The State Of Customer Analytics 2012 | Forrester Blogs

Recommended for all small business.  More on business intelligence challenges and best practices.

Excerpt:  Forrester defines customer analytics as:

“The set of methods, tools, and technologies used to analyze customer data – where the goal is to inform customer acquisition and retention, enhance customer relationships, and drive customer profitability.”

To better understand The State Of Customer Analytics 2012, Forrester analyst Srividya Sridharan surveyed 90 customer analytics professionals from around the world about their customer analytics practices.

Download podcast here via TechnoPolitics Podcast: The State Of Customer Analytics 2012 | Forrester Blogs.

Use Cases For Specific BI Tools | Forrester Blogs

Great list to begin your task — business intelligence tools: what do I need and what should I use?  Steps to equal how-to

Excerpt:  I get the following question very often. What are the best practices for creating an enterprise reporting policy as to when to use what reporting tool/application? Alas, as with everything else in business intelligence, the answer is not that easy. The old days of developers versus power users versus casual users are gone. The world is way more complex these days. In order to create such a policy, you need to consider the following dimensions:

Read full list via Use Cases For Specific BI Tools | Forrester Blogs.

Turning Customer Intelligence into Innovation – HBR

Remembering that innovate is a verb and not just a buzzword today that makes you seem “with it”.   This is another good read innovation article from HBR this morning.  Business intelligence

Excerpt:  It’s a paradox of the information age. The glut of information that bombards us daily too frequently obscures true insight. Intelligence should drive better innovation, but unless it is strategically collected and used, it functions like a summer beach novel — an engaging distraction.

Thoughtful companies intertwine customer intelligence throughout the three phases that characterize most successful innovations. Innovation starts with discovery — where an innovator pinpoints an important problem to solve. Ground-level intelligence is critical to this part of the process.

Read full article via Turning Customer Intelligence into Innovation – Scott Anthony – Harvard Business Review.

Embrace Self-Service Business Intelligence

Small business this is for you.  Self service meets or exceeds the small budget requirements.

Excerpt:  Self-service BI is a combination of tools, technologies, processes and best practices that helps businesspeople perform data analysis in self-sufficient manner, leading to improved adoption of BI. The IT department plays the crucial role of service enablement and continuous improvement of BI services to support flexible analysis of internal and data.

Read full article via Embrace Self-Service Business Intelligence – Information Management Newsletters Article.

Forecast and Challenges for Mobile BI

Mobile, mobile and more mobile.  Is your small business on board yet?

Excerpt: Mobile business intelligence is still in its early phases, but, led by a new wave of top-level executives, will rush into new adoptions and challenges over the next few years, according to a review by Gartner research VP Andreas Bitterer.

Bitterer led a review of market forecasts, possibilities and challenges Thursday entitled “Current State and Future Trends in Mobile Business Intelligence.” Gartner maintains that one-third of all business intelligence functionality will be consumed through a mobile device by next year.

Read full article via Forecast and Challenges for Mobile BI – Information Management Online Article.

What Does Big Data Mean for the Future of Self-service BI?

Business intelligence and big data…… ignore it at your peril….. article contains takeaways for small business.

Excerpt……. It’s likely that the roles of the business user and the data warehouse administrator will evolve dramatically, and organizations will need to balance the needs of end users and IT. Now, companies will need to provide all users with BI tools that are flexible and agile, offering up the best features of both enterprise BI and self-service BI. They also need to support the move of big data from silos on the periphery of the enterprise to a central position, guided by a certain level of data governance. While it won’t follow the traditional MDM route due to less flexibility, data governance will be required to ensure that the entire organization buys into the apprach.

Successful companies will be the ones that embrace big data and all its subsequent challenges.

Read full article……. via What Does Big Data Mean for the Future of Self-service BI? – Information Management Newsletters Article.

MIT Media Lab: The Cognitive Limit of Organizations

Good read…..  Business intelligence and leadership

Excerpt……..The structure of a society is connected to the total amount of its information.   

In the early days, life was simple. We did important things like make spears and arrowheads. The amount of knowledge needed to make these items, however, was small enough that a single person could master their production. There was no need for a large division of labor and new knowledge was extremely precious. If you got new knowledge, you did not want to share it. After all, in a world where most knowledge can fit in someone’s head, stealing ideas is easy, and appropriating the value of the ideas you generate is hard.

