The market for operational intelligence (OI) has grown as organizations realize the importance of having information in real time and in the right context. To accomplish this requires that operational data is processed as it happens, commonly by being packaged into what are called events and made available through technologies for complex event processing or event monitoring. Operational intelligence has long been part of our research focus. In benchmark research on it, we found that optimizing business processes and reducing time to respond drive more than 70 percent of organizations to invest in OI and that utilization of events for managing risk and complying with regulations is important to more than half of organizations today.
One technology vendor I came across about a year ago is eg solutions, whose tools help business professionals in operational roles gain rapid insight about their organization’s processes. The company has 20 years of experience in providing tools for customers mostly in the United Kingdom and South Africa. In 2009 eg’s customer Legal & General won the Ventana Research Leadership Award for Operational Intelligence. This year the vendor acquired XTAQ, which developed tools for real-time data capture that can help in the processing of events for operational intelligence. I recently received an update on the company’s progress.
The product suite is called eg operational intelligence, and its tools work together in measuring, managing, improving and optimizing operational activities. The acquisition of XTAQ contributed a product called Nuqleus 3D for capturing events, beginning the measurement process and creating metrics. This acquisition was important as my research shows that an incomplete view of event information is the top dissatisfaction of organizations with OI technology today. A tool called eg work manager provides the ability to allocate and schedule work, then track and manage it in real time as input for determining future plans and forecasts. As well as real-time or historical information, eg operational intelligence can provide a predictive view. Its reports and methods of exporting data provide a means to improve performance through various metrics ranging from volumes and service to productivity and skills. These capabilities are part of a transformation from applications and tools built on a foundation of data and databases foundation to a foundation of events and event processing – the key difference is that the new technology operates at the pace of actions triggered across a network or the Internet.
Operational intelligence and the tools eg solutions provides can complement a range of other business systems, such as CRM, customer experience and interaction systems or workforce and operational process management systems. This platform and set of tools can be applied to business processes in the back or front office. The vendor promotes a short-time-to-value implementation model and guarantees that customers will see tangible improvements within 20 weeks of deployment. The business reasons for investment into operational intelligence, from improved customer experience to data quality and compliance, along with cost reduction can soon cover the cost of taking on a new business technology project. As outlined in my 2010 perspective (See: “Using Innovative and Disruptive Technology in 2010”), operational intelligence is one of the key technology areas in which companies can gain not just a competitive advantage but material improvements to their organizational effectiveness.
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Regards,
Mark Smith – CEO & EVP Research