When Life Gets in the Way of A Great Blog Post
May 15, 2008
If you’ve read any of my previous postings, you know that I put a lot of thought and detail into each of my blogs. I have to say sorry that I’ve missed you all lately, but life has started to get in the way. I have several partially complete. But then…
This week - Urgent priorities with my new client, Ipsos, and other major client needs are driving my time. I also have a member of my team in town from Newfoundland.
Last week - I started to come up to speed with Ipsos and had meetings all day each day.
Prior week - I was finishing my Data Strategy/Architecture role with Kroger which required me to max out each day.
But, at night… Had lots of family things going on…you know what it’s like trying to balance work/home life. 
!
I’ve got one finishing high school, one just finished her first year of college. Two proms. One 8th grade formal. One child going to Orlando for two weeks, another going to Destin for a week. Three awards ceremonies. One child with recent medical issues and blah blah blah and so on….
So, I am trying to get back in to balance and expect to reach a proper rhythm again soon. Or my head will explode! I miss you all and hope to post some great content soon.
Sphere: Related ContentBusiness Intelligence, Country Music, Peter Drucker and You!
April 27, 2008
I get a lot of emails every day! I got this one that I didn’t delete and then felt strong enough to comment on it.
“In a recent survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), nearly 80% of executives said that a Business Intelligence strategy would improve their company’s ability to enhance customer service and react quickly to market changes. However, fewer than 15% felt their organization has applied best practices to its use of business data.”
I love music. I love all types of music. I am not a Country Music fan though. I am a fan of Country Music Song Titles. There’s a title to a country music song (no music yet!) that I made up about the business problem that is one of the biggest problems in the entire economy. Here’s what it is: Companies go to great lengths to hire top notch people. Then they give them business responsibilities and the authority to act on the business responsibilities. Then, they don’t give them the complete tools to get the right analysis to get to the “right decision.” So, here’s my song title:
“You don’t know what you have done by the time you’ve already done it”
Is that right out of Nashville or what? Decision-makers and categorically speaking, Knowledge Workers” are nowadays tasked with making a lot of very timely and important decisions. After we have them on-board with what famous business professor, Dr. Peter Drucker, says is the 20% unique aspects of the business (he professed that 80% of all businesses are the same)…once they really gain expertise and experience in the business, we don’t necessarily give them the right tools to analyze their data and the general performance of the business. Perhaps another song title goes like this:
“I know she knows, but I can’t get it out of her”
Certainly, what we mean here is that the data is in the system. The person just doesn’t know how to get it out!” Conceptual thinking skills are not the norm in the Information technology world. Operating software systems, running networks, ensuring security, closing double-entry book keeping systems, and the normal “run the business” part of IT constitutes a majority of the activity. How’s this for another song:
“His left brain won’t talk to his right brain, so he won’t answer the door.”
OK, perhaps that one didn’t work….
The lack of relevant facts or real understanding in the decision making process is so apparent to person trying to sort through all of the data that surrounds them. Recently, I read 2 more statistics:
• More information has been produced in the last 30 years than in the previous 5,000
• Corporate data is doubling every 3 years
I am myself, “what happens to all of this data?” Another song title?
“I spent too much time looking for my data when the decision timeframe has come and gone”
Gartner calls it the “Fact Gap.” It’s kind of a “decision gridlock” which even with gas at $ 4.00 per gallon or higher is what we are going to see this summer on the construction-laden highways!
So, how do you figure out whether there is a Fact Gap in your organization or business? Perhaps there’s truly is a Fact Gap in your business? Here are some potential symptoms for this:
Excessive discounting
• Expensive marketing programs that do not result in revenue enhancement
• New product introductions are less successful than expected
• Low inventory turns per year
From a knowledge worker viewpoint, you can start to see symptoms where decision making that is unscientific resulting in …
• Inefficiency in production
• Missed opportunities
• Inability to react proactively
• Lost market share
• Excessive expense
• Lost revenue and profits
• Customer dissatisfaction
Perhaps one last song title will provide a summary of my topic:
“She turned data into information and he didn’t even know he had the answers!”
If we can turn data into information and empower business decision makers with the information they need to run the enterprise, there’s certainly a true opportunity to gain competitive advantage.
Sphere: Related ContentA tool that will help you ideate!
April 23, 2008
According to a recent Accenture Survey (April 3, 2008) - “Nearly two-thirds of 601 executives in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada claimed that their organizations business strategy is either totally or largely dependent on innovation.”
