Business Intelligence

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  • What Mobile BI Used To Look Like, And Where It’s Going (Back to the Future!)

    Business Analytics
    Timo Elliott
    26 Jan 2012 | 10:34 am
    Note, this is an adapted, extended version of my post on the SAP Analytics Blog. Mobile BI has been around for a long time. Starting in the late-1990s, the first SMS-enabled telephones became mainstream in Europe, with basic broadcasting of the latest figures available in your BI system (or email, fax, pager, etc.). By the end of the decade, the first telephones with WAP browsers were used to provide interactive BI, quickly followed by connected PDAs with basic HTML browsers. Here’s what SAP BusinessObjects looked like on the Nokia 7110 in 1999, on a Compaq PDA running Windows Pocket IE, an…

  • IT: What Happened to that Warm and Fuzzy Feeling?

    Business-Intelligence
    kchow
    19 Jan 2012 | 5:50 pm
    I just saw the following coming out from the good people at Gartner Research: “The Gartner Predicts 2012 special report addresses the continuing trend toward the reduction of control IT has over the forces that affect it. As users take more control of the devices they will use, business managers are taking more control of the budgets IT organizations have watched shift over the past few years. Moving forward, IT departments will find that they must coordinate activities in a much wider scope than they once controlled.” Well, no surprise here. I think most of us who have been in business…

  • Prepare for the Big-Data Labor Shortfall

    Data Doghouse - performance management, business intelligence, and data warehousing
    Rick Sherman
    25 Jan 2012 | 10:57 am
    Where are all the big-data people? A recent front-page article in the Boston Globe raised this very issue. The article, “Mass. firms see riches, jobs in charting oceans of data”, discussed reports on Big Data by the Mass Technology Leadership Council (MTLC) and McKinsey Global Institute regarding the role Massachusetts plays as a hot bed for both Big Data software firms and the people with the skills to level Big Data in their businesses.  Big Data’s promised business benefits range from capturing more of a consumer’s wallet to discovering the cure for cancer.  Software…

  • Analyzing Facebook Data with MicroStrategy’s Wisdom

    Dashboard Insight
    26 Jan 2012 | 3:03 am
    I’m currently at the MicroStrategy World Conference in Miami. I’m impressed with Miami’s weather (a staggering 25 Celsius average over the last 3 days) and MicroStrategy's offering called Wisdom. Wisdom is a free application that blew me away. It visualizes data that many marketers would kill for including age, gender, and location. The visualizations could use much improvement, but the data represented was quite interesting.

  • Banished Words for 2012

    Manage By Walking Around
    Jonathan
    19 Jan 2012 | 6:44 pm
    I emerged from my man cave to discover it’s that time again.  Lake Superior State University (LSSU) released its amazing 37th annual “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness”.  The idea for the list was hatched at a 1975 New Year’s Eve party in an attempt to win the future and since then LSSU has received a ginormous number of nominations. LSSU expected blowback from pet parents when they released the 2012 list: Amazing Baby bump Shared sacrifice Occupy Blowback Man cave The new normal Pet parents Win the future…
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    StatSpotting!

  • ‘Apple makes more iPhones than humans make babies’

    junior
    26 Jan 2012 | 6:54 am
    We have spotted multiple stats on Apple iPhone sales and some interesting stats on Apple sales overall. We spotted this today: “The company smashed most expectations yesterday when it announced its iPhone sales for the last three months of 2011 totaled over 37 million units, a figure that exceeds the number of babies born on planet earth–using the global average daily birth rate –during a comparable period (about 98 days).” Statistics Source: CNET For Interesting Statistics Everyday, Find Statspotting on Facebook and Follow Statspotting on Twitter

  • Half A Billion: The Number of Sub $100 Smartphones Globally This Year

    junior
    19 Jan 2012 | 7:16 am
    We spotted this today: “Market research firm Deloitte estimates that the number of sub-$100 smartphones in use globally will surpass 500 million this year, and by the end of 2012 there will be 200 million NFC-equipped devices in the hands of consumers. The firm also sees apps continuing to play a huge role in the mobile market, with the number of available apps set to top 2 million later this year. ” Statistics Source: BGR For Interesting Statistics Everyday, Find Statspotting on Facebook and Follow Statspotting on Twitter

  • Bing Is Now The Second Largest Search Engine In The World

    junior
    12 Jan 2012 | 6:14 am
    We spotted this today: “Microsoft has poured billions of dollars into its search engine, and this is what it has to show for it. It is now the second largest search engine in the U.S., just edging past Yahoo for the first time in December, according to the latest comScore data.” Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-search-market-2012-1?op=1#ixzz1jFHOWfeg For Interesting Statistics Everyday, Find Statspotting on Facebook and Follow Statspotting on Twitter

  • 37 Million: Number of Windows Phones To Be Sold My Nokia This Year

    junior
    12 Jan 2012 | 6:09 am
    We spotted this today. “Morgan Stanley expects shipments of Nokia’s new Windows Phones to hit 37 million units in 2012, and 64 million units in 2013. Add to this Morgan Stanley’s estimates for HTC’s Windows Phone handsets, and you get shipments of 43 million this year and 74 million the next. And that’s just those two OEMs alone. There are a few others for which the research house doesn’t provide estimates. ” Statistics Source: ALLTHINGSD For Interesting Statistics Everyday, Find Statspotting on Facebook and Follow Statspotting on Twitter

  • Gadget Sales Statistics: Gadget Sales To Top $1 Trillion in 2012

    junior
    8 Jan 2012 | 10:30 pm
    We spotted this today: “Developing countries like China and India will drive global sales of consumer electronics above $1 trillion this year for the first time, even as cash-strapped shoppers in the U.S. and Western Europe ease off spending for high-tech gear, industry analysts said Sunday.” Statistics Source: Yahoo For Interesting Statistics Everyday, Find Statspotting on Facebook and Follow Statspotting on Twitter
 
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    The Numbers Guy

  • The Crime That’s Counted

    Carl Bialik
    27 Jan 2012 | 8:19 pm
    My print column examines the preferred benchmark crime of criminologists for tracking and comparing illegal and violent activity: homicide. It has its drawbacks, and vagaries, which I explore in the column, but remains more concrete than other crimes. “In general, the more serious the offense, the better the statistics,” said Anthony LaRose, criminologist at the University of Tampa. Homicide figures, said crime researcher Robert R. Friedmann, “are considered as close to reliable as one can get.” Friedmann, professor emeritus of criminal justice at Georgia State…

  • Private Equity’s Job Record

    Carl Bialik
    20 Jan 2012 | 8:59 pm
    My print column examines some numbers that may help shed light on the debate, central to the race for the Republican presidential nomination, about private equity’s impact on jobs. A recent academic study has added numbers to the discussion, showing the extent to which companies bought by private-equity firms accelerate both the creation and destruction of jobs, compared to similar companies that aren’t bought out. Though the study has been praised by some economists for improving on earlier ones, it has some limitations. Because of lag time in gathering statistics, and the need…

  • Elections Change Rules, Face Unforeseen Consequences

    Carl Bialik
    13 Jan 2012 | 7:13 pm
    My print column examines rule changes for this year’s voting for nominees for the Academy Award for best picture. The Academy must balance competing priorities in constructing its voting procedure, and this year it changed the rules to place more emphasis on first-place votes. Award analysts report that those, and in some cases second-place votes, will determine the nominees, which can number between five and 10. These competing priorities, and the many possible voting methods, make for a fertile area of mathematical study. Donald Saari, a mathematician at the University of California,…

  • When Polls Turn Up the Wrong Number

    Carl Bialik
    6 Jan 2012 | 8:35 pm
    My print column examines the sizable gap between what the public believes to be crucial numbers affecting their lives, and the best estimates of what those numbers really are. This gap worries some political scientists. “Many use these faulty perceptions as evidence in deciding which policies or candidates to support or which political actions to take,” said Daniel Herda, who has studied people’s beliefs about the extent of immigration in their country. “Unfortunately, most are not critical consumers of knowledge and rarely seek out multiple sources of information to…

  • A World Full of Alarming Traces

    Carl Bialik
    23 Dec 2011 | 7:36 pm
    My print column examines findings that cocaine and other alarming substances turn out to be ubiquitous on everyday objects, a result that may say more about the large number of people who come into contact with public objects and the ease of finding substances when looking at low enough concentration. The latest such study focused on baby changing stations. In a feature about cocaine this week, a U.K. radio station reported that nine in 10 of the plastic surfaces intended for changing diapers in public facilities tested positive for presence of cocaine. Real Radio Northwest posted video…
 
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    Business Analytics

  • What Mobile BI Used To Look Like, And Where It’s Going (Back to the Future!)

    Timo Elliott
    26 Jan 2012 | 10:34 am
    Note, this is an adapted, extended version of my post on the SAP Analytics Blog. Mobile BI has been around for a long time. Starting in the late-1990s, the first SMS-enabled telephones became mainstream in Europe, with basic broadcasting of the latest figures available in your BI system (or email, fax, pager, etc.). By the end of the decade, the first telephones with WAP browsers were used to provide interactive BI, quickly followed by connected PDAs with basic HTML browsers. Here’s what SAP BusinessObjects looked like on the Nokia 7110 in 1999, on a Compaq PDA running Windows Pocket IE, an…

  • Building Competitive Advantage (SAP World Tour Keynote)

    Timo Elliott
    15 Dec 2011 | 8:12 am
    Here’s a recording of a World Tour keynote presentation (it happens to be from Belgrade, Serbia, but I did similar presentations in several different regions). It covers how companies can build competitive advantage through customer intimacy, product leadership, category renewal, and operational excellence, using examples from SAP’s customers. You can download the slides in either PowerPoint or pdf format.

  • Are You in Denial About Governance, Risk, and Compliance?

    Timo Elliott
    13 Dec 2011 | 7:01 am
    In a previous post, I talked about the “illusory superiority” effect, and how it blinds people to the fact that, on average, it’s unlikely that they use data better than their competitors. Guess what? It turns out that it applies to governance, risk, and compliance, too. Here are some figures from another Economist Intelligence Unit Survey, “Ascending the Maturity Curve, Effective Management of Enterprise Risk and Compliance”: We can see that of those who haven’t experienced failures, only 1% believe that they are worse than average – and even among companies that have…

  • SAP BusinessObjects Mobile BI Directions

    Timo Elliott
    9 Dec 2011 | 2:58 am
    Here’s a video from this years SAPPHIRE NOW in Madrid, featuring Mimi Speir, Steve Lucas, and Andrew Murray giving an overview of SAP BusinessObjects mobile directions: Highlights include: New SAP BusinessObjects experience mobile application, based on the Exploration Views functionality from the BusinessObjects innovation center, with demo data from Experience.SAP.com Easily take a mobile analysis and create a StreamWork activity for collaborative decision-making Easily “mobilizing” your existing BusinessObjects reports Support for each level of the “mobile needs hierarchy”,…

  • Sybase: Big Data Crisis is a Big Lie

    Timo Elliott
    8 Dec 2011 | 7:50 am
    Sybase (“an SAP Company”) recently published an analytics guide called “Intelligence for Everyone”. The first section called “The Big Lie about Big Data” includes the following: Why “big lie?” Because, as the article points with lots of historical examples, there’s always been a “crisis” in data storage, but as data volumes have risen technology has always evolved to deal with it, and that’s as true today as it has been in the past: 1956 Transaction data volumes overloaded current memory systems, leading to IBM’s creation of the first hard drive (costing $10,000 per…
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    Visual Business Intelligence

  • Alberto Cairo and Functional Art

    Stephen Few
    24 Jan 2012 | 6:29 pm
    When I participated as a judge and speaker at last year’s Malofiej conference in Spain—the Oscars of journalistic infographics—I had a chance to become acquainted with Alberto Cairo, who has since become a trusted friend and colleague. I discovered while at the conference that it was a result of Alberto’s suggestion that I was invited to attend. Alberto is one of the few infographic designers that I know who has a mature understanding of the work. Beginning as a journalist in Spain, Alberto approached the work first as a communicator, and second as a graphic designer. He has…

  • Data Visualization and the Placebo Effect

    Stephen Few
    9 Jan 2012 | 4:16 pm
    I was listening to “Science Friday” on NPR last week and heard about the work of Ted Kaptchuk, Director of Harvard University’s Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter. I was particularly interested in one of his studies that investigated placebo effects on asthma. This study tested physical effects of real medication vs. placebos as well as patients’ perceptions of the effects. Over the course of 12 sessions, subjects were given the following three different treatments and a non-treatment session three times each: 1) an albuterol inhaler, 2) a placebo…

  • Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles for Good Design

    Stephen Few
    15 Dec 2011 | 6:54 pm
    On Monday of this week I travelled from Berkeley across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco to have dinner with a friend who was staying at a hotel next to the Museum of Modern Art, so I decided to go a little early and enjoy the current exhibits. I’m glad I did, because the work of industrial designer Dieter Rams is currently on exhibit, along with his extraordinary principles for good design. For several decades Rams designed products for Braun and Vitsoe, and has been a leading inspiration behind Apple’s approach to product design. The simple beauty of products such as the iPhone…

  • Visual Complexity: a review of Manuel Lima’s new book

    Stephen Few
    16 Nov 2011 | 12:55 pm
    Until August 30, 2009, I knew little about Manual Lima and his work beyond the fact that he ran the data visualization website www.VisualComplexity.com. When he published his “Information Visualization Manifesto” on that day, however, I recognized him as a kindred spirit: someone who believed that data visualizations should be designed to enlighten. When I recently heard that he had written a book, Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information, I was eager to read it. I finally had my chance, and here are my thoughts. It’s important to recognize up front that this book…

  • Decision Factories

    Stephen Few
    14 Nov 2011 | 10:49 am
    I just finished reading Daniel Kahneman’s new book Thinking, Fast and Slow. If you don’t recognize his name, he along with Amos Tversky won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their game-changing work in psychology about decision making. Their pioneering work introduced our current understanding of the two systems that drive the way we think. According to the description on the inside flap of the book’s slip cover: System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary…
 
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    BizIntelligence.TV

  • Gaining Insights On Your Competitors With Competitive Intelligence

    Bruno Aziza
    5 Jan 2012 | 3:18 pm
    (Please visit the site to view this video) In order to be successful in business, companies generally need to study what their competitors are doing. But how many companies use competitive intelligence? Bruno recently sat down with Michael Sandman...(read more)

  • Predictive Modeling Competitions Can Solve Complex Real-World Problems

    Bruno Aziza
    22 Nov 2011 | 3:59 pm
    (Please visit the site to view this video) Kaggle is one of a number of companies attracting money in the Big Data space. They recently secured an $11 million round of institutional funding, a significant amount for a first round of money. Kaggle...(read more)

