defining markets
Positioning a BI solution for the smaller business
and departments within larger organisations
Drawing on Monarch specification
access to the powerful reporting mechanisms
that the product provides without their requir-
The technical specification published by ing the skills or training to use the Monarch
Datawatch to support Monarch BI Server has desktop product itself.
many similarities to that for Monarch itself. “Best of all, Monarch BI Server provides the
Clearly, the server product draws heavily on means by which anyone can now have instant
the desktop product’s underlying report min- online access to the data they want in the for-
ing technology. mat they need, including Microsoft Excel with
That view was confirmed by Kris Smith, the a click of the mouse.
Desktop Products Manager for Datawatch Eu- “We also recognise that access to commer-
rope. “It is a server-based application that de- cial information within an organisation has to
livers Monarch report mining capabilities over be selective: so we have built powerful secu-
the web. It has been targeted at two distinct rity features into the product. The system ad-
groups. ministrator can define what groups and users
“The first is Datawatch customers who cur- have access to which information on a very
rently use the desktop product and now wish granular level. .”
to extend its value cost effectively to others
inside and outside the organisation.
“The other group is any company that needs
Giving executives control of assets
to get much more value and insight from their Examination of the product specifications for
existing systems without a significant com- other business intelligence tools for the sub-
mitment in money or internal resources. enterprise market shows that such systems
Monarch BI Server is primarily designed for require carefully formatted data directly pulled
the SME sector and departments of larger or- from databases as their source material.
ganisations where more traditional business Monarch had set out to raise the informa-
intelligence solutions on the market, would tion mining bar by leveraging existing reports
be overkill in terms of cost for implementa- reducing the need for data warehouses and
tion, administration, support, and training.” data marts and the hard-pressed IT staff to
feed them. In theory at least, executives were
Differentiating product set
put in a position to control more effectively
one of their most important assets.
Given the conceptual similarities between the The origins of Monarch BI Server within the
products, what is the differentiation which has classic report mining tool allow it to draw in-
justified the vendor’s development costs? Kris formation without any programming or inte-
Smith again: “It differs in a major respect. As I gration issues from whatever current genera-
mentioned earlier, the product is web-enabled, tion, legacy information and ERP systems are
so that – subject to the appropriate level of operating in the organisation.
authority being held – the information be- The Monarch engine distils transform the
comes available wherever there is access to data into actionable information to which
the Internet. Monarch BI Server can add its value for stor-
“Monarch BI Server has been designed to age and web-based distribution. That is an
be attractive to existing users of the Monarch important feature which draws clear water
report mining tool who want to give execu- between the Datawatch approach and that of
tives and workers across their organisation its competitors.
Monarch BI Server appears to have justified the vendor’s investment. The product is web-enabled, so that -
subject to security considerations - information becomes available wherever there is access to the Internet.
52
The Informed Executive
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