Data Governance? What’s That? (And How Can Companies Fix It?)
A recent survey of business and IT leaders carried out by Kalido shows that over two thirds of businesses have no clear data governance program, and have no plans to implement one — and 13% are unclear as to what data governance even is. The research also reveals that nobody knows who is supposed to be responsible for maintaining the accuracy of data. In 31% of the companies questioned, this role is held by the IT department – but IT organizations... [Read More...]
BusinessObjects is The Best Thing About SAP Business Suite 7?
As I’m sure everybody knows by now, SAP launched Business Suite 7 last week. There was a “let’s-wait-and-see” attitude in the coverage for some of the claims made for the new suite, but the inclusion of BusinessObjects analytics into the suite was almost unanimously declared a big part of its appeal: SAP Business Suite 7 – what’s new? “One aspect that does deserve attention is the inclusion of "select analytics capabilities... [Read More...]
Branding Your BI Solution: Everything Up to And Including Theme Music?
Branding and other forms of internal marketing are absolutely essential for successful BI projects — and it’s an area where the teams don’t often have a lot of expertise. Use whatever resources you have Sometimes implementation teams have access to internal resources for brochures and other materials – e.g. see the example below for an example of a brochure that was produced for a large French public sector BI project. Even... [Read More...]
It Would Have Been a Crime not to Include Analytics in This New Application
Today, SAP launched SAP Investigative Case Management for Public Sector, a new solution to support police and other investigating authorities in the efforts to prevent, detect and investigate crime. It’s a great example of the new SAP Business Suite 7 applications that integrate technology from the Business Objects acquisition, combining both operational and analytic expertise into a single solution. It’s not just the criminals that are calculating The... [Read More...]
Bad Decisions: Just Blame Evolution?
February 12th 2009 will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of naturalist Charles Robert Darwin. He researched, popularized, and will forever be associated with what is probably the biggest idea ever: Evolution. Despite the overwhelming evidence, there are still, sadly, many people who don’t believe in it. According to The Economist: "In the United States a Gallup poll conducted last year found that only 14% of people agreed with... [Read More...]
Good Advice for Bad Times?
Following the lead of Dave Kellogg (i.e. shamelessly copying), here’s a link to an excellent article on "Counter-Intuitive Tactics for Bad Times". The article is for high-tech industries looking to weather the crisis. I’ve copied Dave’s paraphrasing below, swapping his comments with mine, related to SAP BusinessObjects: Invest in product development, not sales. (BI is a big investment focus of SAP. We’re integrating... [Read More...]
MicroStrategy: The Start of the End? or Just a New Product Cycle?
MicroStrategy announced their 4Q 2008 results yesterday. The stock price rose, since the company beat analyst estimates, but as InformationWeek reports, the most interesting news is that product license revenue dropped 12% over the 4th quarter 2007. Industry observers and investors are watching keenly for any signs of whether BI vendor consolidation is making it harder for the remaining independent BI vendors like MicroStrategy, and license revenue... [Read More...]
More Milk Please, Ermintrude! A Classic Decision Trap?
According to a recent article published in Scientific American, the authors of study assert that: "Farmers who have named their cows … probably have a better relationship with them. They’re less fearful, more relaxed and less stressed, so that could have an effect on milk yield." And in a separate article: "Placing more importance on knowing the individual animals and calling them by name can — at no extra cost... [Read More...]
Gartner BI Europe 2009: The BIg Discrepancy?
The official theme of the Gartner BI Summit Europe a couple of weeks ago was "the BIg discrepancy": the long-standing gap between our business intelligence / performance management aspirations and the reality of most organizations today. This is my subjective summary of the themes I heard most about during the conference. Star Schema 2.0 rock! Successful BI requires a BI strategy BI governance is evolving Megavendors dominate SAP... [Read More...]
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