Industry Expert Says Malaysian Organizations To Benefit From Next Generation Business Intelligence Solutions

Microsoft holds event in Kuala Lumpur featuring independent research firm on business intelligence gains

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – November 15, 2011 – Malaysian businesses stand to benefit greatly from the next generation of business intelligence solutions. This is the message heard by dozens of leading information technology executives at an information session in Kuala Lumpur hosted by Microsoft featuring industry analyst firm Forrester Research, Inc. and co-sponsors HP and Intel Corporation. John Brand, Vice President at Forrester Research was the featured speaker at the business intelligence event.

According to a recent Forrester report, “No other software segment enjoys the same positive market dynamics of advancing technologies, business innovation, and companies' implementation plans.” - Forrester Research, Inc., “Understanding The Business Intelligence Growth Opportunity – September 2011”.

“We see business intelligence becoming more pervasive throughout Malaysia as companies here raise their competitiveness by getting strategic, tactical and operational insight into their customers, products, business processes and operations,” said Danny Ong, Chief Marketing and Operations Officer, Microsoft Malaysia. “Microsoft is taking the lead in business intelligence by giving Malaysian companies flexible deployment options that provide them with the necessary security and capabilities for today’s critical applications. And we’re doing it at a lower total cost of ownership, with better user experience.”

Microsoft’s approach to business intelligence is to offer a cloud-ready information platform to help customers more effectively take command of their expanding data in order to optimize their operations, find greater efficiencies and capitalize on new opportunities. Today the company’s solutions help their customers drive insights throughout their information work base so that all employees are empowered to gain strategic value from vital information. They do this by delivering business intelligence solutions through the market’s leading productivity and collaboration platforms, Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint, while providing powerful management tools built for IT professionals on the SQL Server platform.

In Microsoft’s goal to deliver pervasive business intelligence to organizations as quickly and efficiently, they have, also partnered with HP to create a range of data management appliances from self-service BI to the highest end of data warehousing that meets transforming organizational needs. Increasingly, organizations are turning to business intelligence appliances which fuse applications; infrastructure and productivity tools into a single system which help organizations optimize employee productivity and decision-making, while simplifying the delivery of applications for IT.

“Today, business intelligence appliances are becoming an increasingly important vehicle in our journey to the cloud. Customers get the flexibility they need in a solution that delivers results right out of the box,” said Dan Kogan, Regional Director, SQL Server Data Appliances, Microsoft Asia. “Looking ahead, business intelligence will be more pervasive. Business intelligence shouldn’t be a specialty. It should be a natural part of everyone’s job. In the future, companies that best manage explosive data growth and derive the best insights from it will be the most competitive.”

As data volumes continue to grow at exponential rates, the upcoming SQL Server “Denali” will give customers even greater confidence in their mission critical applications and help them unlock breakthrough insights across the organization. The technology itself is designed to quickly build solutions across traditional servers, appliances, and private and public clouds.

“The cloud not only makes managing the oceans of data easier and less expensive, it can help companies create new capabilities and products that weren’t before possible,” said Kogan.