Category Archives: Business Intelligence

Bill Ackman, Business Intelligence, Carl Icahn, George Soros, Hedge fund, Investment management, Mobile, MoneyChakra, Warren Buffett, Xignite

MoneyChakra iPad App Tracks Investments by Top Hedge Fund Managers

MoneyChakra today announced the availability of its iPad app that tracks top hedge fund managers’ actions using the Xignite Market Data Cloud. MoneyChakra uses innovative data services from Xignite to reveal the portfolios and buy/sell actions for top hedge fund managers, including Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, George Soros, Bill Ackman and other leading money managers.

The first company to offer an iPad app in this category, MoneyChakra differs from other services that post the actions of hedge fund managers by using Xignite’s web services to clearly and simply display real-time data. MoneyChakra is outshining the competition by presenting big picture perspectives with dynamic visualization that can be understood at a glance. MoneyChakra also allows users to drill down into data to:

  • View top hedge fund managers’ portfolios as soon as they are filed
    with SEC
  • Visualize top hedge fund managers’ buy/sell actions for the quarter
  • See patterns across the top hedge fund managers’ portfolios
  • Get news and other actions, such as Form 4 and SC 13 filings
  • Make watchlists for the stocks you are considering for buying/selling

The MoneyChakra iPad app, with Xignite data, is available as a free download in the iTunes Apple Store.


Apache Hadoop, Big Data, Business Intelligence, Hadoop, Kitenga, Open Source, Quest, Unstructured data

Quest Software Announces Hadoop-Centric Software Analytics

 

Image representing Hadoop as depicted in Crunc...Quest Software, Inc. (now part of Dell) announced three significant product releases today aimed at helping customers more quickly adopt Hadoop and exploit their Big Data:

  • Kitenga Analytics ? Based on the recent acquisition of Kitenga,
    Quest Software now enables customers to analyze structured,
    semi-structured and unstructured data stored in Hadoop. Available
    immediately, Kitenga Analytics delivers sophisticated capabilities,
    including text search, machine learning, and advanced visualizations,
    all from an easy-to-use interface that does not require understanding
    of complex programming or the Hadoop stack itself. With Kitenga
    Analytics and the Quest Toad®
    Business Intelligence Suite, an organization has a complete
    self-service analysis environment that empowers business and systems
    analysts across a variety of backgrounds and job roles.
  • Toad for Hadoop ? Quest Software expands support for Hadoop in
    the upcoming release of Toad® for Hadoop. With more than two million
    users, and ranked No. 1 in Database Development and Optimization for
    three consecutive years by IDC [1], Toad has been enhanced to help
    database developers and DBAs bridge the gap between what they already
    know about relational database management systems and the new world of
    Hadoop. Toad will provide query and data management functionality for
    Hadoop, as well as an interface to perform data transfers using the
    Quest Hadoop Connector. Like Toad for any other platform, Toad for
    Hadoop makes the lives of developers, DBAs, and analysts easier and
    more productive.
  • SharePlex with Hadoop Capabilities ? Quest Software adds Hadoop
    capabilities to the next release of SharePlex® for Oracle,
    its robust, high-performance Oracle-to-Oracle database replication
    technology. For enterprise mission-critical systems that must always
    be available, the new release will seamlessly create multiple copies
    of Oracle data for movement simultaneously to both another Oracle
    environment and Hadoop, with no downtime. Customers can choose how
    they optimize Oracle and Hadoop environments based on data
    requirements, such as high availability; analytics and reporting;
    image and text processing; and general archiving. The architecture
    allows for scalable data distribution on-premise, in the cloud, and
    across multiple data centers without a single point of failure.


Airline, Business Intelligence, Business Processes, Revenue management, RMS

Revenue Management Systems Unveils airRMexpress for Small Airlines

Revenue Management Systems (RMS)  is launching airRMexpress, a new cloud-based airline revenue management solution designed specifically for small airlines.

With airRMexpress, RMS brings the advantages of powerful forecasting and optimization capabilities to a whole segment of the airline industry that was previously underserved. And RMS delivers it at a price that is affordable. In addition to forecasting and optimization, airRMexpress also features many other tools, such as an executive dashboard, flight analysis screens, a report builder and the popular Business Rules manager.

“There are literally hundreds of small airlines around the world today who are either spending too much time making manual inventory adjustments or are using solutions that don’t have all the features they need,” said Scott Schade, CEO of RMS. “We have designed airRMexpress for these airlines so they can quickly and efficiently optimize their seat inventory, thereby significantly improving their bottom line.”

