Category Archives: BI At Large

Defuse the tension between designers and technologists – educate on your BI tools capabilities upfront

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Ron Keler

When working with designers, or users who are interested in designing their dashboards, you will undoubtedly run into tensions between what “should be” and what “can be”. While you can argue that with software there are really no limitations, and … Continue reading →

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Good to Great Dashboard

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Ron Keler

In his famous book “Good to Great”, Jim Collins describes his research into eleven great companies that presented consistent outstanding results, compared to other companies that were in seemingly similar situation, but failed to achieve sustainable greatness. Collins describes the … Continue reading →

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Scale matters

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Ron Keler

Charts have become an invaluable way to communicate information and articulate data. Charts help us not just convey data, but to also “tell a story”. With Charts, we can highlight certain points and help the people who need to act … Continue reading →

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Broken windows theory applied to BI – clean up your reports so they don’t end up in the trash

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Ron Keler

The broken windows theory is a social sciences theory. It claims that maintaining the form of the environment prevents crime and social disorder. Malcolm Gladwell discusses this theory in his book The Tipping Point and examines how it was used … Continue reading →

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Spin the bike wheel and track your performance

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Ron Keler

While working out at the gym today, I thought up this little Xcelsius dashboard to track biking performance. While the hardware components needed are a bit out of reach for me right now, the illustration below would have to suffice … Continue reading →

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The two prerequisites for any BI project: It has to be right. It has to be pretty.

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Ron Keler

Business Intelligence is an agent of change. It’s a tool to examine existing processes, highlight which aspects of them work, which do not, and point the way towards improvement. It is disruptive technology and can have major impact on individuals’ … Continue reading →

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Data is surprising

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Ron Keler

The only sure thing about data is that it will surely hold surprises you are not expecting. Data is generated from systems that ultimately collect information entered by people. And as people are surprising and act in unpredictable ways, the … Continue reading →

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Embed LinkedIn search in your BI application!

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Ron Keler

I recently got to listen to a presentation about using LinkedIn in the context of sales and marketing. LinkedIn is a wonderfully successful and rich professional/social network, where you can find co-workers, past colleagues, old school mates etc. The difference … Continue reading →

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BI on a napkin

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Ron Keler

One of the surest ways, tried and true, to achieve BI happiness, is to do it in a bar. Especially with a nice drink, in the evening, and a good companion. Don’t believe me? Just try it. Well, that is … Continue reading →

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Roll your BI Project on two tracks

Posted on February 5, 2011 by Ron Keler

One of the most challenging aspects of any BI project lies in the tension between the “behind the scenes” data work, and the “high visibility” BI application. Everyone will see the new marketing and sales dashboard you are tasked to … Continue reading →

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