I’m not sure that I know anyone in the data and analytics field whose platform doesn’t face continuous, or at least annual, budget scrutiny. Analytics is expensive. And when cost-cutting is the order of the day, analytics is a big Read more…
Important lessons can be learned in one of two ways: the easy way or the hard way. I prefer the easy way, but when it comes to Data Quality, it seems like I’m in the minority. Last week we wondered aloud Read more…
Maybe we’ve been going about this all wrong. It seems that everybody in the information management field continually emphasizes the importance of Data Quality, and everybody not in the information management field couldn’t care less. Maybe the latter group has Read more…
Having worked in the transportation and logistics industry for nearly 30 years, the question that friends, family, and colleagues ask most often these days is some variation of, “Is Amazon going to start competing head-to-head with other parcel services?” Now Read more…
In a 1993 Seinfeld episode, Jerry describes the psychological leverage that doctors use on their patients. They tell you to go into the little room and take your pants off and wait. Then, “anybody that comes in with pants on Read more…
I once served as Lead Architect on a very large project where I had to produce process and data flow diagrams that included several application areas with which I was not familiar. Not surprisingly, they went through many, many iterations. Read more…
Disruption is imminent. Is your company prepared? Your IT department? You? What do bank tellers, assembly line workers, retail clerks, blacksmiths, and travel agents have in common? They have all been largely displaced by technology. Application developers are next. In Read more…
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a very simple metric to assess how serious a company is about its information management practices: The number of software releases delayed solely because the data has not been properly curated. Read more…
Everybody likes a pithy definition. Marketers describe them as “sticky,” meaning that they’re easy to remember. Of course, that doesn’t always mean they’re useful or completely accurate. Information Management has a couple. Metadata is almost universally described as “Data About Read more…
A popular perception of artificial intelligence comes from the Menacing Computer movie genre. Skynet becomes self-aware and seeks to exterminate humanity. HAL9000 kills Discovery’s crew when they plan to disconnect it. Joshua wants to play a game of Global Thermonuclear Read more…