  • Using Big Data To Save Consumers Money

    Bruno Aziza
    20 Oct 2011 | 3:26 pm
    (Please visit the site to view this video) Have you ever asked a fellow passenger how much they paid for their airline ticket, only to find out they paid less money and bought it after you did? Oren Etzioni did, and he was less than pleased with the...(read more)

  • Using Social Media To Customize The Consumer Experience

    Bruno Aziza
    30 Sep 2011 | 2:19 pm
    (Please visit the site to view this video) This week Bruno sits down with Bernie Brennan, co-author of Branded! How Retailers Engage Consumers with Social Media and Mobility , and discusses how the customer has been put in the driver’s seat when...(read more)

  • Developing Relationships Across Consumer Channels Using Business Analytics

    Bruno Aziza
    9 Sep 2011 | 2:26 pm
    (Please visit the site to view this video) The recent explosion of social media and mobile has introduced two more channels into the marketing mix, reinforcing the concept known as cross-channel marketing. Lori Schaffer, co-author of Branded! How Retailers...(read more)
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    Data Doghouse - performance management, business intelligence, and data warehousing

  • Prepare for the Big-Data Labor Shortfall

    Rick Sherman
    25 Jan 2012 | 10:57 am
    Where are all the big-data people? A recent front-page article in the Boston Globe raised this very issue. The article, “Mass. firms see riches, jobs in charting oceans of data”, discussed reports on Big Data by the Mass Technology Leadership Council (MTLC) and McKinsey Global Institute regarding the role Massachusetts plays as a hot bed for both Big Data software firms and the people with the skills to level Big Data in their businesses.  Big Data’s promised business benefits range from capturing more of a consumer’s wallet to discovering the cure for cancer.  Software…

  • BI’s Dirty Secrets – Why Business People are Addicted to Spreadsheets

    Rick Sherman
    18 Jan 2012 | 7:12 am
    Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are the top BI tool of choice. That choking sound you hear is vendors and IT people reacting viscerally when they confront this fact. Their responses include: Business people are averse to change; they don’t want to invest time in learning a new tool Business people don’t understand that BI tools such as dashboards are more powerful than spreadsheets; they’re foolish not to use them Spreadsheets are filled with errors Spreadsheets are from hell  IDC estimated that the worldwide spend on business analytics in 2011 was $90 billion. Studies have found…

  • Nerds Rock!

    Rick Sherman
    17 Jan 2012 | 5:31 pm
    Nerds rock, and they are in demand! Love to hear it. EMC's Chuck Hollis says, of big data analytics: "The race is now on to acquire -- and maximize the productivity of -- the key talent behind this wave: data scientists and their supporting data science teams. At EMC, we've been working hard to understand who these people are, what makes them different, how they work -- and what they think is important." Take a look at Understanding The New Rock Star: The EMC Data Science Survey  

  • BI’s Dirty Secrets

    Rick Sherman
    13 Jan 2012 | 1:43 pm
    The overwhelming amount of articles, seminars, white papers and product announcements on big data, predictive analytics, cloud and mobile business intelligence might make you think that every business person is walking around with real-time dashboards on their tablets,  figuring out how to get more revenue, improve customer satisfaction and increase profitability. IDC recently stated “In 2011 the business analytics technology market, which includes software, hardware, and services for data warehousing, query, reporting, analysis, advanced analytics, content analysis, analytics spatial…

  • Connecting the Dots: Misunderstood Dimensional Models

    Rick Sherman
    11 Jan 2012 | 11:02 am
    One of the debates one hears when designing a data warehouse  is that it should be normalized. Specifically, they say to use a third normal form (3NF) or a dimensional model. This debate is often an ideological battle, where people cite Inmon or Kimble to justify their position. At this level, the debate is about theory rather than the business, data or analytical needs of enterprise business people. But before people build a data warehouse, they must understand those needs, as well as the industry best practices that will help fulfill them. The biggest reason why IT groups have this…
 
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    BeyeNETWORK Blogs

  • Investment Dollars Flowing into Performance Management

    25 Jan 2012 | 7:06 am
    From Blog: Craig SchiffWithin the past week two very different performance management vendors have received millions of dollars of outside investment. I say very different because one is generating excitement due to its application of the latest technology, and the other is getting attention because of its new approach to solving a long standing business challenge. The companies are Tidemark and XLerant. You can read what we have recently written about each of them here and here. They are both good companies with a solid vision and very experienced teams. Venture capital guys tend to like to…

  • How does decision support processing differ from transaction processing?

    22 Jan 2012 | 7:50 am
    From Blog: Dan Powerby Dan PowerEditor, DSSResources.com Information systems can be categorized in many ways, but historically business information systems began as tools to record and process transactions. It is still useful to distinguish between informational decision support and transaction processing systems. Transaction processing is divided into individual, indivisible operations, called transactions. More specifically, a transaction is a discrete unit of work that must be completely processed by a computer system or it fails. For example, entering a customer order is an example of a…

  • It Is Time for IT to Become Data-Centric

    20 Jan 2012 | 9:15 am
    From Blog: Richard SkriletzThis blog will investigate putting data first rather than having business data be treated as exclusive to applications.While functionality is important, software functionality is based on consistent operations on data or groups of data.The application-centric view holds this consistency within the boundaries of one or more, but not all, applications.The problems that arise from application-centric IT are well known: disparate data in data silos, making it difficult to share data across applications; inconsistent and redundant data; and the need to transform and…

  • The Big Data Database Saga Continues

    19 Jan 2012 | 10:38 pm
    From Blog: Krish KrishnanBy now all of you have learned about the announcement from Amazon about DynamoDB, the latest database with NoSQL+Cassandra+Voldemort+Riak and a lot of other tools thrown together, completely hosted on the cloud, with the feature to scale on demand, a true elastic scalability similar to EC2. throw on top of this a MapReduce interface and you have a Big Data Database that can truly scale. What sets DynamoDB in my simple tests over the past few hours is the simplicity that it brings to Big Data processing. While my tests are not complete yet, initial results are…

  • Let the Revolution Begin: Big Data Liberation Theology

    19 Jan 2012 | 10:50 am
    From Blog: Wayne Eckerson (Editor's note: This is the second in a multi-part series on big data.) The big data movement is revolutionary. It seeks to overturn cherished tenets in the world of data processing. And it's succeeding. Most people define "big data" by three attributes: volume, velocity, and variety. This is a good start, but misses what's really new. (See "The Vagaries of the Three V's: What's Really New About Big Data".) At its heart, big data is about liberation and balance. It's about liberating data from the iron grip of software vendors and IT departments. And it's about…
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    Manage By Walking Around

  • Banished Words for 2012

    Jonathan
    19 Jan 2012 | 6:44 pm
    I emerged from my man cave to discover it’s that time again.  Lake Superior State University (LSSU) released its amazing 37th annual “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness”.  The idea for the list was hatched at a 1975 New Year’s Eve party in an attempt to win the future and since then LSSU has received a ginormous number of nominations. LSSU expected blowback from pet parents when they released the 2012 list: Amazing Baby bump Shared sacrifice Occupy Blowback Man cave The new normal Pet parents Win the future…

  • The Art of Storytelling

    Jonathan
    8 Jan 2012 | 4:55 pm
    The abstract for ‘When Consumers and Brands Talk: Storytelling Theory and Research in Psychology and Marketing’ caught my eye: Storytelling is pervasive through life. Much information is stored, indexed, and retrieved in the form of stories. Although lectures tend to put people to sleep, stories move them to action. People relate to each other in terms of stories—products and brands often play both central and peripheral roles in their stories. My background in cognitive science supports the idea people remember in terms of stories, while our transactive memory lives in Google.  Being…

  • Can You Prevent or Cure a Hangover?

    Jonathan
    1 Jan 2012 | 6:06 pm
    Since we’ve just gone through the season of excess, I thought I’d do some Web sleuthing to determine alcohol’s economic impact on society. Estimates vary dramatically but a report from the reputable National Institute of Health (NIH) suggests the impact in the U.S. could be more than $100B annually. Regardless of the exact number, the line of thought leads to an intriguing New Year’s day speculation: Can you prevent or cure a hangover? Of course, legends abound. Conventional wisdom suggests lots of water and ibuprofen either before or after drinking. I had a college…

  • The One-Eyed Man Is King

    Jonathan
    11 Dec 2011 | 9:57 am
    My first real job was a software developer in a start-up that built massively-parallel supercomputers; the machines had up to 16K processors and handled very large datasets. While the company was staffed with seasoned hardware types, many of us software developers were relatively inexperienced.  Not wanting to admit our greenness, we usually tried to solve problems on our own rather than asking the more senior staff.  One newbie was a little more experienced than the rest and, when bestowing his opinion on us, would invariably exclaim: In regione caecorum rex est luscus If you’re not…

  • The Nocebo Effect is Serious Medicine

    Jonathan
    4 Dec 2011 | 7:53 pm
    A decade ago I read an intriguing article entitled “The Nocebo Effect: Placebo’s Evil Twin” which argued a patient’s pessimistic attitude could have negative consequences on their health.  Research showed that patients who were warned of gastrointestinal side effects from repeated use of aspirin were almost three times as likely to exhibit the side effects as those who were not warned.   In the intervening years, I’ve seen other scattered reports that a patient’s anxiety around a disease can lead to a hastened death, even when medicine suggests the patient should…
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    Panorama Business Intelligence

  • Necto + Microsoft SharePoint: Social BI Rising

    Roman Vladimirov
    26 Jan 2012 | 1:00 pm
    Our friends at Microsoft have long topped the content management and collaboration market with their wildly popular SharePoint solution. As a single platform for structured and unstructured data, SharePoint has been a favorite of companies looking for a tool that can help them both get organized and promote a team-first environment. So it’s easy for you to see why Panorama Software is excited about its latest endeavor. We recently announced enhanced integration between the cutting edge Necto business intelligence solution with SharePoint. Necto and Sharepoint are the peanut butter and…

  • Go shopping for business intelligence at NRF’s 101st BIG Show

    Annie Bustos
    4 Jan 2012 | 3:43 pm
    Given their increasing production of data and reliance on the insights it holds, retailers are among the most serious users of business intelligence technology in the world. From customer information and tracking the performance of certain products to targeting specific marketing campaigns, analytics is key for just about any retailer. That’s why we’re particularly excited about participating in the National Retail Federation’s upcoming conference, Retail’s BIG Show. The NRF has been promoting retailers for a long time, this is the organization’s 101st annual…

  • Seemless and Secure Mobile BI with Panorama Necto

    Annie Bustos
    28 Dec 2011 | 2:41 pm
    Some can still doubt the value of Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), others question data security but the numbers exemplify a rapid growth rate for Mobile BI! And it seems pretty reasonable if some of the obvious benefits of Mobile BI are taken into consideration. Aberdeen Research analysts are firm that it will help companies to: Get into real-time decision-making Improve operational efficiency Create and manage flexible work-flows Increase their responsiveness to customers Moreover, Gartner, one of the most advanced and reliable research organizations, predicts one-third of all BI…

  • Making BI Relevant, Intelligent again

    Roman Vladimirov
    17 Nov 2011 | 2:27 pm
    The world around us is inevitably becoming more pertinent. Even big companies like Google are striving to provide users with the most relevant information in order to avoid the messy alternative that comes with large volumes of information. Finding and retrieving relevant information is becoming increasingly difficult in the age we live in, as information is being created at exponential rates. I remember when its convenience first made Google so famous. Google easily dominated the market by providing people with the most relevant information according to their needs and in a matter of…

  • Microsoft Announces Pricing for Upcoming Denali (SQL Server 2012) Release

    Roman Vladimirov
    3 Nov 2011 | 4:09 pm
    Our friends at Microsoft took another step toward releasing SQL Server 2012 database platform, code name ‘Denali’, by announcing today their new licensing model and pricing for the product. This is significant step forward for Panorama Software customers, as well as business intelligence users around the world. The newest version of SQL Server, set for an early 2012 release, is the first to include an edition devoted specifically to BI. Pricing for the SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence Edition will be $8,592 per Server. The other versions will run $6,874 per core for the Enterprise…
 
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    MAIA Intelligence Blog

  • BI among top IT priorities in 2012

    Dhiren Gala
    22 Jan 2012 | 10:37 pm
    Till now 2012, the Year of Dragon as per Chinese calendar has seen many resolutions, predictions, trends, forecasts, reports, priorities for Business Intelligence (BI). But I think report of BI being at the top of IT agenda for 2012 is a big one. BI and analytics have ousted several other much hyped technologies like cloud computing, virtualization, etc. as top enterprise technology priority for the New Year according to a Gartner survey of 2,335 CIOs conducted in the fourth quarter of 2011 and covering 37 industries in 45 countries. According to the survey result, CIOs have stated that BI…

  • Quality Data: A foundation for BI Success

    Sanjay Mehta
    15 Jan 2012 | 10:52 pm
    Data Quality refers to the degree of excellence exhibited by the data in relation to the portrayal of the actual scenario. Data are of high quality ‘if they are fit for their intended uses in operationsdecision making and planning (J. M. Juran). Alternatively, the data are deemed of high quality if they correctly represent the real-world construct to which they refer. Data quality is really the only truly unique asset that a company has. A company needs to care about its information because: Information volume is exploding Lot of information is generated real time Information is a key…

  • Life after Business Intelligence

    Dhiren Gala
    8 Jan 2012 | 10:32 pm
    Business today moves at the speed of information. Getting right information into right hands at right time is essential. Business initiatives that have the biggest impact on company’s bottom-line get enabled after Business Intelligence (BI). BI soon becomes IT’s ‘must have’ application. Single view representation and analysis of enterprise data adds an additional thrust to smart decisions. Through the dial gauges, bulbs, charts, etc. in dashboards, CEO gets the overall view of the business. Through financial consolidation, CFO gets the variance to plan. And most of the business…

  • Semantic layer technology reduces value of BI investments

    Sanjay Mehta
    1 Jan 2012 | 10:33 pm
    New generation BI tools like 1KEY BI do not need semantic layer The semantic layer is a business translation layer that sits between the database and the end user which was the traditional way of generating reports with old aged BI software tools. A semantic layer will be able to create technically sophisticated SQL and in many instances may need to generate multiple SQL statements in order to return the correct results (chasm trap/fan trap). The semantic layer must understand how to deal with database loops, complex objects, complex sets (union, intersect, minus), aggregate table navigation…

  • Democratisation of BI

    Dhiren Gala
    18 Dec 2011 | 10:56 pm
    Life saver in times information overload, believes experts “Have I bit more than I could possibly chew?” was the thought that flashed across Suresh Shanmugham’s mind, as he got down to the deliverables that he had committed to. As the head of IT at Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd (MMFSL), Suresh, in a board meeting, had promised to deliver growth–and figures that pointed northwards when compared to current numbers. Truth was that tractor sales were not looking optimistic. But, Suresh had confidence in his team, and on technology, and he was confident on delivering…
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    BeyeBLOGS - Latest Blog Postings

  • Canada Goose Women Kensington Parka Jackets Sale

    28 Jan 2012 | 7:15 am
    From blog: coach bags cl heels canada goose outlet salecanada goose Lady FanGuan put on winter excellent YaRong complete light high-class car or truck collars fragile collection describe necessities Winter that conditions is actually frosty, shower will certainly get bloated distress, inspired because of the motivation in the fair maiden blowing wi...

