Startup offers outsourced analytics to SMEs

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 02:10am (Mla time) 01/28/2007

NEWLY formed business analytics firm Infinite Intelligence is expecting a surge in demand for business intelligence in the Philippines.

In particular, the market for outsourced analytics has major potential in the country as many small- to medium-scale enterprises would also look to use business intelligence to improve their overall performance.

Business intelligence refers to the use of data-analyzing technologies to help companies know their entire business on a comprehensive scale and also to help them come to better decisions.

A subset of business intelligence is analytics which predicts the company's direction based on past performances.

Users of business intelligence and analytics are companies with large customer bases who want to monitor customer buying behavior.

Infinite Intelligence is a subsidiary of Pan Pacific Computer Center, a part of the Yuchengco-owned holding company iPeople Inc.

Infinite Intelligence President John Alabastro said continued growth among SMEs is prompting some companies to use business intelligence analytics to grow even further. However, many SMEs forego spending on costly hardware and software to build their own business intelligence infrastructure.

"This is where we come in; our customers would only need to give us their raw data and we'll do the analysis for them. We assure full security compliance to protect their data," Alabastro said.

Infinite Intelligence primarily uses the SAS analytics software, usually used by large enterprises for their customer analytics.

Under their service, a customer gives them raw data in the form of a database from customer relations management and purchasing, which would be analyzed both via software and their professional statisticians.

Depending on how much data is given to them, they may provide analyses within six months.

Alabastro said the main market for their services are the local SMEs who want to use business analytics at a fraction of the cost.

"We hope to have clients who have large customer base. They could be in the retail business, insurance, banking and pharmaceuticals," Alabastro said.

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