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Podcasts
Archer’s Walter: Platforms Trump Point Products
In a podcast, David Walter–Archer Technologies’ Director of GRC Product Development–tells The IT-Finance Connection that CIOs and CFOs are more open than ever to the idea that a comprehensive framework instead of a set of discreet products will reduce costs and increase the value of the data an organization collects. (Podcast time: 22:28)
Podcast: Clear Peak’s Strategy is to Start With Targeted Projects
The best way to use BI to meet the related challenges of increasing revenue and cutting costs isn’t to march in and implement a comprehensive project, says Clear Peak Senior Partner and Founder Brad Cowdrey. Instead, the company advocates a targeted, incremental approach that generates immediate gains and drives corporate acceptance. (Podcast time: 21:37)
LucidEra’s Rudin: Analytics Brings Science to the Art of the Sale
Closely examining trends, patterns and historical performance is a valuable adjunct to the “gut” level feelings that many sales staffs use to assess their progress. LucidEra co-founder and CMO Ken Rudin tells The IT-Finance Connection that it’s more a matter of science helping art than one replacing the other. The keys for sales analytics, Rudin says, are the three “Ps:” Pipeline, people and process.
As it Grows, CPM–a Process, Not a Technology–Increasingly Relies on BI Tools
Sarah Burnett, a Senior Research Analyst with the Butler Group, sees an increasing connection between BI and the management of corporate performance and risk. Burnett – who just wrote a expansive report examining BI/CPM issues – tells The IT-Finance Connection that the drivers of CPM will continue to increase and that savvy companies perceive it as a businesses initiative, not as a technology.
Podcast: The Converging Worlds of BI and SaaS »
Podcast: Big BI Vendors Facing Big Challenges »
More Podcasts»
News and Commentary
The IT-Finance Connection Newswire for July 1
Companies mentioned: ParAccel, Scout Analytics, Oracle, Aegis Analytical, Calabrio, Aster Data Systems, Intel Capital, Sense Networks, WIND Telecom, Netezza, Motio, Vitria, IBM Cognos, NICE, Datamonitor, Analog Devices, MetricStream, Flurry, Atimi, Five Mobile, MobileCDN, Baseline Consulting, Broadstreet Data, MicroStrategy, Heartland Payment Systems, AccountMate Software and ClickBase Corporation.
Podcast: Using Semantics to Make More Sense of BI
Semantics is the science of deciphering documents in a context-aware fashion. J. Brooke Aker, the CEO of Expert System’s U.S. subsidiary, tells The IT-Finance Connection that combining highly sophisticated semantic technology with business intelligence turns a far higher percentage of the mountains of data a company collects–and is available independently on the Web–into actionable intelligence. (Podcast time: 27:06)
Firms mentioned: Automated Equity Markets, Data Explorers, Panorama Software, SAS, HP, Avocado Security, SPSS, Language Weaver, VisiStat, Infobright, Pentaho, Sun, Lacuna Strategic Marketing, PivotLink, Tata Consultancy Services, Fitch Solutions, Portsmouth Financial Systems, 3VR, Theoriem, Esselunga and Netezza.
Many things can bring a company down. Perhaps it’s a fatal flaw in the business plan, segment consolidation, a bad economic climate or changes in what customers want. It could be a combination of these and other reasons–or just plain bad luck. Here are five takes on last week’s shuttering of LucidEra.
Anthony Deighton, QlikTech’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, fills The IT-Finance Connection in on advances in QlikView Version 9. He says that new version of the company’s flagship offering scales to serve large organizations and is accessible via Amazon’s EC2 Cloud. QlikView 9, which is free for personal use, can be used on the iPhone. (Podcast time: 9:10)
Quick Takes for the Week of June 29
July 3: Last week, Timo Elliott, who runs the BI Questions Blog, offered a post last week in which he laid out the reporting requirements of the stimulus package and made the point that it essentially mandates the use of business intelligence tools. Elliott details some of the ramifications of this. He says that major vendors—he mentions SAP and IBM—have rolled out products and details some of what is available.
July 2: ZDNet blogger Sam Diaz notes that MicroStrategy is making its reports and dashboards available on the Amazon Kindle DX reader. Diaz is skeptical about the device as a business tool. The post raises a broader and interesting question: Just how useful will non-traditional mobile devices, such as MIDs and netbooks, be for business intelligence?
July 1: Zach Gemignani at Juice Analytics suggests that the next generation of business intelligence can be categorized into a small number of fresh approaches: analysts tools; dashboards; open-source and free; targeted solutions; advanced visualizations and, in Gemignani’s words, “other stuff.” The piece offers multiple screen shots and descriptions of who Gemignani thinks are the key vendors in each of the categories.
June 30: silicon.com asks a question that probably has been answered in the affirmative by anyone visiting this site, but is far from settled in many other quarters: Is BI a key investment during a recession? The Naked CIO, a columnist for the site, suggests that the answer is no if the BI platform is used solely as a financial reporting system. The value becomes greater, he suggests, if a comprehensive strategy using data of good quality is implemented. Silicon.com blogger Peter Cochrane suggests that such platforms are key: “I can't imagine running any business without good intelligence tools - they are essential to business and always a good investment,” he says.
June 29: Jorgen Heizenberg, the principal technology officer for BI at Capgemini Netherlands, offers a short but intriguing post at his blog on the differences between what he terms “operational systems” such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and “informational systems” such as business intelligence. Perhaps, he suggests, BI would be more successful if it became more operational in nature.
--Carl Weinschenk