  • Canada Goose Women Kensington Parka Jackets Sale

    27 Jan 2012 | 7:15 am
    From blog: coach bags cl heels canada goose outlet salecanada goose Lady FanGuan put on winter excellent YaRong complete light high-class car or truck collars fragile collection describe necessities Winter that conditions is actually frosty, shower will certainly get bloated distress, inspired because of the motivation in the fair maiden blowing wi...

  • How to increase adoption of Business Intelligence

    10 Jan 2012 | 8:15 am
    From blog: InsideYellowfinBrief One of the reasons why Business Intelligence and Analytics has been slow to take off in organizations is that these solutions are not simple enough for everyone to use. Gartner says that less than 30 percent of the potential users of organizations' standard business intelligence (BI) tools use the technology today. Gartner a...

  • The Adjacent Possible in Business Intelligence

    1 Jan 2012 | 4:45 am
    From blog: Business Intelligence - A Practitioner's ThoughtsIt is that time of the year when everyone has the license to write about 2012 trends in their technology areas of focus. In that context, I was inspired by this wonderful book titled 'Where Good Ideas Come From' written by Steven Johnson. There are many fascinating nuggets in this book but I was completely intrigued by a concept called 'The Adjacen...

  • Business Intelligence badly needed to boost informed decision-making

    29 Dec 2011 | 9:00 am
    From blog: InsideYellowfinA new industry study by EMC Corporation has revealed that many companies are still not utilizing or capitalizing on their data assets effectively – traditional BI tools are not delivering critical business information to the right people at the right time. At Yellowfin, we’re making Business Intelligence (BI) adoption easy because we understand a ...
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    Business Intelligence Resources

  • Business Intelligence Resources

    Marcus Zillman
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:00 am
    [Download Free 69 Page Business Intelligence Resources White Paper Link Compilation] [Download Free 84 Page Business Intelligence Online Resources Annotated White Paper]Purchase 193 Page Professional Internet MiniGuide titled Market Intelligence Resources 2010 by clicking here. Business Intelligence Resources (BIResources.info) is a Subject Tracer™ Information Blog developed and created by the Virtual Private Library™. It is designed to bring together the latest resources and sources on an ongoing basis from the Internet for business intelligence which are listed below. We always welcome…
 
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    Sarah Burnett's Web Musings

  • BCSWomen Blog Carnival

    SB
    5 Jan 2012 | 3:39 pm
    I am delighted to be hosting the first ever BCSWomen Blog Carnival. The aim of the carnival is to encourage the sharing of ideas and personal perspectives on IT and the role of women within it, to get debate and discussion going and to give recognition to talented bloggers.   I am going to be the editor of the first carnival and will host it on this blog in February.   Here is how to enter: Publish a blog post about IT, the IT profession or women in IT on your blog during January. Please do not submit older posts; only those with a January 2012 publication date will be…

  • 2011 - Best of Three Years for UK Central Government BPO Contracts

    SB
    9 Nov 2011 | 3:55 pm
    A review of BPO contracts awarded by UK central government sector this year to date shows contracts of  total value of £7bn awarded to the end of September. The total value is dominated by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Work Programme contracts that could be worth up to a maximum of £5bn over 7 years. The rest comes from a small number of large contracts including: The award of a £105m pensions administration contract by U.K. Pensions Regulator to Capita The award of a central managed print services contract by HMRC to Williams Lea for use by all government departments…

  • The Rapid Evolution of BPO in U.K. Public Sector

    SB
    21 Sep 2011 | 2:55 pm
    The need for reducing costs or increasing revenues in the face of budget cuts in U.K. public sector is creating a host of new BPO opportunities that are pushing the boundaries of the model in the sector. There is a mix of both the expected and the unexpected that is changing the dynamics of the market: The Conservative-led coalition government has been promoting the concept of “big society” (use of volunteers to you and me) for some time and so outsourcing the National Citizen Service pilots to  a group of mostly not-for-profit organizations came as no surprise. This week the Cabinet…

  • Links for 2010-12-10 [del.icio.us]

    SB
    11 Dec 2010 | 2:00 am
    Stark Materials Part 4 – the Cell Universe

  • Stark Materials Part 4 – the Cell Universe

    SB
    5 Dec 2010 | 1:29 pm
    In this light-hearted post I draw attention to the similarities between cell phones and the daemons in Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy! According to the Sunday Times there is a Bluetooth device available for key rings that screams to alert the user when he/she becomes separated from his/her cell phone by more than a set distance. The distance can be anything from 18 ft to 60 ft. Like the daemons in the Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman, the cell has become an inseparable companion to the human race. In Pullman’s epic tale of parallel universes, Lyra, the protagonist,…
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    Business Intelligence News by Marcus Borba

  • Top Trends That Will Impact Business Intelligence in 2012

    22 Jan 2012 | 11:59 pm
    The Business Intelligence scenario has evolved greatly in recent times, with new trends, approaches, concepts and tools. Early this month, I already shared my thoughts for the TIBCO Spotfire's Business Intelligence Blog, in a post entitled Top BI Resolutions and Trends for 2012 from Industry Experts, where Julie B. Hunt, Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro and I talked about the BI Resolution for Companies and the Top 3 Trends for Industry. It's worth reading.Here are my BI Resolution and a more comprehensive list of the top trends, that in my opinion, will impact Business Intelligence in 2012:BI…

  • How to Manage Budget

    15 Jan 2012 | 3:32 pm
    (Click on comic strip to view larger image)Dilbert by Scott Adams-Dilbert ©2012, Universal UclickPublished at January 15, 2012 in dilbert.com

  • Top BI Resolutions and Trends for 2012 from Industry Experts

    5 Jan 2012 | 9:41 pm
    Trends and Outliers, the TIBCO Spotfire's Business Intelligence Blog, published yesterday a post entitled Top BI Resolutions and Trends for 2012 from Industry Experts, where Julie B. Hunt, Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro and I share our thoughts on BI Resolutions and Trends for 2012. Thank you so much to the people of Spotfire's blog for the invitation to share my thoughts on the subject.

  • The BI Year in Review

    4 Jan 2012 | 8:02 am
    The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) published in December a retrospective called The BI Year in Review. The retrospective, written by Stephen Swoyer, is a well-detailed article about what happened in BI area in 2011. Below is a summary of the article:Interacting with BI Apps and the Impact of Mobile ComputingIn 2011, the evolving BI usage paradigm officially moved beyond the desktop LCD: smartphones and tablets aren’t simply being supported, they’re being actively cultivated. One upshot of this is that nearly every purveyor of BI client offerings has a mobile or tablet strategy that…

  • Happy New Year!

    31 Dec 2011 | 6:14 pm
    Happy New Year for all of you!Peace, Love, Health, Happiness, Prosperity and Success!
 
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    The Business Intelligence Blog

  • Microsoft names SQL Server 2012 launch date

    Guru Kirthigavasan
    24 Jan 2012 | 9:41 am
    Microsoft’s SQL Server 2012 will be officially launched on 7 March. More from All about Microsoft. Microsoft Server and Tools chief Satya Nadella revealed last fall that SQL Server 2012 (codenamed “Denali”) would launch in the early part of 2012. Microsoft delivered the final public test build of SQL Server 2012 in November 2011. The March 7 launch event topic list includes everything from big data, to StreamInsight complex event processing, to the new data-visualization and analysis tools that are part of the SQL Server 2012 release. Disclosure: I work at Microsoft.

  • 101 – Data Mining and Predictive Analytics

    Guru Kirthigavasan
    24 Jan 2012 | 9:31 am
    In today’s world mining of text, Web and media (unstructured data) plus structured data mining, the term information mining is a more appropriate label. Mining a combination of these, companies are able to make the best use of structured data, unstructured text and social media. Static and stagnant predictive models of the past don’t work well in the world we live in today. Predictive analytics should be agile to adapt and monetize on quickly changing customer behaviors in our world, which are often identified online and through social networks. Better integration of data mining software…

  • Is there sunshine ahead for cloud computing?

    Guru Kirthigavasan
    31 Jul 2011 | 9:20 am
    The global cloud-computing market is expected to reach $241 billion in 2020, up from $41 billion in 2010, according to Forrester Research. That long-term potential is reflected in the highflying stocks of companies actively involved in the concept. A stumbling block, however, is concern over the security of data when a client firm can no longer control it on its own premises. Hackers and crashed systems are, after all, among a company’s worst nightmares. And while the cloud is a definite boon to smaller firms, more established companies have already made significant investments in…

  • The Jargon of the Novel, Computed

    Guru Kirthigavasan
    31 Jul 2011 | 9:18 am
    Scholars in the growing field of digital humanities can tackle this question by analyzing enormous numbers of texts at once. When books and other written documents are gathered into an electronic corpus, one “subcorpus” can be compared with another: all the digitized fiction, for instance, can be stacked up against other genres of writing, like news reports, academic papers or blog posts. One such research enterprise is the Corpus of Contemporary American English, or COCA, which brings together 425 million words of text from the past two decades, with equally large samples drawn from…

  • Microsoft Gives the Cloud to Scientists

    Guru Kirthigavasan
    18 Nov 2010 | 7:32 am
    More in NYTimes The software maker has started grafting popular scientific databases and analysis tools onto its Windows Azure cloud computing service. This basically means that researchers in various fields can get access to a fast supercomputer of their very own and pose queries to enormous data sets that Microsoft keeps up to date. For the time being, Microsoft will allow some research groups to perform their work free, while others will have to rent calculation time on Azure via a credit card. These moves have turned Somsak Phattarasukol, a graduate student at the University of Washington…
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    Building Business Value | Corporate Management Strategies

  • The Psycho-path to Success?

    Marty O'Neill
    21 Jan 2012 | 9:50 am
    One of my favorite Warren Buffet quotes is "In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you."  This quote was the first thing I thought of after reading Kevin Voigt’s article in CNN International’s Business section titled “Bad bosses:  The psycho-path to success.”  Beyond a terrific title, the article forces us to think about the values our company enforces when making hires and promotions. Fortunately, I’ve only had on psycho-path boss…

  • Making Change Stick Through Broad-Based Action

    Marty O'Neill
    5 Jan 2012 | 11:28 am
    Consider your last successful change effort.  Chances are you got everyone excited about the change and folks were able to make an emotional connection.  I’m guessing one of the next things you did was to empower a broad base of action. That means people are going to be asked to do specific things and you're going to seed those actions with your guiding team. Specific actions to empower people and get them involved. It's one thing that they're emotionally connected. They made the emotional connection initially, but now they need to turn that emotion into action. Specific…

  • Stocking Stuffer Ideas – 20 Classic Leadership Books

    Marty O'Neill
    23 Dec 2011 | 1:14 pm
    One of my favorite Christmas gifts to give or receive is a book.  It is the ultimate gift that keeps on giving.  Here is a list of my top 20 leadership books.  Some are academic, other are anecdotal in nature, while a few are written in a business fable format. Buy one for yourself and one for the colleague you most relied on in 2011.   Merry Christmas. Lincoln on Leadership, Phillips, Warner Books The Servant Leader, Neushel, Visions Leadership Jazz, DePree, Currency Doubleday The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes Posner, Jossey-Bass Christian Reflections on the…

  • Does a Hand Shake Mean Anything to You?

    Marty O'Neill
    20 Dec 2011 | 11:09 am
    In a recent discussion with a client on the topic of joint ventures, partnerships and teaming arrangements, the concepts of doing a deal on a handshake came up.  We discussed business arrangements that deal with two companies sharing ideas or resources and working together with the ultimate goal of a shared benefit. We began swapping stories of the work we’d conducted on a handshake.  He shared a recent deal he struck with another CEO based on a very preliminary meeting, but supported by history and reputation.  I shared a similar story of a real estate transaction I once…

  • 4 Pitfalls to Watch For in Your New Year’s Strategy

    HubSpot User Default
    14 Dec 2011 | 9:48 am
    You’ve come up with your three top transformational initiatives for 2012.  Like most leaders, you’re jazzed about the new beginning, the new year.  Here a four pitfalls you may run into as you work to implement you new year’s strategy. 1. Complacency Think about any major transformation you’ve made in your life.  Whether it was loosing weight, climbing a mountain or becoming a certified diver.  There was always an exciting, emotional reason behind what you were doing.  Far too many corporate initiatives are supported by spread-sheets and board…
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    Sagacious Think

  • Keep People Longer – Reduce Turnover Costs and Lost Institutional Knowledge

    admin
    27 Jan 2012 | 6:10 pm
    I was recently chatting with a friend, a former GM at a Fortune 50 company on the topic of human resources; how this department fits into most organizations, and how they are often, unfortunately, sidelined as a department more focused on handling benefits, firing and disciplinary actions.  The conversation then jumped into some of the trendy things companies do to in the name of excellence such as letting go the bottom 10% of the employees, and he raised some examples of how what might in theory be a good idea, gets quickly perverted, and defeated the intent of the idea. Hiring Managers…

  • Stress Testing Your Business

    admin
    4 Jan 2012 | 9:30 pm
    The start of the new years is invariable time for reflection on lessons learned.  The past few years have offered some doozies for companies seeking to understand the challenging and shifting landscape.  Along with that reflection, managers are resolving to find ways to improve in the new year, and ensure their companies are equipped to cope with whatever might come their way.  The following article appeared in Open Forum – Why You Should Stress Test… and I thought the wisdom it provided bears repeating.  Ask the last few years bore witness, events beyond a company’s…

  • What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate

    admin
    13 Dec 2011 | 5:59 pm
    Recently, I’ve been attending more VC and potential partner pitches, and have the following observations and recommendations: Engage –  Make It Two Way While its fantastic to be passionate about your product or service, do not overwhelm the conversation.  In fact, its probably not a conversation but an informercial.    Come with intriguing facts, or leading comments that compel the listener to ask follow-on questions and engage in a dialog.  Having a conversation where both sides are engaged, builds a relationship rather than the speaker squeezing out every last fact to a…

  • Five Common Mistakes Made by Entrepreneurs

    admin
    4 Nov 2011 | 4:01 pm
    I thought it might be nice to bring in a fresh perspective, so Adelaide Lancaster, and entrepreneur, speaker and newly published author graciously agreed to write a post on some of the mistakes she’s seen entrepreneurs make. The beauty of entrepreneurship is having the freedom to create meaningful and satisfying work on your terms. The allure of this alone drives millions of people to abandon their corporate gigs each year to pursue something that is “theirs.” But the truth is that it’s astonishingly easy to create a business that is unsatisfying. Despite clear goals and the best…

  • Does Your Company Suffer from IFS? (Information Fatigue Syndrome)

    admin
    5 Sep 2011 | 12:37 pm
    In addition to this screen, how many do you have open now?  I have eight websites, a Powerpoint presentation, a Word document, and oh, TweetDeck least I miss any bleeding edge news on operations (I was trying to be funny).  We are bombarded with information everywhere we turn, but does it do us, or our company, any good?  Chances are the answer is  ”no.”  We are getting information out of a fire hose and do not know how to use, it in what context to take it or determine its validity.  Yet we are compelled to try to act on it all, because heaven forfend we are not the ones in…
 
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    DealBook

  • F.T.C. Sues to Block Omnicare's Bid for PharMerica

    By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:15 pm
    The Federal Trade Commission sued Omnicare, seeking to block the pharmacy service provider's hostile $441 million bid for PharMerica.

