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Blog: William McKnightApril 19, 2008Revenge of the ERPsThose processes that were primarily considered to need to go against the data warehouse are now being moved back into operational systems themselves, or new systems are being established in operations. However, unlike previously, when ERP vendors were slow to acknowledge the need for anything beyond what they provided, ERPs today tend to work as members of an information ecosystem. It’s like back to the days before data warehousing, only this time with an operational environment increasingly able to keep up with corporate demands. Today’s ERP environments are well aware of the real-time and up-to-date need for information and facilitate much of the analysis needed in three ways: March 26, 2008Leadership, The Data Warehouse, The Operations World and Analytic AccessI have a new white paper available. It's sponsored by Business Objects and titled "Modernizing and Advancing Information Management Across the Enterprise." In the paper, I try to put information management leadership, the data warehouse, operations and analytics into a modern context. I talk about the necessity and structure of information leadership, including new concepts of an Information Management Competency Center and Information Management Governance. I talk about the 2 directions data warehouses can go now and federating and consolidating those warehouses. Finally, there's where analytics are going to be coming from and some of the analytic value of modern ERP. In each of the 4 areas (organization, data warehouse, operations, analytics), I give you a "checklist" of the most relevant questions to ask of your shop and seek answers to. The paper is available at this link or on my channel here at the B-eye-network. Continue reading "Leadership, The Data Warehouse, The Operations World and Analytic Access" » February 18, 2008Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence 2008Gartner came out with the 2008 BI Platforms Magic Quadrant with all the market heavies in the upper right (Microsoft, Cognos/IBM, Business Objects/SAP and Oracle). SAS is also there and Microstrategy also clears the center. Though it may appear as the safe way to go, this quadrant is consistent with earlier quadrant criteria and shows some minor progress by Microsoft and Cognos, both deserved, and the absorption of Hyperion into Oracle, which surprisingly did not boost Oracle much. In effect, Gartner is commodifying itself along with the toolsets. This quadrant will need to get less top heavy and some recalibration is in order so that the subtler differentiation stands out amongst the BI toolsets. There are also the dozens of smaller BI players that Gartner could highlight and add value in that way. Most BI buyers would (should) know the list of major players already. Some of the softer factors like local representation, availability of resources, internal skills and synergy with existing technologies becoming more interesting these days in BI selection. Continue reading "Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence 2008" » January 2, 2008The Best of Data Warehousing 2007Continuing the awards for the “best of” information management tools for 2007, I move to the proverbial “back end” and offer up some “best of” products that provide the foundations of our environments. Thinking back over the products I’ve worked with in 2007, I have to repeat my belief that it was the “Best of” year in information management. Best Open Source DBMS MySQL Enterprise Fall 2007 Release – This is the commercial subscription offering for the popular MySQL open source database (which makes it “low cost” not free – for those who associate open source with free). It includes a comprehensive set of production-tested software, proactive monitoring tools, and premium support services for corporate developers and DBAs. MySQL provides a full suite of database drivers and graphical tools to help developers and DBAs build and manage their MySQL applications. Best Data Warehouse Appliance I take this opportunity to say there is no ‘best’, only best for a given situation because indeed there are many with good value propositions. Best Federated Query Facilitator Continue reading "The Best of Data Warehousing 2007" » December 19, 2007The Best of Business Intelligence 2007It’s year-end and time for year-end awards. There seem to be awards for just about everything already, but I’ve come up with some unique (I think) categories to share some vendors and products with you that are on my mind. My diverse client needs have led to some far and near corners of the vendor community for solutions. I’ll start on the business intelligence side. Drumroll, please. Best tool for working with Microsoft Excel Yes, 2 winners. Xcelsius brings Excel spreadsheets to life with its incorporation of live data as well as predictive analytics into robust gauges. It’s a great tool for “what if” and the best accessible development tool for creating user understandable analytics. Actuate 9 e.Spreadsheet similarly can work on live data. Its distribution capabilities for actual Excel spreadsheets makes it a winner. Live formatting, pivot tables, filters, 3D charting and calculations are rich capabilities for making Excel actionable. It’s quick to learn and takes spreadsheet development (yeah, I know it’s easy for us IT people) off of end user hands who don’t want (or have time for) that task. Best workflow for contact centers Best business intelligence appliance Best BI tool integration with Blackberry Best BI library metadata Continue reading "The Best of Business Intelligence 2007" » November 21, 2007Framework Purchasing in Business Intelligence over the next few yearsA trend I anticipate to start in 2008 is a byproduct of the enormous M&A activity that has taken place, and will continue to take place. That trend is what I call “framework purchasing.” Many end user organizations, and more to come, when they are rounding out their technology stack, will have to highly consider chiefly the offering from one of the mega-vendors already in their shop and align with their emerging platform (note I didn’t say standard.) There will be tool replacements as well as these vendors drive cross-selling with discounts and the lure of tool integration, the latter of which will take some time. Continue reading "Framework Purchasing in Business Intelligence over the next few years" » June 26, 2007UK business intelligence projects hitting targetThis article from TechWorld is titled “UK business intelligence projects not hitting target” and starts with “A huge 87 percent of business intelligence projects are failing to meet their original objectives, and nearly a quarter are going over budget, according to new research.” Wow! Now, I’m not one to overhype business intelligence success, which I think most of what I read actually does. However, let’s dissect this using the facts of the study. “The survey of 68 senior IT decision makers in the UK, conducted by the National Computing Centre for data management vendor Sybase, revealed serious disappointment in business intelligence projects, after 85 percent of those interviewed had implemented the technology in order to improve management decision making.“ OK, the only fact there is that 85 percent of those interviewed had implemented BI. The “serious disappointment” is developed in the rest of the story. Or is it? Continue reading "UK business intelligence projects hitting target" » |
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