All

BI Business Analysts Needed

Dataspace is looking for 2 business intelligence analysts for positions at clients in New York State.  These are true analyst, not developer-level, roles.  So, while a knowledge of BI technologies is necessary, the role will not entail actual BI development. We will consider applicants for either contract or permanent employment. BI Analyst: 2 needed... [Read more of this review]

Quiz January, 2012 – The Dreaded Time Zone Question

WARNING: This month’s quiz is harder than it seems at first!  Are you up to it? We recently worked with a client that does business all around the world. They capture millions of transactions which they then bring into a dimensional data warehouse for analysis. The problem is that this company, and their customers, need to analyze their data... [Read more of this review]

The Myth of Self Service BI

Most business intelligence efforts start with a statement like the following, “Let’s build a BI system so our employees can get whatever data they need, when they need it.”  While well intentioned, statements like these are misguided. The truth: If folks do their jobs today without using a shiny, new BI tool, why are they going to put extra... [Read more of this review]

Appfluent for Monitoring BI & DW Usage

What parts of your data warehouse are really important and which are never touched?  A few weeks ago I and some colleagues here at Dataspace saw a brief demo of Appfluent.  Affluent is a tool that monitors and reports on the use of database objects and, in some cases, BI tools.  It can answer important questions such as: Which tables are being used... [Read more of this review]

Angry Birds, Good – Angry BI Sponsors, Not So Much

Most BI vendors are actively pushing technologies for developing mobile business intelligence applications.  Now, anyone who’s ever shot an angry bird at a rickety stack of debris knows that apps are cool.   The question I have is: With the ubiquity of web access, do we really need to be putting dollars and effort into supporting new BI delivery... [Read more of this review]

Not to Offend, But You Are Thinking All Wrong About BI (Probably)

What’s the first step in building a data warehouse or a business intelligence system?  Defining the key performance indicators (KPIs), right?  Wrong!  KPIs are certainly great to know and can definitely apply when you’re developing BI applications like management dashboards.  But, BI is NOT about management dashboards or data warehouses or... [Read more of this review]

Got BI? Now Become Data Driven

Participate in enough BI groups and you’ll see one question come up time and again: Why do so many BI systems fail?  A lot of time it’s not failure in development but in implementation.  Let’s face it, too often these systems get built but not used.  For years I’ve written on how a key to usage is making sure that your BI system enables some... [Read more of this review]

Infobright

Saw a great presentation on Infobright, column-oriented database last night. It looks like an inexpensive, low maintenance way to speed up BI queries.  Their KnowledgeGrid concept seems like it could provide blazing performance - especially if you’re smart about how you sort your data on the way in. For years we at Dataspace have been saying that,... [Read more of this review]

Oracle Buys Endeca…

Oracle Buys Endeca...: It seems that I can’t go to any client nowadays without them mentioning Endeca.  Usually it’s because the marketing department is bringing the tool in and violating all sorts of corporate BI standards.  I’ve heard mixed results. In any case, this news item is very interesting to those who are on that Endeca path. — Ben Read More →

Creating a Data Culture

You see companies that really thrive on their BI systems and you see companies that invest in BI and get no return. What’s the difference?  There’s probably a lot of things separating these companies but a big difference is culture.  Some corporate cultures just seem to emphasize data as a strategic differentiator.  Think of a company like Amazon.com.... [Read more of this review]

Read More Posts From This Category