Thomas Jefferson once said:

“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”

For Business Intelligence, this is a much under served concept. For many years, Business Intelligence has focused, quite rightly, on the analysis, or the prediction, but not as much the “call to action”. The infamous cartoon implies that to provide true business value, we need to be more “explicit” in how we link Action to our Intelligence:

Here are my thoughts on the state of Actionable Intelligence in the field of Business Intelligence for 2013:

• Alerts Via Email Aren’t Really Action: Much like the above cartoon, assuming that someone is “on the other side of the line” when you send an asynchronous email is using the “miracle occurs here” approach. Many platforms and solutions have built their action on these types of alert emails. Some have developed escalation rules to be more sophisticated, but overall it is still an asych email…
• Workflow is where it is AT: When you start adding in workflow management to analytical platforms, you are starting down the road of unrelated product conglomeration ( or empire… err… technical stack building… ) for business intelligence companies. Until you realize that, you NEED to complete the feedback loop with end users and business stakeholders to provide the next level of value. I hope to see more of related product diversification activity in 2013 from the industry either via partnership or feature/function inclusion.
• Collaboration Continues: The inclusion of collaboration features in business intelligence platforms is a good step on the path to Actionable Intelligence. However, Collaboration can often be interpreted as part of the decision process vs. being the action or result of the process. In our society driven by risk avoidance and millennial workers, we might be to guide the collaboration toward action. However…
• Dynamic vs. Static: …one of the big issues in collaboration is how to handle the ‘static’ view of what the system represented (i.e. a screenshot, snapshot of data) when a collaborative comment/question is made and what the systems ‘actively’ says (i.e. real-time dashboard, current view of data) when someone comments or answers the question. Static vs. Dynamic views of analytic or predictive results in collaboration functionality needs to be addressed since the disparity between those two ‘states’ can be the difference between action and a false positive. Unfortunately, I don’t have a strong answer to what the solution should be other than “yes”…
• Business Intelligence Becomes Process Intelligence? Too often Business Intelligence is mapped to a ‘data’-based as opposed to a ‘process’-based solution. By that, I mean the data is oriented on the data than the operational process that the data came from originally. This isn’t a major change, but a change in focus. Data should be acquired, stored and presented with the metadata of its process vs. stripping that information away and attempting to rebuild it later on.
• Actionable Intelligence needs its own BI: Just as we have metadata about data and often processes, we must have metadata about the results derived from analysis. We are closing the loop in a more meaningful way with predictive models. We should now close the loop on actions and their value to an organization. Having this metadata, and ability to analyze on actions, will feed into business optimization concepts like Operational Excellence.

What say the readers?

Is adding robust workflow into business intelligence platforms folly? Do you already link your business intelligence analysis to workflow platforms? If so, do your workflow platforms feedback to your analytic solutions? Have you mastered Operational Excellence without the feedback loop?

Provide your comments below and/or ping me via twitter at @JohnLMyers44 with the hashtag #100LinesOnBIDW.

Next week, I will take a more in depth look at a Data Management topic – The wonderful world of in-memory databases: Can you be in-memory and ACID compliant? Can you be in-memory and have rotating disks? Does it matter how you mix your in-memory with your spinning, and non-spinning (aka flash), disks?

NOTE – For those unfamiliar with the song “88Lines about 44 Women” by the Nails, I highly recommend you give it a try.  At the very least, it was the inspiration for this series of blogs.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

And I think that the wonderful world of Knowledge Delivery (aka Data Visualization, Reporting, etc.) needs to think a little more like dear old Albert… The mainstream of Knowledge Delivery has adopted some strict rules, or grammar, associated with the presentation of information in dashboards, reports, etc. Some are great ideas. Some however, are beginning to dilute the adoption of Knowledge Delivery for the sake of the “prim and proper” presentation of the data.

If one of Knowledge Delivery’s main goals is to trigger a “call to action”, why then should be make it difficult to make a decision on that action. Knowledge Delivery, in certain instanced, has evolved into to PT Barnum’s “This Way to the Egress” sign. Overly complex? Yes. Too cute by half? Almost. Let’s give people the information that they need for that “call to action. And let’s do so in the most easily digested format possible with an “Exit” sign.

This is not to say that Knowledge Delivery should be dumbed down to the lowest possible denominator. No sir… However, each audience should be considered and addressed with the proper information and presentation format.

