A new force in Business Intelligence emerges Company getaway White paper by Nick Bell Company Launch Quick Q & A

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1 April Issue 1 IN THIS ISSUE A new force in Business Intelligence emerges Company getaway White paper by Nick Bell Company Launch Quick Q & A FOREWORD Decision Inc. is about a change in market perception of BI and how to leverage both technology and business expertise It is with a sense of great excitement and pride that we have introduced Decision Inc. to the market. A lengthy period of planning, collaboration, strategy and centralisation of key resources has culminated in the launch, in March, of what we believe represents a turning point in Business Intelligence in Africa. This is a bold statement, but we are confident that our unique value proposition of enabling better decision making, faster, will assist our clients in driving the successful performance of their business. At our launch, Professor Nick Binedell, Dean of the University of Pretoria s Gordon Institute of Business Science, referred to the tenacity and agility of South Africa s economy, which, despite the challenges, continues to serve as the breeding ground for multinational giants. He offered insight into how speed, a good idea and resources are interlinked and with the right decisions any new venture has the real opportunity to flourish. That is where we come in. Decision Inc. is about a change in market perception of BI and how to leverage both technology and business expertise. The challenges of the current business environment and the pressures on executives in companies to deliver strong results has resulted in a greater need for companies to be able to understand their data to inform decision making. Users can no longer afford to make the wrong decisions or make decisions without the correct information available. The competitive nature of all markets in the economy means that users need to ideally get it right first time. To assist our clients compete effectively we have brought together the very best minds in BI and solution and application development to centralise resources and offer decision makers a solution delivery model that enables them to deliver significant value back to their stakeholders Engaged individually or as an integrated decision support solution, the servicedelivery model is represented by four key pillars: Decision Architecture; Data Engineering; Insight Generation and Presentation; as well as Enablement & Support. We are excited about the opportunity Decision Inc. offers you our clients and we look forward to continuing to be a key partner to the success of your business.

2 A new force in Business Intelligence emerges Aunique force in Business Intelligence Decision Inc. was officially launched in Johannesburg today. Decision Inc. is a newly-formed merger between three leaders in the Business Intelligence (BI) space: ASYST Intelligence, BusinessIntelligent and the Microsoft Productivity Division of DigiQuill (a Cyest company). The venture has been established to provide clients with an enhanced capability to make informed decisions. Decision Inc. is headed up by CEO Nick Bell, who started the highly successful Qlikview company, BusinessIntelligent in Together with his colleagues, Bell has already built a substantial customer base. According to Bell, there was a concerted effort in to establish a sustainable, efficient and well-organised entity to build on BusinessIntelligent s recognised value to the market. Leadership at BusinessIntelligent embarked on a journey to identify similar-minded companies that could provide clients with a technology and business experienced partner to assist in improving decision making processes and requirements. The first deal was for Cyest Corporation to sell its division, DigiQuill Productivity, a Microsoft Partner, to Decision Inc. At the same time, BusinessIntelligent was sold to Decision Inc., with the respective leaders becoming equal partners in the new venture. A second deal was then completed with SAP partner, ASYST Intelligence, to also trade in their shares and join the new group. The merger means that the company has 70 highly skilled staff and over 200 clients, making it one of the few companies in South Africa that can offer assistance to any business, irrespective of the level of their requirements. Not only do we have a pool of skilled business and process analysts, but we have experienced technical consultants competent in building and supporting market-leading BI platforms and tools, explains Bell. According to Bell, the service-delivery model is represented by four key pillars: Decision Architecture; Data Engineering; Insight Generation and Presentation; as well as Enablement & Support. These pillars provide the following services: Decision Architecture: Experienced business analysts and consultants provide expertise to help clients determine organisational strategy, perform decision audits, design decision rights workflows and set and monitor organisational and individual Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Architects also assist in design or auditing enterprise-wide architecture and infrastructure both technical and non-technical. Data Engineering: Robust, quality data is instrumental to delivering trusted information to decision makers. Data specialists assist with data audits, data warehousing, data cleansing and data stewardship, as well as development. Insight Generation and Presentation: Best-ofbreed platforms are used to deliver data in highly visual, contextualised ways to drive the decisionmaking process. This service incorporates analytics, reporting, mobile and financial intelligence as well as portals. Enablement and Support: The best solutions, once successfully implemented, must be deeply embedded in the organisation to effect adoption and change. The same solutions must also be continually supported to ensure longevity and continual improvement. This service includes change management, classroom and workshop training, project management, remote support and call centre assistance.

