI usefulness while keeping it simple is where the industry is going, and Yellowfin is gathering a reputation for both with interactive dashboards, easy to navigate interfaces and no coding," wrote Ericson.

"[Yellowfin] claims more than a million end users, 10s of thousands of clients in 50 countries, [achieved the] top ranking among emerging vendors in Howard Dresner's Global BI Vendor Study – Wisdom of Crowds [and boasts] lots of awards and recognitions, [including] award winning location intelligence."

Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie, said that Yellowfin's inclusion was reflective of the vendor's dedication towards "making Business Intelligence easy" and its focused approach to the rapidly developing BI marketplace.

"We've continued to work tirelessly to make the benefits of enterprise quality reporting and analytics accessible to users of all business backgrounds, regardless of technical skill," said Rabie.

"Our customers and the BI market have espoused the need for more consumer-oriented BI technology that enables faster and easier collective decisions-making, anywhere and anytime. It's about putting the power of BI in the hands of as many people as possible, and empowering them to extract and apply the insights learned as effortlessly as possible. Yellowfin's ability to deliver on that need has seen the BI community take note."

Read the full "Forty Vendors We're Watching" article here: http://www.information-management.com/news/40-Vendors-We-Are-Watching-2012-10023168-1.html?pg=6

Yellowfin

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit http://www.yellowfinbi.com

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 03 9090 0454, 0431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

The Big Data & BI Best Practices Webinars will examine the phenomenal growth in business data and outline strategies for effectively, efficiently and quickly harnessing and exploring ‘Big Data’ for competitive advantage.

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/24/2012 -- Global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor, Yellowfin, and Actian Corporation, pioneers of the record-breaking analytical database Vectorwise, will host a series of Webinars throughout Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd October 2012.

Register for a Webinar time here: http://www.yellowfinbi.com/YFCommunityNews-Webinar-Event-Big-Data-BI-Best-Practices-118430

"Back in 2009, IDC research estimated that the total volume of data created and replicated in that single year was enough to fill a stack of DVDs reaching to the moon and back," said Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie. "They predict that over 44 times that volume of data will be produced in the year 2020. This Webinar will equip organizations with best practices methodologies, empowering them to harness Big Data, in order to develop a deeper understanding of their business and customers."

Rabie said that Webinar participants would learn:

- What Big Data means for organizations of different sizes
- The best practices for analyzing and monetizing Big Data
- Tips for communicating insights attained from Big Data

"A recent survey published in the MIT Sloan Management Review business journal found that 60 percent of senior executives admit to collecting more data than they can effectively use," said Vectorwise General Manager, Fred Gallagher. "If you think that you and your company could benefit from understanding how to better leverage your growing data assets, then this Webinar is a must."

Gallagher said the Webinar series would suit organizations that:

- Want to act on more data and data types in shorter timeframes
- Want to understand the steps involved in achieving Big Data success – both front and back end
- Thought that taking action from Big Data was too costly

There are three concise forty minute Webinars scheduled throughout Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd October 2012.

To register for a session

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit http://www.yellowfinbi.com

About Actian: Incite Action
Actian Corporation is the first to unveil a cloud development platform for building Action Apps. Action Apps are lightweight consumer-style applications that automate business actions triggered by real-time changes in data. Actian products incite action at more than 10,000 customers worldwide by driving their mission critical workloads and providing rapid action insights to their data. Actian is headquartered in Redwood City, California with offices in New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Melbourne. Stay connected with Actian Corporation on Facebook and Twitter.

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

- John Ryan, Marketing Manager, Actian on +61 3 8530 1722 or john.ryan@actian.com

- Lachlan James, Communications Manager, Yellowfin on +61 3 9090 0454 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/14/2012 -- Data is growing – fast.

In fact, market research firm IDC estimated that the total volume of data created and replicated in 2009 was enough to fill a stack of DVDs reaching to the moon and back. They predict this volume to grow 44X over by 2020.

But a recent IBM / MIT Sloan Management Review survey of over 3,000 executives found that 60% of respondents collect more data than they can effectively use.

So how do you exploit that information to develop a deeper understanding of your business and your customers?

Register for this exclusive Webinar event - Big Data & BI Best Practices - to find out how.

When and How

There are three concise forty minute Webinars scheduled throughout Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd October for your convenience.

But seats are limited, so reserve yours now!

Register for a session now by clicking on a link below:

Webinar 1 (Best time for Americas)
Tues, Oct 2, 2012, 5:00PM – 5:40PM, New York EDT

Webinar 2 (Best time for Asia-Pacific)
Wed, Oct 3, 2012, 2:00PM – 2:40PM, Australian EST

Webinar 3 (Best time for Europe)
Wed, Oct 3, 2012, 10:00AM – 10:40AM, London BST (British Summer Time)

What you'll learn...

- What Big Data means for you
- The best practices for analyzing and monetizing Big Data
- Tips for communicating insights attained from Big Data

This Webinar is ideal if…

- You want to act on more data and data types in shorter timeframes
- You want to understand the steps involved in achieving Big Data success – both front and back end
- You thought that taking action from Big Data was too costly

If you think that Big Data is concern for your organization, then this Webinar is a must.

Please note: After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining your chosen Webinar.

Following the Webinar, attendees will receive a copy of the presentation slides and a recording for on-demand viewing.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Best regards,

The teams at Yellowfin and Actian Vectorwise

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/06/2012 -- Global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor, Yellowfin, will host a series of dashboard best practice Webinars throughout Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 September.