With that stated, here are my 2013 thoughts on the world of Knowledge Delivery:

• Infographics are here: USA Today is an interesting little publication. Since its inception, it has been a brightly colored and “simply” presented paper to fight the grim and gray national papers. While the USA Today isn’t in the same editorial or journalistic class as the NY Times, Wall Street Journal or Washington Post, it has made an impact on the way that papers are presented. Infographics are the USA Today of data visualization. They are bright, brassy and simple. And they are here to stay just like USA Today.
• Dashboards need to be more “inviting”: Because infographics are here to stay, dashboards are going to be pushed to provide a more inviting or interesting presentation layer. “Grammatically” precise visualizations, while accurate, will be like the “back half” of most annual reports. The interesting information is presented up front. The accurate numbers are in the back. Dashboards will need to add elements of the infographic to maintain their place or risk being relegated to the “appendix” of the Knowledge Delivery stack.
• Mobile visualization will blossom with enterprise tablet adoption: Smartphones are great devices. However, beyond looking at a pie chart or a “stoplight” graphic, you can’t put much on the screen of the average smartphone beyond one graphic. Much more and you are either straining the eye of the user or the imagination, by scrolling around with pinches and swipes. However, the tablet has/will unleash mobile business intelligence with its larger canvas. As enterprise tablets gain a stronger foothold, we’ll see the consumption and creation of mobile business intelligence take off…. Finally!
• Reports aren’t dead… But they are close: Statics reports ( ala the infamous TPS report ) aren’t dead quite yet. However, I dare say that they are in the same place as print magazines and newspapers…. There is a limited and aging audience for static reports. With all of the advances in Knowledge Delivery over the last 3-5 years, static reports should be placed in a glass case that says, “Break only in the event of SEC or IRS request”.
• 3D pie charts aren’t bad… They are just drawn that way: 3D pie charts aren’t the evil that most people think. They are just a misunderstood graphic. Sure, they offend the “grammar” police of data visualization, like ending a sentence with a preposition or an ampersand in a business document. However, if they are bright, get adoption and move people to act, who cares what they are made of? Or, that they make the slices in the back look proportionately smaller & those in front that much bigger…. Remember this is the age of the infographic! We can let some things slide.

What say the readers?

Are infographics the knowledge graffiti of the 2010s? Will I pry your TPS reports from your cold dead fingers? Do 3D pie charts make your skin crawl like fingers on chalkboard?

Provide your comments below and/or ping me via twitter at @JohnLMyers44 with the hashtag #100LinesOnBIDW.

Next week, I will cover Actionable Intelligence…. I hope you continue the journey with me.

NOTE – For those unfamiliar with the song “88Lines about 44 Women” by the Nails, I highly recommend you give it a try. At the very least, it was the inspiration for this series of blogs.

The theme of last week’s Informatica Analyst Conference was utilizing the “secular megatrends” of information technology to energize data integration across organizations at an enterprise scale.  These megatrends, described as trends we can all agree upon, are the following:

• Cloud Computing
• Social Media
• Mobile
• Big Data

Informatica’s message is to take these megatrends to “Maximize Return on Data” of organizations.
As you might imagine, Maximizing Return on Data is the concept of applying return on investment themes to the data Informatica touches with their products and services.  Raising the value of the data in an organization by integrating Hadoop data stores, utilizing “agile business intelligence” and removing data quality issues; brings additional value to corporate data and all things being equal, will increase the return on corporate data expenditures.  Similarly, reducing the time to integrate data sources and improve data delivery with an integrated platform approach, “codeless” interfaces, and reducing operational headcount by productizing previously manual processes associated with master data management (MDM), data quality (DQ), etc. amplify the return on those corporate data resources.  Do both and NOW you’re talking about the Informatica Return on Data concept.
NOTE – Not all of the analysts were convinced that you can accurately calculate the exact value or benefit of corporate data resources as well as the true associated costs.  However, if you provide for allowances in accounting practice, increasing the benefit and reducing the operational costs should give the qualitative results that Informatica is touting without the specific quantitative calculations.

Analyst Conference in Review

Over the course of the two day conference, Informatica presented the analyst community with a number of topics.  Here are the ones that I feel bear watching:

Informatica on Hadoop

I got the chance to speak with Alex Gorelik, SVP for Research and Development regarding the Informatica strategy for Hadoop.  In my opinion, much of the 2012 Informatica strategy for Hadoop focuses starts with its HParser technology.  HParser allows for codeless integration of data between traditional data stores and Hadoop ecosystems.  This strategy focuses on leveraging Informatica’s existing core competencies without making a large technology investment in the still developing world of Hadoop.  This follows one of the main tenants of Informatica’s strategy for technology development/acquisition.
While I might have wanted additional information on how to “proactively” manage MDM for NoSQL data stores like Hadoop, I clearly understand why Informatica is focused on supporting Hadoop activities as they integrate with traditional components of the ‘data integration’ stack rather than moving to insert themselves into the inherently “unstructured” ( I would say semi structured) world of Hadoop datasets.

Agile Business Intelligence

The ability to react in “business time” to BI challenges is the focus of the concept of “Agile Business Intelligence”.  Personally, I prefer the term “nimble” since capital ‘A’ Agile implies that you are in alignment with the concepts of the Agile development methodology.
That being said, Rob Meyer, Senior Director Data Integration, provided some great information about Informatica’s ability to execute in nimble BI situations.  Key among these has been its work with HealthNow (registration required) and implementing data access using data virtualization in timeframes that standard EDW methodologies (read “waterfall development”) could not meet.  The ability to overcome these hurdles is key to making BI more manageable and thus attaining a higher value to contribute to Return on Data.

