I found this book to be very weak in details and concepts. It's easy to say that companies need business intelligence and throw around some very vague and general facts and examples. And that's what this book does. The case studies offer no details at all. If you've never heard of e-business or intelligence (basically if you've been living in a cave) then this book will introduce the topic at a high level. But if you're looking for more information you'd better look some place else. I know the author is the founder of Business Objects, but I just expected more from this book and was very disappointed.

While doing periodical research on the business intelligence subject, I found this book as a new acquisition at the university library; sorry, but it is a long white paper on the advantages and why to use a software tool for doing business intelligence, never minding about any data/facts that may be found out of the bits and bytes world: Informal sources? External data? Competitor intelligence? Who cares, if you want a 360° view of your customer, don't need more than a computer and some software--at the end, culture, attitude and pure business sense seem like a waste of time. Suddenly, I discovered why this bothered me: The autor is one of Business Objects' top executives! Now, it all made sense: It is like other books written by people who need to sell a product (and Business Objects is a good seller indeed) so writting down their way of seeing the world gets them a guruesque position in front of their customers and prospects. If you need to really learn about business intelligence, don't bother reading it: you can find lots of free white papers that cover the same subject in the BI software vendors web sites. Trying to understand business intellingence as something that needs nothing more than a software tool, leaving behind all the intelectual and analytical work to do, is equivalent to define mathematics as the use of a scientific calculator.

This book was written for managers in mind. This book does not cover technical details of data warehouses or data mining. Given its scope this book accomplishes its task efficiently, with no real wasted anecdotes and personal opinions. The author a well-known expert on business objects really displays his ability to convey the information accurately and illustrates his points well. This will aid any manager get up to speed on the missing information sources that can occur in any business and apply them to their own business. Overall, this book accomplishes what it intends to do and that is to inform the reader on the various methods a business can utilize information to gain efficiency and a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

I have not generally recommended a business book for several years, and never anything French, but...

With all the books about e-this and e-that, you tire quickly of the torrent of buzzwords and cliches endured to read anything about sharing data on the internet, make better use of corporate data, new business paradigms, etc.

This book actually elucidates how you can leverage all the new and extant technologies going forward to great effect while staying grounded with recent case examples. Sounds simple, but try to find this information anywhere else.

The business world will change immensely because of the internet and the exponential increases in both the amount of data available and the need for business intelligence. In the years to come, management, especially in highly competitive environments, will live or die depending on their understanding of the concepts aptly explained in this book.

The best literature from France since Dumas!

If you are seeking a quick, concise, yet thorough analysis of how to make an impact with your e-business data, this is the book for you. The book is easy to follow, well-written, and most importantly, provides great examples.

There are volumes of data flowing into every enterprise at a record pace. Data analysis tools and strategies are expanding to meet the increasing needs for corporations to turn data into dollars.

Liautaud's book will help you to better understand the key elements of any successful e-business intelligence strategy. The examples represent a broad range of industries and really helped apply real-world thinking to the content.

It is nice to see a publication on this topic that is more than theory and predictions. This one is a winner.

If you are in this space, read this book.