For a long time, BI almost appeared to stay immune to changes. Applications got better, breakthroughs here and there, but roughly same players, same strategy, same approach.
2 visionaries were on the foundation of what I call now "Classical BI" - Kimball and Inmon. They taught us what a datawarehouse is. And damn, they were right about it.
I've been working with BI for a few years now. A couple of years back, I'd probably have written that I was working with "opensource BI". It was, by itself, a differentiating factor. It still makes a difference to me: means I'll be able to hack around it, I won't be trapped in a code I can't access to, and will ultimately allow me to do my job better.
But I don't say that anymore. It's irrelevant. Fortunately the market is starting to realize that the fact that opensource isn't a benefit by itself. It will have a more affordable entry point but in the end the only