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urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog - Tags - business_analytics A blog about business analytics, business intelligence and performance management using IBM Cognos and IBM SPSS software. 93 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 IBM Connections - Blogs urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-32995079-0136-4dae-9894-d17093bc71ac Do I have to drown in expense and complications? Reducing the cost and complexity of delivering on the promise of your data warehousing and business analytics applications Delaney Turner email@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-11-18T09:26:18-05:00 2011-11-18T09:28:01-05:00 Today's guest blogger is Rebecca Wormleighton, Product Marketing Manager for Business Analytics.
Are you worried about how much your investment in business analytics and data warehousing throughout your organization is actually costing in terms of hardware, software, administration and facilities management expenses? Are you overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of trying to manage your current business analytics and data warehousing solutions?

As the current financial situation with Greece and the European Union demonstrates, unifying scattered, isolated and separated systems with different agendas can be complex and costly. In the case of business analytics and data warehousing solutions, many have been implemented at the department level, initiated and managed by isolated units working within their own budgets to achieve their own business goals using tools they selected. Whether they are governments or business analytics and data warehousing systems, this kind of approach can make managing a financial ecosystem or an IT infrastructure a difficult and expensive undertaking.

So, what can you do to reduce the cost and complexity of delivering on the promise of business analytics and data warehousing? You can consider IBM® Data Warehousing and Business Analytics on System z.

Organizations that have combined IBM business analytics and data warehousing solutions on the IBM System z® platform are finding that they are better able to contain bottom line costs and complexity. There are fewer components to buy, manage and support, so it is easier, faster and less costly to scale up to more users and out to more data and functionality.

As a 2010 study from IBM called The new alternative for leveraging the power of Business Intelligence: The new alternative for leveraging the power of Business Intelligence: Comparing the total cost of ownership and acquisition of IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence on System z to x86 distributed servers shows, with System z, your business analytics solution can:

 Dramatically lower TCO over 5 years while reducing costs related to technology updates, scalability and high availability.

Provide greater economies of scale that enable smaller budget allocations for operational requirements.

Reduce business analytics and data warehousing complexity with up to 97 percent fewer servers and 87 percent fewer processors to manage.

Offset any hardware acquisition costs with a significant reduction in administration costs.

Business Analytics and Data Warehousing on System z provides alternative approaches that minimize the cost of the back end of a business analytics and data warehousing project without compromising performance and user satisfaction. As a result, your IT organizations can:

Meet the performance, scalability and availability expectations of your business cost-effectively.
Reduce the time, resources and complexity of providing business analytics and data warehousing.
Identify ways to remove hard costs from the budget and still meet business needs.

Want to learn more? Check out Reducing the cost and complexity of delivering on the promise of your business analytics and data warehousing applications, a brief that shows you in a table how you can benefit from business analytics and data warehousing on System z. There is also an excellent on-demand webcast, The New Era of Business Analytics: Reducing Cost and Complexity in which Mike Biere, IBM Product Marketing Manager and a panel of industry experts share their insight and experience on new approaches to reduce the cost and complexity of an enterprise-wide Business Analytics and Data Warehousing strategy.

And feel free to visit: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/businessintelligence/systemz/
 Today's guest blogger is Rebecca Wormleighton, Product Marketing Manager for Business Analytics. Are you worried about how much your investment in business analytics and data warehousing throughout your organization is actually costing in terms of hardware,... 0 0 2593 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-6f4c2a90-92b5-403f-9988-bb76d149d187 Pre-conference reads in advance of Information On Demand Delaney Turner email@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-09-13T13:35:45-04:00 2011-09-13T13:35:45-04:00
We're heading into the home stretch before Information On Demand (you have registered, right?), so I'm sharing a few of my favorite blog posts to help frame the discussions at the premier conference for IT and business professionals. Feel free to bookmark, read and add to your own social media reading list. Also, feel free to comment on or disagree with these posts right here, as each is bound to raise a hackle or two.

 1. GOOD Magazine: The Data Issue: GOOD calls itself an "integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good" and "a company and community for the people, businesses, and NGOs moving the world forward." Its latest issue looks at areas of our lives that aren't typically associated with (or driven by) data and finds some surprising insights. Yes, data is everywhere and facts can be comforting, but when it comes to our own lives, it's the questions we ask ourselves that lead to true wisdom. As illustrator Andrew Kuo writes: When we search the numbers, we find reflections of ourselves, glimmers of the world we live in and the lives we lead. We may learn immense amounts from this data, but make no mistake: Our search is what gives it meaning. In The Information Arms Race, William Wheeler explores the increasingly effective use of microtargeting in political campaigns, as well as the repercussions for democratic debate. The issue is also chock full of of cheeky infographics and gets meta on data with a chart entitled "Which kinds of people like which charts?"

 2. Numerati Baseball = Rope-a-dope, by Stephen Baker: Is winning boring? I suppose entertaining the fans is a secondary concern when you're buried beneath "fifty feet of crap," as Oakland As' manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) observes in the movie trailer below. Still, Baker (author of The Numerati, chronicler of the Watson story and a baseball fan himself) considers the implications of the analytical approach on the length of the average baseball game and its effect on the effect on viewer patience: I love baseball, and I defend it stoutly against all those who complain that it's boring. But anyone who can sit through a Yankees-Red Sox game without a fast-forward button deserves some kind of medal ... For someone who is not passionate about the Yankees or the Red Sox, it was torturous. The game dragged on for 4 hours and 21 minutes. What's your take on taking a lot more walks? Moneyball pioneer Billy Beane and Moneyball author Michael Lewis will share share their take on the analytical approach to wining an unfair game when they share the stage as our keynote speakers.

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 3. Desert Island Datasets: Over on The Guardian's Datablog, Charles Arthur plays with the "Desert Island Album" concept to datasets by asking, "Which set of open data would you like to get from the UK government so as to have the maximum impact on the open data movement?" Arthur's goal is twofold: first, to protect and advance the open data movement overall, and second, to focus on those datasets that can make the biggest improvement in public policy: I recently met some people inside government who are trying to push the open data idea, of getting anonymised, publicly-collected data out there for developers to be able to build applications which will have both financial and societal benefits. It is taken seriously at the top levels of government; they aren't just paying it lip service. The problem though is that there's only so much time available to anyone to push the agenda through.

Bonus feature: IOD Housekeeping Details

A few details to keep in mind as you prep your week and pack your bags:

You can build your agenda any time using the IOD SmartSite.

Don't forget to sign up for the IOD Social Media Aggregator: This site is your proverbial one-stop shop for real-time tweets, pictures, videos and blog posts from your fellow attendees and those playing along at home.

Excited about going? Tell all your friends! Our LinkedIn and Facebook pages are great ways to let your friends and colleagues know you're headed to the biggest conference in the IBM Software galaxy and even make some valuable connections before you head down to Vegas

Follow us on Twitter: Real-time event updates, opinion and excitement in 140 characters or less. Use #iod11 to join in the fun.

 We're heading into the home stretch before Information On Demand (you have registered , right?), so I'm sharing a few of my favorite blog posts to help frame the discussions at the premier conference for IT and business professionals. Feel free to bookmark,... 0 0 1446 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-acbf07c6-d885-45b7-938b-eb76645b431e BA Forum Track Spotlight: Social Media & Customer Analytics Delaney Turner firstname.lastname@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-08-17T15:12:37-04:00 2011-08-17T15:12:37-04:00
Business analytics, meet the blogosphere.

Blogosphere, meet business analytics.

I'm sure you'll have lots to talk about.

If you're at all interested in getting in on that conversation, I strongly suggest adding a few sessions from the Social Media & Customer Analytics track at Business Analytics Forum. It's a new track this year, and – full disclosure here – the one I'm most interested in covering. Social media activity is driving explosive growth rates in unstructured data and organizations – whether you're a restaurant chain, a fashion brand or global technology vendor need to make sense of it all. These largely technical sessions will help IT professionals understand our current offerings and how business professionals can use them to create more targeted marketing strategies, build predictive models that reduce churn and that ultimately transform all that unruly data into actionable insights. You may not like learning what your customers really think about your products, but using the that knowledge to build a smarter strategy no doubt make you feel a whole lot better.

The full listing starts on page 46 of your Business Analytics Forum Guide, but I've provided a few highlights below. Feel free to add them to your SmartSite Agenda Builder today:

Predictive Social Media Analytics (Session BSC-1539): Graham Mackintosh and Olivier Jouve of IBM will show you how to proactively monitor and manage consumer-generated content about your brands, categories and products. You'll see how to combine this information with customer data to inform marketing strategies and predictive models and to optimize campaigns.

Using IBM Cognos Business Intelligence and IBM Cognos Consumer Insight (Session BSC-2761): Christopher Wright will illustrate how to address all aspects of your social media investment, view historical, real-time and predictive information,
perform scenario modeling and planning to investigate issues, and use real-time alerts, workflow and mobile applications to monitor the pulse of the business.

Watson Update: After Victory on TV's Jeopardy! What Comes Next? (Session BSC-3556): Bernard Spang will provide an overview of Watson technology and show you how it relates to exciting initiatives in natural language analytics now and in the future.

But...

if you can't wait until October and would like a head start, why not sign up for our August 25 Webcast? It's called "Making Chatter Matter: Monetizing Social Media Through Analytics." It features Don Pepper and Graham Mackintosh and it will show you how to move from seeing social media as a "shiny object" toward an integrated element of your customer interaction strategy.

And...

While we're on the topic of social networks, don't forget to expand your own network while you're there:

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Finally, remember that we're less than two weeks away from the Early Bird deadline of Aug. 31. Ready to register? Click here.
 Business analytics, meet the blogosphere. Blogosphere, meet business analytics. I'm sure you'll have lots to talk about. If you're at all interested in getting in on that conversation, I strongly suggest adding a few sessions from the Social Media &... 0 0 3029 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-f7874b67-0b10-4373-934f-662d5dcb1402 10 ways to sharpen your skills at IOD 2011 Delaney Turner firstname.lastname@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-08-10T15:43:18-04:00 2011-08-10T15:43:18-04:00
You can learn by listening, learn by watching or learn by doing.

Or, you can go to Information On Demand 2011 and do all three.

Once again, IOD offers an abundance of learning opportunities to help you increase your product knowledge, sharpen your professional skills and get the information you need to solve problems or move your project forward. I've scanned the Business Analytics Forum Guide (BA Forum being a major component of IOD 2011) to highlight 10 ways you can come back from Vegas much better equipped to turn insight into action. Some of the opportunities are located in the EXPO, others are breakout sessions that you'll need to schedule in your Agenda Builder.

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1. Play in the Usability Sandbox: Share your experience to shape product direction. Test-drive new prototypes and meet with our usability experts in small-group design review and feedback sessions. You'll also have the chance to vote on and prioritize use requirements. This year's sessions include Dashboarding (BGN-1545), Mobile BI (BGN-1549). Advanced Data Modeling (BGN-1550) and Social Networking Analytics (BGN-1554). See page 67 of the Business Analytics Forum Guide for a full list.

2. Learn to better navigate IBM Support: New this year, our "Navigating IBM" drop-in area lets you talk one-on-one with subject matter experts who can guide you through the programs, processes, policies and systems you need to use for Support and Training. We've geared these sessions to focus on increasing your satisfaction with demonstrations and discussions focused on online support and knowledge resources, searching and enrolling in training, Web IDs and IBM Customer Numbers (ICNs) and using the support request tool. You'll find it in the EXPO.

3. Drop in on our Demo Theaters: These 30-minute sessions help you lean more about topics that might not be covered in full breakout sessions. Join our product managers as they guide you through new solutions and little-known product features in IBM Cognos 10, IBM Cognos TM1, IBM SPSS Decision Management and more.

4. Labs! Labs! Labs!

Our Hands-on Labs feature experienced professional instructors providing classroom-quality training. Each three-hour session takes you on a deep dive directly into a specific product to give you a greater understanding of its features and potential. Many of the nearly 20 sessions at this year's event were suggested by last year's attendees. Titles include Foundations of Predictive Analytics: IBM SPSS Statistics (BGN-3469), New Self-Serve Reporting Capabilities in IBM Cognos BI (BGN-3632) and Advanced Generated SQL Concepts and Complex Queries (BGN-3696). See page 63 of your Business Analytics Forum Guide for the full list and be sure to add these sessions to your Agenda Builder.

Our Products Lab lets you test drive our products at your own pace and on your own schedule with step-by-step instructions and direct input from product experts who are always on-hand. You'll find it in the EXPO and you can drop in any time.

Also in the EXPO, our Services and Education Lab lets you explore our training options, discover our new new approaches and work one-on-one with our consulting services team. Discover how to share your knowledge with your team back home with Web-based training courses, self-paced virtual classroom options, IBM Cognos embedded learning videos and instructor-led online training. Drop in whenever, no need to book.

5. Take advantage of pre-conference training: Get a head start on the conference with two full days of hands-on training specially priced for Forum attendees. This year's sessions include Professional Report Authoring (B51C9), Automated Data Mining (0ACG2), Data Management and Manipulation (0G5C9) and Authoring Reports with Multidimensional Data (B51C1). See page 18 of your Forum Guide for more.

6. Get certified for free: Save up to $600 by taking three IBM Software Certification exams at no charge, and take as many more as you'd like for 50 percent off the normal fee. Certification exams are available throughout the conference and a full list of certification exams is available here.

7. Boost your business leadership skills in our Business Leadership Forum: An industry-specific program for executives, managers and decision-makers. We've put together a rich curriculum of customer case studies, panel discussions and industry solution overviews focused on resolving key business challenges. Choose from 34 sessions exploring operational efficiency, customer and financial analytics, risk and compliance. Session titles include "How Banks Can Improve Customer-Centricity with Advanced Customer Customer Profitability Analytics" (LFM-2609), "Driving B2B Sales with Predictive Analytics" (LSA-2268), "Fighting Fraud in Government Services" (LGV-1999) and "Getting Business Value from IBM Watson" (LSA-3008). See page 54 of your Forum Guide for a full list.

8. Have lunch with your peers: Our "Birds of a Feather" lunches let you discuss your challenges, strategies and successes with people just like you in a relaxed and informal setting. This year's topics include BI and Cloud Computing, Professional Report Authoring, Predictive Analytics, Statistics and Support. Our Industry Lunches let you discuss the challenges you're facing and the strategies you're using to resolve them. Whether you're in Banking, Retail, Healthcare or Manufacturing, these lunches are also a great way to reconnect with friends and expand your network with new contacts.

9. Talk to Support: Schedule time with an IBM Cognos or SPSS technical product expert for 30 minutes of one-on-one attention to resolve your toughest technical challenges. These experts have deep expertise within and across our Business Analytics product portfolio, so nothing is off-limits. Just be sure to indicate the issue and/or product you'd like to discuss. Previous topics have included Integrating BI with Active Directory authentication, Recommendations for fail-over while building cubes and Predictive modeling tips, techniques and best practices.

10. Schedule a workshop: This year's event offers a wide range of in-person and interactive workshops. You'll work in small groups with experienced IBM subject matter experts to boost your Analytics Quotient (BAW-3805), explore a Business Intelligence Competency Center (BAW-3808), or become a Value Integrator in Finance (BAW-3807). A full list is on page 60 of your Forum Guide.

In my next post, I'll be looking at the Social Media and Customer Analytics Track - the newest addition to the Business Analytics Forum curriculum. For more information about IOD overall, click here. To register with the $300 Early Bird discount, click here.
 You can learn by listening, learn by watching or learn by doing. Or, you can go to Information On Demand 2011 and do all three. Once again, IOD offers an abundance of learning opportunities to help you increase your product knowledge, sharpen your professional... 0 0 1083 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-bffe148d-9d05-4309-928e-9695f26f3603 Marshall McLuhan goes to Information On Demand Delaney Turner email@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-08-03T16:03:57-04:00 2011-08-03T16:03:57-04:00
 With the possible exception of fellow Canadian Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan did more to advance our understanding of electronic media and mass information than anyone before or since. He would have turned 100 last month, and I thought I'd use the occasion to reflect his work, particularly as we (and you) prepare for Information On Demand.

In The Gutenberg Galaxy, Understanding Media and other works, McLuhan explored on the disruptive effects of electronic communications on the existing, print-based media landscape. In his view, every new medium challenges the basic assumptions people live and work by. Thus, in the same way the printing press wrested control of information away from the church, McLuhan saw radio and television driving a new and equally dramatic transformation - away from a linear way of absorbing information toward more a more instantaneous, organic way of responding to it.

McLuhan believed that the medium conveying information had as much of an impact on the recipient as the information itself; hence, "The Medium is the Message." Whether the technology was moveable type or radio tubes, information in both cases was reshaped to suit a new form factor; it became more accessible to more people, in more places, more quickly. The more people consumed this information in new and different ways, the more dramatic the effect on people's perceptions of (and attitudes toward) businesses, government and the world around them.

With the web, mobility and social technologies now dominating not only the media, but business and governments as well, few would argue that we're seeing similar disruptions today. Information now exists in such volumes and moves at such speeds through so many devices as to demand new ways of understanding it. To a large extent we are only now living in the world that only McLuhan could see. This is why, 30 years after his death and nearly 50 years after the publication of Understanding Media, his insights remain not only fresh and relevant to scholars, but highly applicable to anyone involved in managing information and creating meaningful insights from raw data and who may be attending Information On Demand.

