BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE NETWORK NEWSLETTER

Stephen Few In addition to the two articles in this month's data visualization edition of the Business Intelligence Newsletter, I have an eagerly anticipated event to announce as well: the Business Intelligence Network's first annual data visualization competition.

I've prepared five business scenarios that require data visualization solutions. You have an opportunity to showcase your talent by entering our competition. In addition to an overall winner, awards will be given to those who contribute the best solution to each of the five scenarios. You can choose which of the scenarios you wish to respond to or, even better, you can respond to all five and become eligible for the grand prize. The winning solution to each of the scenarios will be featured in one of my articles, beginning with the August edition of this newsletter. Entries may be submitted until the July 14, 2006, deadline.

You'll find a link at the end of this paragraph to access the Excel file that provides full instructions (including a description of the awards), a description of each scenario, and the data that is required for each visualization solution. Please participate. Not only will you be challenged and hopefully learn from the experience, but your participation will give us all a useful means to assess the state of business data visualization today. Click here for full details.

In this month's articles, you get a double helping of me. The first article, Hard Facts: Why are Business Decisions So Seldom Based on Them?, examines the essential connection between successful business intelligence and the commitment of management to evidence-based decision making, which is surprisingly rare. A new book by Stanford business professors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton entitled Hard Facts, Dangerous Half Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management holds up a mirror to the face of American business to reveal the common decision-making practices that lead many astray. As it turns out, the best evidence reveals that many of the most popular management practices either don't work at all or only work in circumstances that don't apply to most businesses. The authors give practical advice for reorienting businesses toward evidence-based management, and I connect their arguments to the work of business intelligence.

The second article, Excel's New Charting Engine, is an exposé of sorts that targets the coming release of Microsoft Excel, the product that, for good or ill, is the most popular tool ever for analyzing and reporting data. Microsoft has rebuilt the charting engine in Excel 2007, which has given them an opportunity to improve the state of business charting for millions. This article takes a peek at several of Excel's new charting features and assesses how well Microsoft has taken advantage of this golden opportunity.

Enjoy,

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