A couple of weeks ago, I had a great discussion with Mark Rittman for his Drill to Detail podcast series about “the business and strategy of analytics and big data.”
In this episode, we discussed:
- My background and start in analytics, role(s) at BusinessObjects and SAP.
- The origins of self-service BI for business users with Business Objects’ innovative “Universe” and the role analytics now plays within SAP (still the #1 in market share after 26 years!).
- Why there’s less emphasis on requiring a “semantic layers” for modern BI, and the expanding definition of “self-service”
- Why SAP acquired BusinessObjects.
- The power of analytics cartoons!
- Why analytics is the most important function within your organization
- Why it’s important for traditional analytics teams to stay in touch with the teams implementing “digital transformation”
- Using design thinking to brainstorm prototypes to test
- Don’t be a BI-nosaur!
- Companies don’t just need new innovations, they need new ways of innovating — and data helps.
- How operations and analytics have come together thanks to new technology.
- Why the vast majority of analytics is still interactive reporting and dashboards (and why that’s not so bad!).
- The fundamental cyclical trend towards analytics automation.
- Self-service is great — but 90% of the effort is still getting the data together (but maybe AI can help?)
- Changing BI competency centers (it’s about doing less)
- The current SAP range of analytic products
- The role AI and other innovations will play in analytics going in the future.
Play the podcast:
You can download the podcast here. Many thanks again to Mark, and don’t forget to check out all the other episodes with key figures in the analytics industry!