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Information Builders: Taking BI Mobile
By Bob Violino
Founded in 1975, Information Builders is one of the largest independent vendors of business intelligence software, with more than $300 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal year, which ended Dec. 31, 2007. The company has about 1,600 employees, some 12,000 customers and 350 business partners. It’s based in New York and operates in 47 offices worldwide.
Information Builders customer base covers multiple industries, but the company is particularly strong in financial services, retail, energy, healthcare and manufacturing, says Michael Corcoran, chief marketing officer. Key customers include Ace Hardware, Air Canada, Macy's, NASA, Ford Motor, Lloyds of London, Lockheed Martin, Utz Quality Foods, JP Morgan Chase and USBank.
The privately held company has capitalized on the growth in demand for BI products. Total revenue was $315 million in 2007, up 7% from 2006. New license revenue rose 17% and professional services revenue increased by 14% in 2007. The company does not report net income, according to a spokeswoman.
Information Builders' flagship product, WebFOCUS, is a Web-based BI suite designed for a broad array of business users throughout an enterprise. The platform, which includes components such as analytics, reporting and a dashboard, can support hundreds of thousands of users, multiple application types, and a variety of information users including employees, customers and external business partners.
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The WebFOCUS Reporting Server, which serves as the hub of the suite's architecture, enables reporting, query, and analysis from any data on any platform in any file structure, according to the company. The server can provide content in HTML, DHTML (dynamic HTML, used to create animated Web sites), XML, Excel, and PDF for Web browsers and wireless devices.
Localization features of WebFOCUS can be adapted for different cultures and languages, and the suite is capable of leveraging Web services, allowing it to be part of a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Data access and integration capabilities provide links to more than 300 data sources, including relational databases, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) applications.
Information Builders also offers enterprise integration products through its iWay Software subsidiary, which the company launched in 2001.
The company has tried to stand out from competitors by providing wide support for hardware platforms, operating systems, data sources, applications, and delivery options, Corcoran says. "Business intelligence is not a single platform solution," he says.
Information Builders has also tried to stay innovative, Corcoran says. Since launching its Web-based BI technology, the company has introduced self-service, on-demand information generation for non-technical users; integrated mobile and e-mail delivery of BI data; portable dashboards, reporting and analysis tools; and real-time enterprise search tools for BI.
Future technology developments at Information Builders will include expanding search and mobile functionality of its BI technology, reflecting industry trends to integrate BI with search technology and make business analytics and reporting more easily available to mobile users.
"Mobile business intelligence solutions will allow users to access critical business data from any mobile device and manage it through standard BI dashboards in 2008," Corcoran says. "With the latest Web browser technologies, mobile BI will be delivered in a more flexible and cost-effective manner." Mobile BI "will help more users not only stay connected, but also allow them to make informed and effective business decisions anywhere they go," he says.
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