Softwares as Services - Securing Data

Custom SaaS application development services have been in demand ever since it sprung up about a decade ago and has created quite a stir in the IT world. SaaS gives remote access to software Web-based services and allows different businesses to access applications at a low cost, lower than most of licensed applications because it’s a monthly fee subscription.

The software is remotely hosted so there is no need to invest in more hardware. Further, it eliminates the need for small businesses to have to deal with installation, set-up, daily upkeep and maintenance. For companies without any IT resources, this is certainly an attractive proposition.

Companies that offer SaaS also gain access to your computer systems other than hosting services in the user systems. So just how secure are the services?

The last thing anyone will want is that their data is in unwanted hands. It is hence essential that one makes it sure that the SaaS implementation vendor is one who can be reposed faith in, as well as reputed in the line of business. Customer references in great numbers are a must while making the choice. Some kind of track record of successful delivery should be traced for a new provider.

Another angle is customer support. Obviously, software and data security should be at the forefront in the list of SaaS service vendor selection criteria. Additionally, a vital part is how vendors keep their data secure and how doe they protect the data in times of disaster.

A good SaaS service vendor is expected to have many mirrored data centers where client data will be backed up and always available even in times of crisis.

SaaS service vendors use a variety of ways to secure client data. Some prefer a to have a collection of disks containing data protected with encryption. Some prefer the data locked up in large vaults especially in a remote location.

Article Source

http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1722.shtml

Real Time Business Intelligence - BI 2.0

So you thought the beginning and end of BI is the setting up of a cutting edge Data Warehouse? Well, think again. The BI landscape has undergone a sea change. Trying to articulate its various aspects and how it is evolving would fill several books. In this article, we will skim the surface and talk about the various ways in which BI is being perceived and handled in the current IT landscape.

If Traditional BI = Data Warehouse + Reporting Tools

Then BI 2.0 = (Past + Present) Data/Analytics + Future Business Analytics + Reporting Tools

I have used this simple equation by way of demonstration: BI v2.0 is all about studying and analyzing Past, Present and Future trends using archived and real-time data feeds and then turning this data into knowledge for stronger decision-making.

It is real-time or it is of no real use:

When it comes to Traditional BI tools, the data retrieved from them, in today’s parlance, is considered outdated. Intelligence is gleaned after the fact—after significant time has elapsed between the actual activity and the time when it is analyzed in either an individual or aggregated fashion. In this Internet Age, even the lapse of a day could render that data obsolete.

BAM and CEP are real-time tools; data is analyzed as the transactions are being executed. It is this optimally effective decision-making in the moment that makes BI 2.0 so attractive to new age businesses.

Use Case:

Let us now look at a common use case: the Shopping Cart. Shopping on the web is one of the most common online transactional activities today, and it is increasing year over year. For high traffic sites like eBay and Amazon, business cannot be made truly agile without the use of real-time analytics. Traditional BI just will not suffice.

So let us consider the following example:

• Acme Mart is a medium-sized discount store with brick and mortar stores throughout the country.

• It also sells merchandise through its high traffic website acmediscountstore.com.

• The transaction volumes both at the stores and online is quite large—to the extent of several million per day.

• It has a mature, established SOA infrastructure and its entire order management process is service-enabled.

Acme Mart also uses BAM (Business Activity Monitoring) to monitor services. Custom dashboards have been built to monitor sales of specific item categories and even items through sophisticated dashboards.

Contrast this with a similar business that uses Traditional BI mechanisms. It is obvious that it will not be able to match the level of agility of Acme Mart. By the time the sales data is analyzed, the opportunity to respond proactively has passed. Acme Mart is clearly more capable of reducing costs and increasing revenues via its real-time BAM-enabled BI solutions.

While CEP (Complex Event Processing) is similar to BAM, it is more of a services agnostic technology. It is sort of a real-time message aggregator that can process messages from various different sources including web services. One example of this can be applied to the current use case, along with order information, if related stock price information for the companies that produce those products are also needed in a separate dashboard then this feed that would normally come from the likes of a Bloomberg or Reuters can be combined with this Order data and displayed.

