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Procter Gamble’s CIO Filippo Passerini is determined to push forward a democratization of data for the consumer products giant. Here, he outlines how a series of in-house innovations is empowering decision-makers via real-time access to intelligence and insight to deliver clear business benefits.
Social Business: If You Build It, Will They Come?
CIOs have the opportunity to drive the discussions about external- and internal-facing social business strategies, and a close look reveals that, in fact, the two are really inextricably entwined. The real question to ask now is: Do “sanctioned” social media and mobility solutions handed down from within an organizational hierarchy stand any hope of being embraced productively and enthusiastically by an enterprise workforce?
Business Intelligence Solutions Cause IT Headaches
If you’re not satisfied with your business intelligence platform and how your company is using it, you’re not alone, according to a new survey from web-based business intelligence software maker LogiXML. The survey finds that while many companies are planning on increasing their BI software spending over the next year, most aren’t happy with what they’ve got. And blame for failed BI implementations, underperformance and the system’s inability to meet the users’ needs falls on the shoulders of IT departments. “The findings we’ve compiled suggest that the overall need for BI continues to grow, but that companies are bogged down by traditional BI approaches that contain complex and costly platforms and data manipulation or tool sets with long development cycles—all of which require significant IT involvement,” said Brett Jackson, CEO, LogiXML. The survey polled 575 business and IT professionals between March 29 and April 8, 2011 about their experiences with, and plans to implement, business intelligence software solutions. Here are 10 key findings.
Business Intelligence: Identifying Information That Really Matters
Being able to separate key information from the mountains of data we all collect in our organizations is critical. Even more critical is being able to provide our key decision-makers with the right amount of information in the right format at the right time so they can make intelligent strategic decisions.
Business Intelligence: Meet the Data Wranglers
Learn how leading organizations such as ComScore, SecureAlert, Distribution Market Advantage and Southeast Texas Medical Associates are herding information to derive real business value.
Business Intelligence: Five Tips for Managing Data
Many companies dump data in a data warehouse, says Accenture’s Jeanne Harris. The problem with that is: Now you don’t have a data warehouse; you have a data dump.
Business Intelligence Driving the Demand for Greater Mobility
Mobile apps will impact the enterprise more than ever in 2011 and beyond, according to a recent Mobile Applications Survey conducted by MicroStrategy, a business intelligence software vendor. Survey respondents indicate that whether their employees are using the RIM BlackBerry, Apple iPhone/iPad, Google Android or other devices, their organizations are gaining awareness of how mobility can improve productivity, customer service, sales, field-service automation and other critical needs. However, business-intelligence applications present the most appeal among tech decision-makers surveyed. These executives perceive mobility as the next “big step” when it comes to viewing dashboards, alerts, KPI monitoring, mapping visualization and data exploration/analysis, among other operational essentials. Oh, and if you're keeping track, the Apple iPad is quickly increasing in popularity for mobile platforms, gaining significant traction over smartphones such as Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry, according to MicroStrategy. More than 2,400 CIOs and other IT execs took part in the survey. Here are selected highlights:
Business Analytics: Numbers and Nuance
As the tools to process and analyze business data improve exponentially, enterprises are challenged to find professionals with the right skill sets to leverage the best of these solutions. Learn how three leading organizations are making the most of business intelligence.
Sponsored Content: Harnessing Unstructured Data for Competitive Business Intelligence
The explosive growth in unstructured data, much of it coming from new sources like social networks and smart devices; more demanding user requirements for easy-to-use yet more sophisticated business analytics and visualization tools; and the need to support new deployment options, such as cloud and SaaS, are rapidly altering the business intelligence landscape. This slideshow looks at how IBM’s new Cognos 10 can help organizations support current and future business analytics strategies.
Business Intelligence: Using Data Effectively
Your CEO is probably already pushing you to find effective ways to increase revenue through the services or solutions you already employ. Doing so is getting harder with each passing month as data piles up, products falter, and you’re forced spend your time putting out fires. A recent study commissioned by Sybase and conducted by the University of Texas reveals that improving the overall intelligence and accessibility of data in your operation could do wonders for your bottom line. In fact, it’s possible that you could generate millions of dollars in additional revenue simply by improving the way your data works for you. The University of Texas study has found that a 10% improvement in data effectiveness can deliver significant ROI. The study was conducted by the university's McCombs School of Business in conjunction with the Indian School of Business. More than 150 respondents from Fortune 1000 firms completed the survey. Financial and some operational performance data on the firms represented by the survey respondents was collected from archived sources. The empirical analysis involved two steps: Factor analysis to determine distinct attributes of data, and multiple regression analysis to test the relationships between data attributes, controls and performance measures.
