It has been just over 50 years since preeminent IBM computer scientist Hans Peter Luhn coined the term "business intelligence." And ever since then, BI has been viewed as getting information to the people who need it in a timely fashion and in a form that is easily consumed and acted on (the right data to the right people at the right time).

David Van De Voort, a partner in human capital consulting services at Mercer, recently authored a report in Workforce Solutions Review summarizing a study of 193,283 employees representing 1,033 organizations ("

Sometimes I wonder if, as an industry, we ever learn. Two recent projects that I've worked on got me thinking about this. In both cases, the companies are replacing existing custom-built applications with new commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications.

The digital age is in full force. Organizational assets are not merely physical; they are becoming more and more digital. Executives and boards have the responsibility to protect both the physical and digital assets of their organizations.

Budgets are plans for spending money.

Earlier this year, I discussed an apparent growing interest by organizations in using data mining and predictive analytics ("How Do Your Data Mining and Predictive Analytics Grow?" 23 February 2010). I noted that several developments account for this trend.

Just a few years ago, many companies were trying to avoid deploying any social media applications. The turnaround has been astonishing; just about everyone has now jumped on the social media bandwagon. Now the questions relate to ROI and TCO -- and, ultimately, the business value of social media. The Luddites lost the battle.

Everybody loves firefighters. As young children, many of us had the desire to be firefighters when we grew up, but very few ever accomplish that goal. For many, firefighters are the real-world heroes. They rescue our pets and save people from car accidents, burning houses, and many other hazards. They are great at taking care of difficult situations.

While Web 2.0 enthusiasts continue to wax eloquently about the promise and virtues new technologies bring and others, less optimistic, bemoan the negative effects they bring to our brains, I'm not so sure we've been paying attention to even darker forces gathering. A spate of recent events made me shudder. Maybe it's just the times, or maybe it's just me. I'll let you decide.

In my recent Advisor ("How to Make MDM Go: Start with Architecture,"), I discussed the role of enterprise information architecture in Master Data Management (MDM). In this Advisor, I look at the steps to implementing MDM once you have your information architecture in place.

We’ve just completed the fifth annual Cutter Benchmark Review (CBR) issue on IT budgets (see "IT Budgets on a Roller-Coaster Ride," Vol. 10, No. 7).

In my last Advisor ("How to Make MDM Go: Start with Architecture," 18 August 2010), I discussed the role of enterprise information architecture in Master Data Management (MDM).

In fits and starts, green IT is emerging as a significant issue for the public sector. The driving forces are practical and virtuous. Soaring energy costs, the threat of catastrophic climate change, and the more mundane (but nevertheless very real) risk inherent in fossil fuel-based air pollution have compelled regional and national governments to take remedial action.

A survey [1] we conducted in February/March 2010 offers some interesting insights into corporate data warehouse data volume trends. Specifically, when asked, "What is the size of your organization's current data warehouse?" survey participants responded as follows:

Many managers use the mantra, "do more with less." At the recent Agile 2010 conference, Pat Reed from GAP, who copresented with me, shortened this mantra to "do less." The theme of our presentation was value optimization or, as Pat likes to say, "value imagineering" -- determining the highest-valued chunks of functionality to implement next, whether those chunks are project

In the previous Advisor (see "Seeking Out Systemic Risk," 12 August 2010), I discussed the US Congress's establishment of a Financial Stability Council (FSC), one of the main purposes of which is to put an end to, or at least minimize, the effects of firms considered "too big to fail.

I have the highest regard for Apple CEO Steve Jobs. He is, without doubt, the greatest "industrial designer" of the computer age. No one in the last 30 years has had anywhere near the kind of vision for "personal computers" that Jobs has had. Indeed, the ability to bring that vision off in such a dramatic fashion has been the hallmark of Jobs's entire career.

In my previous Advisor (see "Enterprise Semantics: Speed-Reading Your Enterprise Data Architecture, Part I," 11 August 2010), I explained that the skills needed for doing enterprise data architecture differed from data modeling or data warehousing. In addition, I pointed out that one of the most significant differences is that of scale.

If you want to be a leader, how successful you are will depend greatly on the culture where you work. "But wait," you might say. "Doesn't it matter more that you have the ability to lead? That you have the traits that make a leader?" Perhaps, but if the culture you work in doesn't allow you to practice those traits -- or worse still, discourages those traits -- they become irrelevant.

In my previous Advisor (see "Enterprise Semantics: Speed-Reading Your Enterprise Data Architecture, Part I," 11 August 2010), I explained that the skills needed for doing enterprise data architecture differed from data modeling or data warehousing.

An ever-increasing number of firms, both large and small, must deal with the challenges created by a distributed, virtualized workforce. This situation emerges for many reasons, such as the globalization of the firm's activities and points of presence, a mobilized sales force, the need to outsource various corporate functions, and the need for noncolocated teams to collaborate.

I've been checking out a new book, Lean Integration: An Integration Factory Approach to Business Agility.

You may think it obvious to the point of being trite to say that change is "not an option" or "the only constant is change" [1]. Yet, with churn in the global economy catching businesses off guard, and a slurry of such books as Subject to Change, Change by Design, and A Sense of Urgency [2], there's also a sense that change is not only imperative but something we need to become good at. We need to be not only reactive, adapting to a changing world, but proactive -- changing the world, before it changes us. Why?

IT is sort of caught in the middle of a debate. In one corner stands a group of researchers and enthusiasts who look at the marvels of how the human mind can make quick, accurate judgments and decisions. This group tends to look optimistically at the capabilities of the human mind to work effectively in the environment.