If you have any doubts about the data flood that is covering the globe, here are a few amazing stats. Around the world, in just one minute…
Business Intelligence guru, analyst and author, Wayne Eckerson, and I had great times when we worked together at The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI). Although we have both moved on to other ventures, we remain in touch and I still like reading his books and articles.
I particularly enjoyed the first chapter of his most recent book, Secrets of Analytical Leaders: Insights from Information Insiders, where he talks about the concept of “purple people.” But before I explain that, read this concept from Wayne in his book.
Have you ever wondered how it would feel to stand on the top step of an Olympic podium, lean over and have a gold medal placed around your neck? You not only have family, friends and coaches cheering you on, you have a whole nation behind you. It must be an overwhelming moment. While few ever have that opportunity, you can be the go-to champion in your organization. How can that happen?
With a user experience background, I take usability seriously when designing and developing reports. Usability provides end users with polished reporting that is intuitive while still informative. Paying attention to these details can make a huge difference.
For example, “stop light” thresholds are a great conditional formatting style to quickly identify key indicators. They can help users identify which region is growing fastest or is poorly performing.
A report uses red, yellow, and green circular indicators that are commonly associated with the flow of intersection traffic (red for warning or stop, yellow for caution or slow and green for go).
While these stop light colors are known everywhere, what if the end user is color blind?
IBM released Hadoop-based InfoSphere BigInsights in May 2013. There are already Hadoop-based commercial distributions from other vendors such as Cloudera, HortonWorks and MapR. So it was interesting to learn how IBM stacks up against other vendors in the Big Data landscape. I learned more about this because I had the opportunity to get hands-on with the InfoSphere BigInsights Big Data ecosystem the week of October 7, at an IBM boot camp.
Recently I was at a client site discussing the impressive adoption rate of a Mobile BI project that had just gone into production compared to some previous similar projects that had not fared as well. As we white-boarded the particulars of each application’s adoption, we realized that the main difference was how each project had come to be in the first place.
Another great blog by my good friend, Wayne Eckerson. This opening paragraph should grab your interest…
“I’ve met quite a few BI professionals who privately–and sometimes publicly–confide that they can’t move fast enough to keep their business clients happy. They secretly hope that I’ll wipe away their shame, frustration and guilt by saying they aren’t to blame for this discontent. They want me to indict the business people, saying they are too unreasonable, impatient, cheap, and short-term focused. Now, it’s true that the business people are all these things, and more! But that doesn’t mean the BI team is not at fault.”
As if you haven’t already noticed, the world is growing. Quickly.
Okay, it’s not literally expanding at the equator, but the population is developing, the connections among us are ever-increasing and the data generated by this growth is rocketing skyward. As the amount of data increases exponentially, so goes the demand for people who know how to digest this data in direct proportion. Whether big or small, companies thrive on data. It takes data to paint accurate financial pictures, judge the effectiveness of product promotions or analyze sales trends. Amidst the frustrating chaos, two titans have arisen…
Steven Swoyer, an insightful TDWI author, recently posted in BI This Week that Analytics just isn’t what it used to be. As some business intelligence (BI) and decision-support veterans see it, the term itself has lost some of its meaning. Just how much is a subject of some debate.
Gartner, Inc. has identified the top technology trends that will play key roles in modernizing information management (IM) in 2013 and beyond, making the role of information governance increasingly important.