Posted by Chris Ovens on Sat, Aug 14, 2010
We keep getting into these BI-GIS conversations, and it is sometime hard to know if we are acting as a "GBI translator", or just annoying people. I suspect it's quite often the latter, but at least people remember us, right..?
A while back we were kindly asked to participate in a Proof of Technology session with a large insurance company. Our topic was the technical integration of Cognos BI and Esri ArqGIS. I kicked off the discussion with the suggestion that upon presentation of their geospatial reporting requirements, the BI vendor would propose a company dashboard targeted to 10,000 users that happened to include a map. The GIS perspective would be an insanely rich and powerful location-based risk analysis application that would could be leveraged by a handful of GIS analysts.
Two radically different solutions from the same set of requirements, and the right answer is likely between the two. This got head nods and chuckles from the client, fairly muted responses from the other vendors.
The crux of the issue is the hammer and nail analogy, your going to see the world through the perspective and strength of your solution. If you boil both BI and GIS solutions down to their essence, they are both simply information systems presenting business insight to users.
Time to add the handsaw to the toolbox and start giving organizations the information they want and need.
PS; we haven't been invited back to another Proof of Technology since…
Posted by Chris Ovens on Tue, Apr 27, 2010
Hello all,
Apologies, it has been a while since our last update in the GBI blog - the marketing department keeps reminding that October was a long time ago. Seems we (probably I) have been too busy with our "SpotOn Vantage World Tour 2009-10". Rock On! (enterprise software style).
Highlights from the past 6 months:
"Seriously, I'm at a conference... I told you these GIS guys are different!"
We've had whirlwind trips to Europe, and more trips to Redlands, CA than you can shake a stick at. We have new people in the virtual shop, a newly minted partner tearing up the UK, and our good friend Freddy is about to light up another corner of Europe (stay tuned).
Most importantly, we've delivered - and are delivering, at an accelerated pace - on the promise of achieving a complete information perspective with our customers. Bridging the geographic and the business dimensions to deliver the complete picture.
And boy, have we learned a bunch along the way! Looking forward to sharing.
co
Posted by Chris Ovens on Tue, Oct 13, 2009
What to say when the audience knows more than you...
Over the last couple of months, I've had the pleasure of being asked to speak several times to GIS experts on the topic of "why" and "how" they should care about business intelligence. Once again last week, I had the opportunity to stand on my soap box and talk about GBI - Geographic Business Intelligence. This time it was at the ESRI Canada Regional User Conference in Toronto.
As forewarned, the audience had very little exposure and experience with business intelligence. What's a BI guy like me doing in a place like this - and what the heck can I give of value to these GIS brainiacs? "Hello rock, I'm standing here beside the hard place..."
Here what the good folks got; the top reasons why the GIS department should care about BI:
- The CIO's top technology priory is BI. This has been the case again this year, and it has been for the better part of a decade. So says Gartner. GIS can gain CIO mind share by just being a part of the reporting and analytics infrastructure.
- BI has broad based access to the critical business data; data that may not readily be available to the GIS analysts. Much of the BI data modeling may already be in place, after years of benefiting from being a CIO priority.
- BI handles complex data manipulation. There are business problems that are clearly best handled by the BI query(ies). BI was designed to do complex calculations, support report parameters, and deliver rich end-user prompting. BI can crunch the numbers - spatial analysis makes the numbers stunning.
- BI data is secured. When BI report data is used in map layer development, the BI security model is persisted through use in the map.
- Enterprise BI is built to disseminate information - to whomever, wherever, in the organization. Web-based enterprise mapping can benefit from this delivery infrastructure immensely. Rather than the "build it and they will come" mentality; maps can hop on the BI "bus", it's going where they need to be!
The audience seemed receptive, and in some cases downright eager. Or they were just too damn polite. Canadians...
Let me know what you think. What did I miss?
Chris
Posted by Chris Ovens on Tue, Jun 09, 2009
Posted by Chris Ovens on Thu, Apr 09, 2009
Here is the deal; we have been very active recently in helping folks integrate high-end enterprise mapping (GIS) with Cognos 8 BI. We've come to the conclusion that there is real value in bringing the geographic perspective to your core BI. Hence we have gravitated to the following definition of GBI.