Ideation, it’s puts the Ying in your Yang - because it leads to innovation… But how do we go about thinking about thinking? One way it to take advantage of what been done. But first lets talk about Homer.
I love that episode when Homer Simpson runs for the office of the sanitation department. His campaign slogan was “Can’t someone else do it”? Well, if its been done before - whether right or wrong, lets learn from it. Recently I have been making use of a tool that helps me think of terms…a tool that was created by a company that has a high dollar per share value and we all have come to know and love (and love to hate) - Google.
There are times when it’s hard to be exhaustive. I remember the times when my kids were young - at the end of a story they would ask…what else daddy? It’s not unlike situations that we are faced with today. When we are talking to the business or to peers alike, its always the case - what else? Today, I am going to recommend a tool that I sometimes use to help me build out a framework for analysis. Well, that might be an overstatement. It is like using a hammer to build a house - it’s just one tool of many.
The situation: you are meeting with your customer to frame a strategic discussion or to set a structure for analysis. For example, you are meeting with the business leadership to discuss a database consolidation effort - there is no precedent set and your beginning point is a real white board. It’s helpful to begin with an analysis framework - or a conceptual model that represents the enterprise and its nuances.
Often times, its good to look at a matrix - where there is relevance on where the rows and columns meet. On the left side of the matrix, you represent driving factors that feed in to a decision. But what is the list? Where do you start? Now, we need something across the top… Maybe the approach to scaling may make sense.
Yes, we can do most of it from our experience. But it’s always helpful to query some good data. Google has been doing data analysis around terms (and their relationship to terms) for years and are quite good at it. And they have opened up some of their findings. Of course, anything Google is very large. To manage this they exposed a database with a simple front end.
The concept is simple; type in some items in a list (or set as they call it) and click either ‘Large Set’ or ‘Small Set’. The application sends your input to their Google brain - runs some analytics on relationships and relevance of your terms to what others have ‘put together’ at some point during the not so distant past - in other words, Google is learning what terms kind of relate to other terms. What returns will absolutely astonish you, make you happy or leave you sad. Sometimes it returns nuggets of thought that you may have missed. Sometimes it returns things that don’t make sense - but you have to get good at using this tool!
TRY IT HERE: http://labs.google.com/sets
The magic here (or the power to harness) is using the results to think about things in a different way. Make use of the terms to abstract to higher levels or reach exhaustion of set terms. Once you figure out how to make use of Google’s term analysis, it will help you reach exhaustion - ok, that’s a punny stretched a bit…. what I mean to say is that it will help you think of those things on the tip of your tongue or terms hiding deeply within your brains - even presenting new things that you should consider.
Of course, everything is clickable and it initates a Google page - ready for you to continue your exploring!
For example, when I type in; love, peace and joy and click the Small Set. It returns the following:
- peace
- love
- joy
- kindness
- gentleness
- goodness
- faithfulness
- patience
- faith
- hope
- longsuffering
- happiness
- meekness
- jesus
Clicking the ‘Grow Set’ returns:
- peace
- love
- joy
- faith
- hope
- happiness
- kindness
- patience
- gentleness
- goodness
- life
- faithfulness
- god
- family
- humility
- prayer
- compassion
- friendship
- beauty
- jesus
- forgiveness
- truth
- generosity
- spirituality
- christianity
- trust
- justice
- courage
- friends
- charity
- wisdom
- gratitude
- honesty
- strength
- qotd
- bible
- grace
- blessings
- respect
- christian
- healing
- success
- freedom
- religion
- light
- mercy
- loyalty
- heaven
- longsuffering
Going the other way (technology), when I type in (Oracle, Microsoft, IBM) the small set returns:
- oracle
- microsoft
- ibm
- sap
- sun
- cisco
- hp
- novell
- intel
- bea
- sybase
- adobe
- citrix
Growing this returns:
- oracle
- microsoft
- ibm
- hp
- cisco
- intel
- sun
- novell
- 3com
- dell
- sap
- apple
- accenture
- symantec
- cognos
- adobe
- compaq
- sony
- toshiba
- amd
- acer
- fujitsu
- manugistics
- citrix
- agile
- lexmark
- marque
- sybase
- linksys
- webmethods
- epson
- apc
- bea
- deloitte
- netgear
- seagate
- ariba
- tibco
- linux