The BI Dashboard Best Practices Webinar series will explore:

- Why dashboards were rated as the number one strategic BI technology in Dresner Advisory Services 2012 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study
- Why data visualization expert, Stephen Few, has declared that the majority of today's BI dashboards fail
- How to deliver best practice dashboards
- Why dashboards deliver high ROI

Few defines BI dashboards as: "a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance."

Register for a Webinar time

"Dashboards are the most basic, most fundamental, way of delivering the information derived from a BI implementation," said Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie. "In fact, the latest Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study found that dashboards were rated as the most important strategic BI technology by those with, or looking to deploy, BI."

But, despite the demand, many organizations are not able to deliver intuitive and insightful dashboards.

"Most dashboards fail," said Few. "The main problem that plagues dashboards today is that they say too little and what they do say they don't say very well. In other words, they are not very informative. When designed properly, a dashboard provides an overview of what's going on, clearly and rapidly."

Rabie said Webinar participants would learn how to:

- Design dashboards that provide instant insight
- Create dashboards that are relevant to job function, relate to business strategy and prompt accurate, timely action
- Select appropriate visualizations that best communicate the message that the chosen KPI is intended to convey

"One of the best ways to underpin the success of anyway BI project is to ensure that you supply users with easy-to-understand, relevant and timely information – via best practice dashboards," said Rabie.

There are three concise forty minute Webinars scheduled throughout Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 September.

Following the Webinar, attendees will receive a copy of the presentation slides and a recording for on-demand viewing.

To register for a session

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit http://www.yellowfinbi.com

What is Business Intelligence software?
Business Intelligence (BI) refers to a broad range of computer software applications and tools used to report, analyze and present data in a range of formats, to help businesses identify trends and opportunities, and support fundamental decision-making.

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 03 9090 0454, 0431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/30/2012 -- Global Business Intelligence (BI) vendor, Yellowfin, has won acclaim and commendation from leading independent BI analysts, Claudia Imhoff, in a one-on-one interview developed as part of a Boulder BI Brain Trust (BBBT) briefing.

The BBBT is a BI forum based in Denver, Colorado. The BBBT is a gathering of leading BI analysts, experts and practitioners, who participate in regular half-day briefings with 'interesting and innovative BI vendors'.

Imhoff – BBBT host and Present & Founder of Intelligence Solutions (the company responsible for coordinating the BBBT and producing its events) – applauded Yellowfin's continued commitment to consumerizing its BI platform, and making it as accessible as possible to a wider business-user-oriented audience, by developing its pricing model and Collaborative BI functionality.

Imhoff: Pricing model "leaves me speechless"

Imhoff stated her admiration for Yellowfin's new business model, which has seen the vendor significantly reduce its price point to $1000 per user per year, introduce a $3000 per year five-user starter pack, and simplify its licensing model to include one access-all-areas user type.

"@YellowfinBI has changed its pricing to $3000 a year for 5 user entry points! Wow!!" tweeted Imhoff on the associated Twitter stream under the hash tag #BBBT during Rabie's group BBBT presentation earlier that day.

Yellowfin's new pricing model is designed to make BI more accessible to a wider range of companies and make large deployments and widespread user adoption a reality, rather than a catch cry.

Rabie also said, in the subsequent one-on-one interview with Imhoff, that the pricing restructure was part of Yellowfin's mission to help its customers "fall in love with Yellowfin".

Access the podcast of that interview

"And I think you've done some things to help your customers love you," said Imhoff. "One of those is your pricing model… it's stunning to say the least – it leaves me speechless."

On Mobile BI driving Collaborative BI

Rabie said that Yellowfin's unique approach to Mobile BI was driven by its desire to make BI a more collaborative experience to boost the decision-making process.

Rabie: "When we developed our mobile [BI capabilities], and particularly our iPad application, we actually threw away people's existing perceptions about what BI was – it was all about a different way of experiencing the information [as opposed to the information itself]."

Imhoff: "Which by the way, I think is brilliant," responded Imhoff. "There are so many BI companies that just repurpose their dashboard for a mobile device, and that isn't right, it requires a completely different form factor."

Rabie: "Yeah, people want to get it [the BI content] differently and use it or interact with it differently, so that was the first thing we did – we took it [the BI content] away from being just a dashboard, and turned it into an informational experience that allowed people to find and report the information they want very, very quickly," said Rabie.

"And then in doing that and watching people use it, we found them doing these weird gymnastics on how they were going to share the information with others. They were like, 'now I'll take a screenshot, and email it, then I'll pick it up from there'. And we were just looking at that, and thought that that was just a really painful experience for the end-user. And then when we looked at the browser model, we found that collaboration already kind of existed because people we used to cutting and pasting and doing all that stuff. Whereas on an iPad, you can't cut and paste imagery and all those sorts of things easily, but it is an inherently collaborative device – people want to collaborative more in this environment.

"So we developed components specifically for mobile. Our inbox is a good example of that, which allows people to very quickly see what's changed with any of their reports and reporting environment."

Collaborative BI at the center of Yellowfin's BI platform

Imhoff: "You've put a great deal of focus on Collaborative BI," said Imhoff.

"One of the things that Colin [White – a fellow BI analyst] and I have focused on in the last six months is in fact Collaborative BI, and we have a repot that will come out soon on that, and we looked at it [Collaborative BI] as having three components.