  • Perelman Loses Court Battle Over $16 Million Suit

    By WILLIAM ALDEN and SUSANNE CRAIG
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:00 pm
    Ronald O. Perelman, the billionaire financier, lost a bitter legal battle as a federal jury decided that his company must pay $16 million to Donald Drapkin, a former business associate.

  • Delta Explores Possible Bid for US Airways

    By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED and JAD MOUAWAD
    27 Jan 2012 | 6:30 pm
    Delta is exploring a possible bid to purchase US Airways, according to a person familiar with the matter. But Delta has not yet approached its smaller rival and it may decide against making an offer.

  • S.&P. Lowers Outlook on Jefferies and Cantor

    By KEVIN ROOSE
    27 Jan 2012 | 5:34 pm
    Standard & Poors lowered its outlook on the Jefferies Group and Cantor Fitzgerald to negative from stable, saying the European debt crisis could weigh on their profits.

  • Buzz on a Facebook I.P.O. Grows Louder

    By EVELYN M. RUSLI
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:59 pm
    Facebook may file a prospectus as early as next week, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who demanded anonymity because discussions are private. But the company is still hammering out a final date.
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    TheMarq

  • Enjoy Bootstrapping

    Arash Sayadi
    25 Jan 2012 | 10:02 am
    Business Startup You’ve started a new business, job search, project, and you put all of your effort to insure its success.  For various reasons, you close the business doors, stop searching for a job, close out the project without completing it.  Then you wonder: what’s next?  Is this the end, the sunset of the grand plan?  Will you give in to the pressures of those enthusiastic to label you as a “failure,” a “has been,” a “loser?” I suggest you welcome all of these comments and accept the label as a proud badge of honor.  All of them are signs of…

  • First Long Hike Complete

    Arash Sayadi
    3 Dec 2011 | 2:07 pm
    Climbing Mount Whitney That’s right! Christopher T. and I hiked to the top of Santiago Peak, the highest mountain in Orange County at 5,687 ft.  on November 19, 2011.  This was the first of three big hikes before Mount Whitney in the Summer of 2012.  What follows is a retelling of our day, some of our challenges, and some very intriguing discoveries and folks we met on the trail.  Packing Knowing that we’d have an early start in the morning, I packed the car with all of the equipment and necessities the night before.  That  wasn’t a small task. I had the…

  • Weeks 10-14: One Hundred and Ten Miles Later

    Arash Sayadi
    11 Oct 2011 | 10:46 am
    Climbing Mount Whitney It’s been five weeks since my last post about training for the hike to Mount Whitney, what I lovingly refer to as the Big Mother Hike (BMH).  I’ve learned quite a lot in these past five weeks, and certainly had a ball getting closer to completing the BMH. During this time I’ve walked or hiked 110.5 miles around my neighborhood (see above picture), in parks and over some larger hills.  I’ve learned the importance of continuous hydration as well as taking snacks of high protein value that are about 100 to 150 calories each and can be consumed at about…

  • Business Lessons from Hiking

    Arash Sayadi
    27 Sep 2011 | 10:50 am
    Business Strategies As you may know from the posts about Climbing Mount Whitney, I’m preparing for a single day, 21 mile round trip hike to summit Mount Whitney next year.  I’m now 10 weeks into a 16 week training cycle.  The training has already reminded me of lessons that universally apply to our personal and professional lives.  Here are three recurring themes and their associated lessons: Think One Thought at a Time No kidding, right?  This should be obvious for everything we do, but demanding schedules, the want to complete six things at once, and peer pressure…

  • Weeks 8 and 9: Equipment Check

    Arash Sayadi
    14 Sep 2011 | 10:15 am
    Climbing Mount Whitney You recall I’d originally written in the first of these posts that I would write about Mount Whitney daily.  Clearly that hasn’t happened.  I’m back to the original method of postings on this blog: as new ideas come up, I’ll write about them.  Christopher T had warned me about that with some skepticism.  You were right bub! First, I’d like to update who will be in our group.  We’re now a group of three people: Christopher T, Ron T, and me.  The dates of the intermediate climbs, as well as the rigor of the preparation have meant…
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    DecisionStats

  • Jobs in Analytics

    Ajay Ohri
    26 Jan 2012 | 11:35 pm
    Some job openings from WPS/Analytic Searches.com – Please review WPS searches below and contact me if you would like to have a confidential conversation. Full position descriptions at http://www.analyticsearches.com/wps-search-current-positions/ . Submit resume/ questions to mary@analyticsearches.com. All referrals are appreciated and earn you $1000.00 each when hired. —————————————————————————————- Associate…

  • Jill Dyche on 2012

    Ajay Ohri
    26 Jan 2012 | 12:27 pm
    In part 3 of the series for predictions for 2012, here is Jill Dyche, Baseline Consulting/DataFlux. Part 2 was Timo Elliot, SAP at http://www.decisionstats.com/timo-elliott-on-2012/ and Part 1 was Jim Kobielus, Forrester at http://www.decisionstats.com/jim-kobielus-on-2012/ Ajay: What are the top trends you saw happening in 2011?   Well, I hate to say I saw them coming, but I did. A lot of managers committed some pretty predictable mistakes in 2011. Here are a few we witnessed in 2011 live and up close:   1.       In the spirit of “size matters,” data warehouse teams…

  • Timo Elliott on 2012

    Ajay Ohri
    26 Jan 2012 | 9:10 am
    Continuing the DecisionStats series on  trends for 2012, Timo Elliott , Technology Evangelist  at SAP Business Objects, looks at the predictions he made in the beginning of  2011 and follows up with the things that surprised him in 2011, and what he foresees in 2012. You can read last year’s predictions by Mr Elliott at http://www.decisionstats.com/brief-interview-timo-elliott/ Timo- Here are my comments on the “top three analytics trends” predictions I made last year: (1) Analytics, reinvented. New DW techniques make it possible to do sub-second, interactive analytics…

  • Agneepath Movie Review

    Ajay Ohri
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:28 am
    When you try and make a remake of old Bollywood classic, you risk some stuff. Especially if the classic is the legendary Amitabh Bachchan’s   Agneepath that was both a commericial flop, a total hit at the awards and now a cult favorite (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agneepath) So what can Karans Johar/Malhotra, Sanjay Dutt and Hrithik Roshan do that hasnt been done. Well they have made the intense violence mind-blowing catchy and deliciously pulpy, with its unique Bollywood sweet sour mango flavor. Sanjay Dutt rocks the screen in evil intensity, Hrithik emotes with his eyes (wisely…

  • Using SAS and R Together

    Ajay Ohri
    25 Jan 2012 | 11:46 pm
    Proc r  I really liked this code snippet paper from JSS, enough to upload and embed it here. It shows using R from within Base SAS is quite easy, though Phil Rack, of Minequest gets credit for writing the earliest macros on that (in SAS language product WPS ) at http://www.minequest.com/Bridge2R.html . I also liked Phil Holland’s paper on that at http://www.hollandnumerics.co.uk/pdf/SAS2R2SAS_paper.pdf and Sam Croker’s paper on using Time Series in both SAS and R at http://www.nesug.org/proceedings/nesug08/sa/sa07.pdf A great blog on using both languages together is…
 
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    Forex Trading Info

  • Greek-Vote on Euro Bailout Plan to Yield Gains in Forex Market

    admin
    28 Jan 2012 | 7:12 am
    Hong Kong (PRWEB) November 10, 2011 News that EU leaders had persuaded Greece?s prime minister to put the Greek bailout plan to a vote has had a very positive effect on Forex currency exchanges as well as other major indices such as the DJIA, S & P 500, and NASDAQ. Major commodities oil and gold have also posted healthy gains, as InvestTechFX further explains. Online Forex traders have boosted the EUR/USD by over 200 pips since Monday?s low and are poised within striking distance of the year?s midway point of 1.39. Some resistance is being encountered just above 1.38, but given that…

  • FAP Turbo : The Best Forex Robot

    admin
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:13 am
    bit.ly : The best forex system in the market right now is Fap Turbo Robot Video Rating: 0 / 5

  • Trend Forex System

    admin
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:02 am
    Trend Forex System Watch This Space.. Trend Forex System Quantumfx Pro Highly *converting* FX Course Because Of Kishore M Fame & Reputation In Forex Community. He Was Interviewed By Bbc, Bloomberg & Channel News Asia. *massive* Values Packed Inside The Package (videos, Audios, Manuals) Further Boosts To Max Conversion Rate. Quantumfx Pro

  • Currency Forecasting: A Guide to Fundamental and Technical Models of Exchange Rate Determination

    admin
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:02 am
    Currency Forecasting: A Guide to Fundamental and Technical Models of Exchange Rate Determination Information-packed guide to fundamental currency price forecasting by a professional currency analyst. Teaches you to decide when currencies are likely to rise or fall using analysis of balance of trade, purchasing power parity, et al. Explains the effect of interest rates, fiscal policies and central banks, and includes currency trading methods. List Price: $ 65.00 Price: Your browser does not support iframes.

  • Bare Reef Updates Portfolio Mobile for iPhone, iPad and Mac

    admin
    25 Jan 2012 | 7:13 am
    San Diego, CA (PRWEB) November 18, 2011 Bare Reef has released updates to its complete line of stock portfolio management apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac. This free update to all users includes bug fixes and stability enhancements, and is a recommended update for all users. Portfolio mobile (previously StockTrac) offers the most comprehensive set of features found in any iPad, iPhone or Mac stock portfolio monitoring application. Among them are: Support for multiple portfolios Support for trading in multiple currencies Technical charting Reporting (Mac / iPad…
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    Trends and Outliers

  • Is Social Analytics Better at Tracking Disease?

    Spotfire Blogging Team
    27 Jan 2012 | 1:20 pm
    There’s evidence that real-time data from social media is a better source for tracking disease outbreaks when compared to traditional data sources. For instance, two years after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, a new study shows that Twitter and HealthMap (a project at Children’s Hospital in Boston that creates a worldwide data visualization of disease outbreaks on an interactive map in nine languages) tracked the cholera epidemic, which killed 7,000 people and affected over 500,000, up to two weeks faster than traditional reporting methods. The research team led by Dr. Rumi…

  • Is Sentiment Analysis a Subset of Text Analytics?

    Spotfire Blogging Team
    26 Jan 2012 | 10:22 am
    Typically, industry analysts lump sentiment analysis and text analytics together, particularly when they talk about how to find value from social media conversations. But is that the right way to view these two technologies? Is sentiment analysis a component of text analytics or is it an application on its own? And either way, what about the human element? Recently, analytics visionary Seth Grimes (@sethgrimes) indicated that sentiment analysis draws on, but isn’t a subset of, text analytics. “Strong sentiment analysis relies on semantic analysis — on application of…

  • Analytics is Key to Energy Industry

    Spotfire Blogging Team
    25 Jan 2012 | 9:59 am
    Since energy was a top issue in last night’s State of Union address, we wanted to emphasize that analytics will play a key role. As deregulation in various states helps to open up competition, energy companies have tremendous opportunities to expand their customer and revenue bases. On the flip side, deregulation also ushers in competition for many companies that have enjoyed monopolies or near monopolies and suddenly find themselves competing to retain the same captive customers they’ve had for years. Energy companies in states where deregulation has occurred can use analytics to…

  • Collaborative Analytics and the Benefits of Local Language Support

    Spotfire Blogging Team
    23 Jan 2012 | 12:03 pm
    Enterprise companies rely on data scientists from a range of geographies and backgrounds. To help keep analytics teams on the same page, it’s useful for analytics team members to use the same analytics tools. This can and should include tools that offer local language support  for data scientists who speak Chinese, Russian, Japanese, etc. The ability for companies to build and draw upon geographically-dispersed collaborative analytics teams has become essential to business success, if not survival. A Frost & Sullivan report reveals that collaboration is a cornerstone of business…

  • The Data Analytics of the NFL Playoffs

    Spotfire Blogging Team
    20 Jan 2012 | 9:52 am
    Saints fans are sad. Everyone is pondering Tim Tebow’s 2012 fate after he defied the odds of making it to the playoffs. The Packers and Aaron Rogers did not make it to back-to-back Super Bowls. Tom Brady is obviously a machine, but his 55.9 completion percentage against the Ravens in five career games is his lowest against any other team, writes Jeff Reynolds of The Sports Xchange in a USA Today article. Will this matter this weekend? Eli Manning’s elite standing as a quarterback is still making waves in the sports gossip circles. San Francisco’s offense, led by quarterback Alex Smith,…
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    EZebis

  • Women 2.0 PITCH Conference & Competition 2012 Discount

    pemo
    16 Jan 2012 | 11:00 am
    Women 2.0 PITCH Conference & Competition (February 14, 2012 in Mountain View, CA) is a full day conference – Learn from product innovation leaders who built Flickr, Facebook, Zipcar, TaskRabbit, LARK and more. Both men and women working in technology (from early-stage startup to corporate) as they share best practices, growth strategies and stories of disruptive product development at their ventures. Hear about launching products from concept to cash and customers!  [ Read More ]
 
