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Contributed article by Brian Gentile, Chief Executive Officer, Jaspersoft

The Intelligence Inside: In 2013, Information Will Find the Knowledge Worker - Not the Other Way Around

We live in a world where organizations must now compete on their differential use of time and information.  Because we can have no more of the former, and because we have an unlimited amount of the latter, there is a new responsibility to harness information more effectively to compete speedily and agilely.

Is traditional Business Intelligence able to address this newfound opportunity to put much more information to work?  We know that, today, only a small fraction of information workers actually use a traditional BI tool during the course of a day.  Why?  Because those tools are too complex and too costly - which prevents the widespread use of timely, actionable data. The bigger matter, though, is that most information workers do NOT spend their day inside of a BI tool...  Nor do they want to!  We simply can't expect even the best workers to go and find the right report or data that is relevant to their question or issue at hand. 

So, what's the solution? Bring timely, actionable data TO the users.  Information workers today truly need information that finds them, not the other way around.  Today, the rise of cloud-based applications, both mobile and desktop, are fueling this need for improved use of the data that is generated from within.  As a result, business users are interacting with more applications, which generates more transactions and more data.  Turning this data into information and insight is needed now more than ever.  In short, we need greater intelligence inside applications.

Further, this information should be delivered within the software applications and business processes that are used every day by information workers.  From pipeline dashboards within the CRM system to visualized compensation data within the HR system and on to interactive charts inside the native, mobile customer service application - the information generated by these business processes and (transactional) software applications should be put to greater use.  At Jaspersoft, we call this a "data-driven" application, and our mission is to be the Intelligence Inside.

To truly deliver integrated intelligence within a software application or business process, there are 3 primary requirements: 

1. Must be a simple, powerful self-service reporting and analysis environment that invites a variety of methods for exploring data and creating new insight;
2. Must be easy to embed and integrate within the application or process, enabling different techniques to liberate the data generated by the application and encouraging widespread use of it as information; and
3. Must be affordable even on a large scale, so there is no question about the value of delivering more information to any user who could benefit.

Intelligence Inside - In Practice

It's easiest to envision the countless possibilities for modern, data-driven applications that truly liberate the data, generating new insight and value along the way by considering some real-world examples in practice today.  Red Hat integrates reporting and data analysis within its Enterprise Virtualization software (RHEV) and exposes system health and monitoring information to allow its customers to better manage their virtualization environment.  Virgin Money embeds reports and dashboards within its charitable "Giving" web site, providing rich insight to sources and uses of funds.  And, British Telecom has built a comprehensive statistical data warehouse of customer information, using an embedded reporting portal for customer service reports and analysis that enable reduced call times and improved service levels. 

With each of these examples, intelligence is built inside these applications and the data is liberated to create new value.  To accomplish this, a modern, lightweight-but-powerful, embeddable reporting and analysis tool was implemented because it can deliver a rich self-service experience at a fraction of the cost of the alternatives.

The new year (2013) will surely bring greater understanding that information must find the knowledge worker, not the other way around. To this end, I expect data-driven applications and embeddable BI to become more popular than ever before.  What is the biggest value you expect to see from integrated reporting and analytics? Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.

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