Information Architect

Ferraris don’t run on kerosene: The case for good data

Madhu Nair — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:39:25 +0000

Imagine a shiny, new red Ferrari in your driveway. You have splurged on it and cannot wait to rev the engine and pull ahead of the annoyingly slow cars on the highway. This is the machine that will take you to your destination with style and speed. Would you run [...]

Narrowing the lead on big data early adopters

Madhu Nair — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:01:00 +0000

A new SAS survey uncovered a big data disconnect, with only 12 percent of organizations on board. Why weren’t more of the organizations surveyed taking steps towards a big data pay off? Without a doubt those that are implementing big data strategies will see a competitive advantage. And the longer they [...]

Everything is "big data" these days – but where is the data management?

Daniel Teachey — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:30:28 +0000

When I first began working in the data management industry in 2003, I interviewed a VP of IT for a Fortune 500 manufacturer about their data quality and data integration initiatives. The executive was excited to talk about their rather novel approach to a massive ERP system integration. She mentioned that instead [...]

Data management on display at SAS Global Forum

Daniel Teachey — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:56:54 +0000

Years ago, I was at a user conference, listening to an attendee talk for 15 minutes during a break about a data quality job he had created. He had good reason to celebrate. The job had reduced the amount of work required to clean up product data within a data [...]

Data stewardship and the benefits of employee retention

Daniel Teachey — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:37:31 +0000

Like most Americans (who hold an average of 11 jobs over the duration of their careers), I’ve worked for a variety of companies. Some were employee-friendly, while others, to put it kindly, thought of employees as a means to an end. I was thinking about all those jobs today as we found [...]

Keep the change: Why investing in change management matters

Analise Polsky — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:14:23 +0000

The always dynamic data environment makes it difficult for organizations to avoid change. In my last post, I talked about how change management can bolster data governance programs. It can also be used for other activities, including taking a portfolio-driven approach to business intelligence and adopting a new enterprise application [...]

Data integration: The changing nature of tools and experiences

Charlotte Crain — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 15:36:06 +0000

When I first thought about writing a blog post about data management, picking a topic was an obvious, if daunting, first step. The challenges facing both IT and business are increasing in the era of bigger, more complex and more immediate data. My experience working with organizations across a variety [...]

Planning the MDM journey: SAS DataFlux delivers phased MDM projects

Matthew Magne — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:31:00 +0000

2013 is rapidly approaching and everyone is focused on change, whether it's a shift in your current role, a New Year's resolution or a new business plan. Similarly, organizations are looking at their master data management (MDM) strategy with an eye on the accompanying change management. There is a shift towards a [...]

Baking it in: Change management as part of data governance

Analise Polsky — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:00:42 +0000

If people are the heartbeat of an organization, data is the blood that moves with each pulse. When everything is flowing smoothly the organization thrives. Unfortunately, it is not hard to imagine instances where something malfunctions. Little by little vital components will slow, break, or shut down. Is there a [...]

Data federation provides option for security and compliance efforts

Madhu Nair — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:45:48 +0000

This is the third in a series of posts about the topic of data federation. Click here for the full series. In the previous post, we examined how data federation offers a faster, more agile way to bring together data from disparate sources. Another interesting use case for data federation is security [...]