Q4Bis

2006 Consensus Software Awards

About Q4bis Software Ltd

Q4bis Software Ltd is a Business Intelligence Company and that has been uniquely designed for management and the business user. Q4bis is a Microsoft Gold Certified and ISV and Data Management Solutions Partner and has recently won the Gartner Midsize Enterprise Innovation™ Award for ‘Best Midmarket Solution: Software’ at Midsize Enterprise Summit in the USA.

The Q4bis solution set takes advantage of Microsoft SQL Server’s business Intelligence and data warehousing capabilities and brings the benefits of business Intelligence to many different industries around the world. 

Q4bis enables these organisations to quickly and easily build multi-dimensional data structures and provides a standardised interface that allows decision-makers to analyse critical business information. 

Q4bis Visual Overview (pdf) will open in new window

The Compelling Benefits of Q4bis:

• Reduction in implementation time frames, resulting in a substation reduction in Business Intelligence costs

• Speed of implementation and deployment

• Easy and faster access to critical business information

• Improved ability to make better informed decisions

• Empowerment for management and business users

• Dramatic improvement in productivity of both your Business Intelligence users and Business Intelligence support staff

• Immediate return on your Business Intelligence Investment

Q4bis Analysis Web Brochure (pdf) will open in new window

The Q4bis Products:

Q4bis Software Products are Q4bis Analysis Web (Multidimensional Analysis) and Q4bis Data Server (Data Warehouse)

Q4bis Analysis Web

Q4bis Analysis Web built on .Net technology is the front-end an analysis tool which intuitive easy to use that enables access from anywhere, at any time, using Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox web browsers. Q4bis Analysis Web incorporates up to an eight-quadrant interface that enables users to drill up or down, slice and sort. Q4bis Analysis Web has been designed to provide self-service Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities to non-BI professionals. Potential users who are familiar with the data can be productive with two minutes of training.Q4bis Analysis Web uses the latest in browser compression technology to ensure that no matter where a user might be physically located; their BI information is only a few clicks away.

Q4bis Data Server

Q4bis Data Server is the engine that drives the business intelligence process. Q4bis Data Server is a data warehousing built on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and now Microsoft SQL Server 2005 technology. Q4bis Data Server is a solution that has the ETL (extract, transform and load), data warehousing, cube building facility and uses the power of Microsoft Analysis Services.

With Q4bis Data Server Rapid Implementation Module (RIM) Technology you can have a fully installed data warehouse with three integrated Microsoft OLAP cubes installed on your server in less than an hour. Using SQL Server stored procedures and packages the Q4bis Data Server (RIM) will build a data warehouse with your information and provide any level of user multidimensional access to their business. The Q4bis non-proprietary platform enables you to make a number of reporting and analysis tools including Q4bis Analysis.

Supporting Documents & presentations:

1. Q4bis Flash Demonstration

http://www.q4bis.com/new/flashdemo_overview.html

Q4bis Video Testimonial - Joseph D “Jody” Giles, VP/CIO of Vans, Inc. Gartner’s CIO of The Year 2003

http://www.q4bis.com/new/customers_vansvideo.html

2. “Q4bis Analysis Web Designed for Management is a great analytical tool that enhances the business intelligence features of SQL Server 2005” Lucas Searle, Product Manager for Windows Server System, Microsoft New Zealand

3. “What makes this tool better than anything else is using that really slick technology with the best most compelling interface I have ever seen” - Joseph D “Jody” Giles, VP/CIO of Vans, Inc. Gartner’s CIO of The Year 2003

The Six Key Differentiators of Q4bis Software

1. The Ease of Use of Q4bis 

Q4bis Analysis has been designed for simplicity and power. Q4bis supports both business users and power users. Managers do not need to be technically-minded to drive Q4bis Analysis.

“Q4bis Analysis Web is a business intelligence tool that empowers managers and the business users to be able to access, analyse and take action on critical business information.” Mark Palmer, Business Intelligence Manager, Frucor Beverages Ltd

2. Open Standard Platform 

Q4bis tools integrate with SQL Server and Microsoft OLAP technology. Open standards allows organisations to easily take ownership of the Q4bis tool set.

3. Complete Solution

Q4bis combines back-end ETL (Extract, Transaction, Load) data warehousing functions with Q4bis DataServer; front-end analysis and reporting with Q4bis Analysis; budgeting with Q4bis Budget; and web deployment and reporting with Q4bis Report Publisher.

4. Simple Pricing Model 

The pricing model for Q4bis suite of products is value-based starting with five-seat licences. Site licensing (over 30 users) provides a cost-effective opportunity to roll out Q4bis tools to both internal and external users.

