Kognitio wins award

We're thrilled with the news that the BeyeNETWORK and its team of distinguished judges have voted Kognitio and its customer, TRA, winners of their 2009 Vision Award for Business Impact in the category of Analytics. This great news follows the awards bestowed upon Kognitio by SearchDataManagement.com in 2008 and Networks Product Guide earlier in 2009.

As per the judges of the BeyeNETWORK team, TRA's use of Kognitio's WX2 analytical database "provides increased analytical efficiency for the business (back end to front end)." This is a great testament to the power and flexibility of the database solution, in that organizations such as TRA can dramatically slash the time it takes to analyze data and speed up their ability to offer analyses and business insight out to their client base, thereby increasing their competitive advantage significantly. WX2 is core to TRA's offering in the market place, and we're delighted that the folks at the BeyeNETWORK have recognized that.

To read more, click here to view the news release.

Businesses are spending millions on BI failures

And ouch. Today's news is something that a lot of people don’t want to see; almost two-thirds of companies that employ BI are being barraged with complaints that the system isn’t doing what they need it to do. But that’s what Kognitio has found in a survey of 200 IT directors in the UK. It also found it often takes far too long to get a BI implementation up and running (78% said more than a year).

The key here is better communication is needed between the business and IT sides; 88% of enterprises admitted that business departments do not properly define what they want to achieve from an implementation, expecting the IT department to do it for them. It’s also in rapid deployment of a BI system, and the need to begin generating actionable information quickly. The kind that Kognitio’s customers have been receiving for years through their use of Data Warehousing as a Service (DaaS).

Obviously, as companies need to analyze more data, and obtain those results more quickly, the focus on DaaS-type implementations is set to grow even more. But one thing is certain: companies need to adopt a more flexible, pragmatic approach to BI. Otherwise, they may as well open their window and throw their money out of it.

To read the full results of the survey, click here

Announcing WX2 version 7.0

We're delighted to announce the release of version 7.0 of our award-winning in-memory analytical database software, WX2. After months of development, we can now offer organizations even more features that will enable them to run high-speed data warehousing, analytical and BI projects fast, securely and at a cost that is palatable to their budgets.

The main features of v7.0 include:

• improved in-memory analytical capabilities, offering unprecedented speeds to access and query data
• an automated fault recovery capability, offering maximum database uptime
• the removal of scheduled downtime
• more multi-lingual support for global deployments
• increased level of user concurrency - hundreds of users can now query data at the same time without any degradation to performance
• even more scalability - WX2 can be deployed and scaled from TB to PB, while maintaining top-line performance

The features all complement the fact that WX2 continues to be the most flexible analytical database product in terms of deployment, available either as a software license to be installed on your hardware, as a fully configurated data warehouse appliance using x86 commodity hardware or via the on-demand utility-based DaaS option (Data warehousing as a Service).

To learn more, view the news release. To register for a free download of version 7.0, just complete our download form.

7 steps to de-risking a DW/BI project

Here are 7 simple steps to follow if you are faced with data warehousing or BI projects going over time, over budget and increasing risk levels within your organization.

Step 1 - MOTIVATE
Motivate all the users of the system, whether it be the long-term employee who is used to the current system and does not want to change, or the new employee who is looking forward to the new solution and does not see what the fuss is about. People are an organization's biggest asset, more so than any technology solution. Motivate them all to understand each others' issues and get them to work together, not in silos. Which leads us to our next step...

Step 2 - WORK AS A TEAM (Business & IT)
There must be teamwork to ensure a complete and accurate understanding of the data and the DW/BI systems in order to ensure the correct analysis, usage and reporting. This co-operation has to exist at all levels from project sponsor through management, analysts, designers, testers and implementers. Without this level of teamwork, the chances of the project delivering what the business needs are greatly reduced. In other words: talk to each other!

Step 3 - USE EXPERIENCED RESOURCES
If you are challenged with refreshing DW/BI systems and have no experience in this domain, get the help from someone who does. Yes, it sounds straightforward, but it's staggering how many times companies just follow the vendor's lead, implement the new system and then have not thought about how to transfer the data and business processes so it "fits" into the new system.

Step 4 - UNDERSTAND THE DATA
Understanding what you want out of your new DW/BI environment before diving head first into implementation will save you a lot of pain later on. There is no point putting in new systems if they do not meet the analytical needs of the business. Again, sounds obvious, but a little forethought will save a lot of headaches later on. And money!

Step 5 - MONITOR AND HANDLE CHANGE
So you've embarked on the whole implementation of your new or refreshed DW/BI/analytical environment. During the project, built some contigency into your planning so you can handle any curve balls that the business or IT throws at the project. In short, keep talking, communicating and reviewing whether you are on track and act accordingly.

Step 6 - CONTROL THE ISSUES
Nip issues in the bud as soon as they happen, do not let them fester and snowball into bigger issues later on. They'll be harder to rectify for one thing. Document any change that is made so that everyone is up-to-speed and changes or amendments can be referenced later on.

Step 7 - DELIVER QUALITY
If data is your biggest asset, and let's face it, it is for the majority of organizations (both large and small), then make sure that whatever the DW/BI/analytical environment looks like, it works, it serves the business, users are happy and that data can indeed be analyzed freely and quickly, and in turn that there is valuable insight gleaned from the data that can be acted upon to drive the business.

Follow these steps and you will be well on your way to success and growth.