Blog: William McKnight

« December 2005 | Main | February 2006 »

January 29, 2006

Wallpaper: Old "technology", new tricks

That new wallpaper going up in your office building may have a modern design, but it's still wallpaper that reminds you of the '70s and those yellow and orange vertical stripes that at one point you didn't question. Right? Not so fast. Wallpaper may be part of the answer to a problem that didn't exist in the '70s - outsiders securing access to secure wireless computer networks.

As reported in New Scientist, stealth wallpaper can keep company secrets safe. A British company has developed copper-coated electric wallpaper that can selectively block out Wi-Fi access at certain gigahertz. So network communications could be confined to the company.

BAE is working on a transparent, ultra-thin version for windows.

Share:

January 22, 2006

Was CRM really this bad?

In "Good-Bye Yellow Brick Road: CRM's Fairytale Start Fades Into a Pragmatic Finish", Dick Yee signs the epitaph of the CRM industry with a hard-hitting expose' of the euphoric rise and fall of the industry. I read this as I was contemplating the whole CRM thing and while Dick may take it further than I would, it's hard to argue the points he makes.

I contributed to the movement by naming my DM Review column "The CRM-Ready Data Warehouse", which I changed in Sept. 2003 to "Building Business Intelligence". However, I always kept it about the customer - not the software vendor. One can hardly argue the merits of the goal of CRM - essentially a deeper understanding of the customer - and I have no issue with helping clients achieve customer intimacy, or, at Dick puts it, going deeper into their customer's pockets - for a value exchange.

But, to some of Dick's points, the large, successful CRM engagements I was involved in hardly had to do with the technology. And the teams didn't consist of armies from multi-national, global consultancies either. And, yes, it was hard work.

But the software was difficult with all the bells and whistles. And the payoffs were hardly specifically understood, let alone monitored and realized.

I say these things as if CRM is dead. It isn't dead. True CRM, a focus on the 3 big payoffs, is not dead:

1. Targeted Marketing
2. Marketing Expense Reduction
3. Churn Prevention

The tools and the conferences may have been finally sniffed out, but maybe we should call the more sensible CRM we see today CRM' or CRM Version 2 to differentiate from the mess Dick talks about.

Share:

January 15, 2006

Boredom, the brain and business intelligence

In a study at the University of Chicago, reported on in Science Now (link: fee required), mice raised in boring settings were more likely to have detrimental deposits in their brain than those in more stimulating environments. Their stimulation? Running on treadmills.

So, if you are bored with life in business intelligence, I don't know whether to tell you to go run on the treadmill or to find other means of stimulation, but definitely do something for the health of the brain.

Share:

January 10, 2006

On Demand Web Seminar: Operationalizing BI - Turning Insight into Action

On Demand Web Seminar: Operationalizing BI - Turning Insight into Action, exclusively at DMReview.com. Hear James Taylor from Fair Isaac and I discuss how to derive more value from existing BI investments and turn insight into action at this DM Review's website.

Share:

January 9, 2006

RFID - the next big BI thing

I've been saying that RFID is going to have a major impact on data warehouses in the future and I still believe that. The future is now for some manufacturing companies.

The key is going to be learning how to utilize the information that is going to be collected. Now that RFID is hitting the mainstream with the Wal-Mart mandate, this will become a reality now since the data is being collected and the data deluge is demanding analytics well beyond the home-built analytical capabilities being built to support the data.

Gartner Inc. expects the radio frequency identification technology (RFID) market worldwide to reach $504 million in 2005, up 39 percent from the previous year.

Much of this is going to be spent in the area of analytics such as that from early provider Tibco with RFID Interchange. RFID Interchange supports EPC Global's Application Level Event specification, important in the retail industry. And it is designed to work with existing ERP systems. These are the 2 basic requirements.

Expect a lot more from Tibco and other entrants in the near future as companies struggle and learn to deal with data volumes as never before.

Share:

January 6, 2006

Oracle implements multicore chip licensing

Late last year, just before the holidays, Oracle announced it would treat core licensing differently than it has in the past - and more in line with competitors Microsoft and IBM.

Specifically, it will apply a multiple (less than 1) to the number of cores to determine the equivalent processor number for licensing purposes. These multiples appear to be .25 for UltraSparc T1, .5 for AMD/Intel and .75 for other multicore chip servers.

Oracle customers with these server technologies know that a core does not provide a processor level of service, so this pricing strategy should be viewed as more "fair" to these customers. If I recall right, chip makers went to dual- and multi-core strategies in order to more efficiently utilize fans and cooling because they run very hot.

Microsoft and IBM have been doing something similar to this with their DBMS pricing since early 2005.

Share: