TDWI Channel - Business Intelligence

I Can’t Believe I Ate the Whole Thing! Making BI More Consumable

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Self-service BI is a very popular topic these days. It is beneficial to the IT staff developing the BI environment – they are freed up to do more value-added activities. It is quite useful for technologically savvy business analysts or data scientists – they could begin producing their own analytical results.

DIY BI and Analytics: Reaping Rewards and Avoiding Chaos with Self-Service BI

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 07:00:00 GMT

As the velocity of business increases, business users are less willing to wait for the IT department to create custom reports and analytics. Many users now expect to be able to interact with information and create their own views of data to address pressing business issues.

Big Data and Business Intelligence: How They Come Together

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Big data is growing fast as organizations devote technology resources to tapping the terabytes (if not petabytes) of data flowing into their organizations and externally in social media data and other sources.

Managing the Mayhem of Mobile BI

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Apple defined a new category of computing with the release of the Apple iPad. It also reinvigorated the BI market with sexy dashboards on every tablet. BI on mobile devices promises to make BI more immediate and accessible for executives and field workers alike.

Governing the Quality of Data in Real-time Across the Information Lifecycle

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 07:00:00 GMT

The diversity of data formats presents new challenges for gaining a complete and accurate view of information across the enterprise. Successful organizations are governing “big data” at the entry point (within an application, Web logs, documents etc.)

Customer Analytics in the Age of Social Media

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Customers today are more than just customers. Using social media networking, they influence others and reveal their buying interests in products and services. Organizations know that to compete effectively, they must capture as much information as they can about customers and analyze it effectively to discover patterns, trends, and other vital clues. Social media networking activity is generating big data – and these growing sources are the new frontier for customer intelligence.

Turning BI Mavericks into BI Mavens – Bridging the Gap Between Business Analysts and IT

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Most organizations have BI mavericks in their business ranks. These are the folks who use analytics a lot but are very frustrated with the BI environments provided by their IT counterparts. They never seem to have the data they want - or the way they want it - so they go rogue and acquire or build out their own solutions, ignoring the value that enterprise BI can provide.

Data Discovery Meets Search and Social

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Data discovery is one of the hottest categories in the BI market today, allowing business users to explore data visually, with minimal IT support or extensive data modeling. As the variety of data explodes, decision-makers want to combine data from the data warehouse with unstructured content such as customer comments, resumes, tweets, and blogs.

Myths and Mandates for Self-Service BI

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Many companies have self-service BI as their vision for empowering users. But empowerment can come at the price of overwhelming business users accustomed to receiving only a fixed report.

Cool BI: 2012’s Emerging Innovations

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 07:00:00 GMT

The business intelligence tools market continues to bring innovations that have made BI more engaging and insightful to an increasingly broad spectrum of users. This Webinar briefly describes some of the hottest trends with an emphasis on in-memory, mobile BI, and social BI.

Pervasive Analytics – Building Analytics into Everyday Business Activities

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Early adopters used business intelligence for operational reporting or analyses that guided strategic decision making, supporting senior managers but largely ignoring the hundreds, if not thousands, of decision-making opportunities presented each day.

Real-Time Monitoring of Events for Business Insight

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Companies in every industry operate in relation to a continuous sequence of many events – products are manufactured, sales are made, inventory is tracked, or packages are shipped. While there is no need to be notified when events happen as planned, when anomalies occur (such as a snow storm that prevents delivery), the organizations that receive early notification have an advantage over those that do not.

Visual Discovery Beyond the Hype

Wed, 30 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

A picture can paint a thousand numbers and broaden the appeal of BI tools. Specialty BI vendors are growing at a rapid pace and visual discovery has become a critical component of the BI platform.

Faster, Must Go Faster: The Need for Operational BI

Wed, 23 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Business intelligence (BI) applications are playing an ever increasing and important role in driving and optimizing daily business operations. This trend is leading to major changes in both the functionality and the usability of BI-related technologies and products

Speeding Insight, Decisions, and Action at Critical Moments of Engagement: Boosting Performance through Business Analytics

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:52:40 GMT

Explore emerging trends in business analytics and the evolution toward systems of engagement, where business users can access, analyze, share, and discuss information as well as make decisions quickly in a single environment.

Developing and Branding Your Analytics Communities

Tue, 08 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

How can the principles of branding be applied to BI to help multiple groups in large organizations work collaboratively across departmental boundaries?

Cost-Effective Business Intelligence as a Service

Tue, 01 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

This paper highlights key requirements for successfully building and deploying SaaS-based BI applications for external users, and how some companies are using the WebFOCUS BI platform to make vital, timely corporate information available outside the firewall.

Busting 7 Myths about Data Quality Management

Tue, 01 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

This paper, written by David Loshin of Knowledge Integrity, Inc., highlights some of the most common myths about data quality management and guides the reader in developing an effective DQM strategy.

Embedding BI into Your Software Solution - Best Practices

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Embedded business intelligence can help boost an ISV’s top line revenue by as much as 30%. Learn best practices for embedding BI in your application and how you can white label enterprise-class analytics quickly and easily to increase “stickiness” and boost marketability of your overall product line.

HBMP: The New Frontier of In-Memory Business Intelligence and CPM

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 07:00:00 GMT

BOARD's approach to in-memory technology started with a precise goal: to exploit the full potential of in-memory computing in terms of better performance without sacrificing the flexibility, scalability, total cost of ownership, and ability to effectively support the simulation and planning processes.

Bridging the Gap Between Business and IT

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Business-IT partnership is one of the most critical aspects to successful business intelligence solutions that are aligned with the goals of the business, and yet most companies continue to report painful disconnects between the business and IT.

BI in the Cloud: Blue Skies or Storms?

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Business intelligence in the cloud was once a strategy for niche vendors. Now mega vendors and solution providers recommend cloud as a way of lowering your infrastructure costs.

Q&A: BI, Mobile, and Collaboration

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:00:00 GMT

QlikTech's Donald Farmer discusses how mobile technologies are fundamentally changing BI, sometimes in ways you might not expect.

Q&A: Charting the Course of Innovation

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:00:00 GMT

What new technologies are affecting BI professionals, and how can we be prepared for these changes and the innovations they bring?

What’s Cool in BI: An Inside Look at the Next TDWI Forum

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Business intelligence unites data, technology, analytics, and human knowledge to optimize business decisions and drive enterprise success. With organizations seeking to democratize data access and sharpen every decision with information insights, BI has never been more important.

Mobile BI and Analytics: Seven Steps to Successful Deployment

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Excitement is growing among business users about how mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets could transform the role of information in customer interactions, performance management, planning and forecasting, and daily operational decisions while on the go.

Operational Analytics: Empowering Business Analytics and Decisions in Motion

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

"Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves." Operational analytics works the same way. Analyze what’s happening historically and in the moment for all the day-to-day activities of your business.

Business Intelligence Journal | Vol. 17, No. 1

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Democratic Analytics: Learn how two organizations succeeded in putting BI in users’ hands. The 2020 Workplace: “Swarming,” “hyperconnectedness,” and other BI trends of the future. Strong Leadership: Why it’s essential for data integrity.

Ten Mistakes to Avoid When Validating Your Business Intelligence or Data Warehousing Direction

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Jonathan Geiger describes 10 common errors to avoid as you validate your current business intelligence or data warehousing direction.

Making Sense of Big Data and Big Data Analytics

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Big data challenges involve not only the task of harnessing and managing big volumes of data stemming from a host of traditional as well as new types of data, but also trying to meaningfully make sense of big data by leveraging analytics tools and applications that are best suited and optimized for big data volumes and workloads.

BI Solutions and Strategies for Midsize Companies

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Following the lead of large businesses, midsize companies are increasingly interested in acquiring new business intelligence (BI) capabilities. Some businesses are motivated by the recognition that most of their time is spent looking for data rather than using it. Many of these organizations still use slow, manually intensive, spreadsheet-based approaches to obtaining and using information.

Successful Strategic Planning in the World of Big Data

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

It is difficult to ignore the growing influence of broad, massive streams of data from unexpected sources, especially when these data sources can directly influence customer satisfaction, expose opportunities for revenue generation, lead to brand risk, or improve customer profiling.

Seven Data Discovery Steps for Improving Information Delivery and Accuracy

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Know your data: With today’s information-driven business projects, no maxim could be truer. Yet many organizations lack fundamental knowledge about their data – and the situation is getting tougher as “big data” sources grow in size and variety and manual documentation efforts can’t keep pace.

Q&A: Applying Semantics to Data Management

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Semantics helps bring data management down to the user level.

BI Experts: Big Data Goes Public

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Facebook's IPO has drawn attention to the importance of social media data.

Q&A: Archiving Tools Apply BI to E-mail

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Sophisticated e-mail archiving solutions can generate business intelligence from stored e-mail messages.

The Confluence of Big Data and Advanced Analytics

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:00:00 GMT

The term “big data” has arisen in recent years to describe multi-terabyte data sets. Big data certainly has its challenges, relative to scalability and data management. But it’s also useful for business intelligence purposes. In particular, the massive datasets of big data provide substantial data samples for various forms of analytics, especially advanced forms that are discovery oriented.

5 Macro Trends Shaping Next-generation BI and Analytics

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:00:00 GMT

The traditional BI stack has failed. What's next?

