TDWI | Training & Research | Business Intelligence, Analytics, Big Data, Data Warehousing

From the Editor

• By James E. Powell
• May 11, 2005

For dance, 10; for looks, 3.

Like the auditioning dancer from A Chorus Line receiving her scores, we all worry about numbers. BI and data warehousing professionals are no exception. The authors represented in this issue of the Business Intelligence Journal have their eyes on numbers, too.

Our senior editor, Hugh J. Watson, looks at the goal enterprises have of keeping costs (implementation, maintenance, and training, among others) down by using one data access tool. Yet we all know how difficult it is to convince functional areas to agree to such an arrangement. Dr. Watson offers some suggestions for how it just might be possible.

If you’re relying on metrics and dashboards to pilot your business, you’re flying blind, says Dr. Steven Roth. He notes how the intuition and experiences of others are part of the decision-making mix; he explores how to gather information in one place by collecting and capturing thoughts, assumptions, and observations using the same visualization techniques that simplify large data set analysis. Dr. Watson and Thilini Ariyachandra examine five data warehousing architectures and how they address the “one version of the truth” goal. Dan Ross looks at how enterprises have standardized on technologies, platforms, and systems to meet this “one version” goal. He describes the challenges arising from higher user adoption and greater expectations, and the role performance management plays in solving them (and the significant tangible benefits that follow).

One isn’t the only number of interest to our authors. Kirby Lunger offers 10 recommendations for working with a consulting partner on a BI or corporate performance management project to maximize project success, while Len Dubois looks at 10 steps you can take today to achieve total data quality.

In a change in perspective, Rob Cardwell proposes that, instead of focusing on information production, we look at information consumption, and in so doing open the possibilities of reduced infrastructure costs, greater agility when reacting to change, and shorter implementation time.

Among this issue’s recurring features, our case study involves an organization with an unusual inventory to manage, while our experts tackle the interrelationships between enterprise application integration (EAI) and enterprise information integration (EII). As always, we’re interested in your comments and what new things you’re doing. Please send me your feedback: [email protected].

This article originally appeared in the issue of TDWI.