Consider the following "probes" (you can find more on the Marshall McLuhan Speaks web site):

On old vs. new assumptions (1960): "When any new form comes to the foreground, we naturally look through the old lenses. We're trying to fit the old assumptions into the new form instead of asking, 'What is the new form going to do with all of the assumptions we had before?'"

On the internet (1966): "Instead of buying a book, you will go to the telephone and describe your interests, needs or problems. With the help of computers they will send you all the latest material from all the libraries of the world, just for you. They send you the package as a direct personal service. Products increasingly are becoming services."

On instantaneous information (1976): "At the speed of light, everything happens at the same instant...Everything happens at once. There's not continuity, there's no connection. It's all now."

On pattern recognition (1968): "We're living in a world where things change so rapidly that anybody can spot the pattern of change. We're living increasingly in a world of pattern recognition instead of isolated items."

McLuhan died before the world he saw came into being, but his influence permeates our language and culture. He coined the term "global village." His quip "the medium is the message" is quoted in Mad Men. Kevin Kelly named him Wired Magazine's "patron saint of the information age." The fact that there's so much McLuhan on the web would no doubt have pleased him immensely. Comedy troupe Radio Free Vestibule recast "Marshall" McLuhan as a wild west sherriff

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The Ballad of Marshall Mcluhan from Randall Acronym on Vimeo.

Finally, among my friends, his cameo in the film "Annie Hall" ranks as one of the funniest scenes ever.

Sadly, we will not see McLuhan walk onstage in the middle of the IOD opening session. We will, however, be living with the implications of his work for the foreseeable future. Luckily, events like Information On Demand can help us understand - and take advantage of - the disruptions, transformations and innovations happening all around us.

 With the possible exception of fellow Canadian Harold Innis , Marshall McLuhan did more to advance our understanding of electronic media and mass information than anyone before or since. He would have turned 100 last month, and I thought I'd use the... 0 0 2062 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-e2b97dcf-3d74-49b7-93d0-901ef193a908 IOD update: Build your agenda, watch the video, get the guide Delaney Turner firstname.lastname@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-07-28T12:48:29-04:00 2011-07-28T12:48:29-04:00 Track sessions selected?

Check.

Presenters notified?

Check.

Abstracts edited? Keynotes confirmed? Hashtag set?

Check, check and............check.

 The progress toward Information On Demand 2011 continues apace, with momentum and excitement building equal measure.

So far, this is what we know in convenient bullet point form:

Information On Demand 2011 takes place Oct. 23-27 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

The conference includes three interconnected technical Forums for Business Analytics, Information Management and Enterprise Content Management.

Each Forum features deep-dive technical content, deployment and configuration best practices, training and education sessions, hands-on labs, and plentiful customer presentations.

IOD also features numerous professional networking opportunities, IBM's biggest EXPO and keynote presentations by Billy Beane and Michael Lewis.

You can take up to three IBM Certification exams for free as many more as you'd like at $100 off.

Early Bird registration (a $300 value) ends Aug. 31.

You can save an additional $100 simply by following @IODGC2011 and tweeting with #IOD11. Yes, as the commercials often say, it's Just. That. Easy.

We also have a video that gives you a flavor of what you'll see, featuring attendees and IBM Executives. My favorite quotes comes at about 2:44 "The whole networking aspect is fantastic: You get to meet THE people - not just any people, but THE people.

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Now, here, in keeping with the convenient bullet point form, are the latest developments that will either get you excited for having registered or help you justify the travel if you need to convince your execs:

The Sample Agenda Builder is now available to anyone who's interested in exploring individual sessions across all three forums. Show your execs how much learning you can cram into a single day. Read the abstracts, seek out speakers in your industry and build your daily schedules to work out scheduling conflicts. The conference SmartSite opens officially the first week of August. You can check it out here.

The Business Analytics Forum Guide is also now available. This hefty 72-page guide does everything but deliver the actual sessions for you – browse the complete curriculum of business intelligence, financial and risk analytics, predictive and advanced analytics, social media and customer analytics, business leadership sessions, industry lunches, usability sandboxes, business analytics workshops and more. You can download it from the Forum site.

I'll have more event updates as they become available. There's flurry of activity going on behind the scenes, the results of which will take center stage soon enough. I've secured my spot. Have you?
 Track sessions selected? Check. Presenters notified? Check. Abstracts edited? Keynotes confirmed? Hashtag set? Check, check and............check. The progress toward Information On Demand 2011 continues apace, with momentum and excitement building equal... 0 0 1224 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-3a709fa2-1621-49d5-8895-2beb15767b88 Why are old tech ads so funny? Delaney Turner email@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-07-25T10:54:36-04:00 2011-07-25T10:54:36-04:00
What the heck is Electronic Mail?

What kind of man owns his own computer?

Why is old technology so funny?

The web is awash with old technology ads, whether they're for a cheaper hard hard disk, better color, or even an "Electronic Computer Brain" that's fun at parties, solves riddles and tells the future.

 Technology advertising has existed for nearly a century – but if the art direction has changed, one thing has not – the promise of lives made easier thanks to better, cheaper and faster technology. At the time these ads announced hard-won innovations in power and speed. Now, they invoke simple amusement at the way things used to be.

Why is this?

I posed the question to Don Campbell, a longtime tech watcher and IBM Distinguished Engineer. What ensued was a fascinating discussion about the pace of innovation, our relationship with the technology we build and what we'll find funny 20 years from now. Below are the highlights:

Why do we find old technology ads so amusing?

There was always a lot of romance in these ads about what a system could do for you – it would make you better, smarter, faster, richer, faster – all of those things. And yet they never drew the connecting point between what we have and what you'd get as a result. The buyer needed to make the leap of faith that by the time you acquired the technology and figured it out that the maker would have filled in the blanks between what it could actually do – which in most cases was add numbers together – and something that could make a meaningful difference in your life. It's the gap that we never got over.

What does this say about us? Why do we keep buying into the romance?

We want a partner in our lives. We want technology to be that partner – not just a tool that we use, but a partner that will take care of the boring stuff that we don't want to do. And we humanize it into being a partner.

At every leading edge of technology, there is a little more of that human element that we want to give it. I think we have some of those feelings for our iPads or our favorite mobile devices. But when we realize that a particular device didn't become our partner, then it looks like one of those old ads.

Watson wasn't human – but it used human language and was built to compete against humans using human rules. Could Watson be that partner?

What interested me about Watson wasn't the system called "Watson." I don't have a lot of applications in my business for winning on Jeopardy! What did interest me were the analytics possibilities that it opened up if you were to combine its components with other analytics capabilities. For example: it breaks down a problem and attacks it in multiple domains; it understands its confidence in each of those domains; it combines those confidence levels into an overall confidence level and a threshold that determines how to act. Sometimes it had the right answer but wasn't confident enough to buzz in.

These are attributes that you can apply to your business – we're getting all kinds of unstructured content from blogs, tweets and message boards, but we're not sure how much we should trust them. Now, we can apply Watson algorithms and capabilities to this data to help us understand whether or not we should trust what's being said, whether we should respond and how.

There's also the gaming aspect, which is quite appropriate for our businesses. In some cases, I might want to make as much money as I can as quickly as possible; in others, all I might need to do is beat a specific competitor in one area at a particular time. In that case I'll want to reduce my risk and choose different tactics to drive a better outcome. So when we think about the gaming part of our business, I think Watson has a lot to teach us.

Ken Jennings said that on most nights, the top Jeopardy! players know most the answers; winning is more a matter of who buzzes in first. Our businesses are less about the specifics of Jeopardy! and more about trying to maximize how often you're right given the information you have and how well you can pull it all together. The algorithms in Watson help it accomplish this and that's extremely valuable in a business context. I was very impressed with how well it dealt with the nuances of the language and the complexity that was behind those questions to get most of its answers right.

Does Watson eliminate the disconnect between the promise and performance? Does it follow through on the romance?

 Watson's success is a tremendous accomplishment. But no matter what we say today, you know that 20 years from now we'll be having this same conversation. No matter now good our technology is now, we'll all be saying, "Can you believe it took a room full of rack-mounted servers to do that? Let me just ask my watch." But the fact that Watson had more human characteristics – it spoke, it played a game that humans play in a way that felt more human, it took natural language as an input and produced natural language as output, and even conversed as it chose each question – that will drive it more into our comfort zone.

Technology will always change. But will what we want from technology change as well?

