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DSS News
D. J. Power, Editor
September 24, 2006 -- Vol. 7, No. 20
A Free Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM
approximately 1,800 Subscribers
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"Decision Support for Global Enterprises" Conference
Check ICDSS2007.org
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Featured:
* Report from 2006 Teradata PARTNERS Conference
* What's New at DSSResources.COM
* DSS Conferences
* DSS News Releases
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Check the article by Alper, Brown and Wagner "New
Software for Visualizing the Past, Present and Future"
at DSSResources.com
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Report from 2006 Teradata PARTNERS Conference
by Daniel J. Power
Editor, DSSResources.COM
Mary-Jane Jarvis-Haig, the President of the PARTNERS Steering
Committee emphasized the importance of "Unleashing Enterprise
Intelligence" at the 20th Annual Teradata PARTNERS Conference
September 17-21, 2006 in Orlando, Florida. For me the conference was
familiar and I felt a bit like weatherman Bill Murray must have in
the movie Groundhog Day (1993). In some ways I was living Teradata
PARTNERS 2005 over once again. I took the same flights as last year
and my wife and son were again traveling with me. We had a better
hotel room at the Dolphin Resort than last year, but the receptions
and events were similar. Like the movie however, some things were
better the second time around. You can check last year's trip report
for comparison purposes (cf., DSS News, 09/25/2005). This year's
PARTNERS event attracted more than 3,300 business professionals from
all over the World.
With over 180 sessions categorized in business, technical,
management and executive tracks, I could probably participate in
PARTNERS for about 10 years without attending all of the sessions. Of
course that would not work because many new sessions get scheduled
each year. My first day, Sunday, started at 8am with a workshop
conducted by Stephen Brobst, Chief Technology Officer, Teradata, and
Andrew Cardno, President and Chief Technology Officer of Compudigm.
They discussed best practices in using visualization techniques to
analyze large historical data sets. I especially enjoyed the examples
of Compudigm's advanced visualization technologies with animation of
data. Compudigm's product, seePOWER™, is interesting and I made
a point of getting another demonstration Tuesday afternoon in the
Vendor area. Frank Teklit, Compudigm VP of Operations, provided me
with a one-on-one demonstration. Andrew Cardno stopped by as we were
finishing. Based upon my interactions with Andrew and Frank, I think
the folks at Compudigm (http://www.compudigm.com/) have a great
product and they are great advocates of data-driven decision support.
Thanks guys.
After a light lunch in the Press Room Sunday, I checked email and
then I went to two case study sessions.
At 2:30 pm there were 11 sessions scheduled and I went to
Zenobia Deboo's session. Zenobia is a Senior Business Systems
Analyst at Hudson Bay Company. She discussed the unanticipated change
management challenges involved in implementing a business
intelligence, data-driven DSS. Hudson Bay Company (Hbc) is Canada's
largest diversified general merchandise retailer with more than 570
stores. Hbc colsolidated multiple data marts, created a consolidated
data model and implemented a reporting tool for more than 1500 users.
Zenobia's story was about changing attitudes and gaining understanding
more than about innovative technology and "bells and whistles". She
shared a number of valuable "lessons learned" -- "it's the soft stuff
that's the hard stuff", "learn from others rather than re-inventing
the wheel", "assume the possibility of unanticipated change and plan
for it", and "BI is a program and not a project".
Then at 4pm, I chose another case study session from among 11 more
sessions. Readers probably see a pattern here! I'm trying to identify
some interesting new case studies for DSSResources.com. John Tozer,
British Airways, discussed the challenges of exploiting an integrated
corporate data warehouse. Tozer is overseeing a plan to move
commercial and operational data stores onto a Teradata platform.
During the past four years, Tozer’s team has "uploaded 3
terabytes of data from seven large databases onto the new platform,
representing 250 million rows of passenger flight history data. The
project, scheduled to continue through 2009, is already netting the
airline better customer insight." Tozer noted we are "distributing
data through the British Airways intranet in support of the
company’s move to provide ‘employee self service’,
where employees do more of their jobs online through a web
interface.”
Both of these companies are interesting case studies about
implementation issues associated with large-scale, data-driven DSS.
Now it is necessary for me to do the follow-up, conduct email
interviews, get permissions, etc. to write cases for
DSSResources.com.
Sunday night I attended the Teradata University Network (TUN)
reception and dinner. I spoke with many friends like Mary Gros,
Teradata, and Hugh Watson, Univ. of Georgia and the TUN Senior
Director. I also had the opportunity to meet Tom Davenport, the
keynote speaker for the Monday morning General Session. Tom holds the
President’s Chair in Information Technology and Management at
Babson College and he is the author of 10 books and a leading
business-strategy analyst. Tom is also a friendly, approachable
fellow and a member of the "Paul Gray fan club". Paul is an emeritus
faculty member at Claremont Graduate School, a member of the TUN
advisory board, a good friend of mine and one of the senior scholars
in DSS and MIS. Paul was at the dinner as well. All in all we had a
great group of about 30 people for dinner ... Jill Dyché, Ron
Swift, Catherine Beise, Tim Cronan and Lakshimi Iyer sat with me at
dinner and so with great conversation, a little wine and good food, I
had a perfect evening.