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    RESULTS.com Business Growth Tips

  • SWOT Analysis – part 2

    21 Jan 2012 | 12:59 pm
    As mentioned in SWOT Analysis – part 1, you need to start with a clear strategy, before you even look at doing a SWOT Analysis.    Then you need to keep the concept of “Dual Vision” in mind.   Strategic planning requires us to look at how to improve our current business - “improving what is”, balanced with what we need to build to succeed in the long term - “creating what will be”. Make it obvious. Capture your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) in a three to five word phrase format.  E.g. it is meaningless…

  • SWOT Analysis – part 1

    19 Jan 2012 | 8:03 am
    Early in my business career, (prior to joining RESULTS.com) I had the experience of having external consultants come into my firm to do “strategic planning” with us on an annual basis.    We would go to an offsite meeting.  They would start by having us do a SWOT analysis (an assessment of company Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats), and then we would create a long list of action items and go back work and do our best to get these things done – with varying levels of success. I am embarrassed to admit that for many years I mistakenly thought…

  • It's time to review your high level strategy again

    7 Jan 2012 | 10:35 am
    "If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete" - Jack Welch The pace of change is such that many industries are being transformed seemingly overnight, and in many cases, entire new industries are being created.  According to science-fiction writer William Gibson, "The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet."   Albert Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended upon the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask.  Once I knew the proper question, I could solve the problem…

  • Business execution: Tips for getting things done

    11 Dec 2011 | 10:31 am
    Define what “done” looks like. As part of the quarterly strategic planning process, we see too many companies choosing projects to improve their business without clearly defining the end point.  One of the keys to business execution success is to specify very clearly what the completed project looks like (or the specific milestone that you intend to reach this quarter), and enter a specific due date for each project.  It needs to be obvious exactly what “done” looks like, so you know precisely when to “pop the champagne cork” to celebrate your…

  • Evidence-based people management

    6 Dec 2011 | 9:11 am
    Stanford university professor, Robert Sutton has written a number of very insightful business books which present evidence to expose many of the commonly held management practices – as being nothing more than myth.  Just because “all the books say that’s what you should do” does not make it true. Here is our take on a presentation Prof Sutton gave to a group of Human Resources managers.     Belief:  Find rock star employees and pay them whatever is necessary to keep them happy (the "Wall Street" mentality) Fact: The best performing…
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    LeadFormix - Lead Views

  • Top Challenges Content Marketers Face

    Teena Gomes
    17 Jan 2012 | 11:33 am
    There is a whole lot of marketing content out there – in all forms and sizes, across all kinds of channels, in different languages and formats, and targeting all kinds of audiences.  With the genesis of the Internet and social media, every person has become a content producer – clicking on publish or share button is all it takes! However, this begs an important question to be asked- Is content marketing all that easy? Is producing quality content a cakewalk?  Absolutely not! It is true that there is a lot of content on the web, but it is the ‘good’ content that gets consumed…

  • Joining the Cloud family to enable Sales effectiveness

    Shreesha
    13 Jan 2012 | 12:26 am
    Dear Readers, I write today’s post with a feeling of pride and excitement. I’m proud that LeadFormix is now part of CallidusCloud, the leader in sales effectiveness and cloud computing. I’m excited about LeadFormix’s prospects for the future, given the close synergies Callidus Software and LeadFormix share. CallidusCloud delivers a comprehensive SaaS suite designed to help businesses drive more effective sales at each stage of the talent lifecycle, from making the right sales hire, to making it easier to sell, to motivating sales execution with targeted incentives and rewards, to…

  • Dr. Seuss’s Book of Nonsense for Marketers

    Sathya Ramaganapathy
    19 Dec 2011 | 9:00 am
    “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.” Dr. Seuss That, as marketers, we thought, would be an apt way to end the year – separate the sense from the nonsense. Dr. Seuss would probably chide us for taking everything he said so seriously. But we would like to think that he would approve of our tongue-firmly-in-cheek approach to marketing! No related posts.

  • Top 14 Must-Do Content Strategies for 2012

    Sathya Ramaganapathy
    13 Dec 2011 | 5:27 am
    Sure, we know content is king! Articles… Whitepapers… Case studies…Been there done that. Surely there are other content formats you can use! Here is a list of top content elements (in no particular order) you can experiment with in 2012. This list has been collated after thorough research and is based on statistics obtained from various marketing and benchmarking reports like Marketing Sherpa, MarketingProfs, Eccolo Media, Focus Research etc. No related posts.

  • 4 Things B2B Marketers Should Focus on in 2012

    Merlin Francis
    2 Dec 2011 | 12:06 pm
    2012 is almost here and as I prepare myself to celebrate the holiday season with my family and friends, I can’t help but think of all the things I would like to achieve in the coming year. I think most B2B marketers would agree that for us, it feels like Christmas every time we manage to fill the sales pipeline with quality leads.  After all, it means that our marketing strategies, tactics and efforts over time have borne the fruits of our labor. So as I prepare for the real Christmas, I am also working on my list of must-do marketing activities in the coming year, which will ensure the…
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    InsideView's Sales Intelligence | B2B Sales Productivity

  • 25 Motivational Sales Quotes

    Kevin Baldacci
    23 Jan 2012 | 6:24 pm
    You all know and love that middle of the afternoon feeling when the coffee seems to wear off and all of life’s endeavors seem to focus on the goal of making it to 5p.m. (All future and present employers please disregard that last sentence) One fantastic way to get through this midday funk is to find a really inspiring quote. I often find that tweeting a great little quote will find more retweets and responses than any other tweets. I gathered 25 quotes in sales I find to be very powerful and motivating. I hope you can take at least one to heart because there are some great ones in this…

  • 10 Blog Posts to Get You Up and Running this Year

    Kevin Baldacci
    18 Jan 2012 | 12:35 pm
    Welcome to the year 2012! I hope the first couple of weeks is everything and more you could have hoped for in terms of sales and getting jazzed for a fresh start. I compiled a list of some blog posts I thought you all might find interesting. They outline a lot of really great best practices to get you up and running this year. For those who didn’t quite hit your marks last year, now might be a good time to start switching things up a bit. Spend the morning or afternoon reading these from some truly influential figures in sales. Personality Study of 1,000 Top Salespeople-Harvard Business…

  • 8 Ways to Increase Sales

    koka sexton
    12 Jan 2012 | 11:40 am
    How a few shifts in your sales process can have a huge impact on sales revenue. I read a great article on Inc. yesterday on 12 ways to increase sales. The author Geoffrey James pointed out some of the most important things a salesperson or sales manager should do to increase sales in 2012. He hit the nail on the head when it comes to why these 12 ways to increase sales revenue will work, I want to tell you how to do it in 8. 1. Reduce the number of opportunities you pursue. It’s not a numbers game. By focusing your sales energy on fewer opportunities that have a higher chance of…

  • A Comparative Analysis of Sales Intelligence and the Assembly Line

    Kevin Baldacci
    11 Jan 2012 | 4:25 pm
    The assembly line has been a manufacturing process in the making for hundreds of years. However, it wasn’t until 1913 that it was perfected by the Ford Motor Company creating huge ramifications for the entire industry of automobiles and manufacturing. The concept of sales intelligence seems similar of creating such ramifications as it comes brings together a different concept of sales combined with extraordinary results. An Industrial Revolution Henry Ford’s assembly line changed all that the world knew about manufacturing in the early 20th century. Following this new form of…

  • 15 Posts in Sales and Marketing for 2012

    Kevin Baldacci
    9 Jan 2012 | 12:39 pm
    2012 is here folks. New goals and high ambitions are in place as the slate is cleaned for the new year. It’s time to stoke the 2011 coals and fuel the 2012 fire. Here are 15 posts I put together with some very interesting predictions and strategies for this coming year. Hope you enjoy it and best of luck for this fine year! 30 Social Media Predictions for 2012 From the Pros – Social Media Examiner 5 Sales Management Questions We Answered in 2011 – Selling Power 8 Great Marketing Infographics To Inspire Your 2012 Objectives – B2B Marketing Insider 11 B2B marketing…
 
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    Business-Intelligence

  • Redundant Data

    agraham
    24 Jan 2012 | 2:29 am
    Redundant data can be both a benefit and a problem to organisations but ultimately it means we have more data to manage. Some redundancy is clearly required for backups and optimisation reasons but unknown or inconsistent redundancy is a disaster. I would like to get some sense of the level of redundancy of data that exists in organisations today hence I have setup a poll on my main blog site. Please be kind enough to complete. I will be posting the results on this blog in a few months hopefully.

  • IT: What Happened to that Warm and Fuzzy Feeling?

    kchow
    19 Jan 2012 | 5:50 pm
    I just saw the following coming out from the good people at Gartner Research: “The Gartner Predicts 2012 special report addresses the continuing trend toward the reduction of control IT has over the forces that affect it. As users take more control of the devices they will use, business managers are taking more control of the budgets IT organizations have watched shift over the past few years. Moving forward, IT departments will find that they must coordinate activities in a much wider scope than they once controlled.” Well, no surprise here. I think most of us who have been in business…

  • Geeks N’ Weasels

    kchow
    19 Jan 2012 | 5:48 pm
    Anyone in a modern business environment is well aware of the tension that often exists between technical experts (IT, developers, engineers, etc.) and business experts (sales, marketing, operations, etc.). I’m no social scientist; I haven’t made a study of the origins and dynamics that give rise to this divide, but I’ll go out on a limb here and say that it seems to me each group tends to view the world in profoundly different ways. Sometimes that difference is embraced – even celebrated – as a critical balance of viewpoints for the business. I was at a Silicon Valley start-up years…

  • Transforming your organization from the inside-out

    ngutierrez
    19 Jan 2012 | 3:03 pm
    Dear readers, I know it has been a while since my last posting, but that is a good sign; it means that the Business Intelligence industry is still alive out there, even in these uncertain times. So, what is the occasion then? Well, if you have not guessed by the title, let me give me you another tip. It is time for change! When things are working well and companies are making money, nobody wants to disturb the status-quo – If ain’t broken, why fix it mentality – Now is the perfect occasion to prepare your organization not only for survival, but to come ahead of the…

  • BI Mind Map

    phusting
    13 Jan 2012 | 11:00 am
    pretty cool, check it out at http://www.mindomo.com/mindmap/business-intelligence-in-2012-82af32162f2e4e289dcdfef788ed6017   Read Original Post
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    Bime - SaaS Business Intelligence | Analytics & Dashboards

  • Organizations look to the cloud for BI says Gartner

    jonathan
    26 Jan 2012 | 10:25 am
    Gartner Survey A report from Gartner released this week shows that more companies are turning to BI in the cloud as an alternative to the traditional on-premise solutions. Nearly one third of organizations either already use or plan to use cloud or software-as-a-service solutions to augment their central business intelligence (BI) functions. Of 1,364 IT managers in the Gartner survey almost a third (27%) already utilise or plan to improve their BI options with cloud based solutions. A further 17% said they already have or plan to completely overhaul their current BI functions and replace it…

  • SMBs & Marketing [Infographic]

    jonathan
    19 Jan 2012 | 4:07 am
    With no geographic barriers online, marketing to an international audience has never been easier. For SMBs social media and SEO can be an invaluable tool for communicating with their audience, prospecting new leads and then keeping their customers in the loop. We utilize our social media to firstly keep our customers informed over the goings on at Bime but secondly, to discuss the industry, put our thoughts forward and share and discuss any interesting content. We recently came across an infographic from SEO.com displaying some of the numbers associated with small businesses and their…

  • High Speed Rail Networks : How do different countries compare ? [Dashboard]

    jonathan
    12 Jan 2012 | 8:15 am
    At Bime HQ we always like to keep abreast of current affairs and often behind the story there is some great data we can bring to life using Bime. Earlier this week the British government approved plans for the first domestic high speed rail network, scheduled to be in place by 2026. For some this upgrade was long overdue and certainly Britain appears to be lagging behind it’s European counterparts, handily from Bime HQ in Montpellier in the south of France we are able to get the high speed train up to Paris in just over 3 hours (597km). The announcement gave us the opportunity to…

  • Bime named in the top 10 enterprise cloud apps and services of 2011 by ReadWriteWeb

    jonathan
    10 Jan 2012 | 2:30 am
    Santa must have received our wishlist this year, as over Christmas Bime featured in ReadWriteWeb’s list of the top 10 enterprise cloud apps and services of 2011. We were in fine company with companies such as Heroku and Xeround also included on the list. The author, Scott Fulton, describes a dramatic shift from 2010 to 2011 for businesses thanks to the cloud: “In a very short time, suddenly true scalability for every IT service appeared within their reach.” The choices for the list were evaluated partly based on the “social data flow”, a positive reflection of…

  • 2012 – the Year Companies Will Learn to Love ‘Big Data,’ Thanks to Cloud BI

    jonathan
    4 Jan 2012 | 7:43 am
    In 2012, ‘Big Data’ will rise but also be cut to size, thanks to business intelligence (BI) delivered through the cloud. BI as an easy-to-use, affordable and scalable utility will let small companies or start-ups play in high-end data mining and analysis that used to be the domain of expensive software and experts guarding their knowledge. That’s our main prediction for 2012. Speaking at the end of last year our CEO and Co-Founder, Rachel Delacour commented: “Experts called 2011 the year of the cloud and are now predicting that 2012 will be the year of Big Data. Companies are…
 
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    blog.jinfonet.com

  • What are the Benefits of Embedded Reporting with JReport?

    Katelyn Bornak
    26 Jan 2012 | 11:23 am
    JReport is a leading 100% Java, embedded, reporting solution that can be seamlessly integrated as an extension of any application. Embed reports into your existing applications and get the information you need where and when you need it. Embedding from a Hardware Perspective Choosing JReport as your embedded reporting solution will allow you to leverage your existing infrastructure. JReport’s footprint is extremely lightweight and will run natively in your existing hardware so you don’t need to go out and buy a huge number of CPUs or a huge amount of memory. The full install of JReport…

  • Q&A:Easy Yet Powerful Data Visualization

    Katelyn Bornak
    19 Jan 2012 | 9:05 am
    Missed yesterday’s webinar? Check it out on-demand or read through the Q&A to get a quick overview of some of the features covered in our presentation. You can also register for the next webinar here: Register Now! 1) Can an end user change chart types,  and how easy is that process? Yes, it’s very easy for end users to change chart types. Simply go into “Edit Mode” and from there you have access to edit all of the components on your report or dashboard including chart types. Once in “Edit Mode”, you just select whichever other style of chart that you want from the dropdown…

  • Business Intelligence and Security with JReport

    Katelyn Bornak
    12 Jan 2012 | 2:41 pm
    Business Intelligence isn’t just about accessing information, its about making sure that the right people, have the right information, at the right time so decisions can be made more confidently and accurately across the enterprise. However, to achieve this, data security needs to be part of the mix so that members of the organization access only the data for which they are properly authorized. JReport provides users with multiple levels of security to ensure that data is accessed only by authorized individuals. JReport has a catalog (metadata layer) which all reports use to gain access to…

  • Looking for More Agile BI?