- ugs
- ptc
- canon
Going fruity and typing in; apple, banana, cantaloupe returns:
- apple
- banana
- cantaloupe
- pineapple
- apricot
- watermelon
- grapefruit
- orange
- grapes
- lemon
- cherry
- avocado
- lime
- mango
- blueberry
Growing the set returns:
- cantaloupe
- banana
- apple
- orange
- cherry
- lemon
- strawberry
- mango
- pineapple
- apricot
- pear
- grape
- watermelon
- blueberry
- papaya
- coconut
- kiwi
- chocolate
- lime
- blackberry
- grapefruit
- peach
- assorted
- pomegranate
- raspberry
- lychee
- tamarind
- vanilla
- cinnamon
- grapes
- sweet
- mint
- avocado
- plum
- blended
- cranberry
- tomato
- citrus
Want to know grocery stores - type in Kroger, Tesco, Bigg’s and Google Sets will return:
- tesco
- kroger
- wal mart
- safeway
- albertsons
- carrefour
- publix
- winn dixie
- sainsbury
- target
- asda
- walgreens
- meijer
- costco
- rite aid
- cvs
- food lion
- waitrose
- auchan
- kmart
- somerfield
- fred meyer
- harris teeter
- k mart
- home depot
- morrisons
- heb
- sainsbury’s
- hypernova
- ahold
- albertson’s
- sam’s club
- makro
- piggly wiggly
- ingles
- co op
- office depot
- globus
- kaufland
- metro
- giant
- eckerd
- sears
- walmart
- supervalu
- giant eagle
- king soopers
One word of caution - it is in Google’s Labs - their playground. Its fun to play there, but you may get sand in your pants!
Have Fun!
~ Scott Felten
Sphere: Related Content
We Win When We Talk About Them
April 17, 2008
I never thought I would pick up sales tips from James Carville, but sure enough it has happened. Over the past weekend I was watching one of the Sunday morning political shows, and Carville, joined by his wife Mary Matalin, was discussing the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Specifically he discussed one of the tenets of running a great campaign he learned from former President Clinton, who love him or hate him, was a great campaigner. The idea he put forth was so simple but so correct. “If we are talking about them, we are winning.” “If we are talking about us, we are losing.” Now, the idea behind his comment is perhaps a little different in the context of a political campaign as opposed to a sales call, but how incredibly insightful is that. The best sales calls often involve very little “selling.” If the person across the table from you is talking, and you are discussing them - not you - you are winning. I have experienced sales calls where you trot out every feature, function, advantage, benefit, company history, past clients, and on and on, only to walk away saying to myself, “I just don’t think we will win that one.” By the same token, many of the best calls I have ever made, involve asking questions, and then listening to someone else talk about themselves. Yes I can tell people LUCRUM is Cincinnati’s best provider of Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Collaboration, (all of which I believe) until I am blue in the face, but if I don’t understand them first, I am losing.
I observed this first hand today while on a sales call with two of my colleagues. We had a great meeting that lasted well over an hour, very little of which was spent discussing LUCRUM. In doing so, we identified numerous business problems LUCRUM can solve through our understanding of technology. More importantly we took the first steps toward building a new relationship with them based on understanding of their unique business needs. No pushy sales pitch. No dog and pony show. Just having a real and meaningful conversation about them When we are talking about them… we win.
Sphere: Related ContentNext Generation of the Data Warehouse (DW 2.0)
April 10, 2008
I had coffee today with one of the authors of the new book, “DW 2.0: The Architecture for the Next Generation of Data Warehousing”, Derek Strauss. Derek worked with William (Bill) H. Inmon and Genia Neushloss to write the book and it will be available July of this year (’08). His company (Gavroshe) becomes the first independent consulting company certified by Bill Inmon as DW 2.0 Architects. We talked about why DW 2.0 and what makes it different and he had some really interesting comments.
First of all, there is that big statistic that Gartner has reported…“50% of Data Warehousing will have limited acceptance or be considered failures.” Derek commented that it’s frustrating to be in that area and to hear that statistic bantered around all the time. He challenges the premise…what is meant by the term ‘data warehouse’. After all, one man’s ODS is another’s datamart is another’s warehouse is another’s database is another’s xls sheet containing GL entries. So, by setting a standard (DW2.0), it sets the baseline; OK now we know what a data warehouse is.
Second, they wanted to bring corrections to the DW environment. There are real issues around the traditional notion of a data warehouse. We talked about two of them at length.