• “It’s priced so well, I believed it couldn’t be worth it. This is too cheap, there must be something wrong with it. I had to be one of the first ones to use it, called a few people that had implemented it and they were just raving fans. I think it is the best kept secret in the IT industry right now.” Joseph D “Jody” Giles, VP/CIO of Vans, Inc. Gartner’s CIO of The Year 2003

5. Rapid Implementation / Proof of Concept (POC).

The Rapid Implementation Methodology (RIM) enables you to go live with Q4bis in weeks not months. RIM provides your organisation an immediate return on your BI investment. We can prove this claim to you by doing a free. Proof of Concept (POC) If you lend us your business information we will demonstrate Q4bis Analysis running your own data in a couple of days. This will prove we can implement quickly and enable you to see your own business information working with Q4bis tools.

• “What really made Q4bis stand out from the others,” says Maloy, “was their ‘Proof of Concept’ demonstration. They showed us how Q4bis would work with our own data. And because they were able to organise the Proof of Concept so quickly, we were comfortable that we would be able to implement Q4bis enterprise-wide in a timely manner.” - Maloy, Manager of the Systems Support Group (SSG) for A&R Whitcoulls Group

6. Training 

Q4bis Training has been tailored for the user, power user and administrator of Q4bis Analysis and the data base administrator of Q4bis DataServer. Training on Q4bis Analysis has been designed with a smart, simple and fast approach. With our unique ‘two minute training’ programme, management and users in your organisation can drive Q4bis Analysis and start analysing critical business information.

Q4bis & Innovation

While the core architecture behind Q4bis has remained relatively stable over the years, Q4bis Software developers have continually enhanced the solution to take advantage of new technologies. Q4bis Software has a very strong relationship with Microsoft and our underlying technical strategy is firmly based on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005, its embedded Analysis Services functionality and now Microsoft Reporting Services as well .net technologies.

Q4bis Software Gartner Award Front End Business Intelligence Solution Q4bis Web is another area where Q4bis is leading the way is with the display of key performance indicators (KPI). “We have pre-defined graphical views that provide visuals on key metrics such as sales, revenues, inventory and expenditures,” says Schoenek. “These dynamic views give managers the ability to monitor performance and drill down when required. Again, these are pre-defined so they are ready to go.

Q4bis is the result of over 20 years of research and development and has had a significant impact on the global BI marketplace. "Feature for feature and dollar for dollar, companies will not find a more powerful or robust BI solution on the market. Q4bis has been developed to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft SQL Server and leading ERP packages for rapid implementation and have streamlined the user interfaces to make it easy for companies to take advantage of the many Q4bis benefits. 

1. Empowering the manager and business users to be able to make proactive decisions; exceptional ROI

“With Q4bis we now have a viable and intuitive Business Intelligence solution that managers and decisions-makers alike can use to make more informed decisions.” Eva Chow, Senior Project Manager Asia Pacific, Medtronic Asia Pacific

“Q4bis Analysis software saves us over $500,000 per year in wastage alone!” "As a product, we'd rate Q4bis a 10 out of 10." - Dennis Jones, Managing Director, Burger King NZ

Q4bis Burger King Case Study (pdf) will open in new window

Since implementing Q4bis, Express Data has seen a bottom line improvement of 5-10% in the first 12 months alone. “We’ve been able to reduce our aged stock from 40-50% to 15%,” says Jansen, “and that represents a huge savings for us. - Ian Jansen, Aus & NZ Sales Director, Express Data

2. Q4bis proof of concept methodology - Q4bis can offer companies a proof of concept which is where Q4bis can take prospect company data and build a data warehouse within the company information and present back to the prospect within days.

They gave us all the right answers and their pricing was certainly within our target range. And they claimed that they could demonstrate their software, something they called a ‘Proof of Concept’ demonstration, to us in a very short time frame using our own data, So we said, ‘go ahead, show us’. And they did.” The Proof of Concept sealed the deal - Terrie Brown, IT Manager - Lumileds

3. Q4bis data warehousing solutions is built on Microsoft open standard business intelligence technology which gives companies the option and flexibility to take ownership of their BI Project.

“Our investment pays off.” - Mike Hollier, GM – Corporate Services, Bridgestone-Firestone, New Zealand

4. Revolutionised the BI Industry by inventing rapid implementation methodologies which allows Q4bis to be implemented and deployed in days. 

“We could have a two month ROI” - Duane Dudley, VP Finance, Caltrol, USA

5. Q4bis has very low total cost of ownership

“It used to take up to a week to get a report from IT, I can now get most of what I want in just a couple of mouse clicks” - Brian Patterson, CFO Memorex

6. Q4bis Wins Midsize Enterprise Innovation™ Award for ‘Best  
MidMarket Solution: Software’ at Midsize Enterprise Summit. 

