I begin this note by wishing all our readers and patrons a
successful and happy New Year. I believe 2010 is the year of hope.
With a recession behind us and an economy firing on all cylinders,
we expect business to return to normalcy soon. The year 2010 is a
big one for all of us here at UBM India. I am really excited about
two forthcoming events: the launch of InformationWeek India and the
second edition of Interop. We launched www.informationweek.in at
Interop in October 2009.
Traditionally, businesses have relied on MIS (Management
Information Systems) and DSS (Decision Support Systems) to act upon
information collected from transactions and processes. Today,
frontline managers execute bigger decisions, and managers need to
react to a situation within a few seconds. Data needs to be
analyzed more quickly, almost in real time, even as it is being
captured. Any delay would result in the loss of customers, wastage
of raw material, non-compliance, and a loss of credibility.
A major RDBMS company conducted a survey of Indian companies to
gauge the state of their BI. The survey found that 34 percent had
not even ventured into analytics. Note that these were prominent
organizations that participated in the survey. So I have to
ask—how smart is your BI? Is MIS and reporting your idea of
BI?
In the Network Computing Infrastructure Agenda 2010 survey
(December 2009), BI topped the list of IT priorities for businesses
across verticals. Yet, many do not even understand this term and
awareness is low. There’s a false perception that BI tools
are prohibitively expensive and painfully slow. So, what’s
the truth?
We begin the year with a well-researched story by the
InformationWeek US team, on how BI has evolved.
Our editorial team adds a local flavor by updating you on the
state of BI in India. Don’t miss our story on open source BI
in India. Another story brings you up-to-date with new BI models
and technologies—the state of SaaS-based BI (for instance).
Lastly, read the exclusive interview with Tony Tsao, CEO &
President, D-Link. Tsao talks about the future of networks and
explains the shift to an application-driven environment and social
networks.
Have a wonderful year!