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Not quite ready for IBM Planning Analytics Workspaces? You have options.

If you are one of the 70% of IBM customers who hasn’t yet migrated to Planning Analytics Workspaces from IBM TM1 Web or IBM Executive Viewer you haven’t done so for one or more of the following reasons.

You like what you’re currently using.
You’re not quite ready to adopt analytics.
You don’t like Planning Analytics Workspaces.

If this is your situation, you now […]

Analytics – Like a Mosquito in a Nudist Colony

Analytics are like a mosquito in a nudist colony. Why? Because there are so many opportunities! There is a problem, however, that not everyone thinks or behaves like a mosquito. They do not always see opportunities – the opportunities to apply analytics.

I routinely see opportunities for analysis in my daily life. Perhaps I was born with DNA to constantly observe […]

Why Do Once Successful Companies Fail

How can one explain why seemingly successful companies, such as Borders, Blockbuster, Circuit City, Wang Labs and Digital Equipment, go bankrupt or fall from a successful leadership position? I find it fascinating that almost half of the roughly 25 companies that passed the rigorous tests to be listed in the once-famous book by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search […]

Who Are the Animals of Analytics-Based Performance Management?

Ever notice how the personalities and dispositions of animals often resemble humans’? An organization’s pursuit of adopting analytics-based performance management involves personalities of all types. How are they like the creatures that populate our planet? Here is a zoology of analogous types of employees that you might recognize.

Lions – These are the managers whom co-workers respect. They are bold […]

Analytics – Big Data – Press Pause on the Stairmaster

I’d like to reflect with you my take on what I believe is driving the accelerating interest in analytics and Big Data.  Our lives have become hectic. We are working harder and longer. We talk about life balance, but for so many of us we continue to have life imbalance. Our jobs. Our families. Our security.

Every once in a while […]

Beethoven and Analytics – Based Enterprise Performance Management

I was educated as an industrial engineer, but I sometimes masquerade as an accountant. Engineers are not perceived as very worldly or sophisticated. They are often pictured with a shirt-pocket protector stuffed with pens. But some engineers, like me, do have appreciation for the performing arts. For example, I appreciate classical music. In particular, I admire and am in awe […]

Baseball + Analytics = Improved Performance

How does an organization create a culture of metrics? One example is the community of baseball, including its managers, team owners, scouts, players and fans. With better information and analysis of that information, baseball teams perform better – they win!

Legendary baseball manager Connie Mack’s 3,776 career victories is one of the most unbreakable records in baseball. Mack won nine pennants […]

Why Will Analytics Be the Next Competitive Edge?

Analytics is becoming a competitive edge for organizations. Once being a “nice-to-have,” applying analytics is now becoming mission-critical.

An Aug. 6, 2009, New York Times article titled, “For Today’s Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics”(1)  reminds me of the famous quote of advice to Dustin Hoffman’s character in his career breakthrough movie The Graduate. It occurs when a self-righteous Los Angeles businessman […]

Proactive analytics and unstructured data are the key components of an operational business performance management solution

Over the last twenty years, we have seen steady growth in the use and popularity of business performance management (BPM) solutions. If you look at business performance management use by functional area, you will find that it has been deployed in the approximate ratio of 60% financial, 30% marketing and 10% operational. Thus, if you have been using business performance […]

Business Performance Management: Build vs. Buy

While most organizations wouldn’t even consider building their own transaction processing system, the build vs. buy decision is most definitely on the minds of individuals charged with leveraging business performance management systems (BPM) today.

Tools vs. Applications

Software technology, within any given market niche, usually begins with the introduction of tools that enable early adopters to develop their own application solutions. These […]

What can a business learn from the NFL draft

The NFL draft is in Chicago this weekend. Commentators are ripe with analysis of draft selections. Players are being compared with past choices and team needs.

Every team asks four questions when choosing a draftee.

What does the team need?
Does this person have the capabilities to do the job?
What is their character, will they fit into my environment?
What […]