Business Intelligence

January 29, 2014

Spreadsheets vs. Analytical Nirvana

This post is part of a series on trends that highlight the two worlds of BI: the world where, according to industry pundits and vendors, enlightened […]
January 21, 2014

Best Value BI Trends — BI Embedded into Business Processes and Decision-making

This post is part of a series on trends that may have been around for years without many enterprises successfully implementing them, or they might be […]
October 10, 2013

Predictive analytics is not your father’s BI project, Part 2 – Battle between data completeness and quality

Predictive analytics and data visualization are data-hungry processes. An enterprise data warehouse is often a critical part of the data backbone that these processes crave. IT’s […]
September 24, 2013

Predictive analytics is not your father’s BI project, Part 1- who does what

Once an enterprise gets beyond the hype and sets out to implement predictive analytics, success will depend on how they approach it. As with anything new, our […]
May 29, 2013

Choosing your Business Intelligence Solution: Don’t be Afraid of the “Smoosh-ins®”

When an enterprise selects a BI solution, it should be able to get the combinations of BI functionality that best meets the varied needs of different. Getting exactly […]
May 16, 2013

Self-Service BI Myths and Truths

As I discussed in The Road to Self-Service BI, enterprises need a better understanding of self-service BI so they can avoid the common mistakes often made with it. […]
May 14, 2013

The Road to Self-Service BI

For years vendors and pundits have heralded the age of self-service business intelligence (BI) thanks to the arrival of the latest generation of BI tools. First, they talked […]
November 30, 2012

TDWI Boston Dec 6 – Secrets of Analytical Leaders: Insights from Information Insiders +

ATTENTION ALL BI/DW AND ANALYTICS PROFESSIONALS IN THE BOSTON AREA Dear Boston BI/DW and Analytics Professionals,  We cordially invite you to attend our upcoming TDWI Boston […]
August 22, 2012

IT needs to concentrate on creating an information backbone

This is the fourth post in my series (“four ways to change our approach to BI development”) on changing our approach to BI development. In order […]
August 20, 2012

Establish hybrid BI development methodology

This is the third post in my series (“four ways to change our approach to BI development”) on changing our approach to BI development. In order […]
August 16, 2012

Triage business requests for new BI deliverables such as dashboards, reports, cubes

This is the second post in my series (“four ways to change our approach to BI development”) on changing our approach to BI development. In order […]
August 14, 2012

Business people need to be given BI tools that enable self-service BI

In a previous blog post, The problems with BI development, I wrote the rut into which many BI implementations have become stuck. In order to break […]
August 7, 2012

The problems with BI development

BI implementations are stuck in a rut. This rut has short-circuited many small to medium size businesses’ (SMB) new BI initiatives.  And, it has thwarted existing […]
July 17, 2012

Riding herd on Excel BI use isn’t easy, but it’s necessary

I am interviewed in the article below by Alan Earls. Eradicating the use of Excel in business intelligence applications turned out to be a pipe dream in […]
July 12, 2012

Webinar: “Seeing Is Believing: Data Visualization for Efficient Reporting”

Rick Sherman will be the featured analyst in this webinar. Rick will discuss the need for enterprises to expand their BI portfolio and enable self-service BI to […]
June 26, 2012

The Scourge of Data Silos

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” [1] Over the years there have been many technology waves related to the design, development and […]
June 13, 2012

Report Governance is Key to Consistent Business Information

Much has been written about managing an enterprise BI Program and implementing data governance. Both of these are key ingredients to business value, but even with […]
April 6, 2012

BI training too important to skip

Lauren Gibbons Paul interviewed Howard Dresner and me for an article on training, which was published in SearchManufacturing ERP.com this week: Training is the final step […]
March 8, 2012

BI’s Dirty Secrets – The Unfortunate Domination of Manually-Coded Extracts

Manually-coded extracts are another dirty secret of the BI world. I’ve been seeing them for years, in both large and small companies. They grow haphazardly and […]
January 18, 2012

BI’s Dirty Secrets – Why Business People are Addicted to Spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are the top BI tool of choice. That choking sound you hear is vendors and IT people reacting viscerally when they confront this […]
January 13, 2012

BI’s Dirty Secrets

The overwhelming amount of articles, seminars, white papers and product announcements on big data, predictive analytics, cloud and mobile business intelligence might make you think that […]
January 11, 2012

Connecting the Dots: Misunderstood Dimensional Models

One of the debates one hears when designing a data warehouse  is that it should be normalized. Specifically, they say to use a third normal form […]
October 26, 2011

Connecting the Dots: An Introduction

When I teach my master’s degree classes I use slides to present the theoretical, and then use workshops to illustrate how the theory applies to design […]
August 11, 2011

Maximizing the value of on-demand Business Intelligence for Small and Medium Enterprises

View my latest webinar on the value of on-demand BI for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). ABSTRACT: Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are just as concerned […]
January 31, 2011

Columnar database software, other technologies aim to speed analytics

From a data management perspective, the last decade primarily has been about gathering data from the various enterprise applications used to run a business and consolidating […]
January 26, 2011

Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing – Too Much Hype: 11 for 2011

It’s time for another business intelligence and data warehousing “hype” list. What industry trends are being hyped by pundits, analysts, columnists and vendors as though they […]
January 12, 2011

My take on why ETL has not always kept up with the integration workload

Why are companies reaching the limits on the workhouse ETL? Here are some thoughts that occurred to me as I was snowblowing 20+ inches of snow […]
January 10, 2011

Improving BI performance without breaking the bank

Demand from business users for actionable information is ever-expanding. And with business managers and workers seemingly connected 24/7 via their iPhones, BlackBerrys, iPads and other devices, […]
January 5, 2011

Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing Trends: 11 for 2011 (and a Led Zeppelin bonus)

What industry trends will affect our industry this year and beyond?  See my predictions below.  Please note that my predictions are not product pitches nor are […]
October 11, 2010

Business intelligence vendors, BI buyers could do more with less,

What do the iPad and business intelligence (BI) tools have in common? Not as much as they should. Apple has been getting a tremendous amount of free publicity […]
June 18, 2010

Yesterday’s DM Radio broadcast on data federation

I enjoyed appearing on the The DM Radio session yesterday The Extended Enterprise: Federated Data Models hosted by Eric Kavanagh and Jim Ericson, editorial director of […]
June 15, 2010

A Series of Unfortunate Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence Events

Over the two decades that companies have been designing and implementing business intelligence and data warehousing solutions they have made the same mistakes over and over […]
May 3, 2010

Can on-demand business intelligence break down pervasive BI barriers?

My two-part article on on-demand BI: Part 1 – Can on-demand business intelligence break down pervasive BI barriers? The desire of business users for information that […]
April 9, 2010

A Lesson from Apple on Doing More with Less

Last week’s iPad release got me thinking about doing more with less – something that Apple has mastered. BI vendors could learn a lot from this. The […]
March 23, 2010

Data Warehousing Jobs: BI Architect

Business Intelligence Architect (SAP BusinessObjects) – Consulting Assignment, Boston MA area Athena IT Solutions is looking for a BI architect. Please feel free to forward this […]