If you are interested in the trend in BI Software jobs, please see my general BI Blog.
While WebFOCUS jobs remain just a small percentage of the total positions available (only about 1/2 of a percent of all BI openings posted on the Monster job board), there has been an increase from the beginning of 2009 to today. That is positive considering that some BI tools such as Crystal Reports saw a 35% decline in jobs during that same period.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Summit 2009 | Presentation Copies
With the 2009 event over, Information Builders will soon post copies of the presentations on their website. For those of you who could not be at my sessions and cannot wait to get the material, I made a private copy available on my site.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Summit 2009 - Day Five
The last day of Summit 2009 is still going on in Nashville but I have returned to Cincinnati. Today is a half-day event with lots of educational sessions and hands-on labs. The always-popular Expert Room is still open until noon.
I hope that everybody who attended found the same type of value that I did. If you could not attend, please see the archived presentations that Information Builders will soon post to their website.
I hope that everybody who attended found the same type of value that I did. If you could not attend, please see the archived presentations that Information Builders will soon post to their website.
Summit 2009 - Day Four
The fourth day of Information Builders' Summit 2009 was packed with great presentations.
I particularly enjoyed Nationwide Insurance's presentation on how their Office of Corporate Citizenship worked with an urban school system to build an informational portal designed to improve student proficiency. Information Builders had earlier awarded Nationwide an award of distinction for their use of Business Intelligence software for humanitarian purposes.
Based on federal and state guidelines, Nationwide consolidated 40 Excel worksheets into a single color-coded scorecard available in a WebFOCUS portal. From the scorecard, educational users can drill-down from a city summary to the individual student. Longitudinal trends and comparisons quickly identify problem areas. Collaborative features allow school officials to share intervention strategies among their peers.
I will blog more about it in the future, but here is something that every school in the United States should have. While Nationwide would not take credit, this city increased their high school graduation rates from below half to three quarters (the continued improvement goal is 90% of all city students should successfully complete high school).
I particularly enjoyed Nationwide Insurance's presentation on how their Office of Corporate Citizenship worked with an urban school system to build an informational portal designed to improve student proficiency. Information Builders had earlier awarded Nationwide an award of distinction for their use of Business Intelligence software for humanitarian purposes.
Based on federal and state guidelines, Nationwide consolidated 40 Excel worksheets into a single color-coded scorecard available in a WebFOCUS portal. From the scorecard, educational users can drill-down from a city summary to the individual student. Longitudinal trends and comparisons quickly identify problem areas. Collaborative features allow school officials to share intervention strategies among their peers.
I will blog more about it in the future, but here is something that every school in the United States should have. While Nationwide would not take credit, this city increased their high school graduation rates from below half to three quarters (the continued improvement goal is 90% of all city students should successfully complete high school).
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Summit 2009 - Day Three | Another Presentation
My second presentation on automating BI application development was well attended and the audience had great questions.
Legacy BI applications are a major problem. One client told me that his company struggles with business systems written in a legacy 4GL product. Their expert retires soon and there is probably not an experienced replacement in the entire town. Even if they find another 4GL developer somewhere else, that person is probably ready to move to a winter retirement village anyway.
It is just not feasible anymore for companies to use the legacy tools for which there is no labor force or training available. Developed for host platforms in the days before the Internet, these products no longer meet the needs of competitive firms.
In addition to eliminating legacy tools, many people expressed the need to replace BI products that no longer meet their needs and which have uncertain futures, such as Business Objects, Crystal Reports, and Actuate.
Many individuals in the audience were excited to hear there may be a solution to their problem.
Legacy BI applications are a major problem. One client told me that his company struggles with business systems written in a legacy 4GL product. Their expert retires soon and there is probably not an experienced replacement in the entire town. Even if they find another 4GL developer somewhere else, that person is probably ready to move to a winter retirement village anyway.
It is just not feasible anymore for companies to use the legacy tools for which there is no labor force or training available. Developed for host platforms in the days before the Internet, these products no longer meet the needs of competitive firms.
In addition to eliminating legacy tools, many people expressed the need to replace BI products that no longer meet their needs and which have uncertain futures, such as Business Objects, Crystal Reports, and Actuate.
Many individuals in the audience were excited to hear there may be a solution to their problem.
Summit 2009 - Day Three | BI Consolidations
I just completed my first presentation at Summit 2009.
When I saw the agenda, I marveled at my good fortune to get the 7:45AM speaker's slot the morning following the evening cocktail receptions. That meant a really committed audience who would give up sleeping and eating breakfast to see my presentation. But BI consolidation is a great topic regardless of the time of day.
I talked about automated tools and methodologies to convert legacy BI report writers into modern, web-based products. Boris Evelson had a great term yesterday for one characteristic of the next-generation of BI products: "built-in expertise."
That is what the Partner Intelligence tools have: we put our expertise to convert legacy BI applications directly into the application. My next presentation is within an hour.
-------------
6/12 update: Information Builders posted the presentation to their website:
The Latest in BI Consolidation
Doug Lautzenheiser, Partner Intelligence
Tuesday 7:45AM - 8:15AM
Now is the time to do more with less. Smart companies are saving money and improving productivity by reducing the number of their supported reporting tools. Doug Lautzenheiser will explain the methodologies and tools his clients have used to overcome the challenges of performing enterprise BI consolidations.
Download presentation
When I saw the agenda, I marveled at my good fortune to get the 7:45AM speaker's slot the morning following the evening cocktail receptions. That meant a really committed audience who would give up sleeping and eating breakfast to see my presentation. But BI consolidation is a great topic regardless of the time of day.
I talked about automated tools and methodologies to convert legacy BI report writers into modern, web-based products. Boris Evelson had a great term yesterday for one characteristic of the next-generation of BI products: "built-in expertise."
That is what the Partner Intelligence tools have: we put our expertise to convert legacy BI applications directly into the application. My next presentation is within an hour.
-------------
6/12 update: Information Builders posted the presentation to their website:
The Latest in BI Consolidation
Doug Lautzenheiser, Partner Intelligence
Tuesday 7:45AM - 8:15AM
Now is the time to do more with less. Smart companies are saving money and improving productivity by reducing the number of their supported reporting tools. Doug Lautzenheiser will explain the methodologies and tools his clients have used to overcome the challenges of performing enterprise BI consolidations.
Download presentation
Monday, June 8, 2009
Summit 2009 - Day Two | Comedy
Information Builders started its plenary session with laughter. Corporate comedian Greg Schwem opened the event by showing the absurdity of software vendor marketing, technical jargon, and job postings (in a light-hearted way, of course). See Greg's website.
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