Business applications include Customer Relationship Management, Regulatory Compliance, Contact Centers, Help Desks, Web Self-Service and Business Intelligence.

FORBES: Build Your Own Watson with Open Source Software

The first example is the kind of information that WiseWindow gathers in its mass opinion business intelligence service.

FORBES: New Sources for Business Surprises

He also did due-diligence work for companies including Hakluyt, a strategic business intelligence company founded by former members of the British foreign intelligence service, MI6, according to a spokesman for the company.

WSJ: Fearful Final Hours for Briton Who Died in China

More than one out four of the 1, 364 organizations surveyed (27%), in fact, already use or plan to use cloud or software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings to augment their core business intelligence (BI) functions.

FORBES: More Business Intelligence Moving to the Cloud: Survey