The Monday morning session was loud, flashing and exciting. The
opening General Session was at "Club P". Mary-Jane Jarvis-Haig,
Hudson Bay Company, welcomed us and played the piano to
emphasize her message that it "takes more than one note to make music
and it takes data combined with more data to unleash the power of data
warehousing." She then unleased the sounds of many diverse instruments
to show they could create a harmony. Following the rocking Celtic band
“Off Kilter", Mike Koehler, Senior Vice President of Teradata,
and Bill Nuti, President and Chief Executive Officer of NCR, both
spoke. Nuti explain how NCR is using a Teradata warehouse and he
promised “We have invested to deliver the best data warehouse
platform and will continue to do so." After a break, Tom Davenport
discussed the importance of using analytics. According to Davenport,
“This is the dawning of the age of intelligence, and I’m
here to argue this morning that using analytics is a good thing, but
competing on analytics is an even better thing". Davenport also
shared findings from his survey of 32 companies, in which he said he
found that the top performers have a greater analytical orientation
than low performers. Tom did a great job of presenting the case for
computerized decision support. I'm planning to interview Tom for a
DSSResources.com Thought Leader feature.
The Monday noon press luncheon emphasized the results from a
Teradata Survey of more than 1100 international executives. Bob Fair,
vice president and chief marketing officer of Teradata, noted "Speed
and real-time decision support matter because, when you have the
customer on the phone or in front of you, or you have a truck in the
loading dock, you want to make sure that the right data is available
so that the best decisions can be made on the spot." Henry Morris,
Group VP at IDC, also spoke about the strengths of the Teradata
product.
After the press luncheon and a panel, I went to a Super session with
Claudia Imhoff, President of Intelligent Solutions. She argued that
"Centers of Excellence are necessary to coordinate integration
efforts as well as to create a business intelligence environment that
allows for flexibility, adaptability, and expansion." I stayed for the
next Super session with Jill Dyché from 3:30-4:30pm. Jill
discussed "Rethinking Data Integration: The Rise of CDI". Jill
Dyché and Evan Levy have a new book, Customer Data
Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth. Their book
defines Customer Data Integration (CDI), and explores why it is
critical to customer-focused business programs and links CDI to
Master Data Management. So from 22 sessions, I chose to listen to two
of the leading consultants in the broad area of data-driven decision
support. I wasn't disappointed in either session. You can read a
Thought Leader interview with Jill at DSSResources.com and I plan to
interview Claudia later this Fall.
I attended both the Monday and Tuesday Social events, but I left
both early. The Monday event was in the vendor area and I watched the
demonstrations in the Teradata booth and stopped briefly to check on
most of the other vendors. Rain dampened my spirits for the Tuesday
evening Disney Pleasure Island Rock 'n Roll Street Party. Also I was
tired because Tuesday morning had started at 7:30am when I went to
the Teradata University Network Board meeting. Noticeable progress
has been made to create a "free learning portal designed to help
information systems faculty to teach, learn about, and connect with
others in the fields of data warehousing, DSS/BI and database". TUN
is becoming a valuable resource for both Professors and students.
Please keep up the good work Hugh Watson, Jeff Hoffer, Barbara Wixom,
Mary Gros and all those involved with TUN. For more information visit
http://www.teradatauniversitynetwork.com .
Tuesday was a busy day for me, I was primarily meeting with vendors.
My main focus was on technologies for data visualization and for
master data management. In addition to the Compudigm folks, I met
Doug Cogswell, CEO of Advizor Solutions, and I attended his
3:30-4:30m session titled "Interactive Data Visualization Lets You
See Your Business Like Never Before". Check
http://www.visualinsights.com. ADVIZOR Visual Discovery Software is
in a niche related to Compudigm's seePOWER™, but each meets
different data analysis needs. I also spoke with Roger Haddad,
Chairman and CEO of KXEN, Knowledge Extraction Engines. My current
plan is to do more research and prepare an Ask Dan! column on data
visualization.
I also met Jane Griffin, a Deloitte Consulting partner, who is an
expert in Master Data Management. Jane was at the TUN board meeting.
She defines master data "as the information required to create and
maintain an enterprise-wide 'system of record' for your core business
entities". I hope to learn more from her on this topic.
Wednesday morning at 7:30am I met with Mary Gros and Dan Monahan,
Teradata Offshore Professional Services Director, to discuss the
upcoming International Conference on Decision Support Systems
(http://www.icdss2007.org) sponsored by AIS SIG DSS. Teradata is the
major Industry sponsor. We worked on logistics, discussed a data
warehousing/data-driven DSS workshop, discussed expanding Teradata
University Network services for India, travel plans, etc. I'm hoping
both Mary and Dan will be at ICDSS 2007. By 10am my family and I were
heading for the airport. This visit to PARTNERS was a day shorter than
in 2005, but it was productive, informative and interesting.