    Katelyn Bornak
    6 Jan 2012 | 12:08 pm
    Did you know that approximately 66% of Business Intelligence requirements change between a daily and monthly basis? (Forrester Research) To keep up with the constant stream of information flowing through your enterprise, and the ever-changing demands of business operations, having a flexible, intuitive, and agile BI tool in place can significantly improve your data reporting experience. JReport provides all three, working as a flexible, yet easy to use BI framework that is quick to develop and deploy. Flexibility with JReport: JReport’s embedded Java architecture delivers a fast, seamless…

  • Partner Highlight: Objective Software

    Katelyn Bornak
    8 Dec 2011 | 4:08 pm
    Objective Software, based in Germany, is a consulting firm that provides support in organizational and IT consultancy as well as software support and system integration. Objective was first introduced to JReport more than a decade ago during a consulting engagement for Deutsche Bank where they were charged with creating an Intra-/Internet based product  for customer distribution that required reporting. After evaluating a number of BI reporting solutions, Objective determined that JReport would be the ideal fit because of the product’s flexible Java architecture, advanced scalability, and…
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    The Solopreneur Life®

  • In the NFL and In Solopreneurship: Winning and Losing Turns on the Strength of the Gameplan

    Larry Keltto
    27 Jan 2012 | 5:13 pm
    In his book, Take Your Eye Off the Ball: How Watch Football By Knowing Where to Look, (Amazon Affiliate link) Pat Kirwan explains how a National Football League team constructs its gameplan each week. Every NFL team has a playbook that’s about as thick the Manhattan phone book (Manhattan, New York, not Manhattan, Kansas). The playbook contains roughly a thousand offensive plays, says Kirwan, who has worked as a coach and executive in the NFL. And each play has variations, based formation. So theoretically, every team has several thousand plays that could be used during a game. But not…

  • What Would a Solopreneurism 101 Course Look Like?

    Larry Keltto
    27 Jan 2012 | 1:16 pm
    Have you ever said: “I wish there had been an entrepreneurism class when I was in school”? It’s a comment that I hear frequently from solopreneurs of varied educational backgrounds, including liberal-arts graduates, law-school grads, tech-school grads, and even people who studied ministry. I’ve even been told by colleagues that I should build a Solopreneurism 101 course. I think it’s an intriguing — yet daunting — idea; I would have to invest a huge amount of time and energy in building the course, and I’m not yet convinced that people REALLY…

  • Featured Soloist Barbara Austin: “Don’t Jump Into It Without a Plan”

    Larry Keltto
    25 Jan 2012 | 6:25 pm
    This is The Solopreneur Life’s “Featured Soloist,” the purpose of which is to give all of us a glimpse at how other solopreneurs operate their small businesses. Today we meet Barbara Austin. If you would like to be the “Featured Soloist,” please send me an e-mail, Larry@TheSolopreneurLife.com.Barbara Austin Name of solopreneur: Barbara Austin Name of business and city: CreativeGem Designs | Liberty Hill, Texas Web site address: www.creativegemdesigns.com Type of business: graphic design (print, web, and branding services) When did you officially go into business? August of 2010…

  • Golf-Swing Tips and Small-Biz Advice: They’re Irrelevant

    Larry Keltto
    25 Jan 2012 | 2:25 pm
    Some of you may know that I’m a geek when it comes to the golf swing. One of my favorite golf-swing experts, Jim McLean, frequently says that most golf instruction has absolutely nothing to do with whether the golf ball will be struck well. If you doubt him, compare Jim Furyk’s golf swing to that of Doug Sanders. It’s astounding how two swings that are so different could produce pro-level results. And it proves that most elements of the golf swing (stance, grip, backswing, tempo, follow-through, etc.) aren’t fundamental to success. So why is there so much golf how-to…

  • Who Snaps You, and Your Solo Business, Back To Health?

    Larry Keltto
    24 Jan 2012 | 7:43 pm
    If it wasn’t for my chiropractor, Dr. Nick McGregor, I’d be walking on all fours. Seriously. I can’t imagine the pain and discomfort I’d be in if it weren’t for the adjustments I’ve received from Nick over the years. There are times when I have minor aches — the kind I can resolve with stretching, yoga, or sleep. When I won’t be able to heal myself, I know it: I feel a lack of strength in the affected area; I sleep poorly; I’m not able to perform simple daily tasks; getting dressed is a challenge. At times like those, I don’t…
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    StatSpotting!

  • ‘Apple makes more iPhones than humans make babies’

    junior
    26 Jan 2012 | 6:54 am
    We have spotted multiple stats on Apple iPhone sales and some interesting stats on Apple sales overall. We spotted this today: “The company smashed most expectations yesterday when it announced its iPhone sales for the last three months of 2011 totaled over 37 million units, a figure that exceeds the number of babies born on planet earth–using the global average daily birth rate –during a comparable period (about 98 days).” Statistics Source: CNET For Interesting Statistics Everyday, Find Statspotting on Facebook and Follow Statspotting on Twitter

  • Half A Billion: The Number of Sub $100 Smartphones Globally This Year

    junior
    19 Jan 2012 | 7:16 am
    We spotted this today: “Market research firm Deloitte estimates that the number of sub-$100 smartphones in use globally will surpass 500 million this year, and by the end of 2012 there will be 200 million NFC-equipped devices in the hands of consumers. The firm also sees apps continuing to play a huge role in the mobile market, with the number of available apps set to top 2 million later this year. ” Statistics Source: BGR For Interesting Statistics Everyday, Find Statspotting on Facebook and Follow Statspotting on Twitter

  • Bing Is Now The Second Largest Search Engine In The World

    junior
    12 Jan 2012 | 6:14 am
    We spotted this today: “Microsoft has poured billions of dollars into its search engine, and this is what it has to show for it. It is now the second largest search engine in the U.S., just edging past Yahoo for the first time in December, according to the latest comScore data.” Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-search-market-2012-1?op=1#ixzz1jFHOWfeg For Interesting Statistics Everyday, Find Statspotting on Facebook and Follow Statspotting on Twitter

  • 37 Million: Number of Windows Phones To Be Sold My Nokia This Year

    junior
    12 Jan 2012 | 6:09 am
    We spotted this today. “Morgan Stanley expects shipments of Nokia’s new Windows Phones to hit 37 million units in 2012, and 64 million units in 2013. Add to this Morgan Stanley’s estimates for HTC’s Windows Phone handsets, and you get shipments of 43 million this year and 74 million the next. And that’s just those two OEMs alone. There are a few others for which the research house doesn’t provide estimates. ” Statistics Source: ALLTHINGSD For Interesting Statistics Everyday, Find Statspotting on Facebook and Follow Statspotting on Twitter

  • Gadget Sales Statistics: Gadget Sales To Top $1 Trillion in 2012

    junior
    8 Jan 2012 | 10:30 pm
    We spotted this today: “Developing countries like China and India will drive global sales of consumer electronics above $1 trillion this year for the first time, even as cash-strapped shoppers in the U.S. and Western Europe ease off spending for high-tech gear, industry analysts said Sunday.” Statistics Source: Yahoo For Interesting Statistics Everyday, Find Statspotting on Facebook and Follow Statspotting on Twitter
 
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    Smedio

  • 4 Tips Wall Street Should Learn from Social Media

    Albert Qian
    26 Jan 2012 | 12:53 pm
    At the end of the day it does not matter whether you are on main street or Wall Street or cruising down easy street, the fact of the matter is with these Occupy Wall Street protests is that there lies a problem – the problem of a burgeoning income gap between executives and employees, a corruption of banking and loans and a direction for the country that appears to be headed down some of the biggest protests since the summer of 1968, when America found itself mired in Vietnam and grief stricken from the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. Turn on the news and this…

  • The 7 Don’ts of Mobile Marketing

    Douglas Idugboe
    23 Jan 2012 | 4:44 am
    The explosive growth of smartphones and tablets has changed the face of marketing for good. Though mobile marketing was considered as experimental few years back, it’s now the mainstream channel of marketing for businesses of all sizes from SMBs to large multinational enterprises. The benefits of mobile marketing are obvious – instantaneous reach, borderless communication and mass coverage. While there’s no doubt that mobile marketing is a powerful tool for marketers, I strongly believe that they need to avoid these 7 don’ts. Multiple Bulk SMS I have no qualms in accepting that…

  • How Apple’s iBook Author Tool Redefines the Future of Publishing

    Douglas Idugboe
    20 Jan 2012 | 5:13 am
    There are technology companies and then there’s Apple – a class apart and in a league of its own. Whether it’s transforming the future of smartphones with the iPhone or creating a new business segment for tablets with the iPad, Apple’s technology has been a game changer in several markets. And when Apple announced a special event to “reinvent the future of digital publishing”, I could sense what was coming. There was a tremendous sense of anticipation for Apple’s publishing event yesterday and based on whatever I’ve seen of iBooks 2 and the iBooks Author tool, I have to say…

  • Are We That Obsessed with Facebook? [Infographic]

    Douglas Idugboe
    19 Jan 2012 | 3:29 am
    In year 2011, Facebook further solidified its position as the world’s most widely used social network among users across the board. The question is, are we obsessed with Facebook? The infographic below helps us answer that intriguing question. Source: Online Schools

  • How Your Business Can Best Benefit from New Google Changes

    Douglas Idugboe
    18 Jan 2012 | 3:58 am
    It’s been an eventful start to the year 2012 for Google. The online search giant’s announcement to introduce tighter integration between its Google+ social network and its organic search results has attracted severe criticism from experts, users and other relevant voices of social media. On its part, Google says that the motivation of including Google+ in search was to “transform Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships.” So, essentially Google+ data as part your Google searches is Google Search Plus. The idea of Search Plus is…
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    Arbitrage Magazine | Business News with BITE.

  • 12 Negotiation Tips Every Start-up Entrepreneur Should Know

    Admin-EB
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am
    It’s in Your Interest to Have the Upper Hand By Disha Virk courtesy The Indian Fusion An Entrepreneur spends a lot of time negotiating in his life, be it with vendors, customers, employees, investors or even family back home. Having spent a lot of time with purchase or supply-chain guys in enterprises, whose primary job is to negotiate day in and day out, there are quite a few tricks ! You won’t learn these things in B-schools as they have been learnt from a lot of first-hand experiences and trial and errors by top Entrepreneurs. 1. Play your cards close to your chest : A lot of…

  • Negate Your Negativity and Promote Your Positivity

    Admin-EB
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am
    It’s Time to Wake Up and See the Sunshine By Shelly Verma How many times in a day do you feel that you just cannot do the task at hand? How often do you say to yourself “I am not good enough” or “I will never be able to achieve that”? “A lot of times people look at the negative side of what they feel they can’t do. I always look on the positive side of what I can do.” -Chuck Norris Depressing thoughts, pessimism and general feelings of inferiority are in some way or another responsible for most of the negativity in our lives. Most of us spend half of our lives…

  • Are Business Students Slacking Off?

    Admin-EB
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am
    And will liberal arts students pick up the slack? By Shaun L. Turriff, Staff Writer Recent debates in both regular media and academic circles suggest that business students simply do not work as hard or study as much as others in university and college programs.  These debates raise questions about the worth of a business degree in the job market and questions about the skills of students graduating from such degrees. More broadly, these debates intersect with a growing concern for the future employment of Social Science, Liberal Arts, and Humanities graduates. Institutions of higher…

  • Flying in Style

    Admin-Elizabeth
    26 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am
    A breakdown of the airports best suited for business travelers If your job requires a lot of air travel, then this is definitely the infographic for you. A good Wi-Fi connection and a readily-accessible outlet can be a lifesaver if you’re stuck in an airport. Click on the infographic below to learn which American airports have your business needs at heart. Via: Online MBA News ARB Team Arbitrage Magazine Business News with BITE. Liked this post? Why not buy the ARB team a beer? Just click an ad or donate below (thank you!) Liked this article? Hated it? Comment below and share your…

  • The Truth About Valentine’s Day

    Admin-Katherine
    25 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am
    Sourced from lorislatestlinks.com Every February 14, across the United States and in other places around the world, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint, and where did these traditions come from? Find out about the history of this centuries-old holiday, from ancient Roman rituals to the customs of Victorian England. ARB Team Arbitrage Magazine Business News with BITE. Liked this post? Why not buy the ARB team a beer? Just click an ad or donate below (thank you!) Liked this article? Hated it? Comment below and…
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    LogiXML

  • I Didn’t Know Logi Could Do That

    David Abramson, Dir. Product Management
    25 Jan 2012 | 8:50 am
    I often get the opportunity to meet with both long time and brand new customers of LogiXML, and there’s one commonality that strikes me during these conversations: It’s what I like to call the “I didn’t know Logi could do that” moment – when you discover a feature or element that helps you to realize new ways to enhance your applications. With LogiXML’s highly flexible, elemental-design approach, it’s possible that there are elements in the product that you have yet to discover. I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce three elements/features that you may have…

  • Going Outside the Walls to Increase Value of Analytics Applications

    Chor-Ching Fan, Sr. Director, Product Management
    20 Jan 2012 | 2:59 pm
    One of the areas that I talk to customers about the most these days is the value and methods for incorporating external data streams into existing BI applications. While each external data scenario is unique, involving logic (source selection & interpretation), art (visualization) and science (data integration), the business driver is constant: better understanding and decision-making. By the way, I have noticed that delighted management is a pretty constant outcome, too. Although much work remains in increasing context derived from internal sources (top), here’s a snippet of recent…

  • One Version of the Truth

    Charles Caldwell, Manager, Sales Engineering
    18 Jan 2012 | 2:11 pm
    My last post garnered an interesting response from Richard Parsons. A brief remark I made concerning “One Version of the Truth” (OVT) caught his attention and sparked a train of thought I feel deserves a response. In speaking to the importance of relevance and personalization, I made the statement “one version of the truth doesn’t exist.” Richard responded: “I’m not sure about one version of the truth not existing…there are facts of performance and market data, which are true, and which need not be in question (as they so often seem to be, wasting time and undermining…

  • IT: What Happened to that Warm and Fuzzy Feeling?