Perhaps influenced by the backgrounds and experience of the folks at SpotOn, we believe that BI is the foundation for GBI. BI has been the top technology priority for CIOs for almost a decade now. Companies count on BI for their mission-critical operations.
However, the impact and power of spatial analytics and GIS solutions are staggering. These tools can deliver unprecedented insight into businesses, and the key operations relation to location.
The goal of this blog will be to share the learning and adventures as we collectively explore the world where Geography and BI meet.
Let get past the "why" and "what", and start digging into the "Where"!
Posted by Chris Ovens on Mon, Feb 23, 2009
I just wrapped up attending a two-day commercial summit that ESRI hosted for its current and potential business partners. The objective of the summit was to arm partners with the knowledge and capabilities to go after the for profit business sector. Makes perfect sense. The event was well put together and provided the attendees with ample potential opportunities in a myriad of directions.
As a "lowly BI guy" in the room, I had my head spinning as incredible geo-spatial capabilities were showcased that would provide invaluable information business insight across various industries. I think I'm starting to understand why GIS folks are so passionate about their solutions. However something was gnawing in the back of my mind; why would companies utilizing these capabilities need BI? Demo after demo, we were shown staggeringly powerful capabilities that delivered all the information anybody could ask for. Why was I in the room? Who in their right mind would want my crosstab - let alone my simple list...
But then in started to don on me; almost every demonstration started with the desktop power-tools. Jokes were made during presentations about "chained up GIS developer in the dungeon". Even when presenting the web-based server tools, the thrust of the presentation was on the analytical capabilities. There are a ton of potential buttons to press and levers to pull. I was starting to formulate a theory...
And then were uttered, in the final session of the final day of the summit, words that reinforced my growing suspicion; "it's all about getting this information beyond the analysts....". The thrust of point was not about leveraging BI solutions like IBM Cognos, but about building web application to present mapping capabilities.
Aha!!! I'll do you one better than your custom web apps. How about we deliver the spatial capabilities with the same vehicle used to disseminate the rest of your business information. What if we use the enterprise BI security model to control access to your maps. Maybe we augment the map with a layer or two based on the BI data. Heck, let's get the whole thing working together with interactive capabilities allowing the user to click on the map and affect the tabular view - or use the map or a report prompt control.
It's not the sexy side of the information game, but the key "so what?" about BI solutions for GIS capabilities could very well be the administration and dissemination capabilities. On the flip side, even a simple interactive map in a report gets your average BI guy into a tizzy - very sexy! This simple map also seems to cause disdain and scorn from GIS folks, "that's just dots on a map".
Fine by me, will focus on mapping capabilities for the "low brow" BI masses. We'll leave you to your power-tooled enable dungeons!
Posted by Chris Ovens on Mon, Aug 11, 2008
I'm thinking they are. I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days at the 2008 ESRI International User Conference down in San Diego.
Being a veteran BI guy, I'm fairly familiar with the Business Intelligence circuit; TDWI, Gartner, Computer World, and several Cognos Forums (on both sides of the stage). I've found that the attitudes are generally fairly upbeat and positive. Attendees are proponents of BI solutions, the value of these solutions, and the importance of BI in organizations as a foundation for performance management. The BI folks - if you can characterize this broadly, which might be a stretch - are also realists, and will speak of opportunities just out of their solutions reach. I have also seen beaten down individuals who are suffering due to the unfulfilled promise of BI expectations.
Then I went to San Diego...
I was absolutely stunned at the passion attendees displayed for GIS applications; and the eagerness to push the envelope with organizations' GIS deployments. I get that every data point has a location, but holy cow! Truth be told, there was some spectacularly stunning displays of technology.
So is the GIS Analyst some part of a fanatical cult? Let's look for clues... Attendees in San Diego: 14,500. Want to see where they came from? Check the map. Click around a bit if you want. Although ESRI is a private company, my understanding is that it was roughly in the same revenue ballpark as Cognos. ESRI Conference attendees outnumbered this year's Forum attendees by a factor of nearly 4! This blew me away.
One last tidbit; I was sitting in on a demo. The presenter was speaking about a multi-dimentional GIS connector, and proceeded to poll the audience on their familiarity with OLAP. I looked around the room and noticed there was only one hand up - mine... Everybody was looking at me like I was the freak! If they only knew...