It is with profound sadness that I report the passing of Dr. Cyril Brookes.
Dr. Cyril H. P. Brookes, a pioneer in Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence died in a tragic accident at home on 13 December 2007.
Cyril was a driving force in Australian information Systems having been the Manager of IS at BHP (CIO equivalent) and then being appointed the first professor of IS at the University of New South Wales. In 1989 Cyril's pioneering work at UNSW led to the creation of Grapevine Technologies Ltd, one of the first KM/BI systems that specialized in management of tacit information in corporations. grapeVINE evolved into one of the earliest corporate portal products and is now part of the Sun Microsystems Inc. product portfolio.
Recently Cyril had focused his attention on BI with his blog, Cyril on Business Intelligence and his company BI Pathfinder. This recent focus never let his passion for tacit knowledge management ebb, but brought a new dimension to business decision making through tacit Knolwedge Managment and Business Intelligence.
Cyril contributed an incredible amount of passion, research, writing and evangelism to the KM and BI conversation. He has touched countless lives and leaves a rich legacy. He could have retired and left KM/BI behind, but instead he chose to include his passion for his family, friends and colleagues along with KM/BI in his daily life. Cyril will be greatly missed by all who experienced his unique life.
Via Con Dios Cyril!
Showing posts with label BI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BI. Show all posts
Monday, December 17, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Understanding What You Know
Is intuition in business enough?
The Wall Street Journal yesterday (23 October 2007) had an interesting article/interview with Tom Davenport about business intuition vs. business intelligence. The article, Understanding What You Know (subscription may be required) doesn't discount intuition, but it more correctly focuses on how organizations are now actively using the data about their business or their customers to generate knowledge that can help them create a competitive advantage.
The KM space has morphed over the last few years from a focus on tacit knowledge to the point where business intelligence (decision support) systems are on equal footing with tacit knowledge. The relationships/trust/leverage of collective tacit knowledge has not diminished in value, but sifting through organizational data to understand cause and effect, value pricing, and relationships between decisions often proves a more potent "sale" of KM in organizations than does the more ethereal "tacit" knowledge.
The Wall Street Journal yesterday (23 October 2007) had an interesting article/interview with Tom Davenport about business intuition vs. business intelligence. The article, Understanding What You Know (subscription may be required) doesn't discount intuition, but it more correctly focuses on how organizations are now actively using the data about their business or their customers to generate knowledge that can help them create a competitive advantage.
The KM space has morphed over the last few years from a focus on tacit knowledge to the point where business intelligence (decision support) systems are on equal footing with tacit knowledge. The relationships/trust/leverage of collective tacit knowledge has not diminished in value, but sifting through organizational data to understand cause and effect, value pricing, and relationships between decisions often proves a more potent "sale" of KM in organizations than does the more ethereal "tacit" knowledge.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
BI Saves the day
El Reg has an article that clearly shows how great value can be delivered from a BI system.
Having experienced first hand some of Overstock.com's ERP woes back in 2005 I dug into this story from El Reg.
Ending a nightmare - Overstock's data center journey
Some would argue the article highlights the difficulty of implementing ERP, but regardless of how you look at it, BI did in fact help Overstock.com out of a bad situation. The technology now provides the company with a competitive advantage. Clearly the company stumbled by not moving sooner or better managing their ERP implemenation. Perhaps they could have done better had they better leveraged up-front analysis and requirements work, but in the end the BI system kept the company moving forward until the combined ERP/BI systems were fully in place.
Having experienced first hand some of Overstock.com's ERP woes back in 2005 I dug into this story from El Reg.
Ending a nightmare - Overstock's data center journey
Some would argue the article highlights the difficulty of implementing ERP, but regardless of how you look at it, BI did in fact help Overstock.com out of a bad situation. The technology now provides the company with a competitive advantage. Clearly the company stumbled by not moving sooner or better managing their ERP implemenation. Perhaps they could have done better had they better leveraged up-front analysis and requirements work, but in the end the BI system kept the company moving forward until the combined ERP/BI systems were fully in place.
Friday, March 9, 2007
The missing BI link
Consolidation in the BI space is picking up speed, similar to a snow ball rolling down a hill. HP has jumped into the game and Oracle recently announced the acquisition of Hyperion Solutions. I don't have an opinion on if this consolidation is good or bad, but I do think it was bound to happen.
What I find interesting is that there is a missing piece to what is going on in the BI industry. No vendor seems to be focusing on how to efficiently gather and document the user requirements for BI systems.
What got me thinking about this topic is my work with BI Pathfinder and a recent article in InformationWeek, Query: What's Next In BI? There are billions of dollars being spent on BI tools, but very little of that is being spent to better identify what is truly valuable to the decision makers in organizations.
I believe that the next wave in BI will be tools that allow the designers of BI systems to present decision makers with relevant and timely information that helps them assess status and find problems.
What I find interesting is that there is a missing piece to what is going on in the BI industry. No vendor seems to be focusing on how to efficiently gather and document the user requirements for BI systems.
What got me thinking about this topic is my work with BI Pathfinder and a recent article in InformationWeek, Query: What's Next In BI? There are billions of dollars being spent on BI tools, but very little of that is being spent to better identify what is truly valuable to the decision makers in organizations.
I believe that the next wave in BI will be tools that allow the designers of BI systems to present decision makers with relevant and timely information that helps them assess status and find problems.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)