BI Technology Trends: The Past

We need not go into the details of how BI functions were being performed or are still being approached using DW-driven technology. If Business needed insights into key trends then they would follow this well beaten path:

- Setup a de-normalized DW or Data Mart

- ETL information from transactional data stores into DW

- Use reporting tools like Cognos to generate the required MIS reports.

Therefore, this was the tried and trusted method and was considered business as usual. Traditional BI is very batch-oriented in nature and not real-time. However, while real-time mechanisms may look very compelling in terms of their value proposition and ROI, it may not be feasible to implement these quickly as they are dependent on a services-based infrastructure.

BI Technology Trends: The Present

As the competitive landscape becomes more intense, the need for real-time business intelligence is almost De Rigueur in certain types of industries, in order to gain business agility and competitive advantage. With the advent of technologies such as BAM and CEP, it is possible to perform real-time and even future what if business analytics.

BAM and CEP fall under a new category called Event Driven Architecture (EDA). These tools permit BI in both synchronous and asynchronous modes.

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) is associated mainly with Web Services. It is a dashboard driven toolset that is comprised of various design time components and a runtime component. It is used in conjunction with other runtime components of a typical SOA implementation, such as ESBs and BPEL engines.

CEP (Complex Event Processing) is similar to BAM with the difference that CEP is not tied to web services alone and is message agnostic. You can aggregate disparate messages from myriad sources and use them as part of one CEP application.CEP is usually event driven.

The online shopping segment is also benefitting a lot from these advanced BI Solutions paradigms. The likes of Amazon, eBay and Zappos are rejoicing at the arrival of BAM and CEP. In such high traffic sites where the hits are measured in millions per day, attaining the level of agility and edge over the competition is virtually impossible without real-time analytics. Traditional BI strategies fall woefully short and are not equipped to deal with these types of business operations.

BI Technology Trends: The Future

There are several game changing trends that are in vogue in the BI field that promise to change the face of the industry. While BAM and CEP are the pre-cursors, they are fueling other paradigms that were not possible before.

Here is an example that is taken from advertising industry pundits whose central focus is always on “The Consumer”: Smart Billboards that will glean biometric information based on facial features of anyone walking by. If the consumer turns out to be a young 20-something year old male, the backend system would beam back relevant information such as ads for an iPod, cell phone, energy drink, sports car or anything that fits this particular demographic.

Just 5 years ago, this idea would have seemed outlandish, but not anymore. With real-time BI delivery mechanisms at the foundation, scenarios such as this are becoming reality. With a little ingenuity and BI 2.0, the possibilities are seemingly endless.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_11992.shtml

Dashboards Making Business Decision Quick and Easy

Businesses face a unique challenge in today's world

Decision-makers in today's business world face challenges placed upon  them because of advancements in technology and globalization. Executives  must now sift through data presented in different formats, stored in  different places, and created by multiple people. Managers often work  with staff dispersed not only in multiple offices, but often across the  country and the world. Smart business decisions are based on "all the  facts" but pulling those pieces together is a daunting task.

How do dashboards help decision makers overcome those challenges?

Today's smart business leaders look to business dashboards to help them  meet those challenges. Why? Because dashboard solutions pull the data  together into one at-your-fingertips place. And they enable users, no  matter where they are or what their technical know-how, to contribute to  and use the data.

A well-planned dashboard is easy to use. It clarifies the relationship  between data for better decision making. It allows decision makers to  spot opportunities and trends which enables many positive outcomes such  as cost reduction and optimal use of resources. Since dashboards quickly  sort through data, they help promote informed and responsive decisions.  The user can see results and understand what drives the numbers.

The benefit of a dashboard is it draws together the data AND the people.  Companies that use a dashboard to allow automatic access to corporate  data (accounting, inventory, customers, etc.) and with this gathered  data they can automatically produce and distribute reports to people in  the organization.

