2010: A Year of Hope
By Brian Pereira
 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!
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