SAP questions Gartner BI ranking

When vendors make it into the top-right 'leaders' quadrant of a Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) report, they generally don't complain, writes InformationWeek.

But SAP isn't thrilled with the 'ability to execute' positioning of SAP BusinessObjects in the 2010 Gartner MQ for business intelligence platforms. "If you look at the results, it's non-intuitive and nonsensical that we would have less ability to execute, than, for example, Microstrategy," says Franz Aman, SAP's vice-president of intelligence platform product marketing.

SAP was so upset with the ability to execute ranking that it went to the extreme of commissioning a blind survey of 24 CIOs, conducted by the Gerson Lehrman Group, that shows a higher ranking for SAP Business Objects based on an open-ended, respondent-defined interpretation of 'ability to execute'.

Next month, IBM will release a beta version of a software application designed to keep track of how information flows across different systems, sending alerts when source data has been altered or isn't properly ingested into some target system or report, states PC World.

"A lot of our customers have had challenges monitoring the quality of information," says Steven Adler, IBM's programme director for information governance. This product will "help govern the use of information by people, which is totally dependent on operational awareness".

Marketed under the company's InfoSphere line of data management software, the InfoSphere Business Information Monitor is designed to track how well data moves from databases to business intelligence or other enterprise software.

Whitbread Hospitality group has reorganised its reporting set-up to gain a better and more timely view of business activity, says Computing.co.uk.

The group, owner of businesses such as Premier Inn hotel and Costa Coffee, had previously been handling data from different sources without fully exploiting its Oracle system's ability to sort this, according to IS and change director Andrew Brothers.

“We wanted a timely overview of business performance, we also have a depository of data that we wanted to make available to departments such as finance, sales and marketing,” says Brothers.