Powered by Web 2.0 Technologies

New technologies often referred to as “Web 2.0” have also become available to power more interactive front-ends to data. Today’s Web environments include rich client experiences based on technologies such as Adobe Flash and AJAX scripting. Interfaces previously available only on a programmer’s desktop can now be deployed to any user with a Web browser. Faster networks and more powerful desktop PCs increase the amount of data that can be processed on the desktop of the user. XML interfaces allow data to be presented from heterogeneous data sources in a secure fashion. Semantic web technology, like RDF, make information more meaningful to users by integrating ontologies – dictionaries about the meaning of data – to organize how content is presented to create context and save search time. These richer client environments open the door to a more visual approach to data analysis.

The combination of data availability and new technologies is creating an opportunity to change how data is analyzed. Companies that recognize the opportunity sooner will be the first to use it as a strategic differentiator – saving costs developing custom reports, lowering risks from spreadsheet-based reporting, and providing applications to business users that give them the visibility they need to make better decisions.

While the opportunity to improve reporting through Interactive Visual Analysis is driving early adoption of specific applications, it is still a new concept at many organizations. Most deployments to date are custom systems using web application programming tools including .NET, Java, and Flash or extensions of existing business intelligence dashboard projects. These custom projects are proving challenging and will not scale in the long term to meet the needs of large organizations due to gaps in expertise, gaps in capabilities and overall cost.

The Design Gap

Effective design of an interactive reporting environment is not a core skill for IT teams and software developers. Visualization can address a number of business requirements by applying design patterns that are not apparent to a team not experienced with the concepts so having experts who have delivered applications in the past greatly reduces failure rates and increases the total return on investment on projects. Making a useful workspace takes experience in the three disciplines of visual interaction design, business process analysis and reporting software development. The combination of these three skill sets are rarely found in a single individual or even within a functional team. With a limited community of expertise to translate business reporting requirements into a blueprint for a user interface it is important for companies to seek outside expertise.

Packaged Technology

he total cost of ownership of custom designed analytics systems is too high for sustainable development and maintenance. Today’s major business intelligence platforms lack the depth of features and architecture to support real-world visual analysis applications because the functionality required goes far beyond the capabilities of the core business intelligence reporting architecture. The solution is to license a product platform that is designed to satisfy the needs for visual analysis and integrate the visual analysis platform with existing data repositories and BI applications to leverage prior investments. The platform should be able to support both data exploration and business alignment and include a library of modular components sufficient to assemble a meaningful business application.

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