Some reporting tools deliver automated reports to users on a pre-defined  schedule. Users can set whatever schedule they choose, ie. daily,  weekly, monthly, or on an as-needed basis. People in the organization  can customize reports by inputting parameters like date ranges.

Excel dashboard software is an example of a business solution that  allows everyone in an organization to get the most out of business  resources they already understand. Excel is a tool that most business  people are accustomed to using on a day- to-day basis. They know how to  use the basic features, already have it on their computer, and can  easily share files between one another. One of the challenges of Excel  is manually creating visually complex dashboards. Reporting tools enable  everyone on staff to use automated Excel dashboards.

Executive dashboards lead to informed decision-making and collaboration

In summary, dashboards enable decision-makers to look at the whole  picture. They enhance a company's ability to share and update data  across boundaries of time and space. This data is then available in one  consolidated place in a familiar format like Excel that makes access  simple, useful, and universal.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_5720.shtml

Watch SaaS BI Software in Action - Dashboards and Analytics

Introducing the new on demand bi service, Nividh. Watch the video to know more about the service and its features. Nividh won't let you down, if you looking for a bi dashboards and analytics solution which is fast, reliable, simple and affordable.

Thank you for watching the video and hope you know about this saas bi model. Nividh provides dashboards and analytics together, easy fast and simple..

BI On Demand - What's new in the lot?

Technological Innovations started happening a few decades back itself in the field of business management. The intervention started in order to boost the business by tracking and getting reports from the business data. The process, termed as Business Intelligence, is nothing but giving analysis of business through dashboards and alike reporting methods. The advantage is easy monitoring of various business scenarios towards taking right business decisions to boost the ROI's.

BI services are a lot, but the solutions remained much expensive for small and medium level industies. Need for a better and affordable bi solution was prevailing since.

On Demand BI - Latest Offerings

On demand solutions made simpler and affordable in case of business intelligence. Nividh, a bi dashboarding service provided with an aim to make innovative bi technologies popular within SME's who may find getting bi solutions 'NA' to them due to the huge expenses incurred when going for common brands.

On Demand Dashboards

Nividh an on demand bi service providing dashboarding and bi analytics solutions for SMES in a simple faster and affordable way. Nividh can deliver dashboards meeting the specific business KPI's in 40 percent lesser time than similar ultra expensive services.

The bi dashboards being created using flex, the data visualization abilities are immense in Nividh dashboards. What you will get in nividh dashboards is a set of  custom data visualization components which can help analyse the data more concise. All the traditional components available in regular bi dashboards are included.

Dashboard Samples

Feel like having a look on the sample dashboards. Can be done from the bi dashboards page of Nividh itself.
The categories enlisted are:-

• Sales Dashboards
• Logistics/Supplychain Dashboards
• Educational Dashboards
• HR Dashboards or HCM Dashboards

Enabled with most of the dashboards component features, a full fledged dashboard can be viewed from Learn More page of nividh. Just click the dashboard preview in this learn more page.

Such an elaborate custom data visualization options, in such an attractive price package within a timelimit lesser than all the similar bi services, is provided in Nividh only.

The dashboard galleries and feature sets keeps on adding, in addition to the ever growing flex component library. Taking a free trial by providing a sample data set in nividh will prove you Nividh is such an awesome bi solution for business particularly SME's.

Dashboards for Business Data Visualizaton

Decision-makers in today's business world face challenges placed upon them because of advancements in technology and globalization. Executives must now sift through data presented in different formats, stored in different places, and created by multiple people. Managers often work with staff dispersed not only in multiple offices, but often across the country and the world. Smart business decisions are based on "all the facts" but pulling those pieces together is a daunting task. 

How do BI dashboards help decision makers overcome those challenges? 

Today's smart business leaders look to business dashboards to help them meet those challenges. Why? Because dashboard solutions pull the data together into one at-your-fingertips place. And they enable users, no matter where they are or what their technical know-how, to contribute to and use the data. 