I think our expectations will continue to grow in the same space. We've made tremendous progress in many domains. But in some respects we've not yet lived up to the ads of 25 years ago. Until we do, there's a lofty goal out there for a system to support us in the way we want to be supported. We're getting better at allowing more people to participate in technology and benefit from what it can do for us – for example we don't have to type in lines of code from the back pages of Byte Magazine to make our system run – but I think in general we still want that partner in our lives that will make our world easier to manage and that will free us up to do more things. We've made progress, but too much technology still makes us perform tasks on its own terms.

What do you think? What do you want from your technology? Tweet us or join the IBM Software Community to share your views.

 What the heck is Electronic Mail? What kind of man owns his own computer? Why is old technology so funny? The web is awash with old technology ads , whether they're for a cheaper hard hard disk , better color , or even an " Electronic Computer Brain "... 0 0 5501 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-4bc878d2-ea35-4a67-b209-a1d0ec9cd598 Where's my data? How you can get timely, accurate and secure access to business information Delaney Turner email@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-07-19T16:29:39-04:00 2011-07-19T17:00:08-04:00 By Rebecca Wormleighton

Today's blog is written by guest blogger Rebecca Wormleighton from Product Marketing, IBM Business Intelligence and Performance Management.

When it comes to business success, data is the real deal. Business analytics cannot exist without it. However, for business analytics to do its job, the data involved must be reliable, high-quality, accurate and it must be available the minute it's needed. In other words, business analytics is pretty much lost without data warehousing and an infrastructure strategy. You need all three if you want to access to data at the speed of business and to deliver the most correct information, all while ensuring the highest levels of data security and audit ability.
As you know, business analytics solutions apply knowledge to data to produce information valuable to a business user or process. And, data warehousing solutions supply the business analytics systems with the most current, complete information from anywhere in your company.

What you might not know is that much of this data, which can include financial information, customer lists, personnel records and manufacturing reports, originates from a mainframe. So, that makes an IBM® System z® server the primary source of data for data warehousing and business analytic solutions.

And you know what else? It makes System z the ideal infrastructure for business analytics and data warehousing. System z can provide everything needed for business analytics, including ETL, data warehouses, operational data stores, data marts and business analytics tools, all housed and managed on the same platform. You get faster access to the transactional data that customers and employees need, along with minimized data latency, fewer delays and drastic reduction of load and unload times.

When you have online transaction processing and data warehousing data on System z, you get a single copy of data for access by multiple users and groups. Because you are not exporting data to multiple platforms, the opportunity for error (and security breaches) is drastically reduced. There are fewer instances of single departmental copies of the data and that virtually eliminates the possibility that the data will have different interpretations.

With System z, your data is secured with cryptography, encryption, user identification and authentication at all levels instead of at individual departmental levels. User access is defined down to the cell level, you can apply administrative authorities without allowing data access and legendary built-in security and trace features make end-to-end auditing possible. As a result, your data is protected from unauthorized access, you are able to take advantage of security capabilities rated the
highest by government agencies and you have built-in audit ability.

For these reasons, System z should be considered a vital part of any business analytics and data warehousing strategy.

Want to learn more about how System z can deliver timely, accurate and secure data you need when you need it? Read the recent IBM brief, Timely, Accurate, Secure Access to Business Information. You can also view and listen to an on-demand webcast, The new era of business analytics: Deliver timely, accurate and secure information to improve business performance. In the webcast, a panel of experts explores those answers in more detail and with real-world examples. And feel free to visit:

ibm.com/software/data/businessintelligence/systemz/

 By Rebecca Wormleighton Today's blog is written by guest blogger Rebecca Wormleighton from Product Marketing, IBM Business Intelligence and Performance Management. When it comes to business success, data is the real deal. Business analytics... 1 0 2196 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-44e86c13-6e81-443f-94ea-0bbf9dea4ca1 What's the big deal about Social Media Day? Delaney Turner firstname.lastname@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-06-30T14:29:03-04:00 2011-07-07T15:09:12-04:00
Did you Tweet today? Update your Facebook status? Check in on LinkedIn and Foursquare?

I did. All four.

Of course, it's my job to do these things.

But even if doing these social media "things" weren't part of my job, I'd still do them. Tweeting is fun and the 140 character limit is great for clear, disciplined writing. Facebook and LinkedIn keep me in touch with my friends and colleagues. Far more than email, they're my way of knowing what's going on in the world.

If you're reading this, you've probably done the same, probably every day for quite some time now. No big deal, right?

Well, yes.

Today is Mashable's second annual "Social Media Day," a global celebration of the technological advancements that enable everyone to connect with real-time information, communicate from miles apart and have their voices heard."

Social Media Day activities are taking many forms: San Jose, Las Vegas, Toronto and Dublin have made made official proclamations. Some 1400 Mashable Meetup groups are hosting local events and thousands of individuals have turned #SMDAY into a trending Twitter topic. From Twitter to Facebook to Mashable and back, people are making new connections, gaining new followers and marveling at what we're creating together.

All of these activities are expected; none is really that surprising. And to a lot of people, the sight of social media pros gathering to wax poetic about social media still invites mockery. Not so long ago, Twitter was a tedious echo chamber of marketers talking to other marketers. Naturally, everything was wonderful but not much happened. So why is Social Media Day such a big deal?

I can think of three reasons:

Your connections are your currency. The more you have, the richer you are. On its own this isn't new, but the ease and speed with which we can find each other, connect with each other and share with each other on a conceivably infinite number of topics certainly are. Connections are now person-to-person and platform-to-platform. We all exist in a matrix. Help your connections make other connections, solve problems or learn new skills and you'll be very rich, very quickly.

All media is social media. As a student of media history, I've never been keen on the term "social" media. All media are inherently social, for why do they exist if not to connect people? But in a more pragmatic sense, just think: Where do more and more people go now for breaking news but Twitter? Where do 500 million people go to discuss politics and entertainment but Facebook?
This isn't just me talking. Facebook isn't just taking a greater share of Web visitors every day, it's taking share from other sites as well. This isn't to say there's no value in visiting CNN, BBC or CBC; but discussions about their stories often happen elsewhere.

Data, insights, outcomes. There was a time when it was enough to run your business knowing a little about what happened last week. That was roughly the time when newspapers came in the evening and TVs still had antennas. Now, not only must companies anticipate the future, they must analyze and shape events that haven't even happened yet. In this brave new world, historical data can help, but analytics-driven organizations need to tap into data that moves and changes a lot more quickly and tells a much more valuable story. To a great extent that data comes from Facebook and Twitter. Properly analyzed, companies can learn from this data what their customers like, what they don't and what they're likely to want next.

Some technologies take decades to transform business structures and social habits. Facebook, Twitter and their underlying technologies have done the same in less than 10. It's a constantly shifting, increasingly connected and hyper-competitive world we're all living in now. The organizations – and increasingly the people – who succeed in it will be those with the tools and the skills to understand and master it.

That's why Social Media Day is such a a big deal.

And, as a footnote:  I'm happy to announce that I've accepted a new role within IBM as a Social Business Strategist and Engagement Lead for IBM Software Group. Starting next week, I'll be turning most of my attention to the ways social media and, more broadly, social business, help us connect, communicate and create value for our clients. For a little while, the remainder of my attention will continue to focus on Business Analytics - specifically helping clients understand their Analytics Quotient and bringing you the latest information and updates about Business Analytics Forum happening in October. Watch for my postings here and on the IBM Software blog as well.

Exciting times, to be sure.
 Did you Tweet today? Update your Facebook status? Check in on LinkedIn and Foursquare? I did. All four. Of course, it's my job to do these things. But even if doing these social media "things" weren't part of my job, I'd still do them. Tweeting is fun and the... 0 0 1617 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-a86f466e-2181-4737-acff-ef4bcd94724c Introducing the AQ Chronicles! Episdode 1 - The Novice Delaney Turner email@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-06-23T10:44:33-04:00 2011-06-23T15:36:41-04:00
Earlier this month, we introduced a new concept into the market - Analytics Quotient, or AQ for short. AQ is an indicator of how ready you are to apply business analytics insight to your strategy, processes and tactics in pursuit of better outcomes. We'll be exploring the AQ concept in more detail in the run-up to Business Analytics Forum, but for starters, Tim Powers has already written a great introductory piece that explains the concept and its core components in more detail and earlier this week Christoph Papenfuss added to the conversation with a fascinating piece that explores the problems of managing by spreadsheets alone.

A core element of the AQ concept is a four-stage maturity model. The first stage is "Novice." In our new AQ White Paper, we describe the Novice stage like this:

At this first level, individuals or teams analyze their own data, typically using spreadsheets or basic query tools. Here, knowledge workers have only a limited historical view into past performance and must rely in large part on "gut feel" to make decisions about current or future performance. It's at this early stage that that the negative effects of rudimentary or incomplete analytics are most acutely felt, as outcomes are often hampered by inefficiencies, delays, miscommunication and the pain of missed opportunities. Any one of these impediments can serve as the necessary "burning platform" that drives organizations to take their first step toward a higher AQ.