Data currency – lifecycle of Data. Guess what, data has a lifecycle. Who knew? Well some of us experienced folks have known this for a while – but within the DW2.0, this notion is has a separation of concerns (to steal a SOA term). Think about what happens over the years as data decays. The use of an attribute changes over time as the business’ competitive landscape changes and they respond. What happens to that data – do we declare a new attribute at some point, do we change it and push the new meaning upstream, do we just live with it? One of the key pillars (or sectors to use Inmon’s terminology) of DW 2.0 is that the lifecycle of data is embraced. Here is how it nets out… Refer to Figure 1 at the end of this entry.
- Interactive Sector- The place where high performance data warehouse processing occurs (Very current data – Transaction data)
- Integrated Sector - The place where integrated data resides (Current data – Relative to the business needs; hourly, daily, etc…)
- Near Line Sector - The place where data with a lower probability of access resides (Less than current data – Also relative to the business needs; weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc…)
- Archival Sector- The place where data with a truly low probability of access resides (Older data – We all know what goes here J)
Unstructured data – emails, documents, faxes, etc… Traditional DWs had zero notion of unstructured data. A good analogy is the communications that occur between two people. The experts say that 80% of that communication is non-verbal and only 20% consists of the actual words we say (fun topic for another time). The same is true with data. For example…a CRM promises to give you a 360 degree view of your customer. Great, except that they forgot about the communications that we had with the customer. It’s like saying that the complete view is made with only 20% of the data. The DW 2.0 architecture makes use of ‘probabilistic matching’ when looking at relationships between unstructured and unstructured data as well as between structured and unstructured data. Now you have a 360 degree view of you customer!
Enterprise Metadata Repository. We did not talk much about the metadata aspect because no one really likes talking about metadata J. But, threaded throughout the architecture is the notion of metadata that has enterprise reach and natural to the data warehouse – a tight coupling.
In looking at DW 2.0, it is exciting because of the reasons outlined above. It was a struggle on several levels to have ‘one warehouse’ with no notion of data lifecycle. On one level, it’s hard to treat data equally, when you really know that some stuff should be retired and some is volatile because it was just born. To know that the teenaged data that behaves badly is managed in the same place, the same way as the 20/30 something data that is more mature. Also, when dealing with the finance folks, it’s easier to speak their language. No need to request money for another ODS when we already have a data warehouse…rather, we need to address the data lifecycle…data depreciation – or planning ahead; data accrual! Once they understand that data is an assets and that assets depreciated or have a lifecycle, we can engage in conversations about how we need to manage this condition.
Of course, since DW 2.0 has separation of concern around currency – we can employ the technology that makes the best sense for that stage of the data (Oracle to handle the Interactive Sector, SQL Server to both the Integrated and Near Line Sectors, and Archiving on DB2 – just an example.)
Then leveraging emerging investments in MOSS becomes strategic to the warehouse (fodder for another day).
Lastly, since DW 2.0 has been trademarked, there will be no mistake about its composition. Only the original authors and architects will be able to make a change. Given the track record of these folks, I think that is a good idea. For more information on DW 2.0 visit http://inmoncif.com/home/.
In summary, DW 2.0 Advantages…
- Hold data at the lowest detail,
- Hold data to infinity (or at least to your retirement),
- Not cost huge amounts of money,
- Have integrity of data and still have online high-performance transaction processing,
- Link structured data and unstructured data,
- Tightly couple metadata to the data warehouse environment,
- Support different kinds of processing without sacrificing response time, and
- Support changes of data over time.
Take Care,
Scott Felten 2.0
Figure 1 - DW 2.0 Architecture
Sphere: Related Content
Run IT as a Business: Part 2, How?
April 8, 2008
In “Run IT as a Business: Part 1, Why…?”, I stated that we need to run IT as a business because our very existence is at stake. For IT to remain a factor alive it needs to compete. I talked about IT acting as a monopoly within the average company and how monopolies are bad for everyone; high prices, long wait and bad service. I also noted how competition is like the sandpaper that makes that rough wood beautiful and safe to handle. Well, today’s post is about the How.
The question then becomes how do we compete? There are strategic and tactical answers to this question. First, the strategic. Very easy…one word… “VALUE”. To compete in an economy one must provide more value than another. Its as easy as a man buying cloths but can be as complex as a women buying cloths J. I say this tongue-in-cheek, but the value equation is not straight-lined. Rather it has an infinite number of arrangements that are different to everyone and changes over time. Lets take a closer look.
