Business Intelligence Provider Pentaho Acquires Interface Shop Webdetails

Analytics, meet visuals. Business intelligence provider Pentaho has bought consulting partner Webdetails, a Portugal-based visual interface development shop. The acquisition could point to new user interface approaches for intelligence products, as analytics tools move from providing information to becoming easier and faster to use. Terms of the deal were not announced. Webdetails’ founder Pedro Alves, who is active in Pentaho’s...

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Fighting crime with intelligence

In Richmond, Va., police deployed officers in areas with high past New Year’s Eve crime rates, cutting gunfire incidents by 49 percent and increasing weapons seized by 246 percent. This was accomplished with a third of the officers typically used and led to a savings of $15,000 in overtime for that one night. In Houston, Texas, an analyst monitoring 9-1-1 calls spotted information about a car on the scene of a Family Dollar Store robbery, one of a recent spate of such robberies. Using partial plates and a brief description, he found the...

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Oracle Brings Enhancements to Business Intelligence

Responding to the trend that businesses now ask less sophisticated users to perform analysis and rely on software to help them, Oracle recently announced a new release of its flagship Oracle BI Foundational Suite (OBIFS 11.1.1.7) as well as updates to Endeca, the discovery platform that Oracle bought in 2011. Endeca is part of a new class of tools that bring new capabilities in information discovery, self-service access and interactivity....

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Healthcare, Risk Aversion, and Big Data Case Studies

Think for a minute about how much we spend on healthcare. In the United States, the numbers break down as follows: Roughly $3 trillion spent annually, a number rising at 6-7% per year This represents about 17% of US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Some estimates put the number wasted annually on healthcare at a mind-boggling $2 trillion There’s at least $60B in annual Medicare fraud alone each year (and some estimates put that number at $250B)...

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