You can discover your own AQ right now with our new Web quiz. In addition to the new AQ White Paper and Web demo, we're also excited to introduce The AQ Chronicles, a new animated series. In this series, we'll follow a typical marketing manager as he progresses through a business analytics journey. Watch as in this first episode, he asks IT for some much-needed and not altogether unreasonable sales figures:

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 It's a bit exaggerated, to be sure, but it's based not only on my experience speaking to customers but that of my colleagues </object>Tracy Harris<object height="1" width="1">, </object>Christoph<object height="1" width="1">, </object>Tim O'Bryan<object height="1" width="1">, all of whom have experience delivering </object>Business Analytics Experience Workshops<object height="1" width="1">. And as challenging as the Novice stage is to operate in, the good news is that it's also the easiest one to get out of. Any one of the links below will put you on the right path away from disconnected spreadsheets and toward </object>Builder<object height="1" width="1"> on the way to </object>Analytics Mastery<object height="1" width="1">. </object>

Discover your AQ with our fun online quiz.

See how to make better, faster and smarter decisions in our business analytics Web demo.

Learn how to leverage "sweet spots" of information in your core business functions with our book, The Performance Manager.

See how to increase trust in your information with our data quality White Paper.

 Earlier this month, we introduced a new concept into the market - Analytics Quotient, or AQ for short . AQ is an indicator of how ready you are to apply business analytics insight to your strategy, processes and tactics in pursuit of better outcomes. We'll be... 0 0 1271 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-8f2f3012-6803-4b58-ba4c-2476a8c7a658 Three ways to prep for tomorrow's Webcast on IBM Cognos Mobile Delaney Turner email@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-06-20T13:16:43-04:00 2011-06-20T15:11:23-04:00  Today's post is by Brian Loveys, product manager for IBM Cognos Mobile.

What connects Cannondale, Costco, IBM Cognos® Business Intelligence and BlackBerry?

You have an opportunity to find out in our TechTalk live event called Erase the Barriers between Mobile Workers and BI Data. In this event, you will hear how one company has benefited from having reports delivered to their mobile devices by IBM Cognos Mobile and learn more about how Cognos Mobile can work for you.

Before you join us on June 21st at noon ET, here are three things you can do to prepare:

1. Think about how reliant you are on mobile devices. Consider the possibilities that are open to you when you and your colleagues can access critical reports on iPads, iPhones and BlackBerry® and Android smart phones and tablets while meeting with customers. Instead of saying, "I can get you that information when I'm back at my desk or office," you can say, "I have the sales figures you need right here." Then, be prepared to hear how Dorel, the parent company of such brands as Cannondale and Costco, is already doing this and how well it's working for them.

2. Check out this IBM Cognos Mobile demo. It shows you how easy it can be to get targeted, interactive and personalized information you can share with your clients on the go so you all can make informed decisions. You can access the reports you need straight from your Apple iPhone or iPad, Android or Blackberry smart phone or tablet, Windows Mobile device or Nokia Symbian device. The Android and Playbook support is new and we will cover that in the event.

3.Register for the TechTalk event here. You don't want to miss the opportunity to see what can happen to decision-making in your organization when timely, relevant BI data is as available in an airport or hotel as it is in the office.

4. Check back here afterwards. Yes, we said "three ways to prepare," so why are there four? Because we want you to come back and visit us after the event. We will be taking questions from attendees and addressing their answers in a series of posts here on the Performance Perspectives blog. You won't want to miss our answers to questions from your peers in the business world.

Please join us for this exciting event. If you have any questions or need more information, you can email me here. Today's post is by Brian Loveys , product manager for IBM Cognos Mobile . What connects Cannondale, Costco, IBM Cognos® Business Intelligence and BlackBerry? You have an opportunity to find out in our TechTalk live event called Erase the Barriers between... 0 0 1603 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-f048bc48-5078-4f71-b9b9-4769f5545916 Agility, precision, passion: Business lessons from UEFA champs FC Barcelona Delaney Turner email@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-05-30T10:06:27-04:00 2011-05-31T11:35:02-04:00
Companies run on numbers. We need them every every day, every hour, sometimes every minute. The top-performing companies are heralded for their mastery of the numbers and for the numbers they in turn provide to the Street.

This is a positive trend.

There are some organizations, though, who perform so well that their numbers - however impressive - give way to something closer to art.

Consider some of the numbers from last Saturday's UEFA Champions' League Final, widely heralded as the "match of the decade" between FC Barcelona and Manchester United, two titans of the game (Barcelona carried the day 3-1):

Barcelona directed 16 shots on net; United three.

Barcelona won six corner kicks, United zero;

Barcelona controlled the ball 68 percent of the time.

As impressive as these numbers are, though, no one who watched the match would come away praising percentages. They'd be more likely to praise what made the game so pleasing to watch:

The first is agility: Barcelona's game is one of short, continuous "triangle" passes between players constantly in motion yet always in perfect position. Collectively they advance, assess, probe, retreat, reassess, then advance again, usually to to score. It's like watching a clock rearrange its gears every second and still keep perfect time.

The second is precision: Barcelona plays the ball close to the opposition. Midfielders Xavi, Messi, Busquets, Iniesta and Alves drive the ball directly into defenders where it would seem easy for an opposing player to snatch it away. Not so; collectively, their pass success rate is over 86 percent. Instead of losing the ball they find the seams and create space that no one else can see, let alone defend.

The third is passion: I won't post it here, but a quick YouTube search for "messi champions league 2011" will show you all you need to know about the passion that comes from winning.

Agility. Precision. Passion. They are the attributes of FC Barcelona, now undoubtedly one of the greatest sides in the history of The Beautiful Game. They are also attributes of the analytics-driven organization. They are both the drivers of performance and its result.

How fortunate we are to live in an age of such greatness.

 Companies run on numbers. We need them every every day, every hour, sometimes every minute. The top-performing companies are heralded for their mastery of the numbers and for the numbers they in turn provide to the Street. This is a positive trend.... 0 0 1772 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-aa5801f0-36e7-4f93-919c-7aaf9d4b3eb1 Smarter Government, GPRA and a question about the Capitals Delaney Turner email@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-05-24T10:36:33-04:00 2011-05-25T11:41:27-04:00
What's the toughest question in Washington these days:

How do I meet the new demands of the Government Performance and Results ACT (GPRA)?

Why can't the Capitals make it past the second round?

Luckily, in the former at least, there is a ready answer.

Smarter Government was the theme of our 8th annual IBM Government Forum on May 4 in Washington, DC, and in the elegant meeting rooms of the gleaming Ronald Reagan Center, nearly 400 representative from more than 100 federal agencies convened to learn how smarter government solutions - powered by IBM Business Analytics - could help them improve outcomes and optimize results.

Lee Chichester, IBM Business Unit Executive for U.S. Federal Business Analytics, hosted the event and guided attendees through a fully stocked agenda of keynote speeches, breakout presentations and panel discussions. My colleague Blythe Howard-Chou provided a super summary of the day's key learnings. Below, I've summarized three of the day's sessions in more detail.

First on the agenda was Gerard Mooney, IBM General Manager for Public Sector, Global Government and Education, who through a combination of IBM research and customer success stories, explained the three core tenets of Smarter Government. Here are his slides from the session:

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View more presentations from Delaney_Turner.

Jimmy Wales: Five Wiki Principles

 Mooney ceded the stage to Wikipedia founder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales, whose free, open, collaborative and co-operative Web encyclopedia (now within the top 10 sites on the web in many countries) embodies many of the attributes government agencies themselves are working hard to achieve in the real world.

Wales attributed Wikipedia's success and continued growth to five core principles espoused and upheld by what is now a global community of thousands of contributors around the world. Those principles are:

Adopt a neutral point of view.

Share quality information.

Don't make personal attacks.

Assume good faith.

Use reliable sources.

Wales also shared insights into how these five principles have also helped Wikipedia become a source of reliable information about current and sometimes contentious political events in countries around the world, often in local languages. For example, Wales cited an English article about last year's Iranian elections was equally as "matter of fact" in Farsi, a language widely used in Iran. "In general, what we do find is that all around the world, the values of Wikipedians tend to carry the day," he said.

Panel discussion: Setting goals and measures

Another highlight was the panel discussion entitled "Identifying Goals and Building Measures" featuring:

Jon Desenberg, Policy Director, The Performance Institute, who acted as moderator.

Greg Greben, Vice President and Market Leader for Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO), IBM Global Business Services, US Public Sector.

Jonathan Breul, Executive Director, IBM Center for The Business of Government.

Here's a transcript of the highlights:

Jon Desenberg: We're all on a journey of adopting analytics. What hints or tips to you have to get organizations to adopt this management practice?

