SaaS BI orgs have increased capabilities

In recent research on the use of software-as-a-service (SaaS) business intelligence (BI) published by Aberdeen Group, organisations using SaaS BI are 50% more likely to have self-service BI users than organisations that use conventional BI deployment approaches, states Market Watch.

The research, Fast, affordable, agile - the case for SaaS BI, showed that companies using SaaS BI are almost twice as likely as other organisations to have the ability to create dashboards without programming.

"SaaS BI fosters self-service in many ways. It provides increased ability to automate the generation and distribution of reports, drill-down capabilities and the creation of automated alerts," says David White, senior research analyst of the Aberdeen Group.

Betting big on the Indian growth story, global BI solutions provider, QlikTech, is mulling major investments in the country besides large-scale customer acquisitions, a top company official said, writes The Times of India.

"The BI market is still untapped and there is an enormous opportunity lying here. Over the next 18-months, we plan to aggressively grow the company in terms of more offices and workforce," QlikTech's vice-president, David Brierley, told PTI.

Apart from customer-acquisitions, the company also plans to set-up an R&D unit and double its workforce in the country, he says, without, however, divulging any details.

Stanford Hospital and Clinics has signed a seven-year "connected health technology" agreement with Accenture in an effort to improve patient care and streamline operations, says FierceHealth IT, though financial terms were not disclosed.

As part of the deal, Stanford will move its IT infrastructure to an Accenture virtualisation platform, for which the consulting firm will manage certain data centres and networks, and staff help desks for Stanford Hospital users.

Accenture also will help Stanford Hospital implement BI, other analytics tools and unspecified "patient-centred technology."