Read full article….via MIT Media Lab: The Cognitive Limit of Organizations.

Understanding Social Business Intelligence

You do have to register with the site in order to download the white paper but I think this one is probably worth that.   Social media

Excerpt………This whitepaper discusses critical issues that large businesses must understand prior to fusing social into every aspect of their business, including:

All Social Data is Not Created Equal
Social Data Must Integrate
Derivative and Predictive Analytics
Man Versus Machine Classification
Social Business Intelligence Strategies

Download white paper here……..via Understanding Social Business Intelligence.  From Listen Logic

Getting Started with Analytics

Data management and business intelligence……KPI…… what are some of the most important starting points for small business.

Excerpt…….An analytics culture must be embedded within the enterprise strategy and business operations to ensure that insights are available at all levels and functions in order to support decision-making. Defining and monitoring key performance indicators regularly will help indicate when to take action and/or implement process changes for success.

How to Start

Read full article……via Getting Started with Analytics – Information Management Newsletters Article.

Open source BI software for small and mid-sized businesses

Excerpt introduction……Lyndsay Wise, President of Wise Analytics, and Information Management Editorial Director Jim Ericson discuss SMB options for open source BI at 2012 TDWI World Conference in Las Vegas

See video here…….via Open source BI software for small and mid-sized businesses with Lyndsay Wise, Wise Analytics.

Measure Management 2.0 with CRI for Management/Operational Control/Profit

The article is a bit long…but there are good takeaways for small business…. business intelligence, data management and why the methodology has to change …..or better..has to be defined… in order to use it…

Excerpt…..Relationships drive business. Within the chaotic crush of interaction data coming off the Internet, smart mobile devices, Social Media, and Communities, is pure customer relationship gold. Three CRI (Customer Relationship Intelligence) metrics distill the gold—Relationship Value, the “effect” in relationship cause-and-effect; Interactions, the “cause;” and Variable Interaction Cost……..

Relationships drive business. Yet no one knows who does what to whom, when, for what result in marketing, sales, and customer service. Customer retention is even more of a mystery–no one is in charge. And that is where the MONEY is! Some 80% of revenue comes from repeat business and referrals, only 20% comes from new customers typically. Who would want to run a company with this level of process risk and uncertainty! Yet it is an everyday occurrence in Management 1.0

Read full article…..via Measure Management 2.0 with CRI for Real-Time Management/Operational Control/Profit | Management Innovation eXchange.

Business Intelligence Raising the IQ of Your Data | Webinar | March 15, 2012 | Proformative

The webinar is free but does require registration which also gives you the free membership.   The site gives you information on speakers and agenda for this event as well.  AND you can also request CPE

Register for event here……Business Intelligence Raising the IQ of Your Data | Webinar | March 15, 2012 | Proformative.

Improving Decision Making in Organisations: Unlocking Business Intelligence

Recommended read for all leaderhip and C-Suite responsible for business governance.   It is a long read…so download to read when you have time.

Excerpt……..Our report, Improving decision making in organisations: Unlocking business intelligence, delivers key insights into current developments in BI and practical information to transform finance functions. The combination of these provides the CGMA the tools to improve accounting operations and acquire a greater competence in informed decision making.

Read introduction and download full 58 page report……..via Improving decision making in organisations: Unlocking business intelligence.  From CGMA Magazine

Top BI Resolutions and Trends for 2012 from Industry Experts

Input on 2012 predictions for business intelligence…directions and needs.

Excerpt………We pulled three BI industry pundits away from their cork-popping and horn-blowing just after midnight on January 1st to get their takes on the top BI resolutions and trends for this new year.

Read full article………via Top BI Resolutions and Trends for 2012 from Industry Experts.  From Trends and Outliers

Business Analytics vs Business Intelligence?

The author didn’t quite add “so there” but close to it…….  the article gives basic information if you are in market and discussions….  knowing that the terminology can mean different things to different people/vendors, it makes sense to make sure everyone is discussing the same thing each time

Excerpt……..What’s the difference between Business Analytics and Business Intelligence? The correct answer is: everybody has an opinion, but nobody knows, and you shouldn’t care.

Having worked in the industry over twenty years, I can confidently say that everybody has a different notion of what ANY particular term associated with analytics means.

Read full article………via Business Analytics vs Business Intelligence? | Business Analytics.