Greg Greben: In the past, when we went into an organization and talked with leaders about analytics, our bias was that the barriers were technical and financial – that there was a high cost of entry, that you had to build the infrastructure and build the skills. What we've learned through our surveys and our more recent experience is that the challenges are more organizational in nature. It's the same in government – obviously leadership competencies are very important, but of the dozen or so barriers we see, five of the top six are organizational -the ability to have adequate leadership attention around an information management and analytics campaign, to secure top talent, to build a culture of collaboration – these are key areas to address early on.

Jon Desnberg: The performance culture within government has often been viewed as a "gotcha" culture – there's no upside, only downside. Is that changing? How do we get away from the "gotcha"?

Jonathan Bruel: Well, the "gotcha" culture is a natural one in government because of the focus on accountability and concerns about misspending. And frankly, because we have an army of people in government doing that kind of work. The last count I saw was 13,000 people in IG offices. That's a lot of people looking for mistakes. So there's a ready-made machine to go in that direction.

But there is a change under way and there are a few indications of that – people are much less interested in fault finding in their use of measures. They're much more interested in evidence of progress improvement. They've been very explicit in saying that it's not a problem if they come a cross an agency that fails to meet its goals. It's a problem if they're not aware that they have a problem or if they don't have a plan to fix it.

The second element is the enactment of the GPRA modernization Act. That was in important milestone because Congress basically recommitted to the entire issue of performance. They essentially pushed the reset button to say "let's take the experience, the measures and the goals of the last 18 years and put them to use." It was an endorsement of what had happened in the past but a change that was much more positive.

Jon Desenberg: I don't think a lot of people have seen the analytical culture at work in private sector organizations. Greg, how is it used in this culture? Obviously there's a real emphasis on results, but how do they keep people from setting the bar too low?

Greg Greben: Setting the bar low is a trap because it won't allow you the types of organizational commitment and empowerment you need to address the big challenges. In the private sector I see organizations taking on the challenges that directly affect their ability to survive. This involves heavy senior leadership and it does involve financial commitment and technology to overcome the barriers we discussed. But taking on the biggest challenges doesn't mean taking on the biggest risk if you can rally your organization around solving them. Look at the industries that have gone through mergers and acquisitions – you have significant back office, infrastructure, data and analytics challenges to solve. You can't solve them in piece parts. You need to take them on as large-scale transformations.

Jon Desenberg: On that same point, we get a lot of questions about target setting. Specifically, stretch targets. Is it always appropriate to set stretch targets? What kind of culture do we need to hit them?

Jonathan Bruel: Stretch targets are necessary because in some cases they're the only way you're going to get significant program improvements and some countries do some interesting reporting. The Bush administration had its scorecard with red, yellow and green reports. But if you go to Singapore, for example, they also use this method but have a category above in blue for stretch goals. You get extra credit for meeting these goals but you're not penalized if you fall short.

That's something we need to adopt here. It's a real culture change because if you look at the performance plans of some of the agencies, they're actually setting their internal targets at 80 to 85 percent of what they achieved before. There's a term - "timid targets" - to describe where the goal is set at a very safe level. But that kind of result is not going to impress the organizational leadership or lead to any kind of significant improvement.

Jon Desenberg: You've both touched on leadership. What are the competencies needed for an analytically oriented future?

Greg Greben: Adopting analytics is a significant undertaking. So you want leaders with ambition, who aren't afraid to challenge the status quo, who aren't comfortable in ticking off low-hanging fruit and setting targets that are easy to achieve. You need to look for people who think bigger than that. We're also seeing leaders who understand that it's inadequate to make key decisions on intuition alone. They want the data. They want the advanced analytics that help them understand the tradeoffs and alternatives that exist. They make that a key part of what they do.Another element is empowerment – not just for themselves, but for the people on their team. They empower their people to make decisions with the information they have. Empowerment isn't just something that pockets of people do. We're looking for a more pervasive set of analytical capabilities.

Jonathan Bruel: Look at the GPRA. You've got an explicit assignment for deputy secretaries to act as chief operating officers. That's a set of competencies that has not been recognized or attended to as much as in the past. But it's not for the faint of heart. It's a huge set of responsibilities and it requires someone with the experience and appetite to manage a large public organization. It's not something that can be delegated away. The deputies really need to give their full attention to this assignment. The second aspect of the Act is the performance improvement officer, which calls for someone with much more technical and bureaucratic skills to operate those activities. You also have goal leaders, who need to possess extraordinary subject matter expertise. At the analytics level, you need people with the skills we don't recruit sufficiently – mathematicians, operations researchers – people who can really command the numbers and produce the insights that are called for here.The data alone won't give you the answers. You need to probe and make connections to understand the causalities. Again, that's a competency that's not exhibited enough in government these days. We need to go after this with much more imagination and energy.

Jon Desneberg: It's common to hear "there are too many measures." Currently in the US there are 126 high-priority government-wide metrics. The GPRA aims to have 100. The UK only uses 30 and other studies show that you shouldn't use more than 12. What's the right number?

Jonathan Bruel: The quick answer is that there's no right answer. You're right that under Tony Blair, the UK focused on 30. But the UK is smaller and it's a parliamentary government that delivers services much more directly than here. So there are a lot of differences. If you look at the various administrations over the last 20 years, it looks like the fewer goals, the better. Vice-president Gore's program had 1,600 different goals; under president Bush we had five.

What's most important is to align your metrics with the leadership you're serving. If it's Secretary [Ken] Salazar going out with a new strategic plan for the Interior, the number of goals and the goals themselves need to align with his understanding of the problem. You need to meet his numbers. I don't think the precise number of metrics is as important has having a set that the leadership understands and is comfortable owning. The goals have to make sense to them and work for them if they're going to work at all. Otherwise it's just a paper exercise that gets discarded.

Jon Desenberg: I think I'd be remiss if i didn't mention predictive analytics – looking into the future is probably the toughest thing that we're trying to do. What are the lessons learned in taking analytics from looking backwards to looking forwards?

Jonathan Bruel: Predictive analytics become relevant, if not absolutely necessary, when you get into the budgetary and fiscal problems we face. Anyone who can tackle the kind of policy and program problems that we're facing with any kind predictive insights will be invaluable. Agencies are going to be incredibly challenged. The ability to come to the table with predictive analytics that can help people understand what their caseloads or operating environment is going to be like is going to be an invaluable asset to their cabinet secretary, leadership and committees on the hill. Otherwise we're going to continue to fly blind with budgets that are just crude adjustments to the funding policies that we had in the past. We're going to need much more insight and imagination to solve these problems.

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 What's the toughest question in Washington these days: How do I meet the new demands of the Government Performance and Results ACT (GPRA) ? Why can't the Capitals make it past the second round? Luckily, in the former at least, there is a ready answer. Smarter... 0 0 2637 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-5349be5f-95ff-49bc-8781-cc9c49fe0d6e Vision 2011 Day 1: The keynote recap, part 2 of 2 Delaney Turner email@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-05-16T23:46:31-04:00 2011-05-24T11:00:37-04:00
 At the time, Christopher Cox didn't know why as recently appointed Chairman of the SEC he'd been asked by an enthusiastic woman to sign her son's football.

Nevertheless he obliged, pleased that his recent appointment had made waves within such an unlikely audience.

It was only afterwards, he said in his opening anecdote, that he realized she'd mistaken him for the chair of that other SEC. That would be the NCAA Southeastern Conference.

But the distance between football and financial governance and risk management is shorter than it may appear, said Cox. Take for example, that Peter Walsh, the Dallas Cowboys' head of technology, has a background that includes stints at Nokia, Lockheed Martin, Rockwell and United Space Alliance.

Truth is, said Cox, "there is nowhere in today's fast-paced, global tech-driven economy that business analytics aren't driving progress."

In a captivating address that held attendees' attention in an iron grip, Cox outlined the tremendous benefits that await Finance organizations willing to embrace business analytics – in particular their unparalleled ability to meet the increased and increasingly complex regulatory requirements in the U.S. and abroad.

First though, he presented a murderer's row of massive and interconnected challenges staring CFOs and their teams straight in the eye. They included increased regulatory scrutiny, exchange rate uncertainty, political turmoil in global financial capitals and shifts in global market power.

Take, for example, this passage: "If I convey no other message to you this morning, as a former regulator, it should be that there will be, indeed, more government scrutiny. You can bet on it. And if I can leave you with just one clear takeaway from my 17 years in Congress, it should be to confirm that there will indeed be continued abnormally high levels of political turmoil in Washington and indeed in capitals around the world."

Here are some other highlights of Cox's address:

Shifts in global market power – for example, the rise of China – will force companies to integrate their global operations more closely than ever before.Uncertainty is the new normal.

