Join Us For Social Media Day in Palo Alto on Feb 15th
Interested in Social Media? (and everybody should be, because these techniques are changing EVERY business process, not just marketing). Come and join us! As part of this year’s Social Media Week, SAP Palo Alto will be hosting a free, day-long non-SAP-focused event on Wednesday, February 15th with a glittering array of industry experts discussing a variety of key social topics: Just some of the participants: Maggie Fox, CEO... [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 →
Are You in Denial About Governance, Risk, and Compliance?
In a previous post, I talked about the “illusory superiority” effect, and how it blinds people to the fact that, on average, it’s unlikely that they use data better than their competitors. Guess what? It turns out that it applies to governance, risk, and compliance, too. Here are some figures from another Economist Intelligence Unit Survey, “Ascending the Maturity Curve, Effective Management of Enterprise Risk and Compliance”: We can see... [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...]
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...]
SAP BusinessObjects User Conference 2011: Opening Keynote
It’s a stormy and sunny day here in Orlando, Florida, for the 2011 ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conference in the Dolphin Hotel (ASUG members and conference attendees can see videos and download conference materials at http://www.asugonline.com/) Bridgette Chambers, CEO of the Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG) (@bchambersASUG on Twitter), kicked things to the packed room off by reminiscing about how much relations have improved... [Read More...]
Why In-Memory Analytics is Like Digital Photography: An Industry Transformation
When was the last time you had a roll of film developed? If you’re reading this, you’re no technology luddite, so it was probably already many years ago. Film – a technology that had been slowly improved and perfected over 200 years – was replaced in less than a decade by a much faster, cheaper, and more convenient technology approach. In an earlier post, I outlined why I think we’re on the brink of a real revolution in business analytics... [Read More...]
Affecto Corporate IQ Oslo
I attended the Affecto Corporate IQ 2011 event this morning, in Oslo, Norway, in the Thon Hotel overlooking the spectacular Opera House. The theme of the conference was “Revolution”, and was kicked off by Håvard Ellefsen, the CEO of Affecto in Norway. Morning Keynote I gave the opening keynote, on the “Big Leap Forward”. As usual here are the slides for download, in Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat format. During the rest... [Read More...]
Use Data, Not Your Gut Instinct
Two fun videos that portray why you should pay attention to the data, not to your gut feel, using sports metaphors – with links to online analytics of the sports stats yourself, on the ever-growing Experience SAP site. Baseball: “know it all – without being one” Play with the stats yourself at the Baseball section of the Experience SAP site. Rugby: “keep your mouth shut if you don’t have the data to back it up” Play with the stats... [Read More...]

I was the eighth employee of