Corvu Corp is repackaging its traditional business intelligence software into two new applications and plans to make those available through a portal interface that also includes third party and internet-based applications and content.
According to Alan Missroon, Corvu’s VP marketing, the move is part of a strategic move away from focusing purely on business intelligence applications towards offering companies a complete view of their performance management via an interface that also gives them the tools to compare their performance with competitors.
To that end, Corvu has packaged all its BI software – query, reporting and OLAP tools – together, and grouped them into a single suite, which it’s calling CorBusiness. CorManage, takes that BI suite and adds additional functionality including forecast planning tools and Corvu’s balance scorecard application. On top of that, Corvu has added a new strategic modeling tool which lets companies analyze their performance across the board and compare different departments and the impact one division’s performance might have on another.
Instead of just looking at the metrics you set and comparing that to the performance achieved, the idea is to perform regression analysis and actually understand the interdependencies of the different departments, he said. Then you can use that data to provide better customer service.
As of early next year, Corvu will offer a new set of portal development tools, either developed internally or via a third party like Plumtree or Autonomy, which Missroon says are designed to let companies put a customized front end on both the CorBusiness and CorManage application suites and integrate them with unstructured data from the organization – word processed documents and spreadsheets and so on – as well as providing access to back office ERP and legacy data. In addition, he says the technology will let users go out and select data from the internet and have that integrated with the portal and/or pushed to users on a daily basis. An announcement is due sometime in the first quarter, Missroon said.
