Leveraging IoT for Digital Business

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, IT and Engineering, Technology, The Cloud

In the not-so-distant future, this likely will happen when you have a car accident. Sensors, connected with smart apps, will instantly: a) Gauge how seriously you may be hurt. b) Report the accident location to police and medical personnel. c) Determine how much damage your vehicle has sustained. d) Report the accident to your insurance company. e) If warranted, offer options on how to replace the car. f) If warranted, even alert your attorneys.

Izenda Tech Blog logoSound far-fetched? Not in the world described by Daryl Plummer, Research VP and Gartner Fellow. He gave a Gartner local briefing last week in Atlanta titled “Securing Digital Business Through an Internet of Things.”

Plummer focused on the implications for business in this growing Internet of Things (IoT) world, where everyday objects and machines have network connectivity, allowing them to send or receive data. Read More

Gigaom Research Paper Stresses Embedded, Self-Service BI

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, IT and Engineering, News & Events, Technology, The Cloud

Gigaom Research this week released a white paper stressing the importance of embedding modern BI (reporting, dashboards and visualizations) in a user’s work application. The report, titled “Embedded Analytics in the Self-Service BI Enterprise,” was underwritten by Izenda.

Paper CoverThe white paper explores:

• Why reporting, dashboard, and analytical solutions should be embedded in applications. • Why BI solutions should democratize access to data and lift the burden from IT and data science teams. • Why reporting functionality should have a professional look and feel that is natural for users. • Why adopting a third-party solution is usually the most sensible approach for ISVs and solutions providers. Read More

The Risks and Hidden Benefits of Dark Data

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, IT and Engineering, Technology, The Cloud

The “dark Web” – the Wild West of underground Internet sites – has received a lot of attention and notoriety of late. But many people may not have heard of “dark data.” Practices regarding dark data have prompted a lot of discussion in data management circles.

Gartner originally coined the term. Condensed here, the definition of dark data is “the information assets organizations collect, process and store during regular business activities, but generally fail to use for other purposes.”

Organizations often retain dark data for compliance purposes. “Storing and securing data typically incurs more expense (and sometimes greater risk) than value,” Gartner writes. Read More

Leveraging Mobile in the BI Space

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, IT and Engineering, Technology

Mobile business intelligence tools are on the rise, but analysts and others caution that developing a strategy for mobile BI remains a work in progress for many companies.

Forrester Research analyst Martha Bennett writes that a survey found the percentage of IT decision-makers who make some BI applications available on mobile devices has quadrupled and those that provide such apps exclusively on smartphones rose from 1 percent to 7 percent.

Industry watchers differ on what those numbers mean. Read More

Reaching Nirvana in Data Quality

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, Technology

Do you trust your data? U.S. organizations believe on average that 32 percent of their data is inaccurate, according to Experian’s most recent Data Quality Benchmark Report.

Data quality has been talked about for years in business intelligence circles. Mario Barajas, a consultant for the ZAP BI U.S. office, notes it’s a topic that won’t go away “because we’re still seeing the same mistakes from years ago.” Read More

Microsoft Center to Attract Startups in Downtown Atlanta

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, IT and Engineering, Microsoft, News & Events, Technology

Microsoft, in an intriguing move geared to Atlanta’s tech and start-up communities, will open an “innovation center” in downtown’s Flatiron building, Atlanta Business Chronicle reported this week.

Microsoft centers “provide resources and support for students, entrepreneurs and startups, accelerating the creation of new companies, jobs and growth of the local software ecosystem,” the article stated. Read More

When Users Don’t Use Your Software

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, Technology

A recent survey found that 91 percent of Americans do not use all the software installed on their machines at work. The results ought to be disturbing not only to enterprise CEOs and CIOs, but also to independent software vendors and solutions providers.

The Enterprise Software Survey, conducted by TNS for Coupa Software, also found that more than one-quarter of those responding said they don’t use the software uploaded on their work computers because it’s not required. Read More