    Ken Chow, CMO
    13 Jan 2012 | 8:32 am
    I just saw the following coming out from the good people at Gartner Research: “The Gartner Predicts 2012 special report addresses the continuing trend toward the reduction of control IT has over the forces that affect it. As users take more control of the devices they will use, business managers are taking more control of the budgets IT organizations have watched shift over the past few years. Moving forward, IT departments will find that they must coordinate activities in a much wider scope than they once controlled.” Well, no surprise here. I think most of us who have been in business…

  • LogiXML BI: As Vital and Versatile as Duct Tape and WD-40®

    Matthew Pugh, Director of Communications
    10 Jan 2012 | 10:23 am
    In this webinar, learn how Baker Tilly Revas overcame the limitations of SSRS, Crystal Reports, and other systems by leveraging one flexible BI tool. See a live demo of Baker Tilly’s “Revas” (Results and Value Added Service) applications and hear how the company quickly transformed their business intelligence. Date & Time: Thursday, January 12, 2012 11:00am EST / 4:00pm GMT Duration: 1 hour Presenters: David Abramson, Director of Product Management, LogiXML & Kevin Dodson, Associate Director, Baker Tilly Processing Limited Key Takeaways: Provide users valuable…
 
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    InterCall Blog

  • What Makes Your City Liveable?

    Jess Stephens
    26 Jan 2012 | 10:00 pm
    In August, the Economist Intelligence Unit announced their Global Liveability Survey for 2011. The result: Melbourne is the best city in the world to live in with a total score of 97.5! When the bi-annual ranking of 140 global cities...

  • Maintaining the Workplace Peace (Part 2)

    Anusha Karnad
    19 Jan 2012 | 11:08 am
    Last week I posted a blog about the types of ‘difficult’ people you may work with in an office. So I don’t leave you with all challenges and no solutions, below are recommendations that will hopefully help you navigate the...

  • Maintaining the Workplace Peace (Part 1)

    Anusha Karnad
    12 Jan 2012 | 10:29 am
    It is inevitable that in the workplace you are going to have differing opinions and ideas for doing things. That’s just what happens when you bring people together who have their own personalities, backgrounds and experiences. Have you come across...

  • The Playbook For Small Businesses

    Tonya Hottmann
    10 Jan 2012 | 10:09 am
    Is taking control of your financial future one of your resolutions this year? In the ‘good ole days’ you played it ‘safe’ – went to school to get a degree, landed a corporate job, bought a house, invested in stocks...

  • Five Key Considerations Before Moving to the ‘Cloud’

    James Whitemore
    4 Jan 2012 | 4:28 pm
    It seems like everyone is talking about how computing is moving to the cloud – defined as the delivery of computer applications to distributed users from a central location rather than putting software on individual PCs or local servers. There...
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    Small Business Support

  • Crowdfunding & Startup Capital: A Look at Legislative Initiatives to Ease Restrictions

    25 Jan 2012 | 12:57 pm
    “There has been a lot of talk recently about a phenomenon called crowdfunding, a new type of fundraising that relies on social media and the Internet to raise small amounts of capital from large numbers of individuals. Despite the talk, crowdfunding remains impermissible under the securities laws absent a costly registration with the SEC and with state securities administrators… Crowdfunding would seem to be a viable approach to small company capital formation, if only it were legal.” (The Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act and What It Could Mean for Startups by Sheppard Mullin Richter…

  • Telemarketers Beware: Supreme Court Raises Stakes of Telephone Consumer Protection Act Violations

    23 Jan 2012 | 4:59 pm
    On January 18, 2012, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that consumers are permitted to file private actions under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act in federal as well as state court. The decision in Mims v. Arrow Financial Services opens the door for additional TCPA complaints, particularly those brought by consumers in states with weaker consumer protection laws. More importantly, by ruling that private citizens have access to federal courts, the Supreme Court has increased the stakes for telemarketers who don’t play by the rules: not only do limits on damages imposed by state…

  • Employer Health Care & W-2s: Mandatory Reporting of Costs in 2013

    20 Jan 2012 | 3:32 pm
    Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in 2013 employers must begin reporting “aggregate costs” they pay for employee health coverage on the individual W-2 Forms of those employees. For your reference, five takeaways from the recently published Internal Revenue Service guidance on the reporting requirement: On Aggregate Costs… “‘Aggregate cost’ is the total cost of coverage under all applicable employer-sponsored coverages [and] is determined according to the general rules used to determine the applicable premium for COBRA continuation coverage. It includes amounts…

  • What Insurance Does My Business Need?

    20 Jan 2012 | 12:09 pm
    What Insurance Does My Business Need?: As a business owner you wear many hats, writes attorney Scott Richardson of Jaburg Wilk. Among other concerns, you need always to understand key risks and deal with them accordingly. For example: “Do you have a partner or other key employee who along with yourself is indispensable to the viability of your business? While disability insurance can replace that income, key man life insurance can provide protection to the business should the ‘key’ person, you included, become disabled or pass away. Recognize that the death of a key person can have a…

  • Wage Theft Prevention Act in New York and California: Effective January 1, 2012

    19 Jan 2012 | 7:57 pm
    On January 1, 2012, wage-theft legislation went into effect in both California and New York, two of the nation’s three most populous states. The new laws require employers to provide employees with a standard set of information regarding their employment conditions. For your reference, here’s a roundup of recent legal commentary and analysis on those laws: California • Labor Commissioner Publishes Template for Employer - Required Notice to California New Hires (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP) “California’s new Wage Theft Protection Act, which took effect Jan. 1, 2012, requires employers…
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    Red Wing Software Blog

  • Migrating Your Software: Real Data that can Help You!

    26 Jan 2012 | 2:58 pm
    Since we are a software company, we work with customers nearly every day who are moving to a new system, and are often bringing some information over from their old system to the new one. (This is referred to as ‘migrating’.) Of course, we all have our own opinion when it comes to migrating. Your company may have migrated with great success and had no issues, and another may have run into some problems along the way that left a bad taste in their mouth. There are so many variables involved in migrating your software, all of which can affect the success of your migration. Here are some…

  • Accounting Software Companies – How Do You Choose?

    20 Jan 2012 | 9:13 am
    Accounting software is clearly an important part of your business. If you have ever searched for an accounting software product and a company to work with, you have probably noticed that there are so many accounting software companies available. Do you choose a basic, mass-marketed product like Intuit’s QuickBooks? Maybe you will opt for a large-scale customizable product like Sage MAS 200? Or maybe your business is a perfect fit for mid-market accounting software such as Red Wing Software’s CenterPoint Accounting. The process of narrowing down your search to a few vendors can be grueling…

  • Google Analytics: What it can Tell You

    16 Jan 2012 | 11:06 am
    A huge number of businesses use Google Analytics to monitor the activity on their Web site. If you are not one of them, you may wonder what all the fuss is about, and whether you are missing out on something useful. Well, without knowing you or your business, I can venture a guess and say ‘yes’ you are missing out on some very useful and important information if you are not using Google Analytics. You can gather some amazingly useful information with Google Analytics, which can inspire you to take important action! Have a reference point. Your Web site can be an extremely useful tool for…

  • Don’t be Scammed by Cyber Criminals

    16 Jan 2012 | 9:06 am
    Great information at this link regarding phishing scams, and how to avoid them! Don't be Scammed by Cyber Criminals  

  • 6 Phrases You Should Never Say Again

    13 Jan 2012 | 8:56 am
    Great post about thing to avoid saying in the workplace! http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/6-buzzwords-you-should-never-use-again.html
 
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    spendradar.com

  • What Problem Do You Solve With Spend Analysis?

    Joy McCaffrey
    26 Jan 2012 | 10:16 am
    SpendZen The Zen of all things Spend.We were recently featured by the Illinois Technology Association in their Spotlight Series of member companies. As we pondered the answers to their interview questions, what became obvious was that their audience would not be our typical audience of CPOs and CFOs and we would need to take a step back to explain who we are and what we do. When people outside of our industry ask me where I work, I’ve had a few responses of “Oh, do you sell radars?”, but mostly the responses have been “Huh?” For people who are not familiar with…

  • Four Best Practices to Improve Supplier Performance Scorecarding

    Rod True
    24 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pm
    SpendZen The Zen of all things Spend. I recently read this Software Advice blog by Michael Koploy and was reminded of a real world example emulating these 4 practices that he outlines. A large manufacturing company had very special needs for scorecarding the delivery and quality performance of their key suppliers. What they wanted to do, and what we established for them through our Spend Management software, was as follows: They wanted to identify their top suppliers, based on Spend dollars and cost factors, for material deliveries. They identified approximately 50 suppliers with which they…

  • Spend Analysis - Not Just for Targets of Opportunity

    Joy McCaffrey
    19 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pm
    SpendZen The Zen of all things Spend.I was recently communicating with Robert Gleason, Chief Procurement Officer at Commonwealth of Virginia - General Services regarding spend analysis. He mentioned that spend analysis is too often used for “targets of opportunity” rather than any planned, systematic, and comprehensive methodology and that too often this limited success is considered “good enough” as it provides a large enough ROI (savings, cost reduction, etc.) that deals with opportunities that beg the greatest attention. Such targets of opportunity may…

  • Spend Analysis Vendors Versus IT Spend Analysis Projects

    Rod True
    18 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am
    SpendZen The Zen of all things Spend.To approve Spend Analysis projects, project sponsors often need to justify to their management why they need to utilize Spend Analysis providers to do the project, as opposed to internal IT resources. Some companies may not have this problem in that they don’t have IT resources available, so it is obvious they need to use outside help. But sometimes there may be conflicts internally. The simple answer to why Spend Analysis providers should be used is that internal IT resources usually do not have the focused experience and knowledge regarding the…

  • Rounding out Red Herring

    Brian Daniels
    10 Jan 2012 | 3:00 pm
    SpendZen The Zen of all things Spend.In June 2011 Spend Radar was selected as a Red Herring North America 100 Company. This award identifies North American technology companies that have introduced disruptive, game changing technologies within their respective fields. Ever since I entered my first internet-based technology company this was a highly sought after award.  The next stage in this process was to see how Spend Radar compared on the global stage by submitting for the Red Herring Global 100. Because this was our first award submission on a global scale I set my expectations lower…
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    Sales Intelligence Blog by Lattice Engines

  • Using Compensation to Retain Assets (Part 3)

    Steven Miyao
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:05 pm
    Today’s blog entry is a guest post from Steven Miyao, CEO of kasina. kasina is a trusted advisor to the leaders of the asset management and insurance industries. They innovate distribution through consulting, research, and benchmarking data. In Part 1 of this series, Ian J. Scott discusses why firms need to rebalance their focus on both acquiring net new assets and minimizing redemptions. In Part 2, Ian addresses new, data-driven techniques to anticipate and mitigate asset outflows. In this installment, we address changes to wholesaler compensation that align wholesaler incentives with…

  • Data-Driven Techniques to Anticipate and Mitigate Asset Outflows (Part 2)

    Ian J. Scott
    11 Jan 2012 | 8:40 am
    In Part 1 of this series, we discussed why firms need to rebalance their focus on both acquiring net new assets and minimizing redemptions. In this installment, we address new data-driven techniques to anticipate and mitigate asset outflows. In Part 3, Steven Miyao of kasina will discuss changes to wholesaler compensation that align individual incentives with overall firm goals. Today, the standard response to redemptions is largely reactionary: Marketing and sales activities are triggered once redemptions occur.In many cases, the firm and its wholesalers will fail to identify and contact…

  • Is SFA/CRM Every Rep’s Best Friend?

    Andrew Somosi
    30 Dec 2011 | 3:13 pm
    As Dave Brock had aptly pointed out earlier this year, controversial titles are bound to get lots of attention. In writing the seemingly controversial blog post ‘CRM, The Biggest Productivity Drain in 10 Years!’, Dave set out to illustrate a subtler point. His aim was to highlight the importance of listening to and really understanding our customers. The point was that we are tuned to pick up on trigger words and phrases. Once we hear them, we too often “immediately launch into our pitch or presenting our point of view.” Taking Dave’s wise words to heart, I was bound not fall into…

  • 6 Steps to Keeping the Predictive in ‘Predictive Analytics’

    Greg Leibman
    28 Dec 2011 | 11:28 am
    Business relies more than ever on predictive analytics to make critical decisions, from how banks price risk to how sales teams predict which customers are most likely to purchase. Predictions about the future are based on data patterns, mined from a staggering variety of sources spanning real-time web-clicks, psycho-demographics and years of accumulated transaction histories.  Predictive analytics is a powerful business weapon as long as the underlying data definitions and flows are well managed. The trouble starts when the underlying data foundation for predictive analytics is not well…

  • 5 Ways to Up Your Sales Game During the Holiday Season

    Alicia Brayboy
    20 Dec 2011 | 10:04 am
    The holiday season is a good time to capture last-minute opportunities and reflect on strategies for success in 2012. Here are 5 tips we’ve compiled since Thanksgiving: 1. Get noticed during the holiday lull Sales consultant, Mark Hunter, noted on his blog that “[Thanksgiving] is a great week to pick up new business customers who might never have found you otherwise, but suddenly fall into your lap because their existing supplier is too caught up on the holidays to take care of business.” This is also the time when many gatekeepers are on vacation. If you haven’t had much luck…
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    The Secret Language of Money

  • Money Psychology and Information Avoidance

    24 Jan 2012 | 9:45 am
    David Krueger MDWe want more money, but resist examining our money stories.  We hit a money glass ceiling, but avoid information about ourselves.In a recent panel on money stories that I conducted for Financial Coaches, one woman spoke of money being a source of anxiety throughout her adulthood, ever since she had to flee her home country as a child.  With a forced exodus from her homeland, she lost her family fortune.  Her experience was that money had wings and can be taken away.  She indicated that she refuses to eat out of paper plates because it resonates with that…

  • Your Future Money Story

    3 Jan 2012 | 11:20 am
    David Krueger MD To abstain from the enjoyment, which is in our power, or to seek distant rather than immediate results, are among the most painful exertions of the human will.                    N. W. Senior, 1836 Setting goals is easy.  The challenge is to sustain the discipline to realize them.  Resisting temptation is hard.  The other reason it’s difficult is the unequal battle between your present self and your future self.  Your present self is real and in control.  Your future self…

  • Mantras and Self-Regulation

    21 Dec 2011 | 11:34 am
    David Krueger MDWhen Southern Utah’s University's new basketball coach Robert Reid arrived, his team ranked 217th in free-throw percentage, lowest in their division nationwide.During practice, Reid had his players develop a mantra before each free-shot – a three or four word phrase coupled with a deep breath for relaxation. He gave the example of “relaxed and smooth” when stepping up to the free-throw line, but emphasized that each player determine his own mantra.  Additionally, he simulated game conditions by abruptly stopping a player in practice and asking him…

  • Occupy Wall Street: The Neuroeconomics of Confusing Envy and Jealousy

    14 Dec 2011 | 9:40 am
    David Krueger MDOccupy Wall Street began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District.  It quickly spread to over 100 cities in the United States.  This “people’s assembly” purports to represent the 99% of people opposing the 1% who get everything and take away from the majority.These philosophers of Zuccotti Park, the 99%, feel held back by the 1%, as if the 1% has taken away what is rightfully theirs: jobs, houses, even medical care.  From the official website OccupyWallSt.org, “We are getting nothing while the other…

  • The Neuroeconomics of Thinking More Like a Woman

    28 Nov 2011 | 10:26 am
    David Krueger MDMen and women both share a desire for autonomy and effectiveness, as well as for connection and emotional caring.  Yet the unconscious whispers of “you have evidence of worth by doing these things” differ considerably for each: For men, the early models and reinforcements probably had more to do with being strong, unemotional, doing more, and making more money.   For women, the model more likely leaned toward being perfect, pretty, thin, quiet, loving, and giving to others. These gender-specific expressions of attempts to live into an ideal – and…
 
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    Dashboard Insight

  • Feds Add Education Community To Data.gov Site

    27 Jan 2012 | 3:49 am
    The [US] federal government continues its efforts to help users more easily locate information through its open-data repository Data.gov with a new community for government education data.