As a cloud-based solution, airRMexpress can be rapidly deployed. Accessing the system via the internet also saves airlines from having to buy expensive server hardware.


Business Intelligence, Partnerships, QlikTech, QlikView

QlikTech Launches QlikMarket Business Discovery Exchange

Image representing QlikTech as depicted in Cru...

QlikTech today announced the launch of QlikMarket, a Web marketplace that delivers an interactive way for QlikTech customers to evaluate and acquire technologies and applications that leverage the QlikView Business Discovery platform.

QlikMarket is a site to harness the innovation of QlikTech partners in the new breed of business intelligence, known as Business Discovery, or self-service BI. QlikMarket currently includes Big Data connectors and extensions (Google BigQuery), unstructured analytics solutions (Attivio), connectors to Facebook, Twitter and Google Analytics (Industrial Codebox), and Cloud offerings like RApid Spend Analysis – Professional and QlikView OnDemand (Rosslyn Analytics). Specific industry and functional applications include pharmaceutical and manufacturing apps and those focusing on specific areas like property management and sales channel management.

QlikMarket is live with over 50 offerings in its debut at market.qlikview.com, featuring technology connectors, extensions, and purpose-built apps powered by QlikView:

  • Connectors: Link QlikView to specific source systems or data
    including connectors to Salesforce.com, SAP, or ETL solutions.
  • Extensions: Extend the QlikView experience to include features
    like new chart types, geo-spatial mapping, or real-time data streaming.
  • Purpose-built Apps: QlikView applications that solve a specific
    buyer’s need from a CFO dashboard to procurement benchmarking.

QlikMarket allows customers, prospects and the over 90,000 members of QlikCommunity to easily navigate the site by industry or solution, sort by relevance or partner, monitor solutions that are “most downloaded” and research offerings that are “highest rated.” They can also make educated selections of solutions with access to feedback from peers. In its first months in beta use before launch, two geo-spatial mapping apps (IdevioMaps for QlikView and GeoQlik extension), as well as the Connector Suite QVSource were among the leaders for both popularity and ratings.

“Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for our partners and customers to do business with QlikTech,” said Drew Clarke, vice president of Business Development at QlikTech. “For partners, QlikMarket creates revenue opportunities for their developed assets. For customers, it provides a one-stop shop to create their own ecosystem around the QlikView platform. For QlikTech, it allows us to use crowdsourcing to gauge customer interest and demands for specific applications and technologies to better serve customers’ needs.”

QlikMarket offerings come from submissions from QlikTech’s Qonnect Program solution providers, technology partners, OEM partners, and system integrator partners. QlikMarket is different from other software companies’ catalog-style exchanges because it enables users to interact with and experience the solution with live demonstrations.respective owners.


AutoDesk, Business Intelligence, Business Processes, Jitterbit, Partnerships

Autodesk, Jitterbit Partner for Cloud Access to Product Lifecycle Data

 

Image representing Autodesk as depicted in Cr...

Autodesk, Inc. and Jitterbit have partnered to provide Autodesk PLM 360 the ability to integrate with on premise and cloud business applications. The relationship further strengthens Autodesk PLM 360’s position as the next generation cloud-based alternative for product lifecycle management.

Jitterbit’s cloud integration platform is a key component of a new suite of integration tools called Autodesk PLM 360 Connect, which helps customers to integrate their PLM and other cloud and enterprise business applications into one, seamless environment. The ability to easily move data across multiple systems further strengthens the value of Autodesk PLM 360, making the benefits of PLM available to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

“The combination of Autodesk PLM 360 and Jitterbit’s next generation cloud integration solutions allows companies of all sizes to realize a greater return on their technology investments in ERP, CRM or other proprietary business applications,” said George Gallegos, CEO at Jitterbit. “Companies will now have the ability to gather, analyze and utilize product or project data in a far more efficient manner than previously possible.”

“Autodesk PLM 360 Connect is a straightforward and cost-effective way to keep Autodesk PLM 360 tightly connected with data from other critical business systems,” said Buzz Kross, senior vice president, Design, Lifecycle and Simulation at Autodesk. “Jitterbit is a natural partner to match our nimble cloud-based approach. Our customers require integration that is powerful, quick, easy-to-use, and affordable.”

The combination of cloud-based PLM with a cloud-based enterprise application interface platform makes it easy for customers to map, build and manage an elegant integration solution in any application environment. Jitterbit’s intuitive graphical user interface means no software coding is required for integration. This “no coding” approach makes connections simple and easy to build and maintain for business analysts and administrators alike.

