BI and The Limitations of Human Cognition in Den Bosch

I presented at my first conference of the year last week, the Heliview Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing 2012 conference in ‘s Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. The first keynote, by Erasmus scholar Dr. Roeland Dietvorst, was about “Performance Management in the Brain”, and a subject close to my heart: the (severe) limitations we evolved apes have when trying to make rational decisions. He illustrated his point with examples of great research... [Read More...]

What Mobile BI Used To Look Like, And Where It’s Going (Back to the Future!)

Note, this is an adapted, extended version of my post on the SAP Analytics Blog. Mobile BI has been around for a long time. Starting in the late-1990s, the first SMS-enabled telephones became mainstream in Europe, with basic broadcasting of the latest figures available in your BI system (or email, fax, pager, etc.). By the end of the decade, the first telephones with WAP browsers were used to provide interactive BI, quickly followed by connected PDAs... [Read More...]

Building Competitive Advantage (SAP World Tour Keynote)

Here’s a recording of a World Tour keynote presentation (it happens to be from Belgrade, Serbia, but I did similar presentations in several different regions). It covers how companies can build competitive advantage through customer intimacy, product leadership, category renewal, and operational excellence, using examples from SAP’s customers. You can download the slides in either PowerPoint or pdf format.  Read More →

SAP BusinessObjects Mobile BI Directions

Here’s a video from this years SAPPHIRE NOW in Madrid, featuring Mimi Speir, Steve Lucas, and Andrew Murray giving an overview of SAP BusinessObjects mobile directions: Highlights include: New SAP BusinessObjects experience mobile application, based on the Exploration Views functionality from the BusinessObjects innovation center, with demo data from Experience.SAP.com Easily take a mobile analysis and create a StreamWork activity for collaborative... [Read More...]

Sybase: Big Data Crisis is a Big Lie

Sybase (“an SAP Company”) recently published an analytics guide called “Intelligence for Everyone”. The first section called “The Big Lie about Big Data” includes the following: Why “big lie?” Because, as the article points with lots of historical examples, there’s always been a “crisis” in data storage, but as data volumes have risen technology has always evolved to deal with it, and that’s as true today as it has been in... [Read More...]

Big Leap Forward: Analytics Keynote at UK & Ireland SAP User Group Conference 2011

I was honored to speak at this years UK & Ireland SAP User Group Conference held in Birmingham, UK. The first main day saw great keynotes from the new SAP UK Managing Director, Steve Winter; Analyst Ray Wang; SAP’s CIO, Oliver Bussmann; and Olympic Sprinter Steve Cram. You can read a full review by Christoph Ziedler on SAP.info, and see the various videos on YouTube starting with the introduction by Alan Bowling, Chairman of UKISUG. Here’s... [Read More...]

Survey: Everybody Uses Data Better Than Their Competitors?

Here’s a chart from a recent study by the Economist Intelligence Unit called “Big data: Harnessing a game-changing asset”, showing that only 9% of respondents believe that they use data worse than their competitors. Let’s face it, they’re probably in denial. It’s often called “Illusory Superiority” or the “Lake Wobegon Effect” (a radio show where “all the children are above average”), and it’s a real force in the analytics... [Read More...]

The Office of Tomorrow — from 1945

I just stumbled on a 1945 Seagram’s ad describing “The Office of Tomorrow” as part of a great set of illustrations by X-Ray Delta One on Flickr: Key texts: “Face-to-face conferences through television will be held coast-to-coast, and intricate calculations of quotas or sales by territories will be turned out at the touch of an assistant’s finger. Records will appear as if by magic from files automatically operated in the electronic age... [Read More...]

Mobile Analytics Interview at ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conference

Here’s a recording of a short mobile analytics interview done at the evening drinks reception at the recent ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conference in Florida. As you can tell, a couple of glasses of wine had helped loosen my “passion” for the topic! There’s more detail in these posts on “mobile isn’t just about mobile” and “augmented corporate reality” (some of the links in the post are now out-of-date – see here for the... [Read More...]

At-a-Glance Guide to Analytics at SAPPHIRE NOW Madrid

I’ll be an official “social ambassador” for analytics at SAPPHIRE NOW from Madrid next week. This blog attempts to summarize the main analytics-related activities during the two days of SAPPHIRE NOW – but note that this year, SAPPHIRE NOW attendees also have access to all SAP TechEd sessions that are going on at the same time, making it even harder than usual to choose from the dizzying array of possible sessions (the SAP TechEd sessions... [Read More...]

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