Articles and more

June 12, 2013

Hadoop 2.0 — From Open Source Projects to Enterprise Solutions

Hot Technologies of 2013 with Robin Bloor, Rick Sherman and IBM June 19, 4:00 EST The promise of Hadoop can be seen in all kinds of […]
June 6, 2013

Not a Cloud in the Sky? The Case for On-Premise Strategies (June 6 broadcast)

DM Radio Thursday June 6, 3:00 PM EST We’ve all heard the selling points of cloud computing: low initial cost, ease of deployment, lack of maintenance concerns. […]
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 […]
May 3, 2013

Boston TDWI Meeting – May 9, 2013

You are cordially invited to attend the upcoming free TDWI Boston Chapter meeting. All BI and DW professionals are welcome to attend. Please RSVP. When: Thursday, May 9, 2013 […]
April 4, 2013

Suggestion #5 for the analytical sandbox: solutions must be cost- and resource-effective

When creating analytical sandboxes for business users, keep the following design principle in mind to help ensure you  provide the right environment for your enterprise: Solutions […]
April 3, 2013

Suggestion #4 for the analytical sandbox: sufficient infrastructure must be available for conducting business analytics

When creating analytical sandboxes for business users, keep the following design principle in mind to help ensure you  provide the right environment for your enterprise: Sufficient […]
April 2, 2013

Suggestion #3 for the analytical sandbox: the business analyst needs to be “in control”

When creating analytical sandboxes for business users, keep the following design principle in mind to help ensure you  provide the right environment for your enterprise: The […]
March 28, 2013

Suggestion #2 for the analytical sandbox: time-to-solution must be fast and disposable

When creating analytical sandboxes for business users, keep the following design principle in mind to help ensure you  provide the right environment for your enterprise: Time-to-solution […]
March 27, 2013

Designing the analytical sandbox: data across the enterprise needs to be accessible and timely

When creating analytical sandboxes for business users, keep the following design principle in mind to help ensure you  provide the right environment for your enterprise: Data […]
March 26, 2013

Analytics Best Practices: The Analytical Sandbox

So this situation sounds familiar, and you are wondering if you need an analytical sandbox… The goal of an analytical sandbox is to enable business people […]
March 21, 2013

Does your business need an analytical sandbox?

Is your enterprises flooded with a deluge of data about  customers, prospects, business processes, suppliers, partners and competitors? Is data coming from traditional internal systems, cloud […]
March 20, 2013

5 Principles of Analytical Hub Architecture – Part 2

Continuing the discussion on analytical hub design, here’s the second part of my post on the architecture principles. If you missed the first two principles (1. […]
March 18, 2013

Big Data & The Wizard of Oz Syndrome

An excellent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Big Data, Big Blunders,” discussed five mistakes commonly made by enterprises when initiating their first Big Data projects. The technology […]
March 14, 2013

5 Principles of Analytical Hub Architecture – Part 1

As I discused the other day in Why you need an analytical hub, enterprises need to spend time looking forward, rather than just backwards at historical […]
March 11, 2013

Why you need an analytical hub

Enterprises are flooded with a deluge of data about their customers, prospects, business processes, suppliers, partners and competitors. It comes from traditional internal systems, cloud applications, social networking and […]
March 8, 2013

Analytics Can Change Your Business

In his article in Big Data, Bob Eve offers this quote from Professors Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson of MIT: “Companies that inject Big Data and […]
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 […]
November 21, 2012

A Better Way to Fuel Analytical Needs

We have reached a tipping point sometime in the last few years when analytics is being driven by business people rather than technologists. It has truly become […]
September 27, 2012

Revenge of the Nerds

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal, “Revenge of the Nerds, the Sequel: Silicon Valley Wallflowers Now Hot”, notes that business-tech start-ups were emerging from obscurity and […]
September 19, 2012

The State of Data and Analytics

The good news is that enterprises have recognized the significant business value of analyzing the surging amount of information and then acting upon that analysis. The bad […]
September 12, 2012

Going to TDWI Conference in Boston September 19-20?

I’ll be attending the TDWI World Conference in Boston, my hometown, next week. The conference theme is Agile BI. As many of you know I am one of […]
September 9, 2012

Webinar Sept 11 – A Novel Approach to the Analytic Sandbox Challenge

Tuesday, Sept. 11 @ 4 ET A Novel Approach to the Analytic Sandbox Challenge The Briefing Room with Rick Sherman and Composite Software REGISTER NOW! The analytics development process […]
August 30, 2012

Decision time: Automated data integration tools versus manual coding

SearchDataManagement recently interviewed me about automated data integration tools versus manual coding: Data integration is often still done by hand, through SQL coding and stored procedures, according […]
August 28, 2012

The Changing Face of Analytics: How to Stay Ahead

Tuesday, Aug. 28 @ 4 ET The Changing Face of Analytics: How to Stay Ahead The Briefing Room with Rick Sherman, Robin Bloor and Actian REGISTER NOW! The appetite […]
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 15, 2012

The Nuts and Bolts of a Data Integration Platform

I’ll be on DM Radio this Thursday, August 16, 2012, 03:00PM ET. Registration. Here’s what it’s all about: Getting data where it needs to go is […]
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 8, 2012

Misconceptions Holding Back Use of Data Integration Tools

There’s no question that data integration technology is a good thing. So why aren’t businesses using it as much as they should be? Data integration software […]
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 […]