Business Intelligence Journal | Vol. 21, No. 3
TDWI Member Exclusive
September 14, 2016
“I’ll know it when I see it.” As a former applications programmer, I’ve heard that expression
often. Coming up with specifications and requirements from scratch can be a challenge.
It’s usually much easier to tell someone what you want when you already have something
to reference.
In this issue, Hugh J. Watson discusses how Mark Jackson of Piedmont Healthcare uses
agile methods to produce an initial design quickly to gauge users’ opinions. Watson
explores several things that Mark and his team do to help users become self-sufficient and
develop their own dashboards.
Feedback is also the subject of Dr. David Cattrall’s look at two-way communications
between data warehouses and operational systems.This feedback interface challenges the
traditional one-way (data warehouse to report) data flow that limits business intelligence.
Cattrall argues that a two-way data exchange between the warehouse and operational
systems offers impressive advantages and offers three real-world examples to illustrate
the benefits.
As Milan Bhatt explains, user feedback can also turn problematic if your organization
doesn’t respond quickly, as in the real-world case study of an airline that suffered a hit to its
reputation when a disgruntled passenger’s complaint went viral on social media.
It isn’t just what you do but how your enterprise is organized to do it, Shilpa Yelamaneni
explains, in a look at the strategic role of a data and analytics group (D&A) and how its
position in your organization influences its effectiveness. The right organizational structure
will promote a proactive approach to leveraging D&A and in the process propel adoption
of analytics.
In our case study, Linda Briggs explains how cutting-edge apparel company GUESS? put
analytics to work to meet the tough challenges every clothing retailer faces.
Why do self-service initiatives fail? Marsha Burke, Wayne Simpson, and Shad Staples
compare failure points and note how they are similar to the reasons we don’t perform other
do-it-yourself tasks. The parallels are striking.
Jim Gallo, Matt McGivern, and Steve Williams offer advice to a BI director whose users
are rapidly adopting standalone software-as-a-service solutions to handle their own
analytics, especially those he hears about after they’ve been adopted. How can he get his
hands on the environment so as to enforce data governance?
We wrap up with a look at the rise of the citizen data scientist from TDWI senior research
director Fern Halper.
We welcome your comments at [email protected].
James E. Powell
Editorial Director
Business Intelligence Journal
IN THIS ISSUE
- Piedmont Healthcare: Using Dashboards to Deliver Information
Hugh J. Watson and Mark Jackson
- The Data Warehouse Feedback Interface
Dr. David Cattrall
- Positioning Your Data and Analytics Group for Greatest Efficiency
Shilpa Yelamaneni
- Analytics Helps GUESS? Battle Retail Challenges
Linda L. Briggs
- The Cure for Ailing Self-Service Business Intelligence
Marsha Burke, Wayne Simpson, and Shad Staples
- BI Experts’ Perspective: Keep SaaS From Sinking Your BI Program
Jim Gallo, Matt McGivern, and Steve Williams
- Getting to Know Your Digital-Age Customers: An Airline Industry Case Study
Milan Bhatt