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Mark Madsen

How Lyza stole the show at TDWI Las Vegas

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Lyzasoft wasn’t among the 38 exhibitors in TDWI’s Las Vegas exhibit hall. Lyzasoft sponsored no part of the lunch, and they hired no stage magician. But their buzz was the loudest I heard over the event’s five days.

Others may have heard different buzz because buzz varies. Business intelligence elites gather every year at TDWI’s big Las Vegas event to teach, and they end up schmoozing, too. Over beer, food, and sometimes playing cards, they compare notes.

Is anyone seeking a consensus? I suppose someone might, but the interesting ones just play with ideas, reflect on what others say, make a joke, and think about it.… Read the rest “How Lyza stole the show at TDWI Las Vegas”

Tools and those who enable their misuse

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To get a data architect I know worked up, just ask him about how customers end up buying the wrong tools.

How about sales people who push federation tools on those who actually need data warehouses?

“It all sounds extremely sexy,” says my source, who works for a major business intelligence vendor and whom I can’t identify. “You have a lot of people who exaggerate their ability to combine data to provide business solutions. … They don’t prototype, they don’t profile, they don’t actually think about the problem or do testing or even send some high school data analyst out with Excel to put something together that [the customer] might want.… Read the rest “Tools and those who enable their misuse”

Another night on Earth

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In the film “Night on Earth,” Italian comic Roberto Benigni plays a taxi driver tooling around Rome one August morning at four. His flag’s up, he’s bored, and the streets are empty. “Dove sono i romani?” he asks himself, “Where are all the Romans?”

Where were all the BI people last week? Did they all go to Munich or Tehran? Or were they just resting up for the recovery?

Then I checked Twitter. Many of them had been there all the time. Still, I was bored.

Then on Saturday, Ken Rudin’s email came in announcing his new address. On Monday, LucidEra’s sad news.… Read the rest “Another night on Earth”