The ability to exploit data in a myriad of different ways is key for successful organisations in the information age. According to a report by consultancy McKinsey, "One of the trends that will help shape businesses and the economy over the coming years is leveraging information in new ways. Organisations can do this by using information to make smarter decisions and to develop insights that create competitive advantage and new business models...
Finance departments are driving the adoption of business intelligence software, using it to increase the accuracy of their forecasting and develop business strategy
The need to rationalise and standardise multitudinous business intelligence tools is rising up the IT agenda as organisations struggle to obtain a single version of the truth from their information and contain costs.
Now that it has missed its own launch party, only the bravest would stake their reputations on when SQL Server 2008 will actually be with us. But even when it starts to ship, widespread adoption is likely to take years. There are still substantial numbers of SQL Server 2000 installations and even SQL Server 7 users still happily chugging along with a product released nearly ten years ago.
The latest generation of service oriented architecture (SOA) technology could help IT departments meet demands for business process monitoring systems that can combine information in real time.
After five years of waiting, users will finally get their hands on a completely new version of Microsoft's database product when SQL Server 2005 and a new database management system (DBMS) are released next week.