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January 21, 2020
Rick Sherman

Blazing Trails in Teaching Talend: Meet Rick Sherman

From Talend: Rick Sherman is an author, educator, and a managing partner of Athena IT Solutions.  His book, Business Intelligence Guidebook: From Data Integration to Analytics, was published by Morgan […]
February 8, 2019

How to make a self-service BI tools deployment less painful

Why does self-service BI have to hurt so much? In theory, it should be the answer to all your problems. But so many enterprises end up […]
September 18, 2018
How the BI rivals stack up

Tableau vs. Power BI vs. Qlik: How the BI rivals stack up

Tableau, Power BI and Qlik Sense offer similar self-service BI functionality, consultant Rick Sherman says. But he points to some of their strengths and weaknesses. Purchasing […]
June 20, 2018
Rick Sherman at Data Summit 2018

Modern Data Architecture—Avoiding the ‘One-Tool-Fits-All Trap

A modern data architecture for business intelligence and analytics has to support structured, unstructured, and semi-structured sources, as well as hybrid integration and also meet the […]
December 28, 2017

For BI, you must know the data integration process

Understanding the data integration process is central to self-service BI and data architecture design, consultant Rick Sherman says in an end-of-year look at data management trends. […]
November 13, 2017
November Webinar

Govern first, then ask many questions

Join me for this webinar hosted by Information Management Live. Thursday November 16, 2017 1 PM ET/10 AM PT The path to fruitful analytics starts with good, […]
November 9, 2017
DM Radio

Self-Service BI on DM Radio

Join me on DM Radio DM Radio / Leave IT Alone – The Vast Value of Self-Service DATE: November 9, 2017 TIME: 3 PM Eastern / […]
October 26, 2017

Dataversity 2017

I’m excited to share with you that I’ll be presenting two unique sessions at DATAVERSITY’s Data Architecture Summit in Chicago, IL on November 13-16, 2017.  I’m also […]
July 25, 2017

Azure SQL Data Warehouse turns up the heat

Rick Sherman is quoted extensively in this new TechTarget article: Azure SQL Data Warehouse turns up the heat, expands processing power Abstract: Spirited competition is under way among […]
June 28, 2017
Modernization requires a better foundation than this

A Firm Foundation for Modernized BI & Analytics

You wouldn’t modernize a house without fixing its rickety foundation first. Similarly, your BI and analytics environment needs a firm foundation before you can update it. […]
April 27, 2017
Business intelligence and data cleaning

The life-changing magic of tidying up your data

If your data is a mess, what are you waiting for? Like many other companies, maybe yours has been ignoring a lot of the things that […]
April 12, 2017
Self-service business intelligence

Tough Love for Self-Service BI

The term self-service BI (SSBI) is common, but it’s also commonly misunderstood. The first few things I ask clients who want to discuss a SSBI project […]
April 4, 2017
When there is no data governance

Taming the Data Beast with Governance

More and more companies are recognizing that they’re accumulating ever-increasing amounts of data, but not necessarily gaining business insights from it. The missing link is the […]
April 3, 2017
Athena IT Solutions Webinar

Webinar: An action plan for customer intelligence

Webinar: An action plan for customer intelligence Understanding the customer is a long-standing goal of BI and Analytics, but striving toward that 360 degree view is […]
April 2, 2017
DAMA

DAMA Talk: Enabling Self-Service BI and Analytics

Rick Sherman is speaking at DAMA in Wellesley, MA. It’s free and open to the public. Title: Enabling Self-Service BI and Analytics When: Monday April 17,  6:00-8:15 […]
March 23, 2017
Resources for BI instructors

Resources for Business Intelligence Instructors

I’m a professor in my “spare” time, so I know how hard it is to find the time to create course materials. We have several resources […]
July 18, 2016

Enabling Self-Service Analytics

Please join me for my TDWI presentation. When: July 20th, 2016.  3:30 pm – 4:15 pm Where: TDWI Accellerate, Boston, The Westin Copy Place Registration and details Enabling […]
June 29, 2016

Be prepared for data preparation

Are you ready for how long it takes to do data preparation? Data preparation processes are the lion’s share of the work of any DW or […]
May 31, 2016

Selecting the right data integration tool for your needs

As the need to pull together the growing volumes of data that’s generated and collected by organizations has increased, several types of data integration software have […]
May 24, 2016

How to evaluate the features of a data integration product

Selecting the right data integration product is critical to meeting the increasing demand in companies for data that can help drive more informed business decisions. The […]
May 17, 2016

How to justify the purchase of a data integration tool

The growing importance of business intelligence and data analytics applications in driving business decision making has made data integration’s vital role in the enterprise crystal clear. […]
May 11, 2016

Data integration platforms take users beyond ETL software

Whether we’re discussing the impact that the tsunami of big data is having on organizations or the cloud application takeover of traditional on-premises applications, the common […]
April 12, 2016

Enterprise Data World 2016 – San Diego

The 20th annual Enterprise Data World (EDW) Conference is recognized as the most comprehensive educational conference on data management in the world. Rick Sherman will be conducing […]
January 3, 2016

The Four Legs of a Successful Business Intelligence (BI) Project Team

A successful BI project team is like a four-legged table – each leg holds up its share of the weight. Remove one and the project wobbles. […]
September 30, 2015

Five Great Ways to Really Mess Up Your Data Warehouse During Loading

Your data warehouse is only as good as the data you load into it. But the data-loading process can be tricky, and there are ample opportunities […]
September 24, 2015

Book excerpt: Why a BI environment needs a solid architecture framework

In this book excerpt published on SearchBusinessAnalytics.com, I write about why taking a siloed approach to creating a BI architecture framework leads to problems. The excerpt […]
September 22, 2015

Which BI analytics tool does my company need?

In this article I wrote for SearchDataManagement.com, I explain how before selecting a BI analytics tool, you should create BI use cases and then match those […]
September 15, 2015

Comparing BI analytics tools from the leading vendors

In this article I wrote for SearchDataManagement.com, I explain that deciding which BI analytics tool to buy shouldn’t be based on the product with the most features […]
September 15, 2015

How to evaluate and select the right BI analytics tool

In this article I wrote for SearchDataManagement.com, I offer advice for organizations trying to settle on BI analytics tools: Figure out which features are must-haves, versus nice-to-haves. There […]
September 15, 2015

Business use cases can determine the right BI analytics tool

In this article I wrote for SearchDataManagement.com, I discuss how before selecting a BI analytics tool, you should create BI use cases and then match those […]
September 15, 2015

Understanding BI analytics tools and their benefits

In this article I wrote for SearchDataManagement.com, I discuss how business intelligence analytics tools can leverage data and convert it to actionable information that can benefit […]
September 9, 2015

Relational database design tips to boost performance

In this article that I wrote for SearchDataManagement.com, I discuss the fact that as relational database management systems handle more and more data, a strategic approach […]
September 3, 2015

Join us for the Boston TDWI meeting Sept 15

The Boston-based TDWI chapter is excited to present Mark Madsen, a thought-after speaker on all things BI, as our headline speaker for the September TDWI Boston meeting. […]
September 1, 2015

Data virtualization tools move into strategic IT realm

I was recently interviewed by SearchCIO.com to discuss how data virtualization technology is moving into the strategic realm for CIOs, why this is happening, and the […]
June 23, 2015

A Revolutionary Approach to Modernizing the Data Warehouse

Please join me — I'll be speaking at this webinar on Thursday June 25, 4:00 ET. Details: Hot Technologies with Dr. Robin Bloor, Rick Sherman and […]