It's no longer safe to look at any of these issues – as separate issues. Each influences and is interdependent with all the others. There are many dynamics at play and It's the job of Finance to keep on top of these changes.

Finance must rely on its governance, risk and compliance systems and processes to manage all of these changes. The good news is that technology has been evolving just as fast as these changes have been multiplying. As a result, GRC isn't just about playing defense. It's about using this data to gain new insights into performance. Business analytics is really about combining compliance and strategic functions into one discipline.

Businesses are getting back to basics: The "tender green shoots" of a modest recovery are actually a renaissance of a "back to basics" school of management. Businesses are focused on cost efficiencies and stronger value propositions to the customer. Competition is tougher, but what's rising from the ashes is stronger, leaner and much wiser about risk.

Business analytics are driving smarter decisions about risk: the predictive power of advanced analytics can turn the data generated by the compliance function into actionable intelligence that can be quickly translated into business decisions. Entire organizations are in turn becoming more productive and more efficient, and more responsive to the constant changes of the new normal.

The days of communicating through spreadsheets are coming to a close. That way of communicating needlessly exposes organizations to risk and error, wastes time and resources and degrades confidence in the reporting process itself. There is a better way.

Complying with new regulations will be anything but easy. The Dodd-Frank Act totals more than 2,300 pages. It's estimated that the resulting rulemakings will generate 30,000 more. Regulators are still smarting from being burned so badly when the metrics they relied on to warn of coming disasters proved wholly inadequate. There are many unsolved problems and there is still uncertainty about what governments will do next.

Risk is the new lens through which the SEC will view disclosures. But fatter proxy statements and more new disclosures won't be the most significant result. What the SEC will be looking for - and what Finance must be concerned about – is a substantive focus on the factors in your company's governance structure that contribute either to managing risk or to creating it. This new focus will show up in new disclosure requirements and enforcement priorities and compliance exams.

An integrated approach to GRC can ensure that your compliance and disclosure procedures stand up to external scrutiny. It can also ensure that your company succeeds in risk oversight by providing the right information to the people who need it. Effective risk management depends on the flow of information between your board and corporate risk managers. Directors need sufficient info about your company's external and internal risk environment, risk exposures, assessment and prioritization methods and response strategies. Management and Directors must collaborate to understand and act on high-quality, timely and credible information to drive effective responses and decision-making.

XBRL is becoming the "lingua franca" for global regulators. One of the remarkable features of XBRL tags are translations from English to Chinese to Hebrew or any other language. China, Japan and most of the 27 member states of the EU are now using it. In moving to XBRL Belgium's national bank cut filing fees for businesses by 35 percent and generated annual savings of 17 million Euros. The bank also sees XBRL as a way to harmonize data exchange with other regulators. In a similar vein in the U.S. the SEC, Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC have all discovered that using XBRL in their regular data calls from banks has resulted in cleaner data, higher accuracy, higher inflow and access and increased productivity in their systems.

In closing, Cox did leave the audience with an optimistic note. Not surprisingly, he said, companies want to know how else they can leverage their investments in GRC solutions to capitalize on this smarter information.

 "There is every reason in the world to mine this XBRL-tagged data yourselves," Cox said. "You should pull it from everywhere within your organization. When you do this, several good things will happen: you'll get more accurate and complete results than with the old manual methods; you'll leave behind all the errors that are inherent in manual processes, and better yet, you'll eliminate the wasted time that this used to consume. Finding answers and insights is no longer much of a chore."

Some pretty powerful arguments for the adoption of integrated GRC solutions, (especially coming from a mistaken football administrator).
 At the time, Christopher Cox didn't know why as recently appointed Chairman of the SEC he'd been asked by an enthusiastic woman to sign her son's football. Nevertheless he obliged, pleased that his recent appointment had made waves within such an unlikely... 0 0 1323 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-dcce76c2-8580-4212-b734-976115682f7a Vision 2011 Day 1: The keynote recap, part 1 of 2 Delaney Turner firstname.lastname@example.com 270003RQ8K active Comment Entries application/atom+xml;type=entry Likes 2011-05-16T18:45:30-04:00 2011-05-16T20:11:36-04:00
 Economic uncertainty. Complex regulations. New and emerging risks. Innovation, analytics, and the pressure to use both to drive better outcomes.

Each of these issues and many, many more dominated the agenda of today's opening keynote address at Vision 2011, the Premier Event for Financial Management at the Sheraton Dallas.

 Mark Nashman, co-founder and CTO of Clarity Systems (now an IBM company) welcomed some 400 attendees from around the world in an impressive keynote that also featured IBM Business Analytics GM Rob Ashe, Mark Lelyo and Steven Quintero of Time Warner and former SEC Chariman and XBRL advocate Christopher Cox.

Nashman welcomed attendees - a full 30 percent more than last year - and began his presentation by outlining the developments within the Clarity Systems product set since being acquired by IBM in October 2010.

Clarity Acquisition a great event for Clarity customers, employees and partners: Mark Nashman

He said the acquisition was a great event for customers, employees and partners, because Clarity Systems filled a gap in the IBM solution for financial analytics - specifically the ability to help companies to automate the last mile in financial reporting. Nashman was also enthusiastic about the opportunities afforded by the common culture between IBM and Clarity Systems, in particular the same dedication to customer success. "I see it every day in the way we engage with our customers and I hope you see it when you engage with IBM and Clarity Systems personnel."

From here, Nashman recalled the positive response from industry analysts on the news of the acquisition, with Forrester, Gartner and Ventana all making positive statements about the increased offerings within its business analytics software portfolio. "I believe the market now sees IBM as the clear leader in Financial performance Management, with the broadest and deepest set of solutions. It's very exciting to be part of this story."

More features, a global footprint and product longevity

Nashman then gave Clarity Systems customers a glimpse into the next chapters in that story. Among them are:

More features and more functions, more quickly: Clarity Systems product teams can now tap into the deep expertise and resources of the IBM development teams.

A new global reach: IBM's global footprint, distribution and partner network can bring Clarity Systems solutions to new markets.

Product longevity: IBM's size, stability and reputation means Clarity customers can look forward to using and developing their implementations in the years to come. Nashman noted that Clarity releases are now covered for five years of standard IBM support and a further three years of extended support.

Rob Ashe: A challenge to Finance to "think more broadly"

Taking the stage from Mark Nashman was Rob Ashe. Even as General manager of a full IBM division, Ashe revealed Finance to be his "true love" and to extend a sympathetic ear to attendees called on his past experiences filing statutory reports as a CFO. "I like to think I feel your pain and understand what you're going through.

Ashe then challenged attendees to "think more broadly" about the role of Finance and of financial analytics within their organizations. "It's clear that the environment for Finance has never been more complicated, more sophisticated or moved more quickly," he said. "And it's incumbent on us to understand what's available out there to help our companies perform."

Clarity acquisition another step forward in the business analytics journey: Rob Ashe

Naturally, Ashe made the strong case for attendees to explore the offerings from IBM Business Analytics. In acquiring Clarity Systems, Ashe said, IBM is taking another step forward on its business analytics journey toward better business outcomes for its customers. Much like IBM has integrated and extended the presence of financial analytics within its broader IBM Business Analytics portfolio, Ashe urged attendees to use business analytics to extend their influence and presence throughout their respective organizations.

Business analytics extend insights further into your organization to drive better outcomes

Extending business insights to drive better outcomes is a journey Ashe has been on for 25 years. And to bring Clarity customers up to speed, he recounted that journey, calling attention to the major software categories that his companies' leadership helped create: first, business intelligence helped IT drive information into the business and helped decision-makers understand their companies' competitive advantage, their greatest opportunities for profit and where and how to cut costs.

Next came the "vital" integration of financial analytics, scenario modeling and driver-based planning to "create a wave" called Performance Management. This wave anchored BI insights to key accountabilities in Finance, Ashe said, to enable business leaders to align their business strategies and insights with their accountabilities to customers and shareholders.

The most recent stage in the journey, of course, is business analytics, in which robust predictive capabilities, real-time insights, risk management and other capabilities further extend an organization's analytics foundation and drive insights even further into decisions about business strategy, resource allocation, operations and tactics.

From CFO to CAO

Recalling the 2010 IBM CFO study, Ashe observed that CFOs are becoming CAOs, or "Chief Analytics Officers.": "Our companies now are so much more than hard infrastructure. The companies that are driving new business models and new kinds of competitiveness view themselves and information-based companies first. Their assets aren't bricks and mortar. They're the information about their customers and supply chains that help them get to market more quickly."

Further echoing the 2010 CFO study, Ashe continued: "I really believe that CFOs and their organizations need to be the custodians of these assets. The next decade is going to be about competing on information. We play a vital role in this set of capabilities that we're bringing together at this conference that address the need for Finance organizations to be partners with our CFOs."