  • Analyzing Facebook Data with MicroStrategy’s Wisdom

    26 Jan 2012 | 3:03 am
    I’m currently at the MicroStrategy World Conference in Miami. I’m impressed with Miami’s weather (a staggering 25 Celsius average over the last 3 days) and MicroStrategy's offering called Wisdom. Wisdom is a free application that blew me away. It visualizes data that many marketers would kill for including age, gender, and location. The visualizations could use much improvement, but the data represented was quite interesting.

  • With Big Data (and Self-Service) Comes Big Responsibility

    25 Jan 2012 | 3:56 am
    I recently moderated a BI discussion group here in Toronto. The topics centered around Big Data, Mobile BI, Cloud BI, and Self-Service BI. One individual made an excellent point about a very real risk with Big Data. In fact, this point is valid with any volume of data.

  • Cloud BI has benefits, but no strong biz case yet

    25 Jan 2012 | 2:30 am
    ...cloud BI adoption is "incredibly low" today, accounting for less than 1 percent of the overall global BI market. And while the figure will increase, Gartner does not expect this to be more than 3 percent even by 2014...

  • Big Data approach pinpoints malware that other solutions miss

    24 Jan 2012 | 2:18 am
    Last month, in preparation for a panel, [Zulfikar Ramzan] was asked to put together a list of pros and cons with respect to using Big Data techniques in the context of information security technologies.
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    Reputation Report

  • Fly by Night?

    Alex Harris
    2 Jan 2012 | 5:40 pm
    As sexy as the headline ‘world’s safest airlines’ is, is the ranking useful? What risk criteria was assessed, and of what value is that to such assessment? No, and not much, according to the world’s pilots and aviation risk experts. Of greater interest to us all should be those airlines that are not so safe, and the underlying reasons for that.

  • Damage Control

    Alex Harris
    5 Oct 2011 | 9:55 pm
    Few if any companies treat reputation as a strategic issue; few if any line managers know precisely their division’s role in enhancing and defending the company’s reputation. Every single one should.

  • Rio Tinto Controlled PNG Government

    Alex Harris
    26 Jun 2011 | 4:28 am
    As Rio Tinto gears up to reopen the giant copper mine at Panguna, I offer a little reminder to the shareholders salivating over potential gains on the stock forums like Hot Copper… Rio Tinto has eroded all trust in its operations on the island of Bougainville. It is a difficult position from which to return. The SBS program Dateline, has obtained the 2001 affidavit from Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, in opposition at the time. To be aired tonight, Sunday June 26th, reporter Brian Thomson reveals the affidavit states..

  • SGX, Lies and Videotapes

    Alex Harris
    4 Dec 2010 | 2:36 am
    The announcement late October 2010 of the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) takeover of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) created a ripple of dissonance in some circles. But would it do a worse job than the ASX in regulating the...

  • The GM Food Industry MO

    Alex Harris
    16 Nov 2010 | 7:49 pm
    Producing food used to be about feeding people; today it is about cost savings and production volumes. Farmers we trusted with feeding us have traded biodiversity for monoculture; soils rich with...
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    Advantis Communications

  • Five Behaviours Communicators Need to Change

    Cyrus Mavalwala
    19 Jan 2012 | 4:25 am
    The IABC Canada Western Region Conference was a chance to experience “The Best of the Best” speakers in a beautiful setting – Whistler, BC. I was fortunate to be invited to present along with other highly rated speakers such as William Amurgis, Steve Crescenzo, Kellie Garrett, ABC, Donna Papacosta, Mark Schumann, ABC, and Suzanne Salvo. [...]

  • 6 Questions to Ask Before Jumping into an e-Book

    Ernesta Rossi
    22 Dec 2011 | 2:33 pm
    This guest post is by Barb Sawyers, who helps experts pull ideas out of their heads and onto the page through her book, Write Like You Talk—Only Better. If you’re thinking about diving into the fast-growing medium of ebooks, here are six questions to ask before you take the plunge: 1. What is your objective? [...]

  • Prepare an award-winning communications entry

    Trell Huether
    15 Nov 2011 | 3:00 am
    As a regular volunteer with IABC Toronto (Toronto chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators), I had the great privilege to organize the OVATION awards program for two years. The program celebrates excellence in communications and is open to all Greater Toronto Area communicators. From helping to coordinate the judging process to supervising the editing [...]

  • The audience comes first

    Trell Huether
    3 Nov 2011 | 4:00 am
    Developing content for specific audiences can be a challenge.  In particular, reaching a web-savvy younger demographic who are not embracing traditional media such as TV and radio might just the hardest task of all.  One company, Red Bull, has taken a unique approach to this problem and gone to enormous lengths to put their brand [...]

  • How to jump start LinkedIn results

    Cyrus Mavalwala
    18 Oct 2011 | 7:59 am
    LinkedIn: Foster Your Connections to Build Relationships You may have hundreds of connections on LinkedIn, but are you leveraging this part of the professional web for your career and business success? If you’re not seeing tangible business value, a likely reason is that you’re not actively participating. Just as your participation in the Markham Board [...]
 
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    KPI Library - Recent Expert Corner Topics

  • Dead right.

    19 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am
    I snapped this picture at a cross walk in Manhattan near Central Park over the weekend. What does it say? Stop or walk? You could walk and not, technically, be jaywalking.  You stand a good chance of getting smacked by a car though if you do. You’d be technically right. And maybe even dead right. Misleading indeed, but at least in this case it is easy to tell it is misleading. It is not usually so evident when your indicator is a measured quantity. Misleading walk signal in New York

  • How Many KPIs Do You Need?

    16 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am
    I’m going to share with you my secret formula for the right number of KPIs or performance measures that you truly need, so you can stop drowning in overwhelm… STEP 1: Stocktake your current KPIs against your goals. KPIs shouldn’t float around unattached to goals. They are evidence of progress toward goals. Get a list of your goals, and list of your KPIs or measures, and link them to each other. If everything links to everything, you’ve gone too far. Focus on linking KPIs or measures to the goals they are the most direct and strongest evidence of. If any KPIs or measures aren’t…

  • What? So what? Then what? … Why not?

    11 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am
    One of the problems with analytics and business intelligence (BI) information is that these techniques do not always complete the task of solving a problem or moving to the next step of creating and realizing value. I refer to this as the syndrome of “What? So what? Then what?” My concern is that many organizations use analytics and BI to answer only the first question, but then they are stymied when it comes to answering the next two questions. The power of converting raw data into information, which analytics and BI do so well, is progressing to answering the next two questions to…

  • KPI Dashboard click-and-go integrations

    5 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am
    KPI Dashboard offers click-and-go integrations. Just provide KPI Dashboard with credentials to access the selected application / tool, and it will automatically collect trending data for (key) performance indicators, and update it every day, no configuration required. KPI Dashboard offers amongst other the following click-and-go integrations: Freshbooks Zendesk Google Analytics Twitter Facebook Highrise We also offer integration for for example Netsuite, Salesforce, Quickbooks, and others, including the option to collect data from on-premise application such as SAP or Oracle apps. Visit the…

  • Are Americans getting wealthier or poorer? It depends on how you measure “wealth.”

    4 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am
    The standard measure of wealth is GDP per capita. The chart below shows that Americans have been getting continually wealthier for decades, with a few blips here and there (source of data). The measure of wealth—Gross Domestic Product, is based on the dollar value of economic transactions. Such a measure depends crucially on the definition of wealth.  People have a bad habit of confusing financial assets with real ones because they are confused about the nature of wealth. This striking newsletter from Stansberry’s Investment Advisory claims Americans have been getting poorer since 1965.
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    The Performance Ideas Blog

  • Spotlight on Forecast Accuracy

    cpapenfuss
    26 Jan 2012 | 2:52 am
    Forecast accuracy in turbulent times Forecast accuracy is one of those measures many finance professionals think and talk about. Turbulent times require companies to produce reliable and solid forecasts. Accuracy is a useful measure that helps finance managers assess the quality of the process (to a certain degree!). In late 2011, my good colleagues Mark, David and I conducted a survey amongst 160 UK finance professionals. One of the things we wanted to find out was whether accuracy is being measured at all. And guess what – we were pleasantly surprised to see that the majority of all…

  • 7 reasons to register for the IBM Innovations in Business Analytics Launch

    cpapenfuss
    24 Jan 2012 | 12:23 am
    The launch…. Finally! The wait is over! Mark your calendars and register for the March 7th special IBM Business Analytics event. A bunch of really cool & innovative stuff will be revealed. And let me tell you: If you are interested in Business Analytics, you do not want to miss this product launch! Click on the photo to register Over the next few weeks, I will share a few additional infos about this product launch. Unfortunately, you will have to wait until then. I am not allowed to discuss much more today.. 7 reasons to register & attend Why should you register? Well, here are…

  • Are CMOs in denial of the new normal? The IBM CMO Study

    cpapenfuss
    19 Jan 2012 | 9:00 am
    The IBM CMO Study Last week, I wrote about Dan Zarrella’s book ‘Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness‘. The author declares that many marketing professionals often follow fluffy ‘guesswork’ when it comes to social media. The book implies that the marketing profession is struggling with social media. Is that really so? Are professionals maybe in denial of the new normal? Good questions. It seems like many of them might be scrambling, indeed. At least that is the finding of the 2011 IBM CMO study. IBM conducted interviews with 1734 different Chief Marketing…

  • 7 things recovery has taught me about project management

    cpapenfuss
    17 Jan 2012 | 3:20 am
    Project Management “Only big dreams have the power to move men’s souls.” Marcus Aurelius Back in December I was diagnosed with cartilage damage in my knee. This is a nasty injury that often results in people not being able to walk without pain let alone do any kind of weight-bearing sport like skiing or running. As a devoted runner and skier, this was really bad news. But luckily, I found an excellent physio therapist who gave me hope. His advice along with my experience as a project manager has gotten me on a path towards recovery. This journey is reminding me of a few…

  • Why the Kindle Touch is better than a book

    cpapenfuss
    15 Jan 2012 | 2:16 am
    Kindle Touch Review Reading business books is one of my favorite activities. You can probably imagine how delighted I was when I received a brand new Kindle Touch as a present. This is the third Kindle I have owned since the first generation. And let me tell you – the Kindle Touch is awesome! Amazon managed to make a great product even better. It is so nice that I ended up leaving my beloved iPad at home during our last vacation. I have read over five books on the Kindle Touch in the past three weeks. Form While the first and second generation Kindles worked well, they lacked…
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    CapTech Consulting Blogs

  • A QlikView QuickStart: first steps for learning QlikView desktop

    Bob Lambert
    22 Jan 2012 | 3:55 pm
    QlikTech’s QlikView reporting and analysis tool is among a new class of Business Intelligence (BI) software tools. As Ben Harden reported in a recent blog post, BI vendors like SAP, Microsoft, and IBM have traditionally sold “to the IT enterprise, but companies like QlikTech and Tableau are targeting the business and bypassing IT. Their tools are quicker to stand up, more intuitive and don’t need the configuration, support, and hardware that the bigger players require.”A Quick OverviewAt first look QlikView is fairly accessible to those experienced with BI tools. A…

  • Scrum Estimation Methods

    Carl Alvano
    18 Jan 2012 | 2:12 pm
    This blog is the first in an occasional series of blogs highlighting my experiences and associated research while implementing a Scrum methodology for a software development project at a Fortune 500 Financial Services corporation.   As Scrum practitioners are aware, one of the essential facets of a succe

  • Folders are Evil! (And what to do about them)

    Kelly Rusk
    3 Jan 2012 | 3:26 pm
    Folders provide a single faceted, single point of failure that has limited users and caused inefficiency and risk across Enterprises for years. This is largely due to the nature of a folder. It provides a single source of storage with security options, but once you start nesting folders it creates a single path that may be forgotten or corrupted by improper naming or governance failings. Many organizations complain that their file shares are out of control, and while they may have begun with the best of intentions, the intended use was either not clearly identified or sustained and the end…

  • Avoiding the Danger of Facilitating SMEs

    Sara Shelton
    16 Dec 2011 | 9:30 am
    Most projects will take a Train the Trainer (TTT) approach to save time and money. TTT can be an invaluable tool for projects and increase adoption rates for new processes and technologies. Handled poorly however, TTT can do more harm than good. If your TTT approach consists only of identifying SMEs, handing them a presentation and off to teach the class they go- you are setting your training up to fail. TTT works when the SME has been trained previously as a facilitator. Teaching effectively is much more than knowing the subject matter, standing in front of colleagues and speaking. Where TTT…

  • Project reviews, deliverables’ reviews and constructive criticisms

    Raju Bodapati
    13 Dec 2011 | 8:58 pm
    Project managers often face tough times when they need to pull the strings that may make others uncomfortable. Those mainly include conducting project reviews for balancing the triple constraints, facilitating the reviews of the deliverables for quality or compliance, and providing constructive criticism to the team members for corrective or preventive actions. Everyone likes to hear or deliver good news, however good project managers are expected to be the experts at relaying when things don’t go as planned, typically coupled with a pro-active solution. The following are the most…
 
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