Road Trips!

Jun 25, 2012 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

I just got back from driving to Missouri (from Colorado) for two different family reunions.  My youngest sister went with me to help keep me entertained for the 10-hour drive.  We did have some fun – us girls!  The other thing I had time to do was THINK!  Think about what my clients are doing right and what my clients are doing wrong.  Of course, the right makes me smile, and the wrong makes me think harder.  Much like brain freeze when you eat cold ice cream! 

“Open Data” Behind Your Firewalls…

Jan 09, 2012 by Rich Murnane

About 7 years ago I was working for a rather sizable organization as a “Data Solutions Architect,” which – in everyday language –  means I was an “internal contractor” and was placed on short-to-medium term assignments for different initiatives throughout the organization. I may have been doing an HR project for a couple months, and then I’d get shifted to a CRM project, then off to a product management project, and so on. The job was interesting because I was able to join projects to augment the teams and try to make a difference in a short period of time because the message was pretty clear to the project team: “Here’s a pretty good resource you can use for a short period of time. Good luck.”

On Facebook and Need for One Database

Jan 05, 2012 by Phil Simon

I have long advocated minimizing the number of data sources and assumed that all– if not most – web-native companies kept all of their data in one place.

I was wrong.

101 Lightbulb Moments

Dec 20, 2011 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

I gave a colleague a copy of the above-mentioned book given out at the DataFlux conference this year in Hollywood, Florida.  She and I are working on the Vendor portion of a MDM (Master Data Management) initiative.  She opened the book and said, “Joyce, every page I turn to in here talks about quality of the data, and we are not addressing it all in this project.”  I agreed with her – that quality is not a high priority during this phase.  The reasons quality is not a high priority right now is:

On Amazon and Necessary Conditions

Dec 15, 2011 by Phil Simon

Frugaldad.com recently ran a fascinating infographic on Amazon.com (referred to me by my friend TJ McCue). Here it is below:

Models, Models and Models

Nov 21, 2011 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

How do you help people understand the need for data models?  I think we need to explain to them what the data model does for our projects, and the enterprise.  For example a logical data model:

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.

I Have an IDEA!

Sep 19, 2011 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

“IDEAS 2011,” that is!  This year’s DataFlux IDEAS 2011 conference will be in Hollywood, Florida October 3-5, 2011.  I am looking forward to attending this year’s conference.  Not only is it in a great location, but the topics are not just about DataFlux products.  There are many sessions about MDM (Master Data Management), Data Governance, tips and techniques, and quite a few breakout sessions.

The Product Domain

Sep 13, 2011 by David Loshin

Product data is different than customer data. The main characteristics of product data are essentially descriptive – what the product is, what it is used for, engineering specifications, pricing, manufacturing, etc. When we perform analyses using product data we are either looking at that information from the production side (e.g., components/parts, time to manufacture), the inventory/logistics side (e.g., size, weight, shelf-life), or the consumption side (product categories, types of purchasers). But similar to the entities that act in the role of customers, there are core attributes associated with an “item” and attributes associated with item once it has been deemed a “product.” And in turn, an item may have characteristics that differ from the item used in the role of a product.