The Convergence of Analytic and Operational Processing is a Big Deal
For more than 40 years, organizations have been forced to run operational and analytic processes on different systems. The latency of disk-based databases and the high cost of live memory meant that combining operational and analytic processes just didn’t make economic sense. Now new technology and falling costs are overturning a generation of analytics best practice. It’s becoming faster, simpler, and cheaper to use a single in-memory... [Read More...]
Is Big Data The New Term for Business Intelligence?
The term “business intelligence” was first coined by IBM researcher Hans Luhn in 1958, and then used in its modern sense in 1989 by then-Gartner analyst Howard Dresner. Earlier this year, Gartner joined other analyst firms such as IDC and started using “business analytics” as an umbrella term for solutions for turning data into value : Business analytics is comprised of solutions used to build analysis models and simulations to create scenarios,... [Read More...]
Scrooge Didn’t Believe in Sentiment Analysis Either
I mentioned Ebenezer Scrooge, Charles Dickens’ fictional financier from A Christmas Carol, in a previous post on the importance of using new leading (rather than lagging) sources of data to improve company performance. Famously cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy, it’s a fair bet Scrooge didn’t care much about sentiment analysis. But social media analytics – mining social networks for publicly-available data about what people... [Read More...]
Marketing People in Glass Houses Shouldn’t Throw Stones
InformationWeek Executive Editor Doug Henschen takes Oracle to task for having the gall to criticize his article about Microsoft’s new in-memory solution while being less than candid about their own in-memory solution: Oracle Spotlights Its Database Memory Gap. The result of Oracle’s action is an article that explains in detail the gap between Oracle’s marketing rhetoric and the reality of their solution: Oracle senior communications VP... [Read More...]
Innovation by SAP Nordic Forums
I’ve had the huge pleasure of presenting at a series of Innovation by SAP events across the Nordic region. Please find below my two presentations from the sessions in Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Stockholm (note: only incremental changes from the presentations in the Baltic region in a previous post) The keynote presentation: Business In The Moment: From Reactive to Proactive 2012 will be a year of business transformation. New technologies such... [Read More...]
SAP Innovation Tour in the Baltics
I’m in the Baltics this week (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia), presenting a business innovation keynote and a big data track session as part of the SAP Innovation Forum. Yesterday’s sessions in Tallinn were fascinating, including: Industry thought leader Peep Aavikso, on why smart companies need smart people Janeck Gustavson of Eesti Energy talking about their use of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) A very passionate talk from Olga... [Read More...]
Just Add Analytics – Even to Toothbrushes
I recently saw a presentation mentioning that there “are more mobile phones than toothbrushes in the world”, and according to some research by the 60 second marketer, it seems that in all likelihood, this is absolutely true: My next thought was “why not combine the two?!”. Here’s my quick mockup of an iPhone case of the future: But as usual, truth is stranger than fiction. Just when you think you’ve seen every use of analytics possible,... [Read More...]
Analytics Projects Are Like Skiing Through Moguls?
View this video to see why analytics and business intelligence projects can be like skiing through a mogul field! (fast changes of direction, radical failure, etc.). Lots of parallels between my vocation and my vacation? (groan). Note: annotations may not work in mobile mode… (Video taken with GoPro Hero, Alpinette run, Rochebrune, Megève) Share and Enjoy Read More →
Business Intelligence Best Practice Twitter #SAPChat
I will be the host of the next #SAPChat, an interactive panel discussion carried out entirely over Twitter. It’s scheduled for 9am PST / 18:00 CET on Wednesday February 29th, and the subject will be “Business Intelligence Best Practice”. We will be discussing how best to implement business intelligence projects successfully, with an emphasis on people-focused hints and tips rather than technical discussions. And with only 140 characters available,... [Read More...]
2012: The Year Analytics Means Business
The real trend this year is not the technology. It’s about helping business people make better decisions, and actually change the way companies do business. Analytics has always been about transforming business, but the recent huge changes in analytic technology have created interesting new opportunities for business innovation. Most organizations are now starting to understand the technical opportunities, but many struggle to apply those new opportunities... [Read More...]
I was the eighth employee of 
