Who, What, Where, When, and Why of On-Line Analytical Processing Covered in New Independent OLAP Report from Business Intelligence, Inc.; Comprehensive In-Depth Report Offers Insights on How to Succeed with OLAP.

NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 19, 1995--The OLAP Report, the first independent and comprehensive guide to On-Line Analytical Processing applications, technologies and products being offered in the U.S. and Europe, is now available from Business Intelligence, Inc.

"OLAP has gained widespread acknowledgment as a key management technology for the 90s, and has been adopted by an ever-increasing number of organizations, particularly large and multinational companies, to support critical initiatives ranging from business re-engineering to data warehousing," said Richard Creeth, co-author of the report with Nigel Pendse. Creeth heads Creeth Richman & Associates, a 10-year-old Connecticut-based consulting firm specializing in financial OLAP solutions, and Pendse is a principal with OLAP Solutions in the U.K. Business Intelligence is a conference and report publishing company with headquarters in the U.K.

"As financial professionals specializing in OLAP solutions for the past decade, we knew the selection and introduction of the technology was far from straightforward," Creeth said. "Information available from vendors often barely scratched the surface of key OLAP issues, and some reports published were funded by vendors and thus presented a somewhat suspect -- or at least subjective -- point-of-view. Thus, from the outset, The OLAP Report was researched and written for corporate users, to help them understand what OLAP can -- and can't -- do for an organization and to ease the migration to this emerging technology."

Unparalleled Analysis - Rigorous and Authoritative

"The OLAP Report provides an unparalleled independent analysis of all key issues in evaluating, selecting and developing OLAP systems," Creeth said. "It explains what OLAP is (we coined the term FASMI for Fast Analysis of Shared Multidimensional Information), how it fits with other systems in place, the types of business applications it best serves, what benefits you can expect, and even what problems may arise. Part of the analysis provided is the most comprehensive analysis of the OLAP product market today, including the results of over 250 hours of interviews with both vendors and users in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and South Africa.

"Because The OLAP Report was designed to be an invaluable resource to users, we took a rigorous and authoritative approach to exposing product and vendor weaknesses where we felt they existed," Creeth added. "For example, the Report shows that virtually all vendors claim to be able to handle large applications without really understanding what this means, and that most vendors don't even understand why there is more than one way to build complex multidimensional product."

Creeth said OLAP products "are not like relational databases or computer hardware because there are no standard evaluations or benchmarks. Issues covering selection and implementation can be extremely complex, and often involve a six-figure commitment to a software solution. A mistake in the selection process -- or the unrealistic expectation of results -- could well cost a manager their job or a company the information it needs to be viable and competitive.

"Now, for less than the cost of a day of consulting," Creeth said, "The OLAP Report can help ensure the success of an organization's investment in and migration to OLAP technology as it presents --in easy-to-read business English rather than verbose technical lingo -- all the facts, figures and competitive product and vendor analysis required to ease the selection and implementation process."

OLAP vs. Relational Databases and More

The OLAP Report addresses key issues of concern to corporate IT managers including: when and where to use OLAP rather than relational databases; how OLAP fits in with other IT systems; how to design OLAP models for optimal performance; what response times to expect from OLAP applications, and how to successfully manage OLAP projects.

Other important subjects covered in The OLAP Report include: which products are best for end user-managed applications; which products can be scaled from department to enterprise-wide use, and which products run out of steam with large volumes of data. Planning, Design and Development - Product Evaluation and Selection

The OLAP Report is divided into two sections: Volume 1 -- OLAP Planning , Design and Development, and Volume 2 -- OLAP Products: Evaluation and Selection. Volume 1 includes:

- Introduction, overviewing key characteristics of OLAP

applications, how analytical processing differs from transaction

applications, the technology-independent FASMI test for OLAP

products, the multidimensional conceptual model, and market

size and trends;

-- OLAP in the Organization, covering the relationship between

OLAP and Transaction Processing systems, relational and

object databases, query tools, data warehouses, groupware,

desktop productivity tools, and object oriented 

application development tools;

-- OLAP Applications, describing common OLAP applications and key

issues including sales analysis, product profitability,

budgeting, management reporting and EIS, and financial

reporting and consolidation and quality reporting;

-- OLAP Technology, including large multidimensional systems,

origins of OLAP, demolishing modern myths, business dimension

characteristics, structure options, proprietary disk vs.

