Business Intelligence

Collecting data from a cross section of sources that include both primary and secondary data resources--and doing so in a timely manner--are the three foundational pieces of a good process. It is important to take all of them into account because without even one of these in place, your intelligence will come crashing down like a house of cards.

In any business intelligence cycle, the analysis step is critical to providing value back to the organization. But don't confuse information with intelligence...

While you are rarely in a position to make the strategic or operational decisions for the organization, your intelligence can support these key decisions. That is the real benefit of a good business intelligence group, and the following four things can go a long way in helping you successfully deliver your message--and ensure action is taken.

Project managers can often forget what's at the core of business intelligence--giving senior management the tools to make more focused, confident decisions. A look at one PM's experience provides some valuable lessons to take away.

While the Lean Six Sigma approach is rarely linked with business intelligence, it is a concept that relies heavily on data, measures and analysis to support and encourage process improvement efforts. These can be provided by the BI function in the organization. The two disciplines can work together in a symbiotic relationship--one requiring data to solve problems, the other requiring problems for the data it can provide.

Collaboration software provider Daptiv predicts that the role of project management offices will expand into business strategy, social software will be used even more to engage project teams and stakeholders, and PPM systems will play a greater role as a business intelligence source.

Companies that pursue business intelligence through a technology-driven approach get lots of cool graphs, but not information that allows them to make actionable decisions. Here's the right way to approach this all-important process.

Most intelligence cycles do not include storage as a step at all, lumping it in with collection. But as this writer knows all too well, when collecting stuff you need to store it properly.

To understand BI, it is important to know the steps to take. And as our department takes off in a new direction, a fresh perspective offers some valuable insight.

It is this writer's belief that business intelligence fails at the earliest and most important step in the BI process: planning. In order to answer the questions your company has, you will need to clearly understand what they are looking for--which is a lot easier than it sounds.

New Business Intelligence offering from Oracle features role-based intelligence to track project performance.

How many projects does your organization have underway right now? Join the conversation with our SME to help solve this surprisingly challenging question.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for you data-hungry CIOs. Welcome to our annual summary of the most recent and relevant IT surveys to keep you aware of all the trends that affect your job and your success. How does your experience match up with what others are saying?

Managing customer expectations in an era of aging analytics can be challenging. IT business interface managers need to become more active in understanding business intelligence users’ gripes and "wow" factors regularly.

So much for 2011 being the year of recovery. Next year should be much like the last. Some recent developments may impact your success as a CIO. What trends are likely to impact your organization from an IT perspective? What strategies and actions will yield the best outcomes for CIOs and their companies?

A project management instructor shares why he uses the scenario of a Business Intelligence system implementation in order to go beyond the textbooks and explore the many ways that real-world projects get messy — and how solid project management practices can help sort it out.

As options for sourcing have evolved over the last few years, two models have emerged to provide companies, both large and small, options on how to source and source their business intelligence solution.

When implementating a program or portfolio management solution, it is better to have 80 percent of the potential users of the system (adoption rate) using 20 percent of the system functionality, than to have 20 percent of the users exercising 80 percent of the system functionality.

It's time for a new year, and a new focus. What does 2005 have in store through the ever-important eyes of business intelligence? From storage management to enterprise data warehouses, here's what to watch--and what to ignore--in the new year.

What mattered most in 2005? Intelligence and information, probably more so than they did in any other year. Now what can we learn as we head into 2006?

Read why careers in business intelligence are a safe bet for any economy.

As Agile evolves beyond software development, its people-centric mandate is a natural ally to the social technology revolution transforming today’s enterprises. Here, a leading strategist in the social business landscape shares his thoughts on the interplay of these two movements, including how Kanban and DevOps fit.

Business intelligence has always failed in responding to the question, "I know more about my business; now what do I do with it?" The analytical application creates an environment to support an analytical business process--one that analyzes the information and acts upon it.

After declining 8.2 percent in 2009, IT spending in the United States will grow 6.6 percent in 2010 to $568 billion, according to a new report by Forrester.

BI failures are all too common. Here are a few wise sayings to keep in mind to help you deliver more successful BI projects.

For many years, business intelligence within organizations has focused on the question of "what is." But the questions that emerge from the study of complex systems is more of a question of "what will be." Those companies that can use intelligence to understand this are the ones that will be able to adapt to our rapidly changing environment.

Saying some PPM solutions are “out of reach” for many businesses, Microsoft Project 2010 emphasizes integrated portfolio management capabilities, among enhancements in reporting, demand management and business intelligence. Should dedicated PPM providers be worried?

Pervasive computing is going to be all around us, and two dimensions of business intelligence play a large role in enabling pervasive devices: learning capability and data collection. Are you ready for it?

In the business intelligence world, open source provides an opportunity for more organizations to enhance their business intelligence capabilities at a lower price point. This article explores where open source will impact the world of BI.

You've muddled through the selection, structure, standards and organization steps of your DW project--now what? It's time to execute. Get the tools you need to work through the daily DW grind. Use them correctly, and you can avoid or resolve common problems.

A recent survey suggests that U.S. healthcare organizations will require up to 25,000 experienced project managers over the next five years to meet the demands of advanced technology initiatives and health insurance reform.

This article describes how an IT organization from a Fortune 500 manufacturing company applied the framework to its portfolio of accounting and finance applications.

All IT projects are really business projects in that they are — or should be — about delivering business value, according to former CIO Bob Lewis, author of A Manifesto for 21st Century Information Technology. But that doesn’t let CIOs or PPM executives off the hook.

As social networking sites become hubs of information with attribute and interaction data, they become ripe for analyzing behaviors and demographics. This Web 2.0 intelligence can provide businesses invaluable opportunities to harness the power of communities.

There's no need to separate business intelligence from knowledge management. In fact, bringing them together could be the best thing to do for your organization.

How do we tackle 2011? There are a couple old practices we can draw upon and some new methods we can use to keep moving forward and--hopefully--put ourselves more in the black.

The key to understanding how your organizations assets are being used is through asset intelligence, a natural offshoot of asset management. While asset management simply tracks what assets that you have, asset intelligence gives you information on assets where the cost/benefit proposition simply isn't there.

As the world still comes to grips with the tragedy in the United States, one expert in business intelligence argues that a national data warehouse combining all of the law enforcement agencies' criminal activity and suspect data would be a step in the right direction.

From ambiguous reporting to overambitious estimating, here are 10 all-too-common missteps to avoid in the quest for a successful strategic project portfolio management process.

You can walk the walk. Make sure you can talk the talk with this guide to BI buzzwords.

Do you know what areas of synergy can be exploited by having all business intelligence applications grouped in a single practice? Get some help in structuring your organization for optimal business intelligence solutions delivery.

What's the best investment you can make? BI, of course. Business intelligence provides the mechanism for companies to look for opportunities to improve profitability and optimize your business. Read on for examples of how BI insight can be applied to enhance corporate profitability.

To enhance performance and get a jump on their competitors, companies no longer need managers, they need leaders. Leadership has become a widely examined topic of academic research, especially within business schools. There is now a substantial body of research and literature on all aspects of leadership: what it is, how it influences the behavior of individuals and groups, and how it achieves its effects. Here we take a look at leadership competencies and project results.

IT guys are known for making big promises and sometimes serving up solutions that are less than gourmet-caliber. Maybe it's time for IT to take a taste of what it's dishing out, to improve service and reputation.

Companies all over the world are utilizing grid computing to tackle a variety of problems, and the marriage of grid computing and business intelligence is natural. Are you harnessing the power of the grid?

How can you adapt Scrum-like tools and techniques within a Waterfall project management environment? What can you do to reduce resistance and reap the benefits Scrum has to offer? In short, how can you get down and Scrummy within a Waterfall world? Here are some ideas you might find useful.

Recent alliances, acquisitions and implementations in the world of project and portfolio management.

A recent global study on the state of business analysis shows organizations are missing key internal competencies that could enhance productivity and profitability. As a result, organizational objectives are often disconnected from those responsible for execution.