Developer Duo Pumping Up Analytics

Analytics software developers Informatica Corp. and Broadbase Software Inc. are looking to make their customers more efficient through new applications that perform even richer business analysis.

Informatica last week released Version 4.1 of its Informatica Applications suite, which scours data from all of an organizations front-office and back-office operations.

Informatica eMarketplace, a new application in the suite, analyzes data in online auctions and marketplaces to provide insights to both buyers and sellers.

Another upgraded module, eProcurement, now offers bill-of-materials analysis of raw materials used for direct procurement. The application also analyzes requisitions and performs order cost accounting and is optimized for working with Ariba Inc.s Ariba Buyer procurement application.

Hewlett-Packard Co.s Imaging and Printing Solutions Division uses eProcurement to pull data from its SAP AG ERP (enterprise resource planning) system and to gain insights into the performance of its suppliers, manufacturing and inventory management.

Informaticas applications provide 80 percent to 90 percent of what HP IPS is looking for, said Rod Watson, technical architect at the Corvallis, Ore., company. Watson is most interested in the new bill-of-materials analytics in Version 4.1, which he is evaluating.

"They make it easy to get data out of our SAP system and reformat it into data marts," Watson said.

The Informatica suites shortcoming is in flexibility, Watson added.

"Its very ERP-centric," he said. "It works great with SAP or Oracle [Corp.] or PeopleSoft [Inc.] software. But if you try to add other data, like from legacy applications, it can be difficult."

Another application enhanced in Version 4.1 is eCRM, which now offers marketing campaign and sales performance analysis as well as commerce analytics for understanding customer buying habits and product demand. The eCRM upgrade also maps IP addresses of Web customers to geographical domains.

The suites applications are priced at about $600,000 each, said Informatica officials in Palo Alto, Calif.

Like Informatica, Broadbase, of Menlo Park, Calif., is looking to provide more depth to its analytics. Next week, Broadbase will announce Version 4.5 of its E-Commerce customer relationship management suite, which will feature improved analytics with a focus on personalization.

E-Commerce 4.5 will offer companies relevant content and recommendations to both their registered and anonymous customers and will detect and respond to trends in click-through and purchasing behavior.