The Problem with Portals

Transcription

1 Envisioning the best technologies for the Enterprise Information Portal A White Paper March, 2000 Visual Numerics, Inc Flatiron Parkway, Suite 220 Boulder, CO U.S.A. [ 1

2 The Problem with Portals by Visual Numerics, Inc. Copyright 2000 by Visual Numerics, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Publishing history March 2000: First edition Trademark Information Visual Numerics, IMSL and PV-WAVE are registered trademarks, JWAVE and F90MP are trademarks of Visual Numerics, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. Visual Numerics, Inc., makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, included, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Visual Numerics, Inc., shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental, consequential, or other indirect damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material. 2

3 The Problem with Portals On the face of it, the Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) is a simple concept and an effective solution to an age-old problem. Properly implemented, it can transform knowledge workers PCs into a single doorway to enterprise information wherever it may happen to reside. The potential benefits of EIPs are straightforward enough. By providing easy and timely access to information, organizations can enhance productivity, profitability and gain a significant competitive edge. The problem with portals, however, is that just providing knowledge workers with a doorway to enterprise information is not the same as providing them with the insights they need to identify and seize business opportunities or to spot and address potential problems or threats. And that s really the point. It s not just information that knowledge workers need; it s timely insights that spur action. Assuming that back-end systems have been neatly integrated to provide a consolidated view of the enterprise, it makes sense to focus on how the information is presented to portal visitors. All too often, portals fall into the same visual rut as many corporate Web sites and intranets. They are dominated by text, and the graphics they do employ are fairly run-of-the-mill hardly the kinds of visual representations of raw information that trigger strategic epiphanies. Graphical representations of information are also typically presented in a one-size-fits-all fashion. Whether you re the CEO, VP of Sales, Marketing Analyst or Human Resources Manager, you re presented with the same view of the available data, either as plain text, or in the form of simple charts and graphs. Some people may be able to look at rows of data and see opportunities, operational efficiencies, market trends and competitive threats. Most, however, need something more visual to help them tease the hidden insights out of corporate data. They need something that can paint a picture of their complex and dynamic business environment and lead them quickly to areas of interest and opportunity. Visual Numerics advanced analysis and data visualization products were designed to unlock the insights that are buried in enterprise data. As you ll see on the following pages, Visual Numerics can help you deliver the real promise of portals easy access to and recognition of the hidden insights in your enterprise that are key to your ability to compete and win in today s light-speed economy. 3

4 You Need More than A Gateway A survey of today s leading EIP solutions, and many of the leading business intelligence tools, produces a surprising realization. Most of the vendors offering these solutions speak consistently in terms of easy access to enterprise information. They speak of personalizing your access to information to reduce search time. They even suggest that the single-point access they provide will convey a competitive advantage to your users. One popular portal vendor boasts of an application that allows more than 6,500 users to access a variety of database and Microsoft Office documents. Another claims its portal offering enables user to look less and see more. On closer inspection, however, while these solutions may indeed reduce the time knowledge workers spend searching for sources of information, they do little to actually direct them to business opportunities and threats. They are, in fact, exactly what the name implies gateways to information sources. What s needed in addition to the organized access provided by EIPs, are visualization capabilities that act as blinking neon signs, quickly pointing out these opportunities and threats to users who have neither the time, nor in many cases the technical savvy, to pore over various documents and data sources to discover them on their own. The bottom line is this: portals solve only part of the enterprise intelligence problem. Visual Numerics advanced analysis and data visualization products can take you the rest of the way. A Case In Point Consider the real-world example of an automobile insurance company seeking to attract new, profitable customers. Typically, the company s marketing department might conduct a direct marketing campaign based on little more than zip-codebased targeting. But this sort of acquisition mailing is a low-yield strategy, particularly in this age of pinpoint marketing. Perhaps the marketing department instead decides to upsell its most potentially profitable existing customers. It knows that the key to profitability is a low incidence of policyholder claims and violations. It has access to this information through the company's underwriting department. What it needs is a way to quickly find the sweet spot among its total prospect universe of millions of policyholders. There are a number of ways it can examine the available data. 4

5 By the Numbers Traditionally, a marketing department analyst would populate a spreadsheet with the available data and work his or her way up, down and across the various rows and columns looking (and hoping) for a pattern to emerge. Figure 1 shows an extremely condensed form of such a spreadsheet, representing incidents and violations according to the age of the drivers and number of miles driven on a daily basis. The unabridged version of the spreadsheet could easily run 15 to 20 pages or more. As you look at this simplified version, though, can you quickly identify the best prospects for the company s direct marketing campaign? Maybe. But are you certain enough to bet your finite marketing budget on this numbers-based assessment? 5

6 Peaks and Valleys Just to be sure, you ll probably want to look at a more visual representation of the data. So you import the data into a standard line graph where the vertical and horizontal axes represent the number of violations and claims, and age of the drivers respectively. The daily driving distance is represented by the four overlaid line graphs (see figure 2). Any better? Again, the answer is probably maybe. Importing the data into a typical bar chart would probably provide little, if any, additional insight. So where do you go from here? All too often, the answer is with your gut. Which explains why we all receive so many poorly targeted direct mail offers every week, both at home and at work. 6

7 Getting to Aha! Remember that blinking neon sign we mentioned earlier? Something unmistakable to quickly draw your attention to areas of opportunity? By using Visual Numerics idecizion business intelligence solution in combination with your EIP, you can turn data into visuals that enable you at a glance to spot opportunity. The same data that were used to populate the spreadsheet and produce the line graph above were transformed by idecizion into figure 3 below. A quick glance at this visualization tells the marketing analyst two things. The sweet spot for the direct marketing campaign is 35 to 45 year-olds who drive less than 10 miles a day. Conversely, the analyst can see that the least desirable demographic is 20-somethings who drive 15 to 20 miles a day. Just as easily, the analyst can identify other groups worth considering for the second and third waves of the campaign. All of this at a glance. Thanks to Visual Numerics idecizion. This isn t just a matter of convenience. More important, it s a matter of speed. In today s ultra-competitive marketplace, time to market and precision targeting are critical success factors. Any technology that does not add velocity and precision to your business activities is simply not earning its keep. 7

8 Privately-held Visual Numerics provides data visualization and numerical analysis software tools to major corporations, academic institutions, and research laboratories worldwide. This large and diverse customer base is supported through a direct sales force, wholly-owned international subsidiaries and international distributors. Visual Numerics products include JWAVE for enterprise data analysis, idecizion for Business Intelligence visualization and analysis, PV-WAVE for desktop data analysis, and the IMSL Fortran 90 Library and the IMSL C Numerical Library for numerical analysis. Additional information can be obtained at the company s Website: [ Visual Numerics, Inc., USA, Corporate Headquarters Tel: info@vni.com Visual Numerics International, Ltd., UK Tel: info@vniuk.co.uk Visual Numerics, France Tel: info@vni-paris.fr Visual Numerics International GmbH, Germany Tel: info@visual-numerics.de Visual Numerics S.A. de C.V., Mexico Tel: or avadillo@mail.internet.com.mx Visual Numerics Japan, Inc., Japan Tel: vnijapan@vnij.co.jp Visual Numerics, Inc., Korea Tel: info@vni.co.kr Visual Numerics, Inc., Taiwan Branch Tel: info@vni.com.tw Copyright 1999 Visual Numerics, Inc. Visual Numerics, IMSL and PV-WAVE are registered trademarks of Visual Numerics, Inc. JWAVE is a trademark of Visual Numerics, Inc. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. 8