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Data served direct-to-exec with Napkyn

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We’ve heard about shortage of data-analysis help, and about senior execs who pooh-pooh the influence of analysis in decision-making, and about the “dead” self-service analysis. So when a vendor tells me about a direct-to-exec service, featuring a sort of concierge of analytics, I pull up a chair to listen.

Napkyn, five years old last month and major brands under its belt, assigns a senior analyst to lead a long-term relationship with one executive. Behind the analyst stands a 13-person team that collaborates on the exec’s behalf, putting forward experts as needed. One team member, for example, has 15 years’ experience in multi-variate testing.… Read the rest “Data served direct-to-exec with Napkyn”

Data managers should emulate good librarians

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Haul away the hardware, peel off the software, rinse off the mystique and you see what the people who manage data really are: They’re librarians. That’s the role IT workers should model themselves on.

I’m not talking about technology. I don’t care what tools anyone uses. Whether we’re talking about bound paper known as “books” or bits magically transmitted over “wi-fi,” I don’t care. It doesn’t matter.

I know, the comparison may seem harsh. Librarians are said to shuffle silently among musty old books that no one ever reads. Or, as my friend Karen Schneider puts it, they’re “some misguided brontosaurus snuffling in the antediluvian biblioforest.”… Read the rest “Data managers should emulate good librarians”

Wayne Eckerson, BI explainer, jumps to TechTarget

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One of the business intelligence industry’s best explainers, Wayne Eckerson, is leaving TDWI for TechTarget. For the everyday BI expert, it’s good gossip. — But for those still on the learning curve, it’s a cue to switch channels.

“It’s true,” he told me this morning about the rumors, “I’m departing the big TDWI in the sky for other pastures.” This week’s rumors were only the latest; I heard the first wave back in early 2009 that he was looking to jump the fence.

The new pasture, as of November 15, will be as director of research at TechTarget with BeyeNETWORK co-founder Ron Powell.… Read the rest “Wayne Eckerson, BI explainer, jumps to TechTarget”