David Norris on IT-Director.com

Is data warehousing holding back the advance of analytics?

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 07:00:00 +0100

I have worked in data warehousing and analytics since the idea that Business Intelligence solutions had to offer more than reports added onto operational systems became accepted. But of late, I am... [Read More...]

ActuateOne: a first look at a significant player

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 07:00:00 +0100

ActuateOne has a lot going for it: it is easy to use, supports extensive customisation, and can create libraries of reusable components to enhance the productivity of producing BIRT-based reports,... [Read More...]

OpenLink - analytics in action

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 07:00:00 +0100

I still find that many people find the whole question of Business Intelligence and Analytics hard to grasp and a bit dull, but I would argue it is anything but. To illustrate that this is really not... [Read More...]

Quartet FS offers an exciting Operational Intelligence capability

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Big Data is one of the hot topics of the moment, and one of the most exciting aspects of Big Data is the opportunities that it offers for expanding the whole concept of Operational Intelligence. By... [Read More...]

Pentaho 4.8, a new release that focuses on Mobile BI and Big Data

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Pentaho, unlike most of the big BI vendors, is a BI specialist. I was introduced to Pentaho last year and was impressed. With the latest release, Pentaho continue to develop and strengthen their... [Read More...]

TIBCO Spotfire 5; Analytics starts to grow up in the Enterprise space.

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 06:00:00 +0100

Advanced analytics is becoming a mainstream business activity and the tools to enable that to happen are being introduced and improved all of the time. This week I had the fortune to be briefed on a... [Read More...]

Alteryx Communications Edition

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 06:00:00 +0100

To be competitive it is essential that business is able to make better informed decisions, and that they strive to constantly improve productivity. Technology enables us to bring together vast... [Read More...]

AnalytiX Mapping Manager, the missing link in moving data around

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0100

It is remarkable, despite of the maturity of the market for data migration and the presence of all of the big players in this market, that when you watch the process taking place on the ground in... [Read More...]

BOARD: a fresh take on BI that is distinctly mould breaking!

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0100

Over the last year I have been lucky enough to be introduced to a number of BI tools that have really changed the way that I think about what a BI tool should do, and the productivity that we should... [Read More...]

IBM, Big Data, and its analytics solutions

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0100

Last year I looked at how IBM had been successful in acquiring and integrating the multiple components of its portfolio in the Business Analytics and Optimisation space, this time I have been given... [Read More...]

Pentaho, Big Data and more - the real Pentaho capability revealed

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0100

When Pentaho is mentioned it is nearly always in a context that is dominated by it being an open source offering, and statements about it being really cheap compared to much in the marketplace.... [Read More...]

Consuming big data, Advizor and EMC Greenplum

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0100

There are many who still view Big Data as no more than snake oil, another spin from an industry desperately seeking the next big thing and, to a certain extent, the hype does seem, at times, to run... [Read More...]

Alteryx, the next step

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0100

I was introduced to Alteryx, Inc. a few weeks ago and was very impressed by what I saw. It is an Analytics Application builder designed to enable everyone to have access to advanced analytics priced... [Read More...]

MicroStrategy

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0100

I have been a long time admirer of the technology that MicroStrategy offer. I have not always been an outright admirer of them as a company to do business with. Whilst the technology has always been... [Read More...]

Alteryx, another disruptive technology of huge importance

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0100

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. For Dickens, in a Tale of Two Cities, this was how he saw the era of the French Revolution. I think that we live in a time that could be described... [Read More...]

Splunk: are you imaginative enough to realise its potential?

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0100

I was first introduced to Splunk last year and, once I got used to its name, quickly came to realise that this was something that had amazing potential. Splunk is a leader in its market, which is the... [Read More...]

The Data Works, a marketer's best friend

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0100

We all know that the essence of Marketing is all about the 4 Ps, the right Product, in the right Place, at the right Price, with the right Promotion. But in this fast moving, very fragmented, and... [Read More...]

Connexica and CXAIR

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0100

After almost thirty years of working with BI solutions, I am happy to say that the ability to amaze me still exists and, with CXAIR, I have just seen one of the most impressive tools that I have yet... [Read More...]

Sugar CRM

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0100

Gerry Brown (my colleague who specialises in BI and Marketing solutions) wrote in a recent analysis piece of the damage that was done to the CRM market by vendors over-promising and under-delivering,... [Read More...]

Alpine Data: the first real data mining solution for the Big Data generation

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0100

The biggest barriers that I see to the widespread adoption of Big Data is the skills that are required to deliver the benefits that we all agree can be obtained. In the standard MIS layers of the BI... [Read More...]

Sourcefire Roundtable discussion: Harnessing the power of big data to protect your networks

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0100

Last week I was asked to attend a roundtable discussion on Big Data and network security. This is not my usual area of interest but the more I thought about it the more intrigued I was. We are... [Read More...]

Really big data in the real world with Quantcast

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:00:00 +0100

As part of my research into Big Data it is sometimes difficult to describe things that convey the scale and capability that is a step change from anything that most of us are used to. So much that... [Read More...]

I will Splunk, you can Splunk for free, I fact we all should Splunk!

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0100

There are lots of technologies that when you first read about their capabilities your first reaction is one of an element of disbelief, you think it does that much, for a price like that, sure some... [Read More...]

Mvine - The art of effective collaboration

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0100

When selecting a commercial off-the-shelf solution (COTS) the selection process is almost invariably to assemble a list of desired functional attributes, and to rank them on a priority basis, and to... [Read More...]

IBM PointStream at the US Open tennis tournament, Big Data in the real world

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 06:00:00 +0100

Those of us who work in Business Intelligence and Analytics find it really difficult to understand why so many people find it difficult to grasp what it is about, and fail to see why it should excite... [Read More...]

SAS and social media analysis

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 06:00:00 +0100

The discussions about Big Data and the analytics that surround it have tended to be dominated by Hadoop and MapReduce, and for the emphasis to be placed on the 'big' aspect. However, we have been... [Read More...]

Everything in the right place?

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 06:00:00 +0100

Having been invited to attend a briefing by IBM into the outcome of their recent spate of acquisitions to form the foundation of their Business Analytics and Optimization organisation I was more than... [Read More...]

A closer look at Oryx from Accountagilty

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:00:00 +0100

As I try to understand the current trends in Business Intelligence solutions and, in particular at present, try to get to grips with what is meant by many of the marketing labels-like Agile BI-I have... [Read More...]

Big Data Analytical Applications

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:00:00 +0100

As I continue to explore big data and how it can be exploited through analytical applications, I am constantly discovering that those in the know use a language that they assume is self explanatory,... [Read More...]

What is Agile BI?

rss@it-analysis.com (David Norris, Bloor Research) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 06:00:00 +0100

A question that is posed by many people is, what is Agile BI, what does it mean? Because it is not blindingly obvious, many think it is just another set of weasel words, being casually used to try... [Read More...]