Please note: NCR Teradata paid Dan Power's expenses so he could
attend this conference.
References
Dyché, J. and E. Levy, Customer Data Integration: Reaching a
Single Version of the Truth, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2006.
Griffin, J., "Information Strategy: The Master Data Management
Challenge," DM Review Magazine,
May 2005, http://www.dmreview.com/article_sub.cfm?articleID=1026072
Power, D., Report from 2005 Teradata PARTNERS Conference, DSS News,
Vol. 6, No. 21, 09/25/2005.
Power, D., Report from Teradata Partners Conference, DSS News, Vol.
4, No. 20, 09/28/2003.
Power, D., Report from Teradata PARTNERS Conference 2002, DSS News,
Vol. 3, No. 21 10/13/2002.
Teradata Press Release, "Teradata's award-winning customers will
report best practices at 2006 PARTNERS User Group conference,
DSSResources.com, 09/15/2006, http://dssresources.com/news/1575.php .
Teradata Press Release, "More decisions, more complexity, more data:
Teradata survey validates global phenomenon", DSSResources.com,
09/18/2006, http://dssresources.com/news/1577.php .
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Purchase Dan Power's DSS FAQ book
83 frequently asked questions about computerized DSS
http://dssresources.com/dssbookstore/power2005.html
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What's New at DSSResources.COM
09/23/2006 Posted article by Clifford Alper, Kevin Brown and Gerald
R. Wagner, "New Software for Visualizing the Past, Present and
Future". Check the articles page.
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DSS Conferences
1. Pre-ICIS 2006: SIG DSS Research workshop, Sunday,
December 10, 2006, Milwaukee, WI.
Check http://dssresources.com/news/1494.php .
2. ICDSS 2007, 9th International Conference on DSS, Jan. 2-4, 2007,
Calcutta, India. Theme: Decision Support for Global Enterprises.
Check http://www.ICDSS2007.org .
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DSS News Releases - September 11, 2006 to September 22, 2006
Read them at DSSResources.COM and search the DSS News Archive
09/22/2006 Discover the real business value of search and
intelligence in free Oct. 17 Inxight webinar.
09/21/2006 ESRI Health GIS conference to connect health
professionals, Denver, CO, October 23-26, 2006.
09/21/2006 MicroStrategy Symposium in Rome to highlight business
intelligence success strategies, October 17-18, 2006.
09/21/2006 The University of Kansas Hospital licenses clinical
decision support solutions from Zynx Health.
09/20/2006 Teradata doubles Mango's Enterprise Data Warehouse
capacity.
09/20/2006 Despite strong demand, survey uncovers significant
barriers to adoption of open source databases.
09/19/2006 100 Healthcare organizations now benefit from Halogen
Employee Performance Management suite.
09/18/2006 Corona Direct deploys Teradata active data warehouse.
09/18/2006 Cantor Fitzgerald makes faster market decisions with
realtime analysis platform built on Kx Systems.
09/18/2006 Skytide reveals hidden details behind KPIs.
09/18/2006 More decisions, more complexity, more data: Teradata
survey validates global phenomenon.
09/18/2006 Netezza and Business Objects strengthen strategic
relationship.
09/15/2006 Teradata's award-winning customers will report best
practices at 2006 PARTNERS User Group conference.
09/15/2006 Business Arts releases Excel(R)-based planning tools that
provide an easy-to-use alternative for creating and managing project
schedules.
09/14/2006 Appellate Court affirms MicroStrategy does not infringe
against Business Objects '403 patent'.
09/14/2006 QuadraMed wins decision support contract From
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP).
09/14/2006 Nation's first interoperable emergency communications
service unveiled in Texas by Local, State and Federal officials.
09/14/2006 MicroStrategy Brazil recognizes three companies for their
business intelligence achievements.
09/14/2006 Teradata expands data warehouse maturity assessment
consulting.
09/13/2006 Go, Go Gadget Mouse: Microsoft unveils innovative
four-in-one device.
09/13/2006 Groundbreaking study on state of compliance readiness in
North America underscores gap between management expectations and
IT's ability to implement appropriate technologies and procedures.
09/13/2006 SAP advances effort to help public sector organizations
measure political, social and operational value of IT projects.
09/13/2006 Salesforce.com previews new Winter '07 release of
analytics and dashboard mash-up capabilities.
09/12/2006 InformationWeek 500 announces its list for 2006.
09/12/2006 EMC introduces next-generation web content management
software.
09/12/2006 Oracle delivers Oracle(R) Transportation Management 5.5.
09/11/2006 New predictive modeling software released by Johns
Hopkins University and DST Health Solutions.
09/11/2006 DRS Technologies receives $18.8 Million order to produce
battlefield digitization systems for the U.S. Army.
09/11/2006 ICMA and PERI announce the launch of the National
Emergency Management Network.
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DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2006 by D. J. Power. Please send your
questions to daniel.power@dssresources.com
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