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Business intelligence software has emerged as a vital IT asset, a tool that can give organizations of all sizes better insight into their operations and customers, as well as market trends. Used with data warehousing, business intelligence tools enable organizations to be more responsive to changes in the market and to take advantage of new business opportunities.

The latest BI offerings go well beyond the technology available even a few years ago. Some of the newer BI products enable organizations to analyze information and produce reports more quickly, which allows for faster decision making. Vendors are not only adding new features and functionality to BI offerings, but they’re also making the technology more accessible to a broader number of users in an organization.

Some of the recent product developments by vendors address the need to get useful information into the hands of more users — and especially decision makers — throughout the organization.

IBM in April unveiled a comprehensive strategy to enable dynamic warehousing a new generation of BI capabilities that the company says will enable organizations to gain real-time insight and value from information. Dynamic warehousing lets companies use advanced analytics as part of a real-time business process and gives them access to information buried in both structured and unstructured data (for example, free-form text, e-mail, audio files and Web pages).

The foundation of IBM's dynamic warehousing initiative is an enhanced version of its DB2 Warehouse— based on the DB2 9 "Viper" data server — which includes a set of features and capabilities that support growing customer demand for analytics and information on demand. The new IBM warehousing offerings include Starter, Intermediate and Advanced editions of DB2 Warehouse.

Another vendor, Cognos, has developed a business intelligence product aimed at mobile users. The software, called Cognos 8 Go! Mobile, is designed for the BlackBerry wireless platform from Research In Motion. The software enables mobile workers to use BlackBerry smartphones to securely access and interact with information such as operational and strategic company performance data, according to Cognos.

Cognos also recently announced Cognos 8 BI Analysis for Microsoft Excel , a new enterprise BI capability that enables Excel users to directly access centrally controlled and secured Cognos 8 BI performance information. The company says the self-service nature of the new capability will make it easier for business analysts, financial analysts or line-of-business managers to analyze information in Excel.

Information Builders markets a BI product designed for a thin-client environment. The software, called WebFOCUS Power Painter , is designed to simplify all aspects of report design, development and administration, enabling self-service reporting and the fast production of reports for less-technical users, according to Information Builders.

Some vendors are making BI software available as an on-demand offering, or software as a service. For example, Business Objects in April announced the availability of crystalreports.com, an on-demand, report-sharing platform.

As BI becomes an even more integral part of the IT strategy at small and midsize companies as well as at larger organizations, expect vendors to develop new features and services that help deliver the latest information to the most users.

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