business analytics

New hope for the “single version of the truth”

December 1, 2010

What will it be, a “single version of the truth” or unabated proliferation of ad hoc data? It’s a chronic dilemma, and its resolution is crucial to big-box business intelligence. Frank Buytendijk’s new book, Dealing with Dilemmas: Where Business Analytics Fall Short, offers a way out of this pickle.

Read the full article →

CIA’s insights on the psychology of analysis

July 7, 2009

Imagine someone writing a book about data analysis without even mentioning software. “To penetrate the heart and soul of the problem of improving analysis,” writes Richard J. Heuer Jr. in Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, “it is necessary to better understand, influence, and guide the mental processes of analysts themselves.” It’s the mind that does the [...]

Read the full article →

BI terms that mean something

May 28, 2009

What a radical idea: break business intelligence down by the types of work to be done — financial intelligence, human-resources intelligence, risk intelligence, etc. — instead of by the technology — data warehousing, data integration, dashboards, etc. “If I put my feet in the shoes of a business person listening to someone pitching ‘business intelligence,’ [...]

Read the full article →

Less than meets the ear

April 8, 2009

Last week, SAS Institute did what few other rearrangers of jargon have done: They got attention — in the way fashion hounds do. They’d like to replace “business intelligence” with “business analytics.” Why? Because “business intelligence is not “where the future is.” Last year’s styles are never next year’s. Sooner or later, all clothes, cars [...]

Read the full article →