TDWI's Best of Business Intelligence Volume 9

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:00:00 GMT

In this issue of the Best of Business Intelligence, Stephen Swoyer calls 2011 “the year in which social media emerged as one of several forces … that will fundamentally transform BI as we know it.” Plus, TDWI Research analysts Philip Russom and David Stodder share predictions for 2012.

Lean Data Warehousing: How to Eliminate Waste and Boost Performance in Less than 90 Days

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:33:44 GMT

Lean data warehousing is a process of monitoring and assessing business activity and data usage to deliver increased operational efficiency, ensure scalability of both infrastructure and available IT resources and reduce data management costs.

Usage Monitoring for Lean Data Warehousing

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:25:56 GMT

Mobile Business Intelligence and Analytics: Extending Insight to a Mobile Workforce

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Today, there are more mobile devices than desktop computers. Some experts predict that before long, the majority of business will be conducted via smart phones and tablets.

BI 2012: The Future that has Already Happened

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Eight current trends that yield insight into BI's future.

Six Mistakes Companies Are Making Today and How You Can Avoid Them

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:40:21 GMT

When the economy slows, many businesses react by retrenching and cutting costs in order to weather the downturn. Although such cost reduction is important, companies often overlook equally critical strategic decisions –- opportunities to use valuable business information to strengthen product and service offerings and emerge ahead of the competition.

High Performance Data Management for Advanced Analytics

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Big data is putting a big hurt on traditional data warehousing. Data volumes are rising fast, and it’s getting harder to keep up with the variety and velocity of data using standard procedures for extraction, transformation, and loading.

“Excuse Me, Have We Met Before?” How Knowledge-Based Customer Recognition Helps You Really Know Your Customers

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:57:02 GMT

For a business, being unable to recognize a customer goes far beyond a faux pas. Inaccurate customer data -- failing to recognize customers -- leads to wasted resources, mediocre marketing efforts, and unhappy consumers.

Hadoop—Busting its Myths to Reveal its True Value for BI

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Despite all the hubbub and hype around Hadoop, few business intelligence (BI) professionals know much about what Hadoop is, how it works, or in which situations they should deploy it. In fact, numerous myths about Hadoop persist among BI professionals and their business counterparts.

Gotchas That Can Get Ya in 2012: Critical Issues in Supporting Self-Service BI

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 07:00:00 GMT

The recession has forced many companies to do much more with much less – IT is no exception. On the other hand, making smarter decisions faster has never been more important.

TDWI Checklist Report // Hadoop: Revealing Its True Value for Business Intelligence

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 07:00:00 GMT

This Checklist Report clarifies the common points of confusion about Hadoop and its extended ecosystem and reveals the true value of Hadoop for BI, DW, big data, and analytics.

An Open Letter to Santa: Thinking about BI “Subjects”

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Today’s integrated tools can analyze data, execute business rules, and move data. What’s needed are tools that don’t work on the record level but rather examine “subjects.”

Seizing Business Advantage: Emerging Trends in Business Intelligence and Analytics for 2012

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Business intelligence (BI) and analytics tools are in high demand as organizations seek to use information assets to improve business outcomes, deliver better customer experiences, save costs through operational efficiency, and more.

Getting from Operational BI to the Real Time

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Today, organizations across all industries are rushing to a new frontier opened up by the power of recent developments in information technology. Much of the excitement centers on speed: technologies are converging to dramatically reduce, if not eliminate, delays in how organizations serve customers; respond to events in their markets, supply chains, and manufacturing processes; and apply information insights to a range of decision making. “Real time” is becoming a reality and a competitive advantage.

Oracle Business Intelligence Applications Overview

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:49:38 GMT

Companies in every industry rely on information to make decisions. Often, the information they need is difficult to obtain because it either does not reside in their departmental systems or is fragmented across different applications. Although company functions such as sales, marketing, operations, finance, and human resources are interconnected, the data they produce and store is not. For a business to achieve optimal performance, information has to flow across functional boundaries. For example, sales, marketing, and service professionals need information from finance, HR, and manufacturing to help them better manage customers.

Reinventing Your Business Intelligence Program

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Whether you’re new to BI or have already started down the road, it is critical that your BI investments deliver business value.

From the BI Scorecard: Impactful BI Remains Elusive for Many

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:00:00 GMT

While the economy struggles, demand for BI experts and software shows robust growth -- yet BI adoption has been flat. We explore this and other findings from a new survey by Cindi Howson.

Can Business Intelligence save us?

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Business Intelligence has a lot to prove and now is the time to do it. There has been a lot of talk lately in the BI circles that BI is a necessary business function.

From the BI Scorecard: Tableau Launches Version 7, Challenges Old School BI

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:00:00 GMT

News from Tableau’s recent user conference, including the company’s CEO discussion of how Seattle Children’s Hospital uses Tableau to improve care and reduce costs.