memory vs. RDBMS data storage, why some multidimensional

databases can "explode," calculation issues, and what to look

for in multidimensional viewers;

-- OLAP Architectures, discussing why some so-called client/server

architectures are not, different C/S architectures in OLAP

products, why some architectures handle more users betters

(and why some are better with large databases), architectures

used by each product, and the ideal OLAP architecture;

-- Standards, covering the importance of standards and rules,

interpreting Dr. E.F. Codd's features (and how vendors

often misrepresent them), and the OLAP Council;

-- OLAP Project Development, covering definition of requirements,

selecting/ negotiating with suppliers, who to involve in the

project, time lines, acquiring/loading data, performance and

volume considerations, estimating application sizes,

network and hardware considerations, costs, and

maintenance issues, and Case Studies, including the British

Army, Emery Worldwide, Fidelity Investments, GE Lighting,

Hereford & Worcester FHSA, Hertz, Mercantile & General Group,

Norther Counties NA, Perkin-Elmer, SmithKline Beecham, Sony,

and US West.

Volume 2 includes:

OLAP Product Selector, with carefully compiled short lists of "best buy" products classified by key criteria and covering:

-- Applications: sales and marketing analysis, consolidation and

reporting in financial departments, interactive budgeting, EIS,

and multiple OLAP applications;

-- User and Builder Profile: including end-user applications,

spreadsheet enthusiasts, visual basic experts, IT professionals,

VARs and OEMs;

-- Platform Support: non-Windows clients (Macintosh, NeXT, Step,

OS/2 and Motif), stand-lone PCs, NLM , OS/2 and Windows NT 

servers, and Unix and proprietary host servers;

-- Product Features: cost vs. performance, real-time integration

with relational databases, maximum openness, good

multidimensional viewers, and good modeling features, and

-- Vendor Characteristics: large suppliers, well balanced and

successful suppliers, international vendors, new generation

products, and public companies.

Evaluating OLAP Products, with each product assessed within 14 distinct areas of functionality and vendor strength. Within each area, numerous specific features and functions are also reviewed and discussed, with a total of 22 key product and vendor features and benefits identified and scored overall.

OLAP Products Reviewed: with in-depth descriptions, explanations and analysis of 23 OLAP products including Acuity/ES (Acuity Management Systems), Acumate ES (Kenan Technologies), Commander OLAP (Comshare), Consolidation Auditor (Hunt Systems), CrossTarget (Dimensional Insight), Data-VISION (Soft Systems), DSS Agent (MicroStrategy), EIS-Eureka (EMS), Essbase (Arbor Software), Express (Oracle), Gentium (Planning Sciences), Holos (Holistic Systems), Hyperion Enterprise (Hyperion Software), IA Suite (Information Advantage), LightShip Suite (Pilot Software), MetaCube (Stanford Technology Group), Pablo (Andyne), PowerPlay (Congos), Red Brick Warehouse (Red Brick Systems), Show Business (Show Business), TM/1 (Sinper Corporation), Toto (Ambit Research), and Track for OLAP (Arrival Software). The Most Comprehensive, Important OLAP Evaluation Ever

"We believe The OLAP Report is the most comprehensive and important OLAP evaluation ever conducted and made generally available," Creeth said. "Its a no-holds-barred look at the technology available today."

George Azrak, national director of IS Development for Domino's Pizza, Inc. ([phone]) agreed. "The OLAP Report was of immediate benefit to me," he wrote. "It was rich with information and very easy to read, and provided a wealth of information without being verbose. It provided an extremely valuable multifaceted view of vendors, and the case studies were great value.

The Evaluating OLAP Products section provided a clear, comprehensive and concise list of pints to consider that will be valuable to every decision maker, and the evaluation of vendors was balanced. The Report presented a corporate view of products rather than a purely technical view, making it an excellent reference document."

The 520-page OLAP Report is available for $895 from Business Intelligence, Inc. (800-690-6527 in the U.S. and [phone]). Volume discounts are available. For additional information, contact: Business Intelligence, Inc., 94 East Avenue, Norwalk, CT, USA 06851. -0- All trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

CONTACT: David A. Kaminer

The Kaminer Group

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Maura McPhillips

Business Intelligence, Inc.

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