Given: Value is relative worth, merit, or importance (www.dictionary.com).
Expanded, value can be represented as follows:
When we put this definition on the table, we cannot pretend that we don’t see the impact that image and relationship has with value. Nor can we escape that iron triangle (Time, Cost, Functionality)…and this value equation adds a fourth dimension; quality. I suppose that adding quality as a fourth dimension would make for a nice pyramid representation of that Iron Triangle (if someone creates one, I’ll post it here and give you a nice reference).
Take the example of my car buying value equation over time.
|
When |
Drivers |
Outcome |
|
Teenaged boy |
Car had to be fast, cheap and wanted it now. |
Picked up a 72 cutlass from some guy living in a trailer down by the river. Got it now, but it lasted 2 years. |
|
Married, first car together (how romantic) |
Cheap, cheap and good on gas. |
Bought a new 1985 Ford Escort for $6250. Financed it but wife wrecked – we drove it rebuilt until…see next box. |
|
Wife pregnant with first baby and I was working a lot. |
Price had to be decent, but wanted to reclaim some of my coolness. Wanted it black and sporty. |
Purchased a used Camaro from an Acura dealership. They took my wrecked Escort sight unseen and let me just finance the gap (what a sucker I was). |
|
Wife pregnant with third baby and we had no money. |
Needed it now and needed a miracle. |
Father in law gives us his Dodge Omni as it comes off of lease. I wasn’t choosy! |
|
Kids are growing older. |
Wanted a good quality van with leather and all the options so I can honor my wife. Wanted an extended warranty from a good place. |
Purchased a Chevy van with all the bells and whistles. Still have it, fantastic service department. 140k miles and running great! |
|
I turned 44. Two of the three girls are now driving. |
Wanted a sports car (convertible), black with manual transmission (so no one else in my family can drive it). Price still important as is image and relationship of dealer. |
Entered in to a partnership with the local dealership and picked up a new Crossfire with lifetime warranty. They know me by name and that’s important to me. |
Value is value, but it changed for me over time. Notice how even my term for buying a car changes…(picked up, bought, purchased, then partnership). At each stage of my life, I still made my decisions based on the value that I perceived, but my needs and current situation dictated which of the value elements were important to me.
It’s the same way with your customers – whether internal or external customers, they each have their own unique value equation and their current circumstances dictate even their own perceptions of their value equation. Often, it is a moving target that even changes between project stages. It is up to the IT leader to engage the customer and build a relationship – this means that during this partnering, we need to be learning how to calibrate our solutions into their value expectations.
But this is only an overview of the first part; strategy. The next part is where the work begins, tactical. How do we demonstrate to the organization that we have delivered this value? Tune in next time for Part Three: Run IT as a Business – Demonstrating the value of IT.
Drive safely,
~ Scott Felten
Sphere: Related ContentBI Momentum - Anticipate the Direction!
April 3, 2008
Our family went south for spring break and I was ready for the journey! Along the way we saw trucks stopped by the side of the road and one of my kids asked what they were doing. I let them know that those truckers were getting some shut-eye and that by law, they were required to rest. She asked my why their engines were running. I told her that they leave them running because it takes too long to start them up - Diesel engines were made to run and you just could not start them like a car and take off. That got me thinking…
Imagine a very large ocean liner sitting in the ocean waiting for the proper direction with engines off…they receive their direction. First, they have to muster the crew, communicate the plan and assign roles (hopefully they have coverage and don’t have to hire anyone - especially those hard-to-find skill sets). Next, they have to take the time to start the engines (there’s a risk here that they might have some problems with their technology or engines, since they were off, their working according to spec is an unknown). Now that their engines are on, it’s not like they can just make that turn towards their new direction. They have to spend time to reach momentum before they can make a turn towards the destination. That’s a lot of risk and wasted time. Additionally, when that shipped was stopped, you know it was being pushed along by currents and winds – it in fact did not have control over its destination and it was vulnerable to storms. There was even the threat of being boarded and taken over by pirates!
If that ship had been moving, they would have been able to make the changes necessary right away. Risks would have been minimized because everything was already up and running. The crew would have been fully staffed since there were all engaged. Compared to the ship, the rudder is very small, but it’s this very effective design that controls the direction of the ship. This represents leadership, but this is the topic of a future blog.
