Dataspace Dimensions

The Dataspace Business Intelligence Newsletter

DECEMBER 2011

Welcome to our final newsletter of 2011. It's been a really interesting year for us and, I hope, for you too!

This year we've been working on both coasts, and in the middle, with some very interesting clients and prospects- from one of Japan's largest auto manufacturers, to one of the US's largest pork producers (for those who know me - yes, you read that right). From a small California software startup to a large New York hospital. I've been at business intelligence since the early 90's and, as I look back at the end of each year, I'm always amazed at how much I've learned.

Here's hoping that 2012 is a year where you use your data to do something amazing!

Happy holidays!!!

Benjamin Taub, CEO

Dataspace

NEWS

What Mobile BI is Good For: Thinking about mobile business intelligence? Here is a nice synopsis of some areas where mobile BI can really shine.

Howard Dresner on Mobile BI: Howard Dresner is an influential business intelligence industry expert. He's also an ex-Gartner analyst who went on to form his own advisory. Here is a synopsis of his opinions about the mobile BI space.   

Six Recommendations for Succeeding in BI: While we're speaking about Howard Dresner, here are some of his recommendations for implementing BI. Viewed another way, this is really an analysis of what he's seeing in the BI space right now. These trends, which we are also seeing at many of our clients, range from users sidestepping IT to organizations working to find ways to operationalize BI. It's a very good background on what's going on now and how to take advantage of the trends.

Keeping CEOs from Wasting $$$ on Big Data: This is a great article from Forbes.com that talks about how CEOs are enamored of the concept of big data but not necessarily of bringing on the necessary talent to take advantage of it. The author recommends that you not waste money on big data until you know what you're going to do with it and how. Hear hear!

IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLE  

Atomic Weapons BI: The best job title I ever heard was for an accountant who was responsible for an eastern utility's nuclear operations: Nuclear Accountant. Well, if you find that impressive, how can you pass over an article with the title: Atomic Weapons Establishment improves business intelligence with Oracle. It's about how a nuclear missile manufacturer is using BI to drill to transaction level detail. If you're in the business of manufacturing nuclear weapons, or like the concept of drilling into nuclear weapons, you might want to check this out.

OPINION

Are you thinking the right way about BI?

As pointed out in this posting, when thinking about BI, the vast majority of companies need to stop thinking about BI.  BI is not the point.  Doing something extraordinary is the point and, if using data assets gets you to extraordinary, then BI is the mechanism.  

DATASPACE NEWS

Here's are some of the things going on at Dataspace:

• We recently completed a major project for a Japanese auto manufacturer.  The effort entailed designing the data structures and mapping the data elements from four warranty reporting databases into a single data warehouse.

• We just placed an Informatica developer with a new client in New York state.  This opportunity provided a nice opportunity for us to demonstrate some new, proprietary candidate ranking tools that we've been working on for some time.  

DATASPACE ALUMNI NEWS 

Dataspace alum Tom Carroll recently stopped by the Ann Arbor office for lunch.  He's been at OnStar for close to 10 years now!  Like so many of our alumni, he still remembers the high caliber of the staff and offsite company meetings.  

RECRUITING 

We're always on the lookout for very strong BI & DW consultants and contractors. If you know of anyone who you feel is a budding industry leader, please encourage them to send a resume to  careers@dataspace.com. Thank you!   

DATASPACE

Founded in 1994, Dataspace provides consulting and staffing services in the areas of analytics, business intelligence, and data warehousing.  We strive to provide our customers with the data integration and data access vision, expertise, and staff to create game-changing ways of capitalizing on data.  

Have feedback for us? Please direct it to

media@dataspace.com 

WWW.DATASPACE.COM  

Follow us on:   
 
Dataspace Sports    

Instead of a quiz this month, we present a link to this insightful analysis of National Hockey League penalty data that was created by America's Finest News Source: The Onion. As you may know, we've worked quite a bit with jail data, helping counties see what works to keep people from returning to jail. So, we were quite interested to see that the NHL's penalty box doesn't seem effective. In fact, the penalty box seems to result in a 100% recidivism rate!