Stephen Few writes an interesting blog outlining the issues faced by BI software providers today.  For the last decade or so, these companies have been successful at building data warehouses and production reporting systems but now face an entirely different problem: how to make sense of the data. 

SAP thinks they have a contender to solve the need for such analytics in BI: BusinessObjects Explorer.   MIKE2.0 is working on our open source solution offering as well (http://mike2.openmethodology.org/wiki/BI_and_PM_Offering_Group)   Have you tried either of these?  Do you know of any other solutions out there that can help make sense of and transform business data into workable intelligence?

Milan Kučera

Milan has more than nine years of experience in Information Technology with a major emphasis on business intelligence, data warehousing, analytical CRM, ETL processes and data warehouse design.

As the Director of Data Architecture for a large Telecom in Prague, he was responsible for the development of job descriptions and department descriptions with the authority and responsibility for defining both personal and departmental KPIs.

He has substantial experience with business case development and development of different RFP/RFIs (metadata management, information management, information quality, data warehouse, ETL and data cleansing). He is also very knowledgeable about information quality tools.

Mr. Kučera prefers to coach over strong line management. This ensures continuous staff improvement (training, re-training). He is a TIQM® (Total Information Quality Management) certified consultant. TIQM, developed by Larry English, applies Kaizen® quality principles to information quality management. Mr. Kučera developed a unique market methodology called Company Information Quality Assessment (CIQA) and used it to analyze a state of management of quality information. This methodology applied the CMM (Capability Maturity Model) based on Philip Crosby”s Management Maturity Grid from his book “Quality is Free“.

Mr. Kučera has written more that 30 articles discussing business intelligence, data mining, data warehouse, information quality and data management issues. He was the first to promote information quality in the Czech market.

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A recent post on eDiscovery Journal notes 8 ways to ensure online collaboration projects add business value:

1. Understand that collaboration is a process, and a subset of broader executive set business outcomes.

2. Control of  information is necessary to mitigate risk.

3. The importance of Records management.

 4. Understand your content sources and types to be able to track and analyze them.

5. Use a solid collaboration platform (the author in this post recommends Microsoft SharePoint) to work from.

6. Educate management and employees on the goals and benefits of collaboration for positive participation.

7. Consider the knowledge worker and do not overload him or her. 

8. Utilize Records management for back end and administrative tasks.

Do you agree or disagree?  Based on your experience, can you recommend any others to add?

Dan Power

Dan is President of Hub Solution Designs, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in Master Data Management and Data Governance.

Prior to founding Hub Solution Designs, he was the general manager for Dun & Bradstreet’s strategic alliance with Oracle Corporation.

Mr. Power has twenty years of experience in management consulting, enterprise applications, strategic alliances, marketing, corporate strategy, project management and entrepreneurship at companies like Deloitte & Touche, Computer Sciences Corporation, eCredit and Parson Consulting.

He has worked with Oracle’s MDM, ERP and CRM platforms for more than twelve years. He is frequently an invited speaker at technology conferences and has written several articles for publications such as DM Review. He regularly advises clients on developing & implementing high impact MDM strategies.

He studied Computer Science at Princeton University, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial Studies from Babson College in Wellesley, MA.

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Organizations have long struggled to identify data as a corporate asset, and like all other corporate assets, it needs to be maintained, serviced and worth the investment.

Nitin Joshi, senior business analyst at Wipro Technologies, suggests that Net present value is one of the better methods to quantify the benefits of master data management, and that it may also justify the choice of a project in the capital budgeting process. 

In your experience, is it possible to quantify the business value of MDM, and if so, how would you recommend IM professionals to approach this task?

Pieter Stroop

Pieter Stroop is a member of the management team of Experian Nederland and responsible for Experian’s data quality solutions in the Netherlands.

He is also chairman of the data quality commission of the DDMA (Dutch Dialogue for Marketing Association), co-organizer of the DDMA Data Quality Day and one of the first supporters of the DDMA Data Quality Award.

At Experian, Stroop founded the data quality department, which did not exist in the Netherlands until 2003.

Pieter Stroop speaks regularly about data quality subjects at events like the Masterclass Data Quality Management at the Nyenrode Business Universiteit and is a regular host and speaker at data quality events.

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Matthias Leybold

Matthias Leybold has over 8 years experience in the field of information management, primarily dealing with unstructured content.  He is currently a Senior Manager at Deloitte in Switzerland.

His areas of key interest and expertise include enterprise search and the analysis of natural language as well as enterprise communications which deals with the whole value chain from template management for document driven processes, document creation at runtime and, finally, multi-channel publishing of these documents. In addition to leading the Swiss ECM practice at Deloitte Consulting, he most often acts as engagement manager or subject matter expert.

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