Getting over the ‘P’ word to expand BI horizons

Many in the business intelligence industry talk about organizational problems getting in BI’s way, but few talk about them very much. Scratch the surface of most presentations and conversations — such as last week at the TDWI conference in San Diego — and you find people problems bobbing right up alongside data problems: indifferent executives [...]

Feature lists miss the point

So many people who should know better seem to miss the point when they mention Tableau. Why? I asked BI veteran Stephen McDaniel for his thoughts — which he gave, but then went on to suggest an almost unheard of challenge: a data analysis face-off among vendors. Consider this description by a BI analyst: “Tableau [...]

Marco looks to BI for help

My friend Marco’s spam-bait operation was down last year, and he’s been asking me what business intelligence can do for him. He had just read one of TDWI’s promo emails last night when he called me again. “I like Vegas. Should I go?” he asked from somewhere that sounded far away. I said it all [...]

Bring in the shrinks for decision analysis

Now comes the hard part in business intelligence: figuring out how the humans can make better use of all our data and tools for decision making, writes Wayne Eckerson, director of TDWI Research. Let’s bring in the shrinks. When Wayne points to a trend, it’s news even if others might have already foreseen it. He’s [...]

Stalking the why: selling visual analysis

How do you show the value of visual analysis to business people? Dan Murray can show it in demos, but he keeps looking for the “magic dust” that explains in a snap. He sees visual analysis as a key part of low-cost business intelligence at small- and medium-sized organizations — and he’s set out with [...]

BI’s next round: What’s going to dominate?

With all the talk about technology, let’s pause to refresh with three basics — culture, conversation, and collaboration. These basics will take center stage in BI’s future, and they’ll help decide which tools dominate.

Denial of access explained

The week before last, I told about the young data analyst who got the door slammed in his data-seeking face, and I asked “why?” This week, a veteran of the data business answered.

Denial of access

I hear a story like the one I heard this week and I want to ask the apparent villain why. There must be a reasonable explanation. At first glance, he’s like other managers I’ve known of who throttle promising work for what seems like a personal need for control. “So tell me,” I’d like to [...]

Lessons from LucidEra on BI for the mid-market

Here are two tips from LucidEra veterans Ken Rudin and Darren Cunningham about BI in the mid-market: Forget “freemium” — the new term for free service leading to paid service — and be wary of users’ ability to analyze data. Rudin co-founded the company and in June saw it fold for lack of renewed funding [...]

Tableau conference stats

Attendance at the Tableau Customer Conference in Seattle, which runs today through Thursday, will be above 300 — versus 187 last year. Tableau Software VP of marketing Elissa Fink says that of the 300, 112 have signed up for Tableau certification training. It’s impressive.

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