Sagent is now positioned squarely as a technology vendor, capable of providing solutions that satisfy an organisation's data problems – from data quality to data integration, data warehousing and presentation, declares Butler Group in its Technology Evaluation and Comparison Report – Integrated Business Intelligence – Delivering Intelligence Across the Enterprise (April 2003).
The report focuses on the organisation's commitment to making long-lasting cultural changes in order to support its business intelligence strategy. It stresses that business intelligence deployment is a key enterprise decision, designed to have a long-lasting and far-reaching impact on the business.
The report positions Sagent's Data Flow Server as "…an application server-based analytic server, which provides tremendous horsepower to any BI solution. Its visual approach to the design and construction of data flows will come as a tremendous boon to those tasked with the creation and management of a complex data warehouse."
According to Ian Charlesworth, Senior Research Analyst at Butler Group and co-author of the report: "BI aims to help the organisation and its people understand more about themselves, to empower them to make more accurate and effective decisions – to learn from the mistakes of the past, and know where they have been, in order that they can sensibly move forward in unison. It is a myth that BI is all about the enabling technology and that the products and tools are designed for technologists. To court such a view is to miss the point by a laughable degree, and helps to explain why so many organisations got their fingers burnt with the deployment of their data warehouses."
In discussing Sagent's market strategy, Butler Group notes: "Despite the current economic slowdown and lack of confidence after the events of 11 September 2001, the requirement for a BI product such as Sagent Solution has in reality increased. With reduced volumes of transactions and potentially more streamlined staffing structures, businesses more than ever need to get the right information to the right decision-makers, in a timely fashion, to make decisions."
Responding to the Butler Group report, Arthur Parker, President, Sagent EMEA, said: "It is gratifying to be recognised as a leading BI technology with particular relevance to the IBI sector as identified by Butler Group. We do consider our technologies to be enabling without being restricting. Our Enterprise Information Integration strategy allows business analysts and power users to create ad hoc data sets in order to satisfy a particular demand or explore new avenues. This allows data held within a data warehouse or a cube to be integrated with 'live' operational data for rapid analysis."
Adds Susan Andre, Managing Director, Sagent Southern Africa: "The Butler Report confirms that Sagent is one of a very few companies in this segment that can lay claim to being able to extend its solution gracefully. Sagent once again set the trend due to the openness of its architecture and the breadth of vision that accompanied the evolution of its product."
Sagent
Sagent's patented technology fundamentally changes the way that data warehouses are built and accessed. Sagent's unique data flow server enables business users to easily extend the structure of a data warehouse with new analytics that support immediate business needs. This technology is at the core of Sagent's ETL, EII and business intelligence solutions, as well as multiple partner solutions that address the needs of specific vertical and functional application areas.
Sagent has more than 1 500 customers worldwide, including: AT&T, Boeing Employees Credit Union, BP Amoco, Carrefour, Citibank, Credit Guarantee, Diageo, Gensec Bank, Heineken, Kawasaki, Kemper National Insurance, La Poste, NTT-DoCoMo, Siemens, and Singapore Telecom. Key partners include Advent Software, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, HAHT Commerce, Hyperion, Microsoft, Satyam, Sun Microsystems and Unisys. Sagent is headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more information about Sagent, please visit www.sagent.co.za or www.sagent.com.
Butler Group
Butler Group is Europe's leading independent IT research and advisory organisation. Its mission is to ensure its clients are the most comprehensively informed IT and business managers on current, emerging, and future technology matters, and their impact on business – in short "analysis without compromise".
Founded in 1990 by Martin Butler, Butler Group has established an enviable reputation for the impartiality and incisiveness of its research and opinions. A client base encompassing over 50% of the top 100 companies in each of its key markets evidences this.
Butler Group delivers a broad spectrum of research, analysis and advice on all issues surrounding the practical application of technology in business. Its analysis is available via direct access to its experts, written research and conferences.
For further information on Butler Group, and its products and services, visit the Web site: www.butlergroup.com