For additional information about the new suite of integration tools, Autodesk PLM 360 Connect, visit www.autodeskplm360.com.


Big Data, BigData, Business Intelligence, Endeca Technologies, IBM, Internet of Things, M&A Activity, Pivotal Labs

Big Data Future Spurs Acquisitions

In October 2011, Oracle announced its acquisition of Endeca Technologies, an enterprise search and data management company providing enterprises with non-structured data management, e-commerce and business intelligence technology.

In November 2011, IBM announced its acquisition of Platform Computing, an HPC software company with excellent performance in cloud computing and big data.

In February 2012, Groupon acquired Adku, a startup that uses big data to personalize online shopping experience for people visiting e-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon.

In March 2012, EMC announced its acquisition of Pivotal Labs, a private agile software developer and tool provider headquartered in San Francisco.

In the past two years, international IT giants, including IBM, Oracle, EMC and SAP, have been engaged in an upsurge of acquisition in the big data market, spending more than $1.5 billion in acquiring related data management and analysis companies. Big data becomes a new hot term after “cloud computing” in the IT and financial sectors.

The upsurge of big data results from the integrated development of the new-generation information technology, and the processing and analysis of big data in turn becomes a key support for the said integrated development.

The Internet of Things (IoT), mobile Internet, digital home and social network services are the applications of the new-generation information technology. Big data is continuously increasing together with these applications, whereas cloud computing provides the storage and computing platform for massive and diversified big data. It is estimated that the global data storage volume was 1.8ZB in 2011, and it will hit 2.7ZB in 2012 and exceed 8ZB in 2015. The growth rate of structured data is around 32%, and that of non-structured data 63%.

In the retail sector, analysis on big data enables retailers to master the real-time market trends and promptly take corresponding measures. Walmart has started analyzing the massive sales data of all its chain stores in combination with weather data, economics and demography, so as to select proper products for each chain store and determine the timing of discounts.

In the Internet sector, analysis on big data helps manufacturers develop more precise and effective marketing strategies. Facebook and eBay are analyzing and exploring massive data from social networks and online transaction data, with an aim of providing personalized advertising services.

In the utility sector, big data have begun to play a significant role. Many European cities guide drivers to select the best routes by analyzing real-time traffic flow data, thereby improving traffic conditions. The United Nations also launched “Global Pulse”, a program aiming to accelerate global economic development with big data.

The enormous commercial value of and market demand for big data are driving transformation of the information industry. New big data-oriented products, technologies, services and models are constantly emerging.

On one hand, the challenges such as effective storage, fast read-write and real-time analysis will have significant impacts on the chip and storage industry as well as incubate the integrated data storage & processing server and memory computing markets.

On the other hand, the enormous value of big data will lead to urgent needs for fast data processing and analysis as well as give rise to the unprecedented prosperity of data exploration and business intelligence markets.


Apache Hadoop, Big Data, BigData, Business Intelligence, Data analysis, Dremel, Google, Hadoop, MapReduce

Google’s Dremel is the Holy Grail of Big Data: Really Big, Really Fast, Really Simple

First Google created, and wrote papers on, Hadoop and MapReduce, which got reverse-engineered into the current state of the art for Big Data.

But Google has moved on to Dremel, and the rest of the world is slow in catching up.

With BigQuery Google offers a simple-to-user service that doesn’t sacrifice Big Data scale OR speed.

As  Armando Fox, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley who specializes in these sorts of data-center-sized software platforms. put it in a Wired article:

“This is unprecedented. Hadoop is the centerpiece of the “Big Data” movement, a widespread effort to build tools that can analyze extremely large amounts of information. But with today’s Big Data tools, there’s often a drawback. You can’t quite analyze the data with the speed and precision you expect from traditional data analysis or “business intelligence” tools. But with Dremel, Fox says, you can.

“They managed to combine large-scale analytics with the ability to really drill down into the data, and they’ve done it in a way that I wouldn’t have thought was possible,” he says. “The size of the data and the speed with which you can comfortably explore the data is really impressive. People have done Big Data systems before, but before Dremel, no one had really done a system that was that big and that fast.

“Usually, you have to do one or the other. The more you do one, the more you have to give up on the other. But with Dremel, they did both.”


Andreessen Horowitz, Business Intelligence, General Catalyst Partners, GoodData, Tenaya Capital, Venture Funding, Windcrest Partners

GoodData Gets $25 Million for Business Intelligence Tools

Image representing GoodData as depicted in Cru...

GoodData announced today that it has closed $25 million in Series C funding led by Tenaya Capital, with participation from new investor Next World Capital, and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst Partners, Fidelity Growth Partners and Windcrest Partners. The company has raised $53.5 million in total to date.

