 |
Cindi Howson's BI Scorecard
Cindi Howson is the founder of BIScorecard, a Web site for in-depth BI product reviews. She has been using, implementing and evaluating business intelligence tools for more than 15 years. She is the author of Successful Business Intelligence: Secrets to Making BI a Killer App and Business Objects XI R2: The Complete Reference. She teaches for The Datawarehousing Institute (TDWI) and is a frequent speaker at industry events. See More by Cindi Howson BI on Steroids Reaches the Extended Enterprise
Yes, I too have finally caved to the blogging phenomenon, and although blogging and discipline are somewhat incongruous, I fear I will give blog readers yet another diversion to real work if I don’t stick to some sort of schedule. So look for blogs from me each week or as industry events unfold. What’s on my mind this week? I want you to start thinking about BI on steroids –- the innovations that will take BI to the point of becoming a must-have office tool for 110 percent of employees. These are not just the technical innovations, but also innovations in how you think about BI and view information processes. 110 percent? Am I crazy? Sometimes. Is that a typo? Nope. I’m thinking of all employees and extranet business partners. Consider this: do you have a cell phone? Do each of your children? Did everyone have one 10 years ago? Clearly not. And 15 years ago, did you imagine just how small, sophisticated, simple and prevalent cell phones would have become? Neither did I. The same is true of BI. None of us have fully imagined where BI will go, but recently, I’ve caught glimpses of it. There are several cultural and technical innovations that make me think of BI on steroids that I’ll highlight in the next few blogs. Here is just one: BI & Search. I cannot envision an executive spending the time to learn a query tool to create his or her own charts. What I can envision is an executive who is about to meet an important client quickly Googling the customer name to get a snapshot of recent sales and critical call-center events -- and doing all this from a Blackberry. Many leading BI vendors are in beta with such powerful capabilities that go beyond searching content of existing reports to building reports on the fly. Still think BI adoption will never get to 110 percent within your company? Consider this 30-year-old quote from Ken Olson, founder of DEC, in 1977. “There’s no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Chuckle, chuckle, ah the clarity of hind sight. Business intelligence is only about 15 years old. I’m telling you, start thinking of your user base as 110 percent of your employees. Cindi Howson is the author of BIScorecard product reviews. Write her at cindihowson@askcindi.com.  E-MAIL | SLASHDOT | DIGG This is a public forum. CMP Technology and its affiliates are not responsible for and do not control what is posted herein. CMP Technology makes no warranties or guarantees concerning any advice dispensed by its staff members or readers. Community standards in this comment area do not permit hate language, excessive profanity, or other patently offensive language. Please be aware that all information posted to this comment area becomes the property of CMP Media LLC and may be edited and republished in print or electronic format as outlined in CMP Technology's Terms of Service. Important Note: This comment area is NOT intended for commercial messages or solicitations of business.
|
|
Blog Channels
Cindi Howson on Business Intelligence The Brain Food Blogger Tony Byrne on Content Management SQL Puzzlers by Joe Celko Rajan Chandras on IT & Information Management Seth Grimes on Analytics In Context by Doug Henschen Phil Kemelor on Web Analytics Sandy Kemsley's Column Two Nelson King on Enterprise App Development David Linthicum on Software as a Service Natural Insight, By Mark Madsen Alan Pelz-Sharpe on Content Management Mark Smith on Performance Management Neil Raden on Business Intelligence Bruce Silver on Business Process Management Product Maven  Subscribe to RSS Archives
|
|
|