marketing/PR

Don’t call me “non-technical”

March 10, 2009

When I’ve referred to “non-technical” users, I’ve always meant just about anyone working far away IT. Well, based on research by Lyzasoft’s CEO Scott Davis, I think I’d better be careful with that definition. My concern is not for IT people. It’s for the “quants” in finance, marketing, accounting and operations who may not write [...]

Read the full article →

In dead bird vs. flow chart, bird wins

March 2, 2009

So many BI flow charts resemble the view out my hotel window in Las Vegas on the rooftop just below: a tangle of ducts, pipes, platforms, valves, and big metal boxes. What got my attention was a bird that had landed on a metal box and died.

Read the full article →

Blame it on PR

February 9, 2009

Apparently a true story I just heard from a former boss: Back when he managed Comdex, the giant tech show, he shared a PR manager with a rival VP. That VP often felt short-changed by the PR manager. At the 2000 Comdex, a reporter got food poisoning at an off-site event and died the next [...]

Read the full article →

Some of us like to name things in BI

January 6, 2009

Stephen Few’s damning review of a new BI tool prompted a weeks-long discussion-turned-scholarly-fistfight over definitions.

Read the full article →

Escaping the ghosts of BI marketing past

December 23, 2008

How sweet is is to escape, if only momentarily, from BI marketing that seems intended for techies. Just across San Francisco Bay from me, Birst made its point and made me laugh with a holiday-season three-panel comic strip. Marketing director Barbara Lewis emails me that the artwork’s by illustrator Kevin Pope, and the idea came [...]

Read the full article →

Does jargon sell tech products or not?

November 25, 2008

Those of us in the tech world who shun jargon may forever remain an underclass. We may never rise to the mainstream, where today tech-centric vendors rule. So I’m delighted when I meet another one of our clan who declares proudly his rejection of tech-speak. Don Farber, vice president of sales and marketing at KnowledgeSync, [...]

Read the full article →

Play terminology by ear when selling to the mid-market

November 19, 2008

Those who sell BI software to mid-size companies get to be good at nailing down what shoppers want. These shoppers are smart and hard working. But when they shop for technology, the shopping list may be just a problem, a wish, or a fantasy—known only by a description. I just spent Monday and Tuesday helping [...]

Read the full article →

There’s always a food angle, even in text analytics

November 11, 2008

Text analytics was one of those things I heard about every so often. Like so many terms in this business, the term comes out of a speaker’s mouth or PR person’s press release only to blow away. There’s no story, no context, nothing to chew on. Then came a press release at BI This Week [...]

Read the full article →

Stories that tell the bigger story

October 6, 2008

In a good example of “show, don’t tell,” Tableau Software’s weblog demonstrates the power of its product with a story: how rich, middle-income and poor voters compare in liberal, conservative and battleground states. The political story is awkward to tell in words, but it’s easy in pictures. Pictures that tell stories is what Tableau’s all [...]

Read the full article →