Brian Paul, Managing Director at Tenaya Capital will join the board of directors. Other existing board members include John O’Farrell, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz; Larry Bohn, Managing Director of General Catalyst Partners; James Gellert, Partner at Windcrest Partners, Dave Girouard, former General Manager of Google Enterprise, and Roman Stanek, founder and CEO of GoodData.

Since the company was founded, more than 6,000 customers have adopted GoodData to monetize their data. In 2011, the company posted 600 percent bookings growth and more than doubled employees and customers, making GoodData one of the fastest growing companies in the space.

GoodData will use the new funding to continue to invest in technology innovation as well as build sales and marketing programs to raise awareness and accelerate adoption of its disruptive, cloud-based platform.

“It’s time to pull the plug on the old business intelligence model — it’s clear that it is obsolete,” said Roman Stanek, founder and CEO of GoodData. “We are pioneering a new approach to business intelligence that will monetize and bring big data to life.”


Alpha Exchange, Business Intelligence, Market data, Mobile, Partnerships, Xignite

Alpha Exchange Partners with Xignite to Deliver Canadian Securities Market Data

Image representing Xignite as depicted in Crun...

Xignite Inc. and Alpha Market Services Inc., the data distributor for Toronto Based Alpha Exchange, today announced their agreement to launch new services offering access to Alpha Exchange real-time and historical market data via the Internet. Alpha Exchange trades securities listed on the TSX, TSX Venture and Alpha Exchange listing markets. Alpha Exchange has roughly 20% of Canadian market share and will leverage Xignite’s leading financial market data cloud solutions to deliver data through easy to consume application programming interfaces (APIs). These services are ideally suited to fuel the next generation enterprise and mobile applications, increasing the Exchange’s global reach.

“Alpha Exchange prides itself in being a leader in innovation, an enabler of technological initiatives and a proponent of market data democratization,” stated Jos Schmitt, CEO of Alpha Exchange. “Putting in place a market data cloud solution with Xignite as well as being its first non-US exchange partner is a natural but also a very exciting step forward for the Exchange.”

The first phase, scheduled for the beginning of August, will include the addition of Alpha Exchange’s last sale data to the award winning Xignite Market Data Cloud platform available via Xignite.com. The data will include real-time last sale prices and minute-level tick bars for all securities trading on Alpha Exchange. For pricing and availability, call 1(650)655-3700 or email dataexperts@xignite.com.

“We are delighted that Alpha has recognized the Market Data Cloud’s potential to grow its global business,” stated Stephane Dubois, CEO and founder of Xignite Inc. “This relationship marks an important step in expanding access to global financial market data.”

The second phase includes the launch of the Alpha Data Cloud, a rich suite of cloud-based market data services powered by the XigniteOnDemand platform, and is slated for Q4 2012. The Alpha Data Cloud will provide easy and cost effective access to real-time data via Internet for customers around the world, and provide a one-stop shop for all Alpha Exchange historical and reference data. The service will allow customers to access the data via APIs, to download custom subsets of historical data, to subscribe to reoccurring data delivery or to replay a full day of trades and quotes.


Business Intelligence, Business Processes, Foreclosure, Multiple listing service, Partnerships, Real estate, Real estate broker, Real estate owned

Green River Capital Partners with Realty Pilot To Add Cloud Asset Management

Green River Capital (GRC), a provider of customized REO asset management and loss mitigation services for mortgage servicers, investment firms, credit unions and banking institutions, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Phoenix-based Realty Pilot, a provider of cloud-based real estate solutions.

GRC will integrate Realty Pilot’s technology to enhance the platform used by GRC’s valuation unit, Infinity Valuation Services (IVS). Agents now have access to multiple listing service (MLS) data directly through IVS’s online platform, which automatically populates data input fields with information regarding comparable properties selected by the user.

“This integration significantly improves our agents’ productivity by dramatically reducing data entry when performing valuations,” said Lorenz Schwarz, COO of GRC. “Adopting Realty Pilot’s technology will advance the functionality of our existing systems, providing greater reporting capabilities and improved process transparency. Furthermore, this development allows IVS to streamline operations and expand its valuation product offerings to address the changing needs of our clients and the industry as a whole.”

Realty Pilot provides a broad suite of automated solutions to the real estate market, including integrated nationwide MLS data. IVS provides BPOs and appraisals to the Mortgage and REO industries, tailoring the products to meet each client’s needs.For more information, visit www.greenrivercap.com.