My "business" - Business Intelligence and OLAP

In 1996 I started work with a company called Arbor software.  I had worked with their flagship product "Essbase" in a previous company and was attracted to the company, it's product and most of all its people.  To this day, the team that I worked with at Arbor remains my model of stability, entrepreneurship, leadership and intelligence.  I just cannot say what a privilege it was to work with this talented group of people.

What amazes me though looking back over the last 12-14 years is that the landscape for consumers in business intelligence largely has not changed.  I remember a sales meeting in Jacksonville in 1996 when the concept of the "analysis gap" was first mentioned.  Numerous white papers have been published on this concept since and it has even found mention in a few books.

The part of this that amazes me today is that even now in 2008 companies are still having problems with the basic "blocking and tackling" needed to overcome the analysis gap.

What?  How can that be?

What about all of that wonderful technology that came out of the "feature and function" wars of the late 1990s?  What about the new "enterprise-wide" profile of most of the BI vendors?  Wasn't all that great technology, strategy and enterprise-wide integration supposed to "magically" solve the analysis gap in every corporation that bought into one of these technologies?

Not surprisingly, the answer to that last question is a resounding "NO".

Yes, companies have bought in the speculated value-add that business intelligence solutions provide.  Yes, they have spent untold millions of dollars on systems integrations to tie in all manner of data sources to be digested by a wider audience.

Why are people still using spreadsheets?  Why are they still asking for static reports from the ERP systems?  Why are they still using (for the most part) technologies that were considered "mature" ten years ago?

For the simple fact that most companies know what they've bought.  Most also know where their data is stored.  They have incorporated consultants to come in and "connect the dots", but they have NOT taken the last step and really taught the business how to use these wonderful new toys (for the most part).

It's kind of like putting together the most beautiful, most powerful Ferrari possible, customizing it completely to who you "think" will be the most likely driver and then never teaching them how to drive.  Here are the keys, you should be able to figure out the rest from here.

What would happen in that scenario if the person did not know how to drive?  What would happen if they've never seen a car before?  What is they were only 2 years old?

That's the case in today's marketplace.  There is a new "gap".  I call it the "user gap".  There is no Kevin Costner to help out here ("build it and they will come").  Nope, just because a system is "there", implemented, integrated and ready to go it does NOT mean everyone is going to jump at the chance to use it.

"If a business intelligence system comes on line in the forest and no one is there to use it - will it make a sound?"

No way.

How do you solve this conundrum?  It's easy, call me.

There is a new breed of consultant in the marketplace.  I'm a little bit country (I can talk business) and I'm a little bit rock-n-roll (I can play with the "tech" guys too).  This isn't your everyday run of the mill consulting either.  You can't go to Essbase class and declare your self an "expert" (there does seem to be a lot of that going around).

This consultant is all about guidance, understanding and evangelism.  You've got to be all three.  The role is really more of a trusted advisor to mid to high level leaders in the company.  Let's understand first what you've got.  Now, let's figure out how you're using it.  OK, who is the target audience of the effort and what's the "gap" between questions one and two?

OK, I'm not going to give away ALL of my secrets here, but here's one.  Consultants out there listen up, this is the only thing FREE you will ever get from me.

Start by "SHUTTING UP"!

You don't have to fill each and every silence with your incessant blabbering about how great you are, how much success you've had with your previous customers, the white papers you've published and what Mr. customer is doing "wrong" and what "they should do" (which generally involves more business for you, right?).  LISTEN to your customer.  Understand THEIR goals (not yours) and help craft a plan to get them there.

OK, advice over.

In closing, there will always be a place in my opinion for the "technical" consultant, but the management consultant not capable of "doing" is a dying breed.  Exception to this rule do exist I'm sure (especially in the well-connected government circles), but for the most part we, as consultants, need to provide much, much more that the 0's and 1's that have been our bread and butter for the last few years.

