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App vendors meet user demand with BI tools

30.01.2006
To meet increasing user demand for business intelligence, application and database vendors are muscling in on the BI tool market that has long been dominated by third-party suppliers.

For example, Whirlpool Corp. has opted to freeze new investments in BI tools from Business Objects SA, Information Builders Inc. and Cognos Inc., said Brian Murphy, director of geographic information systems development and business solutions at the Benton Harbor, Mich.-based maker of home appliances.

The company plans to replace those tools with an updated version of SAP AG 's BI suite, called NetWeaver Business Intelligence, which is slated to ship this spring with NetWeaver 2004S.

Whirlpool has been using the new SAP BI tools since November as part of a limited test. That effort has already led the company to phase out Cognos BI tools at its Australian unit, he said.

Murphy said the new version of SAP's BI tools improves on earlier releases by closing gaps in front-end visualization and reporting capabilities.

Whirpool will continue to use predictive analysis tools from BI vendor SAS Institute Inc. to mine unstructured data because the SAP products focus mostly on structured data, Murphy said.