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Glen Rabie

Stories and the natural selection of data

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The problem with data storytelling, Yellowfin CEO Glen Rabie said to me the other day, is this: What happens to the story if the data tells a story they don’t want to tell? The data just gets wiped away. “The people who’re putting the story together will pick and choose what data to use.”

“Has it always happened?” he said. “Yes it has. Data is just another component. As purists we say that’s outrageous, but as a storyteller you say that’s legitimate.”

That’s what scares some people, mostly those who’ve led business intelligence to where it is today. Their dream of pristine truth pointing magnetic north, if not true north, turns into a bête noire as stories approach.… Read the rest “Stories and the natural selection of data”

BI industry builds tools for itself: Yellowfin CEO

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Why aren’t the data industry’s tools more widely adopted? Data-industry experts have fretted for years over the estimated 5 percent penetration. Yellowfin CEO Glen Rabie has an explanation.

“We never contextualize applications,” he said at the recent Pacific Northwest BI Summit. “We always talk about the homogenous product. We don’t know the consumer. We don’t tailor.”

We don’t talk about the “who.” Who uses our tools? And how they’re used? The marketing rarely distinguishes one industry from another. In fact, even when you read closely, you can’t find a unique selling proposition.

Perhaps worse, says Glen, the tools don’t accommodate different modes of comprehension.… Read the rest “BI industry builds tools for itself: Yellowfin CEO”

Self service BI, dead or alive?

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A brief stir erupted several Friday mornings ago when Yellowfin CEO Glen Rabie declared to the Boulder BI Brain Trust that self service business intelligence is “dead.” It was one of those statements that makes you sit up and listen — one that leads you all the way to a surprising observation that now drives Yellowfin strategy.

If there had been a death, a body would surely have shown up, at least reports of missing solutions. We would have had to contact the family, starting with Tableau, Spotfire, and who knows who else. It’s a big, busy clan.