Comments on: A review of “The History of Business Intelligence” by Nic Smith http://peterjamesthomas.com/2009/03/30/a-review-of-the-history-of-business-intelligence-by-nic-smith/ Thoughts on the confluence of business, change and technology. Areas covered include business intelligence, cultural transformation, business and IT alignment, business and IT strategy, project execution and social media. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:22:49 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: An update of the most read articles on this site « Peter Thomas – Award-winning Business Intelligence and Cultural Transformation Expert http://peterjamesthomas.com/2009/03/30/a-review-of-the-history-of-business-intelligence-by-nic-smith/#comment-2038 An update of the most read articles on this site « Peter Thomas – Award-winning Business Intelligence and Cultural Transformation Expert Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:25:34 +0000 http://peterthomas.wordpress.com/?p=2255#comment-2038 [...] A review of “The History of Business Intelligence” by Nic Smith [...] [...] A review of “The History of Business Intelligence” by Nic Smith [...]

]]> By: Luigi Simoncini http://peterjamesthomas.com/2009/03/30/a-review-of-the-history-of-business-intelligence-by-nic-smith/#comment-971 Luigi Simoncini Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:24:55 +0000 http://peterthomas.wordpress.com/?p=2255#comment-971 Peter, "anyone can do accurate content right?" yes, and have the audience fall asleep (or maybe worse, leave). I think I see your point. Let me try and be positive: what can I deduce from the film (content)? Maybe that MS is primarily targeting an unseasoned BI audience. Maybe that's where Nic wants to start building. We'll see. I certainly keep them on the radar, like all the IT pros should. And BTW I should have thanked you for pointing to the video. Peter,

“anyone can do accurate content right?”
yes, and have the audience fall asleep (or maybe worse, leave). I think I see your point.

Let me try and be positive: what can I deduce from the film (content)?
Maybe that MS is primarily targeting an unseasoned BI audience. Maybe that’s where Nic wants to start building.

We’ll see. I certainly keep them on the radar, like all the IT pros should. And BTW I should have thanked you for pointing to the video.

]]> By: Peter Thomas http://peterjamesthomas.com/2009/03/30/a-review-of-the-history-of-business-intelligence-by-nic-smith/#comment-969 Peter Thomas Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:30:49 +0000 http://peterthomas.wordpress.com/?p=2255#comment-969 Luigi, It was the style that appealed to me - anyone can do accurate content right? It might not make me go out and buy MS BI products, but it does make me think of the BI side of their organisation more fondly. Peter Luigi,

It was the style that appealed to me – anyone can do accurate content right? It might not make me go out and buy MS BI products, but it does make me think of the BI side of their organisation more fondly.

Peter

]]> By: Luigi Simoncini http://peterjamesthomas.com/2009/03/30/a-review-of-the-history-of-business-intelligence-by-nic-smith/#comment-968 Luigi Simoncini Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:52:37 +0000 http://peterthomas.wordpress.com/?p=2255#comment-968 amusing? yes accurate? not so much Some of the things Nic is positioning in the past are actually happening right now (consolidation, true platforms) As Marc stated, some of the things he puts in the future have been around for quite some time (unstructured data: SAS text mining in actual products dates back several years, most vendors lightly-integrated unstructured docs what... a decade ago?) Anyway, being in sales/mktg myself I liked the style (in fact is very similar to what I use with big audiences, it works) amusing? yes
accurate? not so much
Some of the things Nic is positioning in the past are actually happening right now (consolidation, true platforms)
As Marc stated, some of the things he puts in the future have been around for quite some time (unstructured data: SAS text mining in actual products dates back several years, most vendors lightly-integrated unstructured docs what… a decade ago?)
Anyway, being in sales/mktg myself I liked the style (in fact is very similar to what I use with big audiences, it works)

]]> By: My “all-time” most-read 5 articles « Peter Thomas - Award-winning Business Intelligence and Cultural Transformation Expert http://peterjamesthomas.com/2009/03/30/a-review-of-the-history-of-business-intelligence-by-nic-smith/#comment-947 My “all-time” most-read 5 articles « Peter Thomas - Award-winning Business Intelligence and Cultural Transformation Expert Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:27:45 +0000 http://peterthomas.wordpress.com/?p=2255#comment-947 [...] A review of “The History of Business Intelligence” by Nic Smith [...] [...] A review of “The History of Business Intelligence” by Nic Smith [...]

]]> By: Peter Thomas http://peterjamesthomas.com/2009/03/30/a-review-of-the-history-of-business-intelligence-by-nic-smith/#comment-826 Peter Thomas Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:26:46 +0000 http://peterthomas.wordpress.com/?p=2255#comment-826 Marc, I too discovered the "secret" of BI independent of Nic's video - I do however think that it has some merits. Yes many companies managed to run BI implementations that there was little wrong with quite some time ago, but equally many got it very wrong. At the very least it is amusing. Peter Marc,

I too discovered the “secret” of BI independent of Nic’s video – I do however think that it has some merits. Yes many companies managed to run BI implementations that there was little wrong with quite some time ago, but equally many got it very wrong. At the very least it is amusing.

Peter

]]> By: Marc Paradis http://peterjamesthomas.com/2009/03/30/a-review-of-the-history-of-business-intelligence-by-nic-smith/#comment-824 Marc Paradis Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:06:35 +0000 http://peterthomas.wordpress.com/?p=2255#comment-824 What's old is new again, when I started in BI in 1999, the slogan at MicroStrategy was "the right information to the right person at the right time". 10 years later I see that this relatinoship has been "rediscovered" by Nic Smith and Microsoft. While I loved Nic's movie for its cleverness, entertainment value and factual content, I strongly disagree with the notion that BI has only recently figured out the three "rights" and that by extension that BI has only recently figured out that it's core value proposition is to enable new, or to justify existing, business actions. Either MicroStrategy was way out ahead of the curve on this, or it has been at the heart of the definition of BI for a long time. I do agree that there are huge, largely unexplored greenfields in the intersection of BI with unstructured data, social networking, collaboration, SOA and real-time/operation data warehousing. I will be very interested to see what Microsoft is developing in these areas. What’s old is new again, when I started in BI in 1999, the slogan at MicroStrategy was “the right information to the right person at the right time”. 10 years later I see that this relatinoship has been “rediscovered” by Nic Smith and Microsoft.

While I loved Nic’s movie for its cleverness, entertainment value and factual content, I strongly disagree with the notion that BI has only recently figured out the three “rights” and that by extension that BI has only recently figured out that it’s core value proposition is to enable new, or to justify existing, business actions. Either MicroStrategy was way out ahead of the curve on this, or it has been at the heart of the definition of BI for a long time.

I do agree that there are huge, largely unexplored greenfields in the intersection of BI with unstructured data, social networking, collaboration, SOA and real-time/operation data warehousing. I will be very interested to see what Microsoft is developing in these areas.

]]> By: Perseverance « Peter Thomas - Award-winning Business Intelligence and Cultural Transformation Expert http://peterjamesthomas.com/2009/03/30/a-review-of-the-history-of-business-intelligence-by-nic-smith/#comment-788 Perseverance « Peter Thomas - Award-winning Business Intelligence and Cultural Transformation Expert Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:27:00 +0000 http://peterthomas.wordpress.com/?p=2255#comment-788 [...] I am most engaged in currently is rock climbing, something that I alluded to at the beginning of a blog post yesterday. Rock climbing forms a very broad church and I have taken part in many aspects of it. [...] [...] I am most engaged in currently is rock climbing, something that I alluded to at the beginning of a blog post yesterday. Rock climbing forms a very broad church and I have taken part in many aspects of it. [...]

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