Senior IT Executives - Voted Q4bis, the executive-level business intelligence solution, as best MidMarket Software

IRVINE, CA – SEPTEMBER 27, 2005 - Q4bis, an innovative and feature-packed business intelligence (BI) software solution, wins the Midsize Enterprise Innovation Award for the ‘Best Midmarket Solution Software’ at the prestigious Midsize Enterprise Summit held in Salt Lake City, September, 18-21, 2005. 

Competing against more than 30 other leading software vendors, Q4bis was voted the winner by the several hundred Senior IT Executives attending the event. “Winning this award is a validation that IT executives are no longer satisfied with the traditional approach of long and costly BI implementations that only benefit the information analysts in an organization. Selecting Q4bis as best software for midsize enterprise, indicates that executives want solutions that are cost effective, can be rapidly deployed and are intuitive enough to be used by everyone in an organization”.

The Midsize Enterprise Summit™ is produced by Vision Events®, a Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB) company and serves as a showcase for the very best solutions that address the many challenges that face today’s executives. “The IT executives in attendance review many products and services on display,” says Charles Badoian, Senior Global Director for Midsize Enterprise Summit. “A Midsize Enterprise Innovation Award signifies that the attendees viewed Q4bis as having a high level of excellence and functionality for IT Vendors in their category.”

Performance

Supporting Documents & presentations:

Q4bis Software Ltd has developed its own and industry leading software and techniques that has created a high performance framework for business intelligence:

• Proof of Concepts (POC)

• Rapid Implementation (RIM)

• Complete Solution

• Return on Investment

Proof of Concept (POC)

Q4bis provides has created a methodology that gives the customer the ability to see their own company business information working with Q4bis Data Server (data warehouse) and Q4bis Analysis Web (multidimensional analysis) within five working days.

Rapid Implementation Methodology (RIM)

With Rapid Implementation Methodology (RIM) Q4bis Software has a dynamic, flexible and powerful approach to building data warehousing and business intelligence solutions. Potential prospects and customers experience incredible turn around time when viewing their own company data with Q4bis.

Q4bis Rapid Implementation Module (RIM) holds the knowledge of the data structure of ERP and Financial systems which are embedded into the (RIM). Our Non Proprietary platform allows you to make use of any number of reporting and analysis tools including our own Q4bis Analysis that comes packaged with standard views. Using SQL Server Stored Procedures and Packages our RIM will build a Data Warehouse with your information and provide any level of user multidimensional access to their business. Using a RIM to create a data warehouse module is exceptionally fast. Once the source data is extracted into SQL Server the process of analysing the data and designing the dimensions and fact table should take less than 4 hours. The result is a fully functioning data warehouse, Microsoft OLAP cube and Q4bis views. 

Benefits of using the Rapid Implementation Methodology 

• Low Total Cost Of Ownership

• No Risk Of Time Blowouts

• Rapid Return On Investment 

• Maintenance Issues Significantly Reduced Through Easy To Use Interface 

• Industry Standard Data Warehouse Build 

• Daily, Weekly or Monthly updates 

• Based On SQL Server Non Proprietary Elements

• Reduce Reporting And Analysis By Up To 80%

Complete Solution 

Q4bis combines the back-end Q4bis Data Server ETL (extract, transform and load) functions with front end Q4bis Analysis Web multidimensional analysis, and reporting services for flat file reporting. “We’re one of the few business intelligence solutions that bring all of the capabilities required together into one package.

Return on Investment 

Q4bis is an extremely low-maintenance operation and with the to minute training, a couple of weeks for implementation, automated ETL, proven compatibility with leading systems, cost-effective site licensing provides customers world wide with incredible return on investment.

Q4bis Potential

Globally, the BI software market is growing at a 40% per annum rate and represents a potential market of $14.5bn in 2005. Microsoft is a major proponent of BI capabilities. They have incorporated a number of BI tools in SQL Server 2000 and have further enhancements in SQL 2005. 

(Source: OLAP Report Market Share analysis) http://www.olapreport.com/market.htm

Microsoft’s Vision for Business Intelligence

Microsoft's vision for business intelligence is to enable organisations to improve the speed and quality of decision-making by simplifying and integrating services into the platform itself and providing open interfaces to access and share data, both internally and with partners, in mixed-technology environments.

In Microsoft's view, each knowledge worker needs a direct pipeline of ‘personalised’ business intelligence in a form factor—a desktop computer or hand-held device, through a PC client or Web client—that fits his or her immediate business needs. Empowered employees are more motivated to take action. It is Microsoft’s view that each knowledge worker needs a direct pipeline to the appropriate information.

Q4bis’s Vision for Business Intelligence & Positioning
We believe the pipeline referred to above is Q4bis. As proven by winning the Gartner Innovation Award & based on many of our customer testimonials we truly believe that Q4bis is the ONLY solution that meets and empowers the NON Technical & Business User’s day-to-day analytical information needs.