Informatica MDM

Newly “minted” SVP for MDM, Dennis Moore and Ravi Shankar, MDM Product Marketing, walked us through the future of the Informatica MDM strategy.  The strategy for 2011 was based on applying MDM practices to specific domain MDM solutions.  The strategy for 2012 will be based on leveraging the secular megatrends (listed above) to speeding the implementation of MDM solutions across those specific domains.  Reducing this time to implementation and their associated costs contribute to the overall Return on Data messaging.
Unfortunately, much of the future MDM strategy is under NDA.  However, in the near future, Informatica will be making significant announcements that will make this strategy more visible.

Sales Operations and Investor Relations

Paul Hoffman, President Worldwide Field Operations, and Stephanie Wakefield, VP Investor Relations, both gave excellent overviews of how the Informatica watch words of “Focus and Accountability” have contributed to the performance of Informatica over the past year and should impact the revenues and margins for upcoming years.
According to Hoffman, sales planning and discipline will help Informatica achieve both its near-term and long-term sales goals without the type of inorganic “gaming” that many organizations use to justify sales projections.  ( note – that is not to say that informatica will or will not participate in m/a activities in 2012 and beyond.  please see informatica’s standard safe harbor statement for more information … ).  Wakefield described now this type of discipline has helped Informatica avoid pitfalls of other publicly traded software firms over the past 5-7 years.  However she pointed out that this approach was not without its pitfalls as any publicly traded firm can attest with the recent volatility in public equity markets.

Ultra Messaging

Mike Pickett, VP Product Marketing, Jitesh Ghai , Senior Director Product Marketing, and Mark Mahowald, GM Ultra Messaging Business Unit, provided excellent updates on the status of the integration of the 29West acquisition from 2010.
I was particularly impressed with the ability of Informatica to express use cases for Ultra Messaging beyond the standard financial services model.  In particular, I liked the telecommunications and oil and gas use cases that focused more on the ability to utilize next generation data sources rather than speeding up existing data integration/communication tasks.

Informatica Cloud

During the first day, Juan Carlos Soto, GM Informatica Cloud, provided an update on the Informatica Cloud Data Integration business unit.  With a strategy that began in 2006, Informatica Cloud has matured over the past six years to a point where the following performance is common:

• 160,000 client directed data integration jobs per day
• 21 billion event/row transactions processed per month
• 99.9% uptime

And 2012 promises to see more integration between on-premise data integration and the cloud based offerings such as Informatica Cloud.  The choice should not be considered an either/or, but rather which solution offers the best solution for the job at hand.

Data Virtualization

Following the two days of sessions, Ash Parikh, Director Product Marketing, probably will not want to talk with me for a while…. I got up to speed time on both days with him describing the integrated approach that Informatica has to the data virtualization space.  Much like the messaging associated with Informatica Cloud, Informatica’s course with data virtualization is a blended strategy with both standard data integration approaches and data services based integration.
Parikh walked me through how Informatica views data virtualization, not just as a standalone segment of their data integration business, but as an integrated segment with standard data integration and its big data integration with Hadoop.  This approach uses the integrated data governance (i.e. connectivity, reusable transformations, MDM, DQ, data profiling, etc) layer from the standard Informatica Platform and encapsulates end users from the sources of their data projects whether it be standard (ie ETL), virtualized or Hadoop.
Overall, I liked the approach and the messaging for data virtualization in that it is part of a larger whole rather than an island unto itself.  Look for additional information on the data virtualization space from me in the near future with an EMA Landscape Report on Data Virtualization.

Related articles

• Informatica’s Integration Cloud Bridges SAP, Salesforce, Others (readwriteweb.com)
• Informatica Shares Rally As Q4 Revs, Profits Top Street Views (forbes.com)
• 12 Hadoop Vendors To Watch In 2012 (informationweek.com)

Peppers and Rogers, a customer-based strategies firm, featured a recent piece on the use of big-data rather than the size or structure of big-data.   While Peppers and Rogers does not say to ignore the characteristics of big-data sources, it focuses more on the analytical process rather than the volume, variety and velocity of big-data.

I agree with Peppers and Rogers with this approach and may even take this opinion one step further.  Any successful big-data analytical environment needs to focus on how the data can impact a company’s top line, bottom line or both when it is conceived and constructed rather than focusing on how many petabytes of information will be stored.

How do you approach your big-data, or ‘traditional’, analytical environment’s requirements and planning?

Post your comments below or ping me directly via twitter at @JohnLMyers44

Related articles

• Big Data: we have the technology, but not the vision (zdnet.com)
• Big Data: Good or evil? (revolutionanalytics.com)

• Business intelligence
• Data Warehousing
• Big Data
• Analytics
• Data integration

In this world of “Crossfire” intellectual engagement (ie i yell louder therefore i win the argument),  I will offer my opinion(s) in a constructive manner.  If I truly dislike a concept, I will do my best to offer an alternative as opposed to simply attempting to prove my point by yelling down someone else’s.

I welcome any and all comments either via the blog comments section or directly via twitter at @JohnLMyers44

I look forward to engaging with all of you in the near future.

JM