Evidence came in yesterday afternoon that, so far, BI is doing well in the new economy. Greg Turman, director of sales for the Western Region at Corda, phoned to say, “I’m going through the roof,” by which he means sales are good. “I’m seeing tremendous startup activity. People are saying, ‘I can no longer guess. I’ve got to know what’s happening so in case things get tight I’ll survive.’”

What’s behind the surge? He figures that people have finally understood the value of analytics and visual analysis.