Briefs

NEW YORK - (Business Wire) More SMBs (small and medium businesses, or companies with up to 999 employees) in the United States are seriously considering using BI (business intelligence) software tools to help them better understand market drivers for sales and forecasting, and for increasing their profit margins. There are about 6.3 million SMBs in the US, with about 98% of them being SBs (small businesses, or companies with up to 99 staff).

About 9% of PC-enabled SBs in the US are currently using BI in the form of packaged software compared to 37% of MBs. 5% of PC SBs are using BI as part of an online software as a service tool for 2008. However, PC MBs, not as much: a mere 1%.

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About 16% of SBs -- and 22% of MBs -- in the US said they use BI or data mining and forecasting financial planning as part of an ERP/SCM module. Wholesale and retail are the dominant sectors. "This makes sense, considering the volume of e-commerce and email data that is collected daily," says Ms. McKenzie. "However, for MBs we see a different pattern, where 30% are using BI as part of ERP/SCM and professional business service is the dominant sector."

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