Experts Blog: Dave Wells
Dave Wells is consultant, mentor, and teacher in the field of business intelligence (BI). He brings to every consulting endeavor a unique and balanced perspective regarding the roles of technology in business. This perspective—refined through a career of more than 35 years that blended business and technical roles—helps to align business and information technology in the most effective ways. Dave focuses on strategic and organizational alignment as the keys to building and sustaining valuable and high-impact BI cultures and systems.
Analytics is arguably the hottest topic in business today, and big data is fueling the fire. The promise of analytic value is intriguing and the potential to make a difference is exceptionally high. The ability to turn potential into reality, however, depends on human factors—analytic culture—as much as it depends on data and technology. Success with business analytics, and especially with big data analytics, requires an effective combination of business knowledge, analytic competencies, and data skills. Big data analytics is a collaborative effort where fragile business/IT working relationships inhibit the ability to have impact and deliver value.
To help analytics organizations and analytics professionals step up to this essential element of success, I’ll be teaching a full-day tutorial,Bringing Business and IT Together: Practical Steps for Improved Working Relationships,as part of IBM’s Information On Demand 2013 conference. With more than 30years of experience as an IT professional and more than 15years managing in business, I see many of the issues from both points of view. Combining these perspectives, I designed this tutorial to teach pragmatic techniques and concepts that will help you to:
- Recognize the symptoms of troubled and broken working relationships
- Go beyond symptoms to understand the root causes
- Develop measures and metrics to quantify the current state of communication, competency, and governance in business/IT relationships
- Avoid the frustrations of big-bang efforts leading to big-bang failures by applying continuous improvement principles
- Define next steps that you can take both organizationally and individually to start the journey of bringing business and IT together
Analytic culture really matters. It is the driving force to achieve adoption, impact, and value in business analytics programs. Making a commitment to improved working relationships—business/IT alignment leading ultimately to business/IT integration—is an important part of shaping positive analytic culture.
I look forward to seeing you at IBM Information On Demand 2013on November 3, 2013. Register now to get started shaping your business analytics culture and maximizing the value of big data.
Posted by Dave Wells on September 27, 20130 comments