One negative aspect of having the ship moving and maintaining momentum is the risk of it moving away from the destination – going the wrong way. That’s where the skills of a good captain come in to play. The captain controls this risk by anticipating the direction of the destination. Keeping momentum is mandatory; leadership and experience control risks.
How is your BI momentum? Is your BI effort like that ocean liner with engines off?
Are you waiting for tool and database selection or architecture decisions? Don’t, because its not about technology, its about a relationship with the business. Yes, standards are good, but you must engage the business and keep that momentum.
Are you waiting for the business to have a vision? Guess what, chances are that they will not. They need help getting to the next level. They are focused on keeping the place running. We (IT) must partner with the business and lead them to a place where they can lead themselves.
Are you waiting for the business to speak your language? Shame on you. J It’s our job to speak their language. They are the client, we need to engage them on their level – and I don’t mean stepping down. More accurately, we need to step up…step up to their level of understanding of the business at the most intimate of levels. When we engage them we not only need to keep up with them, we need to lead them – and this takes skill.
Are you afraid of starting something that you are not ready for? ROI is the mediator here and strategy is the context. Either it’s good or its not good. Either it supports the strategy or it doesn’t. If ROI says that we should move forward and it fits within our strategy, then we have a fiduciary responsibility to do so. We are bound by ethics to act in the best interest of the company, its stockholders and its customers. Admittedly, ROI is fuzzy at best – but somewhere, at some time we need to be able to reduce opportunities to value and filter that value proposition through our strategic grid.
Activity breeds productivity!
Keep your ship moving, gauge the wind
and reduce risk by anticipating the direction.
Happy Sailing,
~ Scott Felten
Sphere: Related ContentBusiness Intelligence/Data Management Capabilities
March 31, 2008
The Beauty of the Wheel!
Or is it the ‘Magic’ of the wheel….
Communicating an idea efficiently is challenging, especially when that idea covers many IT functions that can each by themselves stand alone. In an effort to communicate our Business Intelligence and Data Management capabilities in a way that takes less than a 7 day training, we put together this graphic. Of course, the colors were selected by IT guys and not by our marketing department, but we feel that we have captured the essence of our complete capabilities within the BI/DM space - the stages and relationships of our capabilities as well as the breadth of our talent.
Internally, we call this model the FABI Wheel. Why FABI? It stands for the (Henry) Ford Approach to Business Intelligence, and was inspired by our smart guys (and gals) here at LUCRUM. This unique approach is important because it is an approach to thinking about business intelligence and data management in a way that is not driven by technology or bad habits. It is driven by the pursuit of delivering value quickly by unhiding data in a method that puts ownership in the hands of the business people. We know that BI is a journey, we have been there before and this is how we think. Let me explain…
First, the outer wheel has three sections; Strategic, Tactical and Operational. This communicates that LUCRUM has offerings in each of those areas. We have a mature strategy and can engage at these levels.
Strategic. This is the level that can set us apart from others. It is here that we help our customers set direction. If we engage here correctly, we will win a client for the long term. At this level, we are architects (helping to ‘plan the city’, where the city represents systems) - we build relationships and architect solutions here.
Tactical. This is where we are the builders. We deploy as warehouse architects and engage to carry out the plan. We are builders and implementers. Our unique collaborative and iterative approach sets apart from the rest. We focus all our energies on delivering value and doing it quickly!
Operational. This is where the results are seen. This is the 10% of the ice berg that is visible. We are deploying here, always listening and always understanding. We are working to bring the parts of the customer’s organization together - we are working as facilitators of change.
Second, the outer wheel is self-sustaining and self-connecting. It’s easy to see the transitions; but notice the transition from Operational to Strategic. Within the operational phase we are always listening and always understanding…so that we can complete the feedback loop and build ‘the next strategy’. As we deploy reports, cubes, dashboards, we are touching the area of the business that is strategic, they need the unhidden information to make the best decisions. Well, there is always that next round of unhidden information and it is here that we make relationships and bridge for the next opportunity - which naturally begins with strategy; we are either building out the strategy to the next level or developing game changing strategy with the customer. It’s how we provide extra value to our clients and mature our relationships.
