Correspondence: Mike Beckerle, Oco, Inc., 504 Totten Pond Rd., Waltham, MA 02451, USA. Tel: 781-810-2100; E-mail: mbeckerle@oco-inc.com

¹defines the strategic direction for and leads the development of Oco's world-class technologies. He brings 20 years of strong leadership in advanced technology with a focus on strategic large-scale information system deployments and the design, implementation and operation of scalable software and hardware systems. Most recently, Mike worked at IBM as an architect for core scalable processing capabilities for the IBM Information Server (formerly known as Ascential DataStage before it was acquired by IBM). He joined Ascential in 2001, when it acquired his startup company, Torrent Systems. As founding engineer and CTO of Torrent, Mike created the scalable computing technology that has delivered enduring value to customers from 1995 through today. Mike became an advocate of the SaaS approach in 1999, when he co-founded a start-up technology company, Fact City, which created an internet-based information service to enhance the content of high-volume internet search portals.

Abstract

This discussion covers wide-ranging issues about business intelligence (BI) systems, and how they've evolved. It explains how the limitations of current BI approaches are being overcome through new innovative approaches and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) deployments. Oco's business model concept of "Diagonal" markets is explained, along with the synergy it has with BI delivery through SaaS to provide additional benefits.