Building credibility

It's also a question of credibility, Ashe observed. A CFO's ability to partner with the CEO and help guide an organization depends in large measure on their ability to close the books effectively and accurately – a task he described as the basic "blocking and tackling" of the CFO's job. The acquisitions of Clarity Systems and, in the area of risk management, Open Pages, helps Finance do that fundamental work.

Ashe concluded his presentation with a note on the upcoming IBM Centennial. Just as IBM has reinvented itself several times to drive increase its productivity and deliver value, CFOs and their teams must pursue a similar path of transformation to provide continued insights to their respective organizations to drive better business outcomes.

Next up:

Highlights from the keynote address by Christopher Cox...

 Economic uncertainty. Complex regulations. New and emerging risks. Innovation, analytics, and the pressure to use both to drive better outcomes. Each of these issues and many, many more dominated the agenda of today's opening keynote address at Vision 2011,... 0 0 2490 urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-59f8a2ad-450c-4b6d-a1ff-25d9523d2af9 The Performance Perspectives Blog 2013-08-01T13:16:03-04:00


text:
New Tijuana mayor brings binational credentials
During childhood and adolescence, Bustamante attended schools on both sides of the border, including the Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad. He later earned a business degree from the University of San Diego.
"He was always very friendly, very active," said his sister Emma Bustamante. "I think that in the family, he's the most organized and disciplined person."
After his schooling, Bustamante has maintained a foot in both countries. For example, he owns a two-bedroom condominium in a downtown San Diego high-rise.
"He moves like a fish in water, in San Diego and Tijuana," said Ascan Lutteroth, a Tijuana businessman.
"He brings that perspective of being a Tijuanense San Diegan," said Elsa Saxod, a consultant on cross-border issues who knew Bustamante when they grew up in Tijuana.
Bustamante currently serves as CEO of Grupo Bustamante, which encompasses a range of industries, including land development, construction, industrial parks, the 422-room Gran Hotel Tijuana and Offshore Promotion, a subsidiary that advises and facilitates investments in Tijuana's maquiladoras.
Not all the group's investments have flourished. In 1994, Bustamante formed a joint venture with a Hong Kong company to open a $60 million jet-repair and maintenance facility near Tijuana's A.L. Rodriguez International Airport. The project, called Matrix, was aimed at making Tijuana a hub for for aircraft services, but it struggled from the beginning. After years of litigation with the owners of the airport, Bustamante said the project is preparing to move forward.
Given Bustamante's binational background, it's not surprising that he has often spoken out on border issues.
Like many border residents, he has been critical of the electronic inspections system installed this year by the Mexican government at border crossings to detect southbound weapons and other contraband. He also has opposed the Mexican government's new rules limiting deposits of U.S. cash in Mexican banks as a measure against money laundering — a policy that many Baja California businesses assert is harmful to the dollar-driven border economy.
The most immediate issue for Bustamante as he takes office is the question of public safety.
Bustamante said earlier this year that he wants to shift the police department's focus from its emphasis on fighting organized crime. He wants to return officers to their original task of fighting common crime and hopes to reopen neighborhood substations to increase police presence across Tijuana.
"Citizens have been left unprotected," Bustamante said. "I believe we have to return to patrols."
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Children in the Wilderness hosts rural children that live alongside our Parks and Reserves and teaches them the importance of conservation. The Children in the Wilderness programme aims to develop environmental leaders who are inspired to care for their natural heritage so that they become the custodians of these areas in the future.
Children in the Wilderness exposes children to their wildlife heritage, builds and strengthens their capabilities to cope with life's challenges and educates them with the life skills necessary to actualize their greatest potential.
CITW always needs funds to finance camps for the kids as well as the vital follow up programme that ensures the programme has a lasting impact on the children. The bonus for American (and even more so for foreign donors from the UK or Europe) is that while your donation may seem small on that side of the ocean, over here, thanks to our unfavourable exchange rate, it turns into a lot more money! (for example if you donate US$ 10 over there, here it turns into around 100 Namibian Dollars)
Please feel free to make international donations to:
Children in the Wilderness Namibia
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The Team: $20 TOTAL RAISED SO FARJOIN THE TEAM
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'Revolution' Review: 'Come Blow Your Horn'
11/14/2013 10:42am EST
Continuing its dark road – as it has all season – this week's Revolution picks up with our character's current perilous situations: Monroe, Aaron and Cynthia in hiding after being attacked, and Miles, Charlie and Rachel dealing with both Aaron's disappearance and the knowledge of the fact that Gene is a traitor. I really love the path that's being chosen for Stephen Collins' character – it demonstrates that the show is adding people that it cares about fleshing out, as opposed to just throwing random guest actors and additions into the mix because it might help the story along. To that end, I'm very glad that we didn't end up killing Gene when the opportunity presented itself during the hour – again, it would have been the easy way out to give the "villain" a bit of a redeeming storyline and off him, but Revolution seems to be staying true to its commitment to be a drama driven by character and story.
Charlie spies on Truman (Stephen Culp's) speech to the towngoers, where he essentially blames Miles for the town's bombing and implicates Aaron as being a danger – Gene then gets up and corroborates the story, though he does issue a plea for the safety of his family, which allows us to sympathize with him just a little bit. For all his bad decisions, this is a man who landed himself in a less than ideal situation all because he wanted to help the people he loved – sound a little like another character we know?
Indeed, the issue of forgiveness – and trust – was a large theme of the hour, with Charlie and Rachel having a conversation centered on both attributes. I've been saying for awhile that Charlie, with all her bravado and rash decisions, may not be all that much different from Rachel when it comes to making sacrifices for the people that you love – but the conversation tonight made it seem clear that while Charlie has made some questionable choices so far this season, she still very much retains a sense of sympathy. Rachel seemed to realize this as well, admitting that Charlie was a better person than she was, because whereas Rachel couldn't let go of her hate, Charlie still sought out the good in people. There may be hope for the last remaining Matheson child, yet! I truly love all these mother/daughter interactions, mostly because they give Elizabeth Mitchell so much to play with emotionally.
In a rather surprising move, Gene also seemed to take the "redemptive" road, becoming forthright in explaining his reasons for siding with the Patriots to his family. (Last week, we learned that in order to abate the grief of his dead wife a few years ago, he made a deal that would allow him to obtain medicine that would help the people in his town.) Later, he willingly gave himself up in an attempt to give his family and Miles a chance to escape when Truman and his men cornered the group after they tried to take out Horn with an explosive. Despite the fact that Rachel's anger was enough to cause her to almost kill her own father, her good side – perhaps the side softened by Charlie's resolve – showed through when she elected to attempt to save him at the end of the episode. I love the continued exploration of Rachel's morally grey personality, and I hope it continues to get explored through this plotline.
The backstory on Horn was unexpected – though I figured that we would get some intel sooner rather than later, but I didn't think we would be introduced to his past so quickly. (It makes me wonder for the state of his character – Zeljko Ivanek elevates the whole show and is just so good at being creepy, I almost never want him to leave.) It did make for an interesting connection to why Horn was obsessed with Aaron's powers, however – originally, I thought it was because of the fact he wanted to use them to win the growing war. As it turns out, Horn was traumatized as a child by his mother's death. His father forced him to pray for miracles, but when Horn's mother died, he realized miracles just didn't exist – medical science did. Enter Aaron, who apparently has the ability to not only heal himself but also to come back from the dead – as Horn notes, "a real life Lazarus." We continue to learn, in a very LOST-like twist, that Horn is suffering from a brain tumor that will, eventually, kill him – in the absence of medicine, he's hoping to exploit Aaron's powers to save himself. I found it interesting that the show chose to go the route of making Horn's motives more personal – again, it speaks to the fact that Revolution seems to be really trying to really explore its characters and develop them, rather than give them one-note personalities.
Elsewhere, the show finally moved forward on the Jason/Neville/Allenford storyline in a big way. Neville found his way to Justine's husband, Roger, in North Carolina, and leveraged the capture of his wife in order to get into the commander's good graces. Last week, Neville all but told Justine he should, in the words of Walter White, "tread lightly" and this week proved that while Neville may be quiet and trustworthy, his biggest tricks come from his skill to work underneath the radar. He manages to convince Roger to shoot his wife, in order to save his own reputation and give himself an in to work up to the ranks of power. Though Jason is still suffering from the aftereffects of his brainwashing, it's a good storyline overall – we're giving JD Pardo and Giancarlo Esposito something to do that doesn't involve standing around and shooting guns, or being second in commands. I have to wonder how this is eventually going to match up to what's going on in Willoughby, but I'm assuming the show is building to that climax in anticipation of a mid-season finale or a mid-season premiere.
Final Thoughts:
What did you think of the episode?