A well-planned dashboard is easy to use. It clarifies the relationship between data for better decision making. It allows decision makers to spot opportunities and trends which enables many positive outcomes such as cost reduction and optimal use of resources. Since dashboards quickly sort through data, they help promote informed and responsive decisions. The user can see results and understand what drives the numbers. 

The benefit of a dashboard is it draws together the data AND the people. Companies that use a dashboard to allow automatic access to corporate data (accounting, inventory, customers, etc.) and with this gathered data they can automatically produce and distribute reports to people in the organization. 

Some reporting tools deliver automated reports to users on a pre-defined schedule. Users can set whatever schedule they choose, ie. daily, weekly, monthly, or on an as-needed basis. People in the organization can customize reports by inputting parameters like date ranges. 

Excel dashboard software is an example of a bi solution that allows everyone in an organization to get the most out of business resources they already understand. Excel is a tool that most business people are accustomed to using on a day- to-day basis. They know how to use the basic features, already have it on their computer, and can easily share files between one another. One of the challenges of Excel is manually creating visually complex dashboards. Reporting tools enable everyone on staff to use automated Excel dashboards. 

Executive dashboards lead to informed decision-making and collaboration 

In summary, dashboards enable decision-makers to look at the whole picture. They enhance a company's ability to share and update data across boundaries of time and space. This data is then available in one consolidated place in a familiar format like Excel that makes access simple, useful, and universal.

Author: John Kyle
http://www.apesoft.us
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_5720.shtml

RIA Through Flex - BI Apps Development Made Easy

The Internet has evolved dramatically over the years to match up to the rising expectations of the users. The web developers have added to the attractiveness of the Internet based applications by implementing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) that have the typical characteristics of traditional desktop resident software. An RIA can be built using Flex development tools and technologies. A Flex application offers high user experience as the RIA works on a “no-refresh” concept that processes query and generates the view without reloading the whole webpage. More than this Flex application development provides business intelligence through data analysis features that are inbuilt to the Flex SDK. The Flex developer utilizes the charting component of the Flex development kit to utilize the rich class library that provides a tremendous user interface with superior functionality too. It has rich set of the standard controls which helps flex developer to create out of the box flex application for the customer’s business requirement. 

It is always easy to read, understand, and work with pictorial and graphical data rather than just the numbers’ game. Business intelligence would be enhanced if the analysis engine would offer a graphical way to represent and organize the historical business data. This enables the managers and stakeholders to quickly make crucial business development decisions to not only survive but also thrive in this cut throat competitive market. Flex development makes this possible as the business information is elegantly presented to the user with added attractive user interface and powerful data and multimedia playback capability controls. It also helps flex developer to create a highly customized design based on the CSS using the Adobe Flex Builder. 

Flash Builder or the Flex Builder version 4 is a commercial IDE which has been developed by Adobe on the basis of the popular open source Eclipse IDE for Flex development. This tool is aimed to bridge the gap between the designer and the developer, and it is successfully doing so. Enterprise applications being large and very hard to manage can be full of dead codes and bugs. Flash Builder helps the developer to neatly organize the code for better understanding with auto complete features and semi-automated testing and debugging facilities. The designer module implements Flash components to enrich the RIA with engaging graphics, animations, and multimedia playback features and functionalities. 

Benefits of flex application are: 

1)Cross browser, platform and device compatibility. 

2)Ability to create custom component. 

3)It is open source technology hence it is inexpensive. 

4)Rich user interface with enhanced data controls. 

5)User interactive application with “no refresh” 

6)Create complex online business application with great UI 

7)Easily add feature or module according to business need hence it is scalable. 

8)Rapid application development with less coding. 

9)No need of high end server to deploy it. 

10)Support various technologies like .Net, PHP, Java, Perl, ColdFusion, Ruby. 

11)Used to provide real-time updates to most current data. 

Flex application development adapted in various market segments like trading application, ecommerce website, business intelligence application, Customer relationship management (CRM), foreign exchange application and many more. Many big organizations are migrating from their existing old fashion application to web based flex application.

Author:Marry Simpton
http://www.iflexweb.us
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_2312.shtml