Retail majors bet big on business intelligence (Financial Express - 13/09/2009)   Mumbai, Sep13: Branded retailgaints in the Rs 40,000 crore organised retail sector are betting big on adopting business intelligence(BI) software as a service (SAAS) model on monthly rent basis. With the move, retailers plan to discontinue expensive software licenses such as SAP, Oracle and Business Object. This is to counter a major challenge on how to save the time and cost in implementing BI solutions as a cost-effective measure, according to retailers and industry experts. Sunil Mehta, chief executive officer, Next Retail India Ltd from the belt of videocon industries Ltd said, "We first need to study the if SAAS is really effective. We may plan to implement SAAS model for our 430 'Next' consumer durable retail stores and save 40% costs on business intelligence software license in the near future." MeanWhile, the Essar Group's telecom retailing company, The MobileStore, luggage major-Samsonite India, Gini and Jony, Victorinox and Chennai-based Tally company certain retailers in India are likely to join SAAS model band-wagon and thus save on their business intelligence software costs. Niraj Jaipuria, director-product engineering, BIRetail told FE, "A SAAS model is available at monthly rentals, which start from 5,000 onwards, instead of incurring $1 mn for licensed software. Also, typical BI implementations can take 6 to 12 months to go live. But SAAS model reduces the cycle to as low as 4 weeks. To counter the price-barrier for adoption of BI solutions, BIRetail has deployed their software in SAAS model." BIRetail, which has it's headquarters in London and an implementer of SAAS model in US has recently set up its office in Bangalore. BIRetail is a license-free interactive analytical tool compatible with any point of sale software, which enables retailers exercise better control over their back-end and front-end operations. Globally, the new SAAS trend is in sync with the ongoing global trend where the demand for license-free SAAS model in US and Europe is growing at a rate of 35% to 40%. Looking at the global scenario private equity (PE) players are all set to invest 75% of Rs 1,000 to 1,500 Crore in SAAS models worldwide including Singapore, HongKong, India, US, Europe and Middle-East in the next two years, say industry experts.     About BIRetail BIRetail is a “license-free” Business Intelligence tool compatible with any Point of Sale software, which assists Retailers exercise better control over their operations. This innovative solution helps Retailers generate higher profit by churning their operational and transactional data into “Actionable Intelligence”. Using this solution Retailers can: • Optimize Inventory costs • Maximize earnings through visual Profitability Analysis reporting • Increase Sales by improved customer recognition • Get better mileage for merchandise spends, with better Product behavior patterns BIRetail currently serves the challenging needs of retailers in U.S, U.K and Europe. To know more contact us at info@BIRetail.com       © 2008 BIRetail. All Rights Reserved.