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Blog: Richard HackathornDecember 21, 2007Review of Successful Business Intelligence by Cindi HowsonIt was a pleasant surprise to receive the new book by Cindi Howson entitled Successful Business Intelligence. She has always impressed me as a thoughtful and knowledgeable professional who has contributed greatly to the BI field by living in the trenches, digging into the details, and teaching others about her experiences. It is hard to find a comprehensive book on BI that is written without an impenetrable cloud of technical concepts. Ten years ago, successful BI depended on the expert execution of those technical concepts. However, BI has matured, increasing the importance of nontechnical factors for successful BI. This book tracks this trend by clarifying the current success factors for successful BI projects. Oldies and goodies are covered, such as the necessity of executive support, data quality, and business-IT partnership. However, the real contribution lies in highlighting some of the new success factors, such as: - Measuring Success: If you can not measure BI, you will not be successful. The book suggests numerous ways to measuring your BI effort. - Role of Luck, Opportunity, Frustration and Threat: We hate to admit it, but BI projects are often successful (or not) for reasons beyond our control or even our imagination. Get over it! The book suggests ways of maximizing your success by making you aware of this dynamic. - Agile Development: Do not build BI systems in the old traditional way. We all know this. But do we know a good alternative? The book outlines the Agile Manifesto to deliver early and continuous versions, embrace requirements changes, intensify person interactions, etc. - Organizational Culture: Experienced BI professionals realize that some company cultures are so messed up that there is no way to have a successful BI project. Sad but true! This book suggests the essential cultural characteristics based on the research of Jim Collins. I highly recommend this book to both BI professionals who have some experience and business executives who are new to BI. The old timers can refocus and sync with the new trends. And, the executives can focus on the real business issues, avoiding paralysis over technical details. In fact, buy several copies to pass along to your colleagues. Maybe, just maybe, this will reduce the frequency that you are asked, “Now what do you really do with this BI stuff?” April 3, 2007Single Version of the Truth?Neil Raden once again rubs a raw nerve of our BI/DW industry! As a long-time proponent of Single Version of the Truth, I have seen the tangible business value of data integration that produces some type of single version of what is happening in a complex enterprise. I have preferred to call it a 'Consistent View of Business Reality'. But, Neil is right! There is this emerging chasm that is unhealthy between the DW folks striving toward a single version the present and the BI folks striving for alternative versions of the future. Neil advocates that we strip DW of its BI credentials. A more constructive way is to recognize the inherent conflict and turn it into a challenge for both parties. Business executives should adopt the following mantra: DW give me a consistent view of who I am. And, BI give me consistent views of who I can be. November 8, 2006Dot-Com Bubble ReconsideredToday's WSJ on page B1 mentions a research study examining 1,100 business plans submitted to a second-tier venture capital firm during the bubble years (August 1995 to March 2000). The study concludes that the dominate business strategy was to 'get big fast'. No surprises there! This seems like the strategy for many Web 2.0 companies today. However, the study found that the attrition rate for dot-com companies was roughly 20% per year, which is the same as other industries in their early boom periods. And, these survivors were not the large well-known companies (like Google and eBay), but they were smaller firms in niche markets sustained by web shopping. These niche businesses have provided decent returns to those involved. So, the Dot-Com Bubble may not be as bad as we all think. Read the full research study when it is published in a future issue of the Journal of Financial Economics. Technorati Tags: Business Intelligence, Dot-Com November 3, 2006The Long Tail: Initial ImpressionsI just started reading the book The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired Magazine. The book comes highly recommended by several colleagues, including Sami Akbay, Vice President of Marketing for GoldenGate Software. The introduction starts by focusing on top-seller lists of hit albums, books, TV shows, and so on. Top sellers rule! At least, they have in the past, through mass distribution channels that decided what got produced. It was the old 80-20 rule. 80% of the revenues come from 20% of the products. So, focus on the 20% (top sellers) and forget the rest. Times they are a-changing... As society shifts to the global Internet with digital goods, that same behavior does not seem to be valid. That is the revelation that Anderson highlights. The moment of insight came in a question from the CEO of Ecast, a digital jukebox company offering 10,000 albums. What percentage of the 10,000 albums sold at least one tracks over the past quarter? Normally, the answer would be 20% or a couple of thousand albums. The actual answer is 98%. Think about this! So, as the company added more and more albums, that 98% held and their revenue continue to grow unbounded. This is a whole new perspective on expanding your market. I can't wait to get deeper into the book... November 1, 2006Importance of Enterprise ComplianceMike Ferguson wrote a clear business statement about the importance of enterprise compliance. It is a sobering assessment of how enterprises have devalued the requirement for quality and consistent data about their business processes. Most CIO's have concurred, retreating into a partial ERP solution like a band-aid on a deep wound. Ferguson concludes, "...the bottom line here is that noncompliance carries significant adverse consequences. It is not just about the penalties. It is about reputation, maintaining good relationships with key investors and customer confidence. All of these are threatened by poor data quality." This is a MUST-READ! Part Two will go into depth on technical architecture for enterprise compliance. Went to go, Mike! August 1, 2006Welcome to My Blog on BI and GlobalisationWelcome to this blog that focuses on Business Intelligence in the global context. We live in a increasingly small world. Our economy is globalised to a large degree in evey industry, whether we like it or not! Now, let's factor into the mix the practice and technology of business intelligence. What do you get? A world economy moving very fast and very intelligently. Is this good for everybody in the world? Not necessarily, but the challenge is to understand the trends and react to them in meaningful ways. Have you read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman? If not, I suggest reading it with a special focus on how business intelligence is playing a critical role in Globalisation. In particular, how is business intelligence... - Enabling us to cut through the complexity of globalisation? |
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