3 COMPANY GETAWAY 22 February at Stonehenge in Africa Some of the Decision Inc. staff at the recent weekend getaway. Our staff picked the following values to define what we consider important in each other and instrumental in delivering value to your business: Visionary, Collaboration, Passion, Community, Personal

4 Leveraging Technology to Support Decision Making White Paper written by Nicholas Bell, Chief Executive Officer, Decision Inc. Executive Summary The current business climate is one of complexity and competitiveness, and globally executives are under pressure from stakeholders to constantly make better decisions. Making the right decision first time has therefore never been more critical. In order for this to happen, managers need the correct information that will allow them to make the right decisions. This often means they need to engage with their IT teams in order to gain insights into how to effectively execute a decision enablement project. Implementing a Business Intelligence Project IT teams are required to evaluate and suggest technology platforms that they believe will best fit the user s purpose. IT departments may have agreed to follow a particular vendor s roadmap or have people with strong feelings towards different technologies. IT teams often consider research papers such as the Gartner Magic Quadrant report to decide on the correct technology, often using this single image as a guide for By putting the users and their requirements at the heart of the project, on average, the project is far more likely to succeed deciding on technology. Whilst this can give the user an understanding of where the researchers feel the technology to be in its development lifecycle, it provides no capability to understand the needs and requirements of each individual business. The conventional view of building and deploying technology on time, to plan and within budget are generally considered the key measurements and criteria for success in the implementation of projects. This is valid often in various projects where process and rigor need to be applied in order to enable execution, but these are not core drivers of an analytics project and therefore shouldn t be the core drivers of the success of the project. Traditional project management also dictates that risk and risk management is key to the success of the project; however, an intense focus on mitigating risk alone can often be done at the expense of business users and their analytics requirements. Complex and important areas of the reporting subjects are often downgraded or de-scoped in order to ensure the project plan is managed effectively. We believe there is another way to implement the project that allows for users to continually exploit their data in new ways. Rather than deploying technology to users, the focus should be on the exploration of information. By putting the users and their requirements at the heart of the project, on average, the project is far more likely to succeed and make a positive impact on the business.

5 COMPANY LAUNCH 1 1 March at The Forum, The Campus Decision Inc. represents global software vendors QlikView, SAP, Microsoft, Roambi, MicroStrategy and IsoMetrix. Guest speaker - Professor Nick Binedell is the Dean of the University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science.

6 Meet the Team Quick Q & A of Nicholas Bell, CEO at Decision Inc. What is the major trend you are seeing in your industry? Clients are no longer focused on reporting for the sake of reporting, they see and understand the competitive advantage of being able to make better business decisions faster. They need actionable intelligence provided to them efficiently and through a platform that enables them to answer important questions about their business What has been a highlight in your career? The completion and successful merger of BusinessIntelligent, ASYST Intelligence and DigiQuill into a new entity, Decision Inc. The number of parties involved in the agreement and the complexities and dynamics of the different companies required vision and a continued persistence to find a value proposition that was compelling to all parties. Nick Bell, CEO n.bell@decisioninc.co.za Tony Bell, Director t.bell@decisioninc.co.za Justine Morgan, General Manager: Enablement j.morgan@decisioninc.co.za Paul Morgan, Director p.morgan@decisioninc.co.za Henri de Bruine, General Manager: Data Engineering h.debruine@decisioninc.co.za You can follow us at: OUR NEW ADDRESS Ground Floor, Block E, Pinmill Farm, 1 64 Katherine Street, Sandton Phone: +27 (0) Fax: +27 (0) info@decisioninc.co.za