Business intelligence practitioners must more and more be able to perform in the server room, the board room and everywhere in between.  That is how to solve the user gap: education, communication, advocacy and good old fashioned training and leg-work.

Beginning of Year Musings

I think it's very important at the beginning of the year to review the last twelve months.

Firstly, I think it's important to review the things for which we feel "thankful".  There are a few obvious ones in my life.  My children's health and well-being, yes that's definitely something to be very grateful for.  That my wonderful wife has seen fit to put up with me for yet another year, definitely, good one.  That I have been reasonably successful this year with my business ventures and because of that my family was able to enjoy a great Christmas and are able to take a couple of weeks off and go to Florida at the end of the year - absolutely, everybody needs to re-charge the old batteries every now and again and this is rapidly becoming our family tradition.

One other thing that comes to mind this year is clarity.  I have a great deal of clarity in my life right now.  Certain events have led to that over the last couple of years.  One of my closest friends has a child that is battling cancer.  The grace with which he and his family have approached this situation provides me with a great deal of clarity on what is most important in life.  For the 3rd time in five years I found myself on the wrong end of small company (slash) political situation.  I worked my butt off, I gave everything I had, sacrificed much and walked away with the proverbial "short end of the stick" (unemployed, no parachute).

So the bottom line here, personal and family life - I'll give myself an "A".  Professionally, a very frustrating and hard fought "C".  Financially I'll give myself a "B", through a lot of hard work, but we still probably could've done better on the budgeting and planning.

Hey, speaking of budgeting and planning, this is a field with which I am very familiar.  I've worked in the OLAP (mostly Hyperion and Oracle technologies) for the past 15 years.  I was also looking back at the mergers/acquisitions that occurred in the last few months.  Amazing...  There really is not a single, independent major player left in the industry.  Hyperion was bought by Oracle.  Business Objects bought by SAP and even little old ("dead in the water") Cognos bought by the ever-present 800 lb. gorilla (IBM).  Absolute unbelievable.

As a consultant working in this industry I am provided a healthy 3rd person point of view (which is nice).  Who does this help?  Well obviously it helps the buying companies expand into the growing BI (business intelligence) marketplace.  Who does this harm?  Well, the customers of course.  Anytime companies these large are allowed to merge the customers are going to get the short end of the stick.  They will pay more for their products and services.  They will receive much less value in these products and services.  (see past post on the death of entrepreneurship and large companies).

Now, in my case, as a services provider these mergers are wonderful opportunities.  The larger companies will continually put out products with problems ("undocumented features").  The internal services organizations within Oracle, IBM (global services), SAP, etc will not be able to cope with these issues - they'll have problems of their own focusing on nothing but billable hours with the lowest level of talent acceptable by their customers.  So what is a customer of these technologies to do when caught in the proverbial "rock and hard place"?

Call me.

Yes, that's right.  Call me.  Your independent systems integrator, technical expert, one man band.

Actually, don't just call me.  Call any one of the extremely talented independent BI practitioners that are currently out there.  You know that you will be getting great quality - independents generally don't last very long in this industry unless their services are top-notch.  You'll pay much less money ($150-$200/hr versus $225+).  And you will generally never be caught in an unfavorable contract situation with a large billing agency and corporate lawyers breathing down your neck (I've seen this happen, it ain't pretty).

And lastly, view the outside help that you are asking for just like a very, very critical hire.  I can't tell you how many times I've had to come in to a software installation that has been screwed up by $40/hr consultants who received most of their "training" from Bangalore.  Trust me on this one, even if you don't I have several references that will back me up on this one.  You truly get what you pay for in this industry and market rates are the rule.

Remember at the start of this I thanked my "clarity"?  Well, what makes me most valuable in this consulting space is my 3rd person point of view to these corporations that I help out every day and it is also my "clarity" in watching this industry (from inside and out!) so closely for so long.

Happy New Year everybody!

I've got some time in the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting more on this subject!