Business intelligence software

Business intelligence tools are a type of application software designed to report, analyze and present data. The tools generally read data that have been previously stored often, though, not necessarily, in a data warehouse or data mart.

Types of business intelligence tools

The key general categories of business intelligence tools are:

• Spreadsheets
• Reporting and querying software - are tools that extract, sort, summarize, and present selected data
• OLAP
• Digital Dashboards
• Data mining
• Process mining
• Business performance management

Except for spreadsheets, these tools are sold as standalone tools, suites of tools, components of ERP systems, or as components of software targeted to a specific industry. The tools are sometimes packaged into data warehouse appliances.

Open Source and Free Business Intelligence Products

• Eclipse BIRT Project: Eclipse-based open source reporting for web applications, especially those based on Java EE.
• Freereporting.com: Free Web-based BI software application by LogiXML
• JasperSoft: Standalone and Operational BI for reporting, analysis and ETL (the latter based on Talend Open Studio)
• OpenI: simple web application that does OLAP reporting
• Palo (OLAP database): Memory-based OLAP Server (MOLAP refers to Multidimensional OLAP, not Memory-based OLAP) with interface to Microsoft Excel, .NET, PHP, Java and C++
• Pentaho: Enterprise-class reporting, analysis, dashboard, data mining and workflow capabilities
• RapidMiner (formerly YALE): open-source software for intelligent data analysis, knowledge discovery, data mining, predictive analytics, and machine learning useful for business intelligence applications.
• SpagoBI: a Business Intelligence Free Platform which uses many FOSS tools as analytical engines, integrating them in an infrastructure which offers a cross-operativeness and a consistent vision between Report,OLAP,Data Mining,Dashboard and over the DWH.

Proprietary products

• ACE*COMM
• Ab Initio
• Actuate
• ComArch
• CyberQuery
• Dimensional Insight
• IBM
  • Applix
  • Cognos
• IdeaSoft http://www.ideasoft.biz
• InetSoft
• Informatica
• Information Builders
• LogiXML
• LucidEra
• Microsoft
  • Microsoft Analysis Services
  • PerformancePoint Server 2007
  • Proclarity
• MicroStrategy
• Oracle Corporation
  • Hyperion Solutions Corporation
• Panorama Software
• Pentaho
• Pervasive
• Pilot Software, Inc.
• PRELYTIS
• Prospero Business Suite
• Qliktech
• SAP Business Information Warehouse
  • Business Objects
  • OutlookSoft
• SAS Institute
• Siebel Systems
• Spotfire (now Tibco)
• StatSoft
• SPSS
• Telerik Reporting
• Teradata
• Thomson Data Analyzer

External links

• BusinessWeek Magazine: Giving the Boss the Big Picture: A dashboard pulls up everything the CEO needs to run the show (February 2006)
• Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing tools information
• Business Intelligence market consolidation information