e.Intelligence ANNOUNCES VISION OF "COLLABORATIVE" BI

e.Intelligence Inc, a leader in extending the value of the data warehouse to deliver analytical supply-chain solutions, described its vision suggesting that enterprises and business-to-business exchanges could realize greater efficiencies and reduced costs for supply-chain planning with what the company calls "Collaborative Business Intelligence" (c-BI).

c-BI is the logical evolution of traditional business intelligence (BI), which currently leverages the data warehouse to focus solely on historical information reporting. In contrast, c-BI creates a language standard to enable information sharing, collaboration and communications to transcend traditional departmental silos and utilize information across the entire enterprise or multiple enterprises in the case of B2B exchanges. c-BI facilitates predictive, interactive analyses - so that "what if" analyses may be conducted - that allow companies to revise business plans, gain consensus among all stakeholders, implement the revised plans, and monitor the implementations.

Technology analyst firms are beginning to endorse this vision. "The market need among retailers and manufacturers for enhanced interactive analysis and collaboration is huge and growing -- and not just for trading communities and net markets," said Aaron Zornes, executive vice president with META Group. "Clearly, the exchange of information and consensus decision-making via integrated analytics provides substantial benefits for all parties involved in e-business commerce chains."

Lesson from the Past

e.Intelligence president and CEO Richard Tanler, who has authored several articles on c-BI, explained that until now the focus of e-Business, in particular B2B e-business, has been on Internet-enabled transaction processing. "However, since nearly everyone has equal access to the technology, the real sustainable benefits belong to those who learn how to apply the data that is being collected."

One example of this is laser bar-code scanners that were heralded as a revolution in transaction processing nearly 30 years ago when they were first installed in grocery stores. With scanners, there no longer was a need to price individual products; missed keys were eliminated and customer service improved. The competitive edge that resulted from improved operations was short lived, as most retailers soon adopted the technology. The technology's true long-term benefit was improved collection of sales data. Retailers such as Wal-Mart leveraged the data to better manage their operations, and they became the true winners from using the technology.

Similarly, organizations today that have implemented BI have realized only a small portion of the potential economic return on their investment. "This is because they have not had the tools for fully integrating BI into their key business processes," said Tanler. "For these firms, BI stops with the production and delivery of reports to users."

Meanwhile, the Internet has redefined the need for BI. While the BI industry quickly responded to e-commerce with CRM applications that organized content delivery within portals and B2B collaboration is getting press attention, little has been done with organizing dynamic data to support enterprise-wide collaboration. "D2D - department to department - internal collaboration must be addressed first to help companies who are seeking internal and external collaboration but don't know where to start," said Tanler.

Data Warehouse: The Eye of c-BI

Companies that have a data warehouse have a way to begin - a language standard that positions the data warehouse as the center of a collaborative hub. Their investment in building the data warehouse yielded a common definition of terms: descriptions, product attributes, hierarchies, facts and business rules. "At the very least, they have a good start on developing a standard for collaboration throughout their enterprise and beyond," said Tanler.

The data warehouse contains the most complete and accurate record of historical performance, as well as the most important management reports - including Key Performer Indicator and Balanced Scorecard reporting - for comparing actual performance to plan and the latest forecast. In order to maintain the integrity in the data warehouse, it has typically been a read-only data source. As a result, organizations developed separate planning systems, often spreadsheet-based. "Certainly, the integrity of the historical data stored in the data warehouse must be protected, but why not allow users the ability to add new data to the warehouse, as long as it conforms to the multi-dimensional structure and a controlled process?" Tanler asks.

c-BI provides users with such controls for implementing spreadsheet-like "what-if?" analyses that may eventually be linked to the data warehouse so that information can be archived and shared. "This collaborative process also arrests the spread of analytic application silos that have sprouted due to the analytic limitations of current BI tools," said Tanler.

e.Intelligence has been working on a robust c-BI solution that incorporates a lightweight client interface and addresses performance and scalability issues that have taxed database engines. Its soon-to-be-released e.Intelligence Suite supports collaborative decision processing for commerce and supply-chain planning applications (forecasting, planning, merchandising, procurement and logistics) between departments within an enterprise and among multiple enterprises in an exchange. The software generates dynamic, forward-looking data sets that can be joined with the data warehouse for building more accurate plans and promoting better, faster decisions that result in lower operational costs and improved customer satisfaction. For more information about collaborative business intelligence, visit www.eintelligence-inc.com.

About e.Intelligence

Privately held e.Intelligence is a market leader in collaborative business intelligence products, analytic applications, and services within companies and between trading partners. Created in 1996, the e.Intelligence Suite allows firms to fully leverage their data warehouse by allowing multiple users access to real-time, company- or community-wide information that helps them simulate the impact of decisions, facilitates collaboration to reach consensus, and commits business plans to the data warehouse. The company is based in Minneapolis, Minn. For more information about e.Intelligence and the e.Intelligence Suite, visit www.eintelligence-inc.com.

Contact Tunheim Group, for e.Intelligence, Paul Kelash, 952-851-7223, pkelash@tunheim.com.