What Your CFO Is Not Telling You
It's easy to view your Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as a one-person & Department of No.& While you're busy brainstorming with your teams to come up with innovative ways to use technology and improve your organization, your CFO is zeroed-in on budgets and fiscal accountability. The CIO often pursues the unknown, while the CFO's job is all about determining what IS known. With that in mind, CIO Insight has worked with two CFOs to develop this list of seven things your CFO is not telling you, plus three pointers on how you can improve your working relationship. Contributing to this effort are: Tom Crawford, a former CFO who is now senior vice president overseeing North American operations for Microgen; and Greg Baker, CFO at Logicalis. Microgen is a software company that produces business-process platform technology for companies in finance, digital media, energy and other sectors. Logicalis is an international provider of integrated information and communications technology (ICT) solutions.
Data Thieves Walk Among Us
Many employees have no reservations about stealing electronic assets when they leave a job, according to a survey of more than 3,500 adults in the United States and the United Kingdom. The survey was conducted in June and July 2010 by research firm Harris Interactive on behalf of identity-governance solutions vendor SailPoint. Among those surveyed were 1,594 employees with access to their employer's/client's IT systems. Nearly half of the workers surveyed said they would take some form of company property with them when leaving a position; these workers are more likely to steal e-data than a stapler. In fact, more than a quarter say that they would take customer data, including contact information. The upshot: CIOs have to re-examine the way they balance business risk with the need for access to sensitive data and applications.
How to Sell the Value of Data to Your CEO
The McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas recently conducted a survey, which was sponsored by Sybase, to explore how investments in data management and information technology affect the financial performance of a company. University researchers, working in conjunction with the Indian School of Business, surveyed 150 Fortune 1000 firms across several industries in an effort to quantify the relationship between effective data and key performance metrics. The study examined how 10% improvements to one of five distinct attributes of data impacts the metrics commonly reported for assessing the financial performance of businesses. For example, the median Fortune 1000 business in the study's sample would increase annual revenue by $2.01 billion as a result of increasing the usability of its data by 10%, according to the survey. This is driven by a strong correlation between data usability and sales per employee, which correspondingly increases 14.4%.
9 Winning Tactics For Efficient Offshoring
Outsourcing key business functions to offshore providers is more popular than ever among United States enterprises, driven by low labor costs overseas, and the ongoing uncertainty of the economy. Offshoring provides cost savings and, when executed properly, it can help a company focus its domestic resources on developing new business opportunities, addressing strategic business needs, and increasing profits. Yet, it is precisely the challenges inherent in engaging in proper and efficient offshoring that might scare off some CIOs. As you know, running a business is difficult. Finding good talent can be even more difficult. Offshoring takes those two issues to a whole new level. It can be so rife with pitfalls that you might be tempted to stick with conventional business methods. However, if you are intent on achieving value by outsourcing some of your key functions overseas, there are tactics you can follow to do it right every time.
European Crisis to Hurt IT Spending: Gartner
The economic woes in Europe will have a negative impact on worldwide IT spending for the rest of the year, according to research firm Gartner.
Survey Finds E-Mail Click-Through Rates Increase with Social Sharing Options
E-mail messages that include a social sharing option generate 30 percent higher click-through rates (CTRs) than e-mails without a social sharing option, and messages with three or more sharing options generate 55 percent higher CTRs, according to GetResponse's study, & Email Marketing and Social Media Integration Report.& The study also found that e-mails with a Twitter sharing option return over 40 percent higher CTRs than messages without any social media links.
Bing Will Power Yahoo by Late 2010, Microsoft Hopes
Microsoft hopes to have Bing powering Yahoo's backend search by the end of 2010, according to an executive, in accordance with a 10-year search-and-advertising deal signed by the two companies last summer.
Survey Finds Businesses Consider Virtualization Key to Success
Interest in server virtualization among U.S. medium-size businesses (MBs, firms with 100-1,000 employees) increased significantly in the past year, according to AMI Partners' latest MB tracking study. The survey found the percentage of U.S. MBs that consider server virtualization strategically important has increased from 46 percent to 75 percent.
A Discussion on Social Media
While attending the Tribal Net conference in Las Vegas, CIOinsight’s Ed Cone caught up with Rob Jacks, CIO of the Commerce Division of the Chickasaw Nation. Jacks discusses social media usage within the organization. Tribal Net’s main focus is aimed at assisting & all tribes in making well informed decisions on the use of technology at their tribal organizations.&
Business Intelligence for All
Business Intelligence (BI) projects are often the domain of large enterprises, but small to medium businesses can also benefit from BI if they move carefully. Aberdeen Group recently released a report that detailed a number of recommendations for SMBs to better leverage intelligence based on the BI maturity of the organization #151Low, Medium, or High.By Ericka Chickowski