"The first one was collaborative interaction – you want to be able to send out and show reports and get them back with comments and so on.

"The second one is the information enhancement, so not only do I want to share things with you, but I want to be able to add my comments to it, or add links to other information, or explanations as to why something is trending upward or down. That is, understanding why information is changing, and what it actually means. So it's this idea of enhancing the information by adding peoples' expertise along with the analytic result.

"The third one is the collaborative decision-making. So we'd like to not only be able to share the information with people and comment on it, but when we make a decision based off these assets, we can track and figure out what decision was made, and then maybe even analyze that later, to say was it a good decision or a bad decision. And, if it was bad, why?

"So, you [Yellowfin] have kind of taken all that to heart – thank you very much first of all – and built features inside Yellowfin that support these three collaborative components."

A whirlwind year

Imhoff: "I think your customers are starting to love you," said Imhoff. "Over the past year you've had some fairly significant activities, some pretty major deals I would say, and you've also gotten some pretty impressive awards."

Rabie: "We've won some great awards for 2012," responded Rabie. "We were ranked equal number one in Howard Dresner's Wisdom of Crowds Study, which again for us was important because it's based on an end-user survey – so it reflects the experience that our customers are having, and that's really critical to us. We care about what their experience is and really focus on that.

"We've been in Gartner's Who's Who of Mobile BI and were number two in Dresner's Mobile BI study as well – so we're starting to get people seeing what we're doing, seeing how we're different, and seeing what a great platform Yellowfin is for the market that we address."

Yellowfin has also won a Stevie® Award this month (August 2012) for its BI solution in the Business Applications category at the 10th Annual International Business Awards (IBA). IBAs are the world's premier business awards program and recognize the outstanding achievements of organizations and individuals within the global business community. The Business Applications category recognized excellence in apps produced for a business or government audience, issued or updated since 1 January 2011.

For more details

Three of Yellowfin's customers – Voyager Travel, Clever Devices and Macquarie University – have also won significant awards for their respective uses of Yellowfin in the last nine months.

Yellowfin's consumer-oriented approach to BI has also enabled the vendor to win a number of landmark business deals this year.

"A 600,000 user deal with a telco back in Australia that actually allows its customers to track the efficacy of their telco spend [was a major win for us]," said Rabie.

"The other one that was really interesting was an iPad only deal which we did in Japan that was 20,000 users, which I believe to be the world's largest iPad only deal to date. And the satisfying thing is that we went up against everyone [all the globe's prominent BI vendors].

"And what was also really great for us, we won this deal because people are recognizing the value of our product in terms of pricing, but also the features it offers. The Japanese market is an incredibly tough market, and so, to win that kind of deal there, really speaks to our unique approach to Mobile BI."

Yellowfin: Taking its customers on a journey

Imhoff also pointed to Yellowfin's fast release cycle – encompassing two major releases per year (May and November) – as a strong differentiator compared to other BI vendors.

"It's a good cycle," said Rabie. "We're continually trying to improve and take our customers on a little journey, as opposed to a big journey. We don't' want them to have to wait two or three years for a major release and have a heart attack because everything changes. We want them to have incremental changes continuously, so that they can grow with the product."

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit http://www.yellowfinbi.com

About BBBT
The Boulder BI Brain Trust (BBBT) is a BI forum based in Denver, Colorado. The BBBT is a gathering of leading BI analysts and experts, who participate in regular briefings with 'interesting and innovative BI vendors'.

The BBBT was established to keep industry analysts abreast of new trends, emerging organizations and technologies in the BI marketplace, and is produced by Intelligence Solutions and sponsored by The BeyeNETWORK. For more information, visit http://www.boulderbibraintrust.org/index.php

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

If you’re in retail, you probably already collect data. Lots of it.

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/24/2012 -- You want to know who your customers are, what they buy, how often they buy and where they come from. You also need to manage your products, stock levels – on the shop floor and in the warehouse – and relationships with your suppliers. And, of course, store performance – which are your best performing stores, staff, regions and product types or categories by store and region? The list is almost limitless.

So, you have a lot of data. But data on its own is worthless. What do you do with it? How do you explore your different data types, sets and share it with those who matter most – your decision-makers and stakeholders – to gain new insights and discover previously hidden opportunities?

You need to be able to map your location-based data. You need Location Intelligence (LI) – over 80 percent of your data has a spatial element, according to global analyst and advisory firm IDC. But what's LI, and what's it got to do with you, your business and your data?

Register for our LI Best Practices Webinar

Well, LI enables you to apply geographic contexts to business data – LI combines location-based data with traditional metrics captured within a Business Intelligence (BI) system. It helps solve business problems by providing context to business data. LI also enables you to see, understand and act on new business opportunities by uncovering previously unidentified patterns in your data, or crucial relationships between different data sources and types.

Or, as IDC put it: "Location intelligence is defined as the capacity to organize and understand complex data through the use of geographic relationships. LI organizes business and geographically referenced data to reveal the relationship of location to people, events, transactions, facilities, and assets."

8 ways Location Intelligence can empower retailers

You're an area manager for retail conglomerate Mega Store. The northern sector of your region is underperforming. The situation demands your personal attention. All options must be considered – including store closures or relocations.

The ability to understand the "where" of your retail data – not just that "what", "how", "when" and "why" – gives you capacity to develop ultra-effective marketing and operational strategies via multi-layered maps. And, applying LI to logistical data enables you to unite customers, suppliers and infrastructure, to ensure the most effective use of resources.

