Business Objects Takes on Predictive Analytics
But Thomas disagreed, saying that once the predictive services are embedded into the Business Objects' offering, the easy-to-use data mining capabilities will attract a slew of business customers; especially those who aren't experts at data mining. SAS, he said, has started out at the higher-end and has catered to the needs of analysts and experts in trying to provide business intelligence technology.
"We're coming at it from a different direction and I think where Business Objects has its strength is in taking complex data and really simplifying it for executives and managers," Thomas said. "SAS has had trouble getting into the executive realm and has been strongest with the expert data analyst. And if you've ever seen a data analyst present to a CEO, you know it can be a very scary thing."