Third, the inner wheel does have connections to each of the arrows both before and after. These connections are fuzzy, but real. As we operate within one arrow, we have direct opportunity to grow our business in both the next one and the previous one. For example, if we are building a warehouse, we will have visibility in to the next effort, reporting. But don’t forget the previous arrow’s opportunities ‘data integration’. If we get tasked with the data integration portion, don’t forget the previous opportunity ‘MDM and Metadata’. It’s not possible to integrate without a strategy for MDM and Metadata - how far we go with this depends upon our relationship with the customer. The magic of the inner wheel is to help us understand both where we are and where the opportunities come from (looking forwards and backwards at the same time) all to deliver value to the client so that they are successful.
Fourth, finally, putting it altogether, we are focused on getting the right information to the right people delivered the right way at the right time…so that our customers can engage their business and succeed. This is the heart of the wheel.
~Scott Felten
Sphere: Related ContentRun IT as a Business: Part 1, Why…?
February 27, 2008
So I picked up the rough piece of wood and the even more rough piece of sandpaper. I am thinking to myself; my dad’s loosing it here. Wouldn’t I use something smooth to smooth out the wood? I was 9, I was wrong and of course, Dad was right. I stored that bit of information for future use; it takes rougher things to make rough things smooth. Not sure why, it just works.
Fast forward many years and many innovations. We find ourselves in a strange marketplace. Technology has advanced greatly, prices have dropped, capabilities abound. But, more importantly, the mystery of IT is gone. No longer do we have two classes of people; those who “know computers” and “those who don’t”. No longer can IT go away for a year and bring a solution to the business and everyone is happy. The business has called our bluff. Everyone knows technology…better stated; everyone has been assimilated.
Now the challenge for IT: How do we exist? This is rule number one, the rule of self-preservation.
Let’s set the stage properly and call it what it is. Within a company, IT is a monopoly and monopoly is bad for everyone. Decomposing this brings us through the following:
- Single source for anything is called a monopoly. A monopoly means there is no competition and this is bad. My daughter recently hurt her ankle playing soccer and needed an MRI. If we were in Canada or France, the average wait time for an MRI is months. This is because their governments have a monopoly on healthcare. Since there is no monopoly here in the US, we simply asked who was the best, how much they charge and who could see us right away. After all, these companies are competing for my spend. It turns out that we could been seen right away. The place was new, the staff was friendly and the rates were competitive (we have a high deductible policy and are incented to ‘shop-around’).
“Competition is rough! Yes, well stop whining. Sandpaper is also rough, but look what it can do to the wood!” S.Felten (you can quote me on that 
)
- Not having competition, IT is left unchecked. Without sandpaper, the wood remains rough and unfinished; it doesn’t look pretty and it can actually hurt you when handling it. When IT is left unchecked, it is left to its own perceptions of strategy, tactics and operations. The best that IT can do is to rise to their own level of understanding and take on the characteristics of their leader. They approach the business from the comfort of their passions and toolsets, holding on in emotional ways to their solutions that they birthed in years past. In rare occasions this is ok. However, most of the time the value that IT brings is not calibrated to the value that the business needs.
- Unchecked IT bloats in the areas of Time, Money and Service. Competition works on every aspect of the iron triangle (Time, Scope and Money) – keeping them in check. Left unchecked, IT has the tendency to slip on time to market for solutions. Without the urgency of someone nipping at your heels, you tend to walk when you could run. Since IT is already budgeted and accounted for, what is the cost? Cost gets lost when you don’t pay cash. It’s hard to see the real costs for IT since they are spread out between divisions, projects, programs and departments. Finally, the level of service is hard to keep high when you don’t “have to” incur the pain of customer service; lets face it, we nature tells us to avoid pain.
- The business must move forward and often goes around IT. When we first heard of outsourcing, admit it, we panicked. You’re going to let who do what? We all get frustrated when we hear of shadow IT groups popping up in marketing, finance, operations, etc…IT has a genuine concern and desire to use their powers for good, to make things better, faster and cheaper, to dispel the powers of evil. These are noble goals, but we have to think at the enterprise level. IT for IT sake is not valid. We must partner with the business at the most intimate levels. Did you hear the one that goes:
Q. What’s the difference between a data architect and a terrorist?
A. You can negotiate with a terrorist.
Let’s face it, we need to compete to stay in existence. But we also need to remember that this competition is good. Remember the sandpaper – we all want a quality, finished product that is both nice to look at and doesn’t hurt when you touch it.
Next post: “Run IT as a Business: Part 2, How?”… Coming soon.
Happy Sanding!
