Support Analytics Blog

If you didn’t know already, I am a big fan of the DM Review publication that comes out monthly.  It covers mostly business intelligence, data management, analytics and data warehousing to name a few more popular topics.

In the September issue, there was a pretty good article by Greg Todd of Accenture called: Analytics has Become the Darling of High Performers and can be found by clicking here.  I didn’t think it was too earth shattering because I’ve already read Tom Davenport’s: Competing on Analytics, which was cited a few times in the article.

Here is an excerpt about the DM Review publication that describes its goals.

DM Review, www.dmreview.com, delivers market-leading insight through interviews, articles and columns written by the best consultants, hands-on practitioners and technology solution leaders the industry has to offer. Editorial focus is on business intelligence, performance management, analytics, integration and enterprise data warehousing as well as emerging areas that include business process management and technology architectures. Our audience is almost evenly divided between business and IT executives. DM Review has been providing thought leadership for more than 18 years. Source

Recently, Stephen Few of Perceptual edge wrote a great article on Information Visualization, which can be found here.  Other industry leading experts, like James Taylor, co-author of Smart [Enough] Systems, is a frequent contributor to DM Review.

What industry or popular publications do you read relating to your field?

Support Analytics reads DM Review, Business Monthly (local), WSJ, and BusinessWeek to name a few.

There is a new page on the Support Analytics website called ProSourcing.  Also, the Solutions page has now been changed to be called Consulting.  In addition, there are a few new quick links under the image on all of the pages to easily navigate to the blog or blog subscription page.

The main reason for this change is because Support Analytics now has two distinct capabilities: Analytics Consulting and Analytics ProSourcing.

ProSourcing is simply the outsourcing of data analyses to Support Analytics.  One of the recurring themes that we have experienced in the past is companies not having the resources or knowledge to perform analytics at the level it is needed.  Another situation that warrants ProSourcing is when a key knowledge expert leaves the company without training anyone or leaving adequate documentation on how analytic functions were completed.

There are some other reasons that we have decided to provide this service to our clients, which can be found on the ProSourcing page.

Check it out and feel free to provide feedback!

Here’s the list of participants to date for the DSA Insights Post Project.  As more enter the project, this list will be updated.  Thank you to everyone who participated!

• Changes to Charting in Excel 2007 by Jon Peltier at Peltier Technical Services
• Weekend Minis… by Nathan Yau at FlowingData
• SPAM by Tony Rose at Support Analytics (not eligible for prize)
• 5 Ways to Promote Your Business Online by Andrea Coutu at Consultant Journal
• Analytics: No one can agree on what it means by James Taylor at Smart [enough] Systems

Get your submissions in before the deadline on Friday at midnight. 

If you are already blogging, feel free to submit a post to me for consideration in this project and to win a prize!  Click here to submit a post.  Based on the feedback I have received and the gracious offerings from some excellent Authors, there will be more DSA Projects in the future.  Plus, who doesn’t like to get free things?

Authors James Taylor and Neil Raden are sponsoring a signed copy of their book, Smart (Enough) Systems: How to Deliver Competitive Advantage by Automating Hidden Decisions ($39 value) that will be added to the DSA Insights Post Project prize list.  This is an excellent book, which is featured in the DSA Amazon Store because of its tremendous value.  Find out more about the book here.

Don’t wait, send in your blog post now to be eligible for one of the prizes below.  If you don’t know about the DSA Insights Post Project yet, click here to find out more.

The list of available prizes are now:

1st Price (Choice of one)

The team at Dashboard Insight has really taken the business intelligence (BI) community to the next level!  Just recently they launched a catalogue that contains a directory of BI product and solution providers.  Specifically, the directory, found here, is segmented into the following six main categories:

Click here to send us an e-mail to subscribe to DSA Insights and get updates by e-mail.

Business Objects released the results of a survey that attempted to see if corporate Executives were able to make informed business decisions.  Here are some highlights from the survey results:

• 154 Global C-Level Executives surveyed
• Less than 10% of Executives believe they have the necessary information needed to make critical business decisions
• More than 50% of these Executives are concerned about poor decision-making due to the lack of adequate information
• Twenty-five percent believe that Management frequently or always gets its decisions wrong
• Seventy-two percent of executives believe management decision-making is only moderately efficient – or worse

In an earlier post, I suggested we will start to see a proliferation of companies filling the position of Chief Analytics Officer, which, if done right, should bring some relief to Executives making decisions based on their gut.  It blows my mind that leaders are still making decisions without having all of the facts.  Reminds me of Reverse Analytics!  The most shocking statistic from this survey is that less than 10% of Executives believe that they have adequate data to make critical business decisions.  Utterly shocking!

My suggestion, start by reading Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning.   This book by Tom Davenport and Jeanne Harris does an excellent job establishing the concept of building a competitive strategy around data-driven insights.  If you find yourself culpable of informal and ad-hoc decision-making, then do yourself a favor and retain some assistance!  Don’t fall into the trap that so many do, of making a large investment in software to solve the problem.  Fixing a problem like this is just as much about the right skill sets and knowledge, then it is a large BI software platform. 

I also find it very convenient that this article hit the news right after rumors appeared that Business Objects may be up for sale.  On September 17, Reuters reported that Business Objects has retained Goldman Sacs as advisors.  Stay tuned!

Click here to send us an e-mail to subscribe to DSA Insights and get updates by e-mail.

The lack of posts to my blog has been the direct result of my work on an upcoming relocation from Richmond, Virginia to Baltimore, Maryland that will happen on July 1^st.  This move will position Decision Support Analytics (DSA) to better serve the East Coast and specifically the D.C, Baltimore, and Philadelphia area.  The new location will also be more convenient for travel to the West Coast.

Click here to send us an e-mail to subscribe to DSA Insights and get updates by e-mail.

Thinking about venturing off into the world of consulting? Andréa Coutu’s website has an abundance of information on the world of consulting.  Whether you’re interested in working from home or just starting up a side consulting business, her website is a great resource!  You can even get some tips or ideas for the kinds of consulting out there.

One topic that could be very helpful is the section on consulting fees.  If that doesn’t interest you, then many consultants could benefit from the section on finding new clients.  Andréa writes about cold calling, business card management, tax tips, software tips and many other topics.

This review wouldn’t be complete without some type of opportunity for Andréa to improve her site.  The blog page could be organized more efficiently so that readers could see the different subjects easier.  The use of tags in a blog helps to organize the different topics.  I found it difficult to hone in on specific topics that interest me without having to navigate through a lot of blog posts.  A little more organization would go a long way with helping readers get quality information faster.

Keep up the good work!

Click here to send us an e-mail to subscribe to DSA Insights and get updates by e-mail.