In The Trial-and-Error Method for Data Architecture I discussed some common data architecture mistakes. In this article, I point out areas where companies tend to go wrong in […]
As a coach of my sons’ soccer teams, I’ve noticed something that occasionally holds back the ambitious players. Rather than focusing on basics, such as learning […]
Technical people often think that delivering great solutions is the key to satisfying business users. It is not. Delivering the solution users want is the key. […]
Data warehousing (DW) appliances aren’t the only hardware appliances shaking up the industry. New on the scene are business intelligence (BI) appliances, which also have the […]
Data warehousing (DW) appliances are being touted as potential market changing technology by technology and financial analysts alike. Vendors say these bundles of hardware and software […]
Before operational business intelligence (BI) came on the scene, classifying BI applications was simple: enterprise applications and BI/DW activities were clearly separate domains with their own […]
A couple of IT managers recently approached me with a thorny issue. The key business sponsor for their data warehousing effort asked them if they should […]
Are data governance projects doomed? According to the searchDataManagement.com article “Data governance requires checks and balances, Gartner says,” a recent Gartner study predicts that “by 2008, less than […]
Earlier this year, at the 2006 Gartner Business Intelligence Conference, I heard a market prediction that made me wonder if industry-watchers are focusing too far into the […]
How trustworthy is the data that you provide? Not very, if it has quality problems. Data quality is one of the biggest roadblocks to trusting corporate […]
Does this sound familiar? Your business users are complaining that they constantly have to debate and reconcile the numbers in different reports. They complain that the […]
As Martha Stewart would say, getting information into the hands of business users is a “good thing.” Every enterprise needs to provide accurate, timely information for […]
If you work in IT, you better like alphabet soup: master data management (MDM); customer data integration (CDI); corporate performance management (CPM); business intelligence (BI); enterprise […]
Business groups are empowered by knowledge — and knowledge comes, in part, from having access to accurate and timely information. It is generally up to IT […]
In Align Metadata and Business Initiatives, we discussed the two types of metadata: technical and business. The fact that there are two metadata types may be old […]
Plenty of business intelligence (BI) or data warehouse projects have been blindsided by complications related to data quality. Sometimes these issues aren’t apparent until business users […]
You don’t often hear “metadata management” and “business initiatives” in the same sentence. It’s time for that to change. Metadata management is the secret ingredient that […]
As we discussed in my previous column, big data warehouses are back in style. In a 2004 TDWI study, 60 percent of respondents indicated that they were adopting […]
Just like boot-cut jeans and fuel-efficient cars, big data warehouses are coming back in style. Take a trip down memory lane, when IBM introduced the corporate […]
Our high-tech culture suffers from a not-invented-here syndrome. If we weren’t the masterminds behind a project, we think it can’t possibly be a good one. When […]
While data warehousing technologies and methodologies have evolved over the years, ideologies, in many cases, have not. Taking a narrow-minded approach to your data warehousing strategy […]
It’s been 20 years since the term “data warehousing” was first coined. Since then, it has evolved into a mainstream activity for Fortune 1000 companies, with […]
In part 1 of this article we discussed the ugly duckling called an operational data store (ODS). Rather than discussing the conventional wisdom and, quite frankly, the […]
Religious wars. We have them in IT all the time. Everyone debates architecture. The “high priests” of our trade guard it. The approaches espoused by Ralph […]
The current king of business intelligence (BI) tools is Microsoft Excel. Microsoft states that there are over 150 million Excel users, with many of them using […]
The thought of meta data management doesn’t exactly inspire whoops of joy from the average IT manager. However, like flossing, it’s one of those things you’ve […]
If you’re trying to architect or build a cost-effective, productive business intelligence (BI) program, it’s important that you thoroughly understand the data franchising component of the […]
Key components of the data integration framework (DIF) are the software tools used to create, deploy and maintain it. This month, we discuss tools used for […]
Data standards ensure the consistency, accuracy, integrity and validity that are critical to your success. Data is not usually clean and consistent, especially when gathered […]
In my earlier column “Do You Need a Data Integration Center of Expertise?,” I discussed these key points: You need to integrate data, not just create another version of […]
This month, we explore the impact of several business intelligence (BI) trends on data integration. These trends include: business (or corporate) performance management (BPM or CPM), […]
Reining in the proliferation of expensive, redundant data silos requires a methodical approach that includes establishing a data integration center of expertise. In their quest for […]