• In addition Q4bis’s association with Microsoft’s MBS Partner of the Year for Axapta has also opened the Global Axapta market for us.

(Source: OLAP Report Market Share analysis) http://www.olapreport.com/market.htm

Q4bis Growth Strategy 

Q4bis' partnership program is now central to its growth strategy. The company is focused on developing its business intelligence product suite and productizing its services while leveraging the deep customer relationships of its indirect sales and implementation partners in the New Zealand, Australian, US and European markets.

Q4bis' indirect sales channels include both value-added resellers and implementation partners. A key focus for 2006 is to develop Q4bis channels partners and joint ‘go to market’ strategies with industry-leading giants Microsoft and IBM. 

Q4bis is current a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and strategically positioned with Microsoft as the leading business intelligence vendor for delivering information for management. This position is strengthened by helping Microsoft MBS Partner of the year Iteration2 Win Prestigious US Microsoft Business Solutions Partner of the Year.

“ Irvine, CA (PRWEB) August 20, 2005 -- The strategic alliance between Iteration2, a Microsoft Axapta Gold Certified Partner, and Q4bis, a world leader in providing business intelligence capabilities to Axapta-enabled business, has resulted in Iteration2 being recognised by Microsoft Business Solutions as ‘2005 US Partner of the Year.’ “Iteration2 has been the ideal partner for us,” says Q4bis Founder and CEO Herbert Schoenek. “With a strong customer focus and impressive set of technical skills, they maximize the potential of both Q4bis and Axapta by adding value at every stage. Their selection as the 2005 US MBS Partner of the Year comes as no surprise to us.”

Adding Q4bis to the Iteration2 solution suite has provided the ‘X-factor’ that gave Iteration2 the momentum and proven track record that impressed Microsoft Business Solutions. “Iteration2 has clearly distinguished itself as the Microsoft US Partner of the Year," said Dan English, General Manager of Microsoft Business Solutions. “They have had a fantastic year and what they have accomplished in such a relatively short time is inspiring. Iteration2 has demonstrated tremendous growth and geographic expansion, deep technical knowledge in Microsoft technologies, superior customer satisfaction, and employees that are driven by a common set of guiding principles.” Q4bis has been an integral part of Iteration2’s impressive growth.

Q4bis Software is planning on acquiring an IBM Server Certification in the near term and is also talking about bundling SQL and Analysis on an IBM x-series box and co-brands it as an IBM out-of-the-box business intelligence solution. Q4bis is focusing on developing channel and marketing strategies with IBM business partners in the USA, Australia and New Zealand markets.

Other information the judges should know

See the description of the Q4Bis Product Suite below

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The Q4bis Product Suite

Q4bis has two core components, Q4bis Analysis Web (Multi Dimensional Analysis) and Q4bis DataServer (Data Warehouse). In addition Q4bis Analysis Web extends the Q4bis BI functionality across the Internet; Q4bis Budget adds specialized budgetary routines to the Q4bis Analysis suite; and Q4bis Report Publisher utilizes Microsoft Reporting Services to facilitate the preparation of reports.

Q4bis leverages the business intelligence technology with SQL Server 2000 & SQL Server 2005 and provides consultancy services around reporting services, key performance indicators and financial reporting.

Q4bis Analysis Web

Q4bis Analysis Web (Q4bis AW) is the front-end is an intuitive easy to use that enables access from anywhere, at any time, using Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox web browsers. Q4bis Analysis Web incorporates up to an eight-quadrant interface that enables users to drill up or down, slice and sort. Q4bis Analysis has been designed to provide self-service Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities to non-BI professionals. Potential users who are familiar with the data can be productive with two minutes of training.Q4bis Analysis Web uses the latest in browser compression technology to ensure that no matter where a user might be physically located; their BI information is only a few clicks away.

Q4bis Budget

This forecasting and planning tool alleviates the inherent problems often associated with spreadsheets. By incorporating write-back technology into Q4bis Analysis and harnessing the power of Microsoft’s Analysis Services OLAP engine, forecasting and planning data can now be easily updated and analysed to ensure the best results are achieved.

Q4bis Report Publisher

Q4bis Report Publisher provides tight integration of Q4bis Analysis with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. It allows the creation and deployment of a Reporting Services report definition as defined by the current view in Q4bis Analysis using one click of the mouse.

Report Publisher is built as a Web Service on the .NET platform. With Q4bis Report Builder, there is no need for Visual Studio.NET or MDX expertise to design reports.

Q4bis DataServer

Q4bis DataServer is the engine that drives the BI process. Q4bis DataServer sits along side Microsoft Data Transformation Services and Analysis Services and facilitates the ETL (extract, transform and load), data warehousing and cube building functions. Using a wizard-based interface Q4bis DataServer can rapidly extract data from any source and create focused Microsoft Analysis Services cubes with a minimum of effort and maximum effect.