~ Scott Felten
Sphere: Related ContentTurducken (Slicing customers differently)
February 26, 2008
Talk about complexity, I will never forget the day that I first learned about Turducken! For those of you who don’t know, a Turducken is exactly as it sounds; a chicken stuffed in a duck, stuffed in a turkey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turducken). You know, the classical hierarchal relationship of meat taken to the extreme. They go for about US $100 after shipping, but the adventurer can stuff their own. When I think of customers I sometimes think of the Turducken – Let me break this down a bit.
I have always thought that the most important thing that a company can do is to keep their customers. Makes sense to me, after all there is that great concept that its “X times as expensive to attract a new customer than to keep one”. Now don’t get me wrong, I would walk on broken glass without shoes uphill in the snow to help my customer with their Oracle Forms 4.5 on top of a My Sql implementation in a Citrix environment running off of a 1982 walkman radio. But when businesses say customers, they know what they are really talking about. But let’s decompose this a bit more.
You all know those sayings – the ones we all know and love…
- Customers are great!
- The customer is always right!
- Customers may not be right but they are never wrong!
- Our Customers are number 1!
Well, over the years I have come to modify that statement a bit and here’s why. “Customer” is a large group to take into analysis at face value. Customers are a complex group. Companies shell out a lot of moolah to understand this group. After all, this group is responsible for the business’ inertia. When companies wish to understand who their customers are, they don’t simply run a ‘customer listing’ and read through it while attending some boring IT meetings about data governance. They spend big money and they head down the road that ultimately leads to … Segmentation.
Segmentation is the classification or taxonomy of the business’ customers. They are usually based on habits or lifestyles plus some kind of loyalty factor. This data is usually derived by their purchase behavior – at the purchase or cart level. There you go; you now have X-subsets of customer. The theory is that each has their own set of core beliefs, common principles and behaviors. The goal is to then approach them in a more intimate manner, allowing both a level of customization and attaining some economies of scale.
However, let’s take another look at customers. This time lets add two driving forces; Business Intelligence and a potential recession. The impending economic fear will be the catalyst for innovation, as it always is. To maintain market share or to at least out pace our competition, companies will need to do something different and the conditions seem to be perfect. Lets pick up the story from above and write the ending.
Tom is returning from lunch when he just happens to walk past the marketing folks. They are talking about how to approach the “young and fun city dwellers” segment and how that must be different than the “impoverished with kids in college” segment. As he rounds the corner, he passes the finance folks as they make mention that yesterday’s margins are down 3.2% and that translates to a need for some kind of new report because it will impact profitability. Almost back to his office, he passes the sales folks who are chattering about how the “young and fun city dweller” are buying more and that even the “impoverished with kids in college” seemed to spend their tax refunds this week. And it hits him…
What if we combine this data? What if we work together? What if we look at customer loyalty and segmentation, but we add a dimension called ‘profitability’? Like reading the last 20 pages in a good novel, Tom plays this through and nets out as follows:
If we look at our segmentation of customers, within each group:
- We have customers who are loyal and profitable – these are out best customers. Our number one job is to keep these customers. Things I can do are; understand who they are and engage them on a more intimate level, customized for them (special offerings, internet bindings, tools, tips, personalized greeting, etc…), surround them with rewards and incentives (redirecting the money spent on the next group).
- We have customers who are not loyal and not profitable – why do we waste our resources on these folks? Or maybe it makes sense to cut them off completely. Recently Sprint gave their top 1,000 problem customers the boot (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070602131.html). I’m not going to mention the online movie delivery service I use, but it seems the more I rent the longer it takes to get my movies. If I rent only a few, I get really good service. Coincidence?
- Now we need to understand how to make our profitable but non-loyal customers more loyal. How can we deliver better service, what promotes loyalty, maybe we should ask this subset?
- And we need to understand how to make our non profitable but loyal customers more profitable. Can we push higher margin items, does it make sense to engage them with alternatives, blend costs/products to move margin?
Of course this is only the beginning. BI can bring a depth of understanding to those who look across the enterprise to bring data together. The above scenario is only the tip of the ice berg – it’s the beginning point of an in-depth analysis that will deliver real and actionable information. Look for information to unhide and your customers will flock to your side!
Now for the perfect customer saying, feel free to quote me on this:
“Our best customers are best!”
It’s the perfect storm out there and BI just might be the generator that keeps your business’ lights on. If you do lose power, please make sure to eat up that Turducken – it only lasts a day in the fridge!
~ Scott Felten
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