Big Data and My Simple View of the World

Feb 28, 2013 by Phil Simon

For a while now, I’ve had this working theory of the business world. In short, there are three types of people: 1) those who get it; 2) those that don’t get it but want to get it; and 3) those that don’t get it and don’t want to get it.

Small Data and VRM

Oct 17, 2012 by Jim Harris

At last week’s IDEAS 2012 closing panel discussion, moderated by Gavin Day, panelists Rich Murnane, Phil Simon, Joyce Norris-Montanari and I were asked to predict trends for 2013. In this blog post, I explain the prediction I made about Small Data and VRM.

Location, Location, Location – The Location Domain

Sep 20, 2011 by David Loshin

The third data domain I noted that I’d examine is location. As Confucius said, “no matter where you go, there you are.” For business analytics, we might tinker with the quote so that it says “every transaction involves entities sited at a particular location.” The parties to any sales transaction are located somewhere, as are the sold items, as well as the parties involved in processing the transaction – I could go on, but I am sure you get the point.

The Indian and the Arrow

Apr 21, 2011 by Phil Simon

When asked recently about his new putter a few hours before teeing off on Sunday, professional golfer Matt Kuchar responded, “It’s usually the Indian, not the arrow.”

One could write a book about that statement.

Data Quality Incentives, Part III: The Limitations of Incentives

Jan 27, 2011 by Phil Simon

In my previous post, I addressed what happens to organizations that lack sufficient data management and quality incentive structures throughout the organization.

In part three of this five-part series, I ask: What are the limitations of incentives?

Simple Counts for Small Businesses

Jun 18, 2009 by David Loshin

Before I can analyze my customers, I have to know who my customers are. I need to know a few things for this:

• Who is a customer?
• Where is customer data stored?
• How many customers do I have?

  Of course, there are a lot more things I would ultimately need to know, but from first principles, I cannot analyze anything that I can’t count. So what other simple counts do I need? Products? Sales? Orders? Employees? Supplies? Inventory? Without a doubt, you need this data to run your business, whether from a revenue standpoint or an operational management standpoint.

What is a Customer?

Feb 23, 2009 by David Loshin

That is the question that is heard frequently at different meetings. The issue is not trying to figure out what a customer is. The issue is trying to figure out how to figure out what a customer is. This would be challenging enough when considering the different ways that a customer is defined within a business process, and becomes more complex when reviewing the different ways that “customer” is represented within the corresponding implementations.