Using LI to understand your location-based information, you're able to:

- Uncover relationships between stores, products and customer types that affect sales performance

- Identify marketplace gaps, opportunities, threats and level of market penetration or saturation (by adding in an element of time, it is also possible to track and predict growth and changes in customer preferences, behavior and demography per region)

- Assess the sales of particular items by store and region to underpin future planning, determine effective and efficient sales campaigns and stock distribution strategies

- Track stock levels of individual retail operators to help coordinate warehouse deliveries to ensure individual shop fronts are always well stocked

- Assess customer purchase habits, frequency and residency to help new marketing campaigns boost store traffic and sales

a) Segment customers in a multi-dimensional way via purchase history, demography as well as location, to develop highly effective and personalized relationships
b) Identify the location of customers, as well as potential customers, and target them with specialized marketing messages via location-specific mediums
c) Analyze location-based marketing metrics to develop lucrative and sustainable customer loyalty programs

- Maximize market share and individual store performance

a) Detect and mitigate unnecessary competition between company stores
b) Forecast and redevelop store-specific budgets and expectations based on the size of surrounding populations and other location specific information

- Select site locations for new outlets or warehouses based on the geographic spread of your most profitable customers, proximity of competing stores, public transport and general transport routes, and how the local populous compares to your ideal customer profile

- Detect and categorize underperforming stores to assess their ongoing viability, ability to raise profits, and develop strategies for rectifying the situation

Where to next?

As a retailer, LI offers you the ability to discover fresh insights and new relationships within and between your most important information – your sales, marketing, operations, CRM, finance, HR and procurement data – and to analyze and compare crucial business dimensions such as product, region, store, customer, department, supply chain, risk management; and of course, location.

Merging your location-based and traditional BI information provides context to your business data and enables you to see new opportunities.

So register for our Webinar event – Location Intelligence Best Practices – and learn how to harness advanced mapping capabilities to advantage your organization by effectively aligning business development and strategy.

REGISTER NOW

Let Yellowfin show you how to remove investment risk and outline strategies that allow you to continue to grow with confidence. Let Yellowfin show you how LI can increase your profits and assist you to realize sustained competitive advantage.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/20/2012 -- Yellowfin, has claimed a Stevie® Award for its BI solution in the Business Applications category at the 10th Annual International Business Awards.

The International Business Awards (IBA), announced today, are the world's premier business awards program and recognize the outstanding achievements of organizations and individuals within the global business community. The Business Applications category recognized excellence in apps produced for a business or government audience, issued or updated since 1 January 2011.

"Yellowfin" a global business Intelligence (BI) software vendor has been working tirelessly to continually develop a consumer-oriented Business Intelligence solution that delivers the best user experience possible," said Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie. "The credit Yellowfin has received via the internationally revered IBAs positions us as a world-class innovator and vindicates our mandate to keep making Business Intelligence easy."

All individuals and organizations worldwide were eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. The 2012 IBAs received entries from more than 50 nations and territories. More than 3,200 nominations, from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry, were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories.

"Entries to the IBAs grew substantially this year," said Michael Gallagher, President and Founder of the Stevie Awards. "Despite slow economic conditions in much of the world, the quality of nominations was outstanding, demonstrating that there are many companies that are innovating and growing regardless."

The awards are nicknamed the 'Stevies' after the Greek word 'crowned'.

Details about The International Business Awards and the lists of Stevie Award winners are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit www.yellowfinbi.com

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The International Business Awards, The American Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 03 9090 0454, 0431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/16/2012 -- The Location Intelligence Best Practices Webinars will explore the intensification of enterprise data mapping and dissect the major trends and non-negotiable best practices of Location Intelligence (LI).

LI enables business analysts and report consumers to apply geographic contexts to business data by combining location-based data with traditional metrics captured within a BI system.

Webinar 1 (Best time for Americas)
Mon, Aug 27, 2012, 5:00PM – 5:40PM, New York EDT

Webinar 2 (Best time for Asia-Pacific)
Tues, Aug 28, 2012, 2:00PM – 2:40PM, Australian EST

Webinar 3 (Best time for Europe)
Tues, Aug 28, 2012, 10:00AM – 10:40AM, London BST (British Summer Time)

Register for a Webinar

"Attendees will learn how to harness advanced mapping capabilities to advantage their organization by effectively aligning business development and strategy," said Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie.

"As noted by IDC, 80% of corporate data has a spatial element, so Location Intelligence is an integral component of any enterprise data strategy. Merging location-based and traditional Business Intelligence information provides context to business data, uncovering previously unrealized relationships between different data types, to expose new business opportunities."

Rabie said Webinar participants would learn:

- The latest trends driving development and demand for LI. -Why the ability to map, visualize and understand data from a geographic standpoint will become an increasingly important part of any BI solution. -How to deploy best practice LI to generate context, meaning and expose crucial relationships between data types.

- Why Yellowfin's Macquarie University implementation was recognized by Ventana Research as the best 2010/11 worldwide example of LI and the most likely to produce significant business value heading into 2012.

"If the ability to understand the relationships between key data sets – your infrastructure, your customers, your suppliers – and discover new opportunities by effectively aligning development and strategy is important to you and your business, then this Webinar is a must," said Rabie.

There are three concise forty minute Webinars scheduled throughout Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 August.

Following the Webinar, attendees will receive a copy of the presentation slides and a recording for on-demand viewing.

To register for a session, click here

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered in Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization.

For more information, visit http://www.yellowfinbi.com For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 03 9090 0454 , 0431 835 658 or lachlan.james(at)yellowfin(dot)bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr(at)yellowfin(dot)bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/10/2012 -- Global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor, Yellowfin, has launched three new chart types in a series of daily Olympic data blogs, spanning from 25 July to 10 August.

Read Yellowfin's Olympic data blog series here

Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie, said that the new charting options were designed to enable organizations to "tell compelling stories with data".

The new options include:

- A Heat Grid
- A Pie Infographic
- And a Scaled Image Chart

The new data visualizations will be included as part of the official launch of the next iteration of Yellowfin's BI solution, due out November 2012.

"These new charting options are designed to further Yellowfin's mission to make Business Intelligence even easier for end-users to independently understand and act on," said Rabie.

"We also know that organizations have a wide variety of data types, which need to be analyzed from a multitude of different perspectives, in order to underpin effective decision-making.

"At Yellowfin, we're continually striving to provide our customers with the most comprehensive and intuitive range of charting options possible, to empower them to realize the best view of their data possible, and answer important business questions fast."

Rabie said that the 2012 London Olympic Games provided an ideal opportunity to showcase the new visualizations.

"Our number one aim is always to make BI easy. Part of that means making data as engaging and interesting as possible to deliver a great user experience – and what could be more engaging than the Olympic Games?"

For more on Yellowfin's range of data visualizations, go here

Yellowfin's next release will be made publically available at its November global partner conference, to be held in Melbourne, Australia.

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit www.yellowfinbi.com

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 03 9090 0454, 0431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/08/2012 -- Ovum, a global analyst firm providing enterprise technology-related research and consulting services, has praised Yellowfin's consumer-oriented Business Intelligence (BI) solution in a recent report.

Download the full research report

The Yellowfin "On the Radar" report – part of series of research notes by Ovum that highlight up-and-coming vendors that bring innovative ideas, products, or business models to their markets – highlighted Yellowfin's standout Mobile BI, Collaborative BI and Location Intelligence functionality.

"Yellowfin delivers a self-service BI product that is tailored to be deployed on a multitude of new generation smarter mobile devices; regardless of platform," wrote report author and analysts for Ovum's Information Management Software group, Fredrik Tunvall.

"As a fully Web-based solution, Yellowfin can run on any platform or device with a web browser, [and has] the ability to understand data from a location perspective via mapping logic.

"Yellowfin [also] offers an information-centric approach to BI. Its built-in collaborative features – such as the ability to publish content to social networks, blogs, and wikis – extends the reach of BI outside the BI solution (to any We-based platform), to allow all relevant stakeholders to benefits from the insights of reporting and analytics."

The report also noted Yellowfin's ease of integration, deployment and scalability.

"As the product is Java-based, the application can be easily and quickly installed on existing IT infrastructure with minimal disruption," stated the report. "Yellowfin, as a fully browser-based application, is designed to scale across an enterprise, and boasts capabilities for over 600,000 users."

The report concluded by suggesting that organizations "looking for an alternative to large vendors' front-end BI solutions should take a serious look at Yellowfin to deliver BI content to its end-users. The solution especially shines when deployed to an iPad or iPhone, but also does well when consumed on a desktop or on other mobile devices and platforms."

The full report can be accessed from the Ovum website

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit www.yellowfinbi.com

About Ovum
Ovum provides clients with independent and objective analysis that enables them to make better business and technology decisions. Our research draws upon over 400,000 interviews a year with business and technology, telecoms and sourcing decision-makers, giving Ovum and our clients unparalleled insight not only into business requirements but also the technology that organizations must support. Ovum is an Informa business. For more information, visit http://www.ovum.com

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 03 9090 0454, 0431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/05/2012 -- DSCallards Ltd and Business Intelligence vendor Yellowfin are pleased to announce that the leading UK telecoms engineering consultancy firm, Nova Incepta, has selected Yellowfin to help deliver outstanding service support to their customers.

Any service orientated business will know that providing timely and accurate information to customers and knowing when and where operating costs can be reduced, whilst ensuring quality service delivery, is critical to any successful business.

This was the challenge for Nova Incepta who needed to provide a real-time reporting solution that could be used both internally by staff and externally by customers to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs). Furthermore making this information easily available offered the transparency that the regulators and consumers are beginning to expect within the industry.

"From our original conversations with DSCallards through to the evaluation phase and subsequent go-live of Yellowfin Business Intelligence, we have been impressed with the solution. What Yellowfin delivers is an easy to use, easy to deploy web application that supports both internal and customer-facing requirements. Through better visibility of our performance, we are now able to easily access important information and make decisions quickly, which ultimately improves our ability to respond to our customers' needs and provide a better service", said David Down, Director, Nova Incepta.

Ben Hedger, Senior Business Development Consultant, DSCallards (Yellowfin UK Distributors), commented, "We are delighted that Nova Incepta has chosen Yellowfin as a key component for the future success of its business. We welcome them on board as a client and look forward to continuing to work with them to refine how Yellowfin Business Intelligence can support their business and the value it can deliver as we move forward."

For more information, visit http://www.yellowfinbi.co.uk.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/30/2012 -- There's no denying it. Right now, there's a plethora of newly established and emerging analytical databases aimed at enabling organizations to capture – and act on (hopefully) – ever increasing amounts of data.

So why do we – the folks at Yellowfin – give a hoot about Greenplum in the context of Big Data? And why should you?

Getting to know Greenplum

The latest update of Yellowfin's Business Intelligence (BI) software – Yellowfin 6.1 – was released in May this year, and included support for a number of new database types aimed at facilitating our customers to pursue their Big Data analytics goals. Greenplum was one of those newly supported databases.

Find out more about Yellowfin's additional database support aimed at satisfying organizations' growing Big Data needs, or download the official Yellowfin 6.1 Release Notes

Greenplum – a massively parallel processing (MPP) database based on the open source database PostgreSQL – began life as Metopa back in 2000. Scott Yara and Luke Lonergan officially founded Greenplum in June of 2003, with the first Greenplum Database released in January 2005. In July 2010, Greenplum was speedily acquired by EMC – which describes itself as an enabler that empowers organizations to deliver information technology as a service (ITaaS): "Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset — information — in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way."

The deal was purportedly worth well over $300 million at the time of the agreement. So they're clearly enterprising; and we like that. So why was EMC so quick to pounce on Greenplum, and outlay such a large sum of money for a technology company still in its relative infancy?

Why was EMC so quick to pounce?

In an official statement back in 2010, Pat Gelsinger, President and Chief Operating Officer of EMC Information Infrastructure Products, said: "The data warehousing world is about to change. Greenplum's massively-parallel, scale-out architecture, along with its self-service consumption model, has enabled it to separate itself from the incumbent players and emerge as the leader in this industry shift toward 'Big Data' analytics. Greenplum's market-leading technology provides customers, today, with a best-of-breed solution for tomorrow's 'Big-Data' challenges."

Essentially, EMC showed no hesitation in putting-up substantial funds for Greenplum because they were keenly aware of the increasing interest, willingness and ability of many organizations to collect and (attempt to) interpret growing amounts of data and numbers of data types.

A recent 2012 report by IDC – a prominent research, analysis and advisory firm – confirmed that EMC was able to accurately predict the uptick in demand for analytics technologies capable of analyzing larger data volumes. IDC reported that the worldwide business analytics market grew 14.1 percent in 2011, "driven by the attention-grabbing headlines for Big Data and more than three decades of evolutionary and revolutionary developments in technology".

According to IDC, annual enterprise investment in hardware, software, cloud services technologies and IT staff has increased by 50 percent to $4 trillion since 2005 (as of 2011).

IDC attested to this growing demand in its fifth annual IDC Digital Universe Study (ironically sponsored in part by EMC). The study, released in late 2011, predicted that the volume of worldwide data is set to grow 50 fold by 2020. The study also concluded that current technologies and numbers of IT professionals would struggle to manage the rapid data growth.

"As an industry, we've done a tremendous job at lowering the cost of storing data. As a result, people and companies store more data," said David Reinsel, IDC's vice president of storage and semiconductor research in an official statement relating to the 2011 report.

Reinsel cautioned that the real challenge, and opportunity, is in the ability for enterprise technology companies to enable organizations to not just store more information, but also extract better value from those ever-growing data stores via Big Data analytics.

"This is where real opportunities lie, and where some folks may miss the boat. As soon as Big Data success stories are advertised and people see that there is gold in their data… then you will find more companies desiring to put more data online," he said.

Reinsel was quick to reemphasize the fact that if organizations simply continued to capture and store more data, but were unable to leverage actionable insights from it, they would realize meager ROI on their data initiatives. So how does Greenplum's technological components enable organizations to utilize Big Data?

Greenplum: Let's get technical

EMC's Gelsinger references, and alludes to a number of other, underpinning technologies that have given Greenplum an edge in the analytical database marketplace. So what are these advantageous technologies? Well, they include:

- Its MPP architecture for Loading and Query performance that enables data science teams to unlock the value from Big Data stores, capable of storing and analyzing petabytes of data. It also provides automatic parallelization of data loading and queries. All data is automatically partitioned across all nodes of the system, and queries are planned and executed using all nodes working together in a highly coordinated fashion. Data is also partitioned across multiple segment servers, with each segment owning and managing a separate share of the data set – there's no unnecessary overlap.

- Its Polymorphic Data Storage-MultiStorage/SSD Support allows customers to leverage multiple storage technologies to find a suitable balance between performance and cost.

- And, its Multi-level Partitioning with Dynamic Partitioning Elimination means that irrelevant partitions in a table are disregarded to reduce the overall amount of data scanned per query to yield faster query response times.

In fact, Greenplum claims that it offers its users up to 100 times faster performance compared to traditional RDBMS products. Not bad, right? So the technology's impressive too.

But there's more to Greenplum than its enterprising approach and technical prowess. Its attitude is also impressive and noteworthy.

Greenplum: A database specialist that understands the Big Data needs of the modern organization

EMC Greenplum's Mark Burnard encapsulated Greenplum's approach to Big Data in a candid interview with Analyst First's Stephen Samild in February this year. You really get the sense that Greenplum understand the unique requirements of Big Data analytics.

The full interview can be found – and should be read – here

"I think now the game's changed, and a six month turnaround time for a BI project is too slow. Marketing teams want to be able to spin off new products, sometimes one or two a month. Telcos, for example, are spinning off new plans, new product bundles, new marketing messages and solutions that require a lot of agility in the billing system and the provisioning system. Their core systems have to be a lot more agile and the data warehouse has to keep up with that.

"They have to have a way of managing information that caters for ad-hoc analysis, for marketing guys running quick, nimble little models to come up with some market segment so they can generate a campaign to a particular demographic.

"The pace of change and the complexity of doing business has changed, and the classic model that we've had for data warehousing has not significantly changed.

"The problem now is that we've taken that disciplined model – which is fantastic for reporting on financial numbers to regulators – and we've extended it into the domains of HR, and marketing, and across the entire enterprise data model. We wanted to fit the entire enterprise into the data warehouse. What I think we're seeing already happen is that the locus of subjects that fit into the traditional data warehouse is shrinking to include only those where that level of rigor is required for reporting and analysis – areas such as finance, risk, and other things that go to regulators. All the other stuff, which is the other 95 percent of the business, will probably end up in a much more flexible, dynamic platform which we're starting to call an analytical warehouse or analytic warehouse."

Yellowfin and Greenplum: Making Big Data analytics easy.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/18/2012 -- Global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor, Yellowfin, will host an exclusive one-time-only Webinar event with industry expert and founder of Dresner Advisory Services (DAS), Howard Dresner, Wednesday 25 July at 2PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

The Harnessing a "Business Intelligence Renaissance" Webinar, cohosted by Yellowifn CEO Glen Rabie, will explore the latest findings from Dresner's 2012 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study, and analyze why Yellowfin was rated equal first in the vendor ranking section of the report.

Attendees will receive a free copy of the study. Register the Webinar here:
http://www.yellowfinbi.com/YFCommunityNews-Exclusive-Webinar-event-Harnessing-a-Business-Intelligence-Renaissance-116349

"A member of the 'Emerging' market segment, Yellowfin moved into the #1 spot for 2012 (up from #3 in 2011) with increased performance in nearly every category," wrote Dresner – report author, former Gartner Research Fellow, and President, Founder and Chief Research Officer at DAS. "It [Yellowfin] exceeded both peer and overall sample averages by a wide margin. Yellowfin is a 'Top 10' vendor across all categories."

The findings compared 17 of the world's foremost BI solutions. Find out more

Rabie said that Webinar participants would learn:

- Why Yellowfin was rated equal first in this competitive ranking of global BI vendors
- Why new generation consumer-oriented BI is set to dominate at the expense of 'traditional' BI
- How to take advantage of the latest trends shaping the BI landscape

"If understanding how to capitalize on market trends and self-service BI – to empower more people with understandable and actionable information – is important to you and your business, then this Webinar is a must," said Rabie.

The Webinar will take place on Wednesday 25 July at 2PM EDT.

Following the Webinar, attendees will receive a copy of the presentation slides and a recording for on-demand viewing.

To register, GO HERE

What is Business Intelligence software?

Business Intelligence (BI) refers to a broad range of computer software applications and tools used to report, analyze and present data in a range of formats, to help businesses identify trends and opportunities, and support fundamental decision-making.

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit http://www.yellowfinbi.com

About Dresner Advisory Services
Dresner Advisory Services (DAS) is an independent advisory firm producing research reports for the Business Intelligence industry.

DAS was founded by former Gartner Research Fellow, and Lead Analyst for BI, Howard Dresner. www.howarddresner.com

Its landmark research studies include: The Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study and The Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study. www.business-intelligence-study.com

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 03 9090 0454, 0431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/10/2012 -- Global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor, Yellowfin, will host an exclusive one-time-only Webinar event with industry expert, Gartner Fellow and founder of Dresner Advisory Services (DAS), Howard Dresner, Wednesday 25 July at 2PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

Attendees will receive a free copy of the study. Register the Webinar here

The Harnessing a "Business Intelligence Renaissance" Webinar, cohosted by Yellowifn CEO Glen Rabie, will explore the latest findings from Dresner's 2012 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study, and analyze why Yellowfin was rated equal first in the vendor ranking section of the report.

"A member of the 'Emerging' market segment, Yellowfin moved into the #1 spot for 2012 (up from #3 in 2011) with increased performance in nearly every category," wrote Dresner – report author, former Gartner Research Fellow, and President, Founder and Chief Research Officer at DAS. "It [Yellowfin] exceeded both peer and overall sample averages by a wide margin. Yellowfin is a 'Top 10' vendor across all categories."

The findings compared 17 of the world's foremost BI solutions. Find out more

Rabie said that Webinar participants would learn:

- Why Yellowfin was rated equal first in this competitive ranking of global BI vendors
- Why new generation consumer-oriented BI is set to dominate at the expense of 'traditional' BI
- How to take advantage of the latest trends shaping the BI landscape

"If understanding how to capitalize on market trends and self-service BI – to empower more people with understandable and actionable information – is important to you and your business, then this Webinar is a must," said Rabie.

The Webinar will take place on Wednesday 25 July at 2PM EDT.

Following the Webinar, attendees will receive a copy of the presentation slides and a recording for on-demand viewing.

To register, go here:

What is Business Intelligence software?

Business Intelligence (BI) refers to a broad range of computer software applications and tools used to report, analyze and present data in a range of formats, to help businesses identify trends and opportunities, and support fundamental decision-making.

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit http://www.yellowfinbi.com

About Dresner Advisory Services
Dresner Advisory Services (DAS) is an independent advisory firm producing research reports for the Business Intelligence industry.

DAS was founded by former Gartner Research Fellow, and Lead Analyst for BI, Howard Dresner. http://www.howarddresner.com

Its landmark research studies include: The Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study and The Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study. http://www.business-intelligence-study.com

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 03 9090 0454, 0431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin's free e-newsletter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Melbourne, Victoria -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/08/2012 -- Late last month Silicon Valley legend, Roger Sippl, launched Connection Cloud via his new start-up, Elastic Intelligence.

You might remember reading about it in Yellowfin partner Elastic Intelligence launches breakthrough PaaS technology via Connection Cloud:

The Sippl factor

Sippl is famous for (very successfully) taking three software companies public over the past three decades, including Informix (a database software company), Vantive (a sales support software vendor) and Visigenic – all of which were bought out for more than princely sums.

What is the Connection Cloud?

The Connection Cloud by Elastic Intelligence, Inc. is a PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) technology enabling easy access to SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) data in the cloud in real-time.

"For the first time, businesses and business users can access SaaS data in the cloud in real-time, from any source, and integrate data quickly by using the Connection Cloud," reported the company.

Sippl said that Connection Cloud was addressing the problem – "a new era of islands of information" – created by many new, and increasingly popular, enterprise software services.

As a strategic partner, the cloud-based service allows Yellowfin customers – or any SQL-enabled application, development language or tool – to access, analyze and present their underlying SaaS data where it resides. That is, from its native source (as if all the data resided in a company's single local SQL-compliant relational database); skipping the many complex and previously non-negotiable integration steps.

What makes Connection Cloud unique?

Sippl, lead architect and CEO of Elastic Intelligence, pointed to Connection Cloud as a solution to the growing, and growingly important, issue that many enterprises face – trying to extract meaning, and therefore value, from rapidly expanding and disparate / siloed data stores.

Whilst Connection Cloud doesn't operate in a space of its own – Informatica, SnapLogic, MuleSoft, Denodo and Composite Software also offer cloud data integration services – its ability to perform data integration in real-time (as opposed to performing integration in daily or hourly batches) gives it a significant advantage. So emphatic that this new PaaS offering holds unique marketplace value, Sippl has been reported as saying "It [Connection Cloud] culminates my whole career" – a big statement from a man who has achieved so much. Mike Vannoy – COO of Austin, TX sales acceleration company Sales Engine International – agrees.

"The Connection Cloud is a game changer for us," said Vannoy in an interview. "In the past, integrating operational data from SaaS applications for reporting and analysis for our clients has been challenging. Every SaaS application has a different way to access data.

"Now I tell the Connection Cloud which SaaS data I need and suddenly I have access to it, in real-time, from where it sits."

So, Connection Cloud can integrate data from different SaaS products or applications – such as Salesforce, NetSuite, ZenDesk, Eloqua and Intacct – to produce enterprise reports and analysis that draw from any data source to produce results in real-time. But what makes this vista so lucrative for prospective clients?

An example: Connection Cloud in the retail, sales and services industries

Connection Cloud has the potential to save many organizations significant time and money that would have otherwise been spent conducting lengthy and multifaceted integration processes.

In the past, if a retail or sales and service business wanted to decipher who their most loyal and profitable customers were, they would have had to extract customer data from one application (say Salesforce) or business tool, and customer invoice data from another transactional system (like Zuora) – a heavily resource intensive process.

Alternatively, an organization in the retail space may want to offer their most reliable customers (those who have a track record of timely payments) the opportunity to be the first to buy a new product or service. However, to run an effective promotion based on those criteria, customer information in Salesforce would have to be matched with payment data in NetSuite.

"Businesses regularly need to analyze and report on data across CRM, financial, help desk and marketing SaaS applications," said Sippl. "Until now, that meant spending hours either downloading CSV files, manipulating the data and formatting reports, or investing in costly integration projects."

Well, not anymore it seems.

Cloud Connection: Unlocking the value in Big Data for SMBs

This new process also has the potential to allow many Small to Midsized Businesses (SMB), that were previously prohibited from performing certain types of data analysis and tapping into 'Big Data' stores, to leverage significant volumes of formerly unexplored data and relay those findings to Business Intelligence solution providers such as Yellowfin, to increase decision-making capabilities and derive competitive advantage. The cost, time and expertise inherent in other SaaS-based data integration services – due to their reliance on moving all data from their individual source locations into one place for reporting and exploration – also meant that by the time reports were generated and distributed to decision-makers, much of the information was outdated.

As Elastic Intelligence phrased it: "This [Connection Cloud] puts an end to expensive data integration products that only provide access to 'copies' of the data in data warehouses. Other SaaS data integration solutions require that data must be moved and consolidated before trying to make use of it. This pre-staging of the data requires a lot of work to extract, transform, and load the data before use."

Experience the power of Connection Cloud – for free

Infrequent users are able to perform real-time data integration from multiple sources in the cloud, via Connection Cloud, for free.

The service, free to all users initially, will cost $99 per month for a single user performing fifty queries a month.

Corporates can contact Elastic Intelligence for a quote here: sales@elasticintelligence.com

For more information, go here: http://www.connectioncloud.com

Elastic Intelligence also develops and markets the Data Liberator Toolkit, a free open source toolkit that enables SaaS vendors to enable their applications on the Connection Cloud. Elastic Intelligence was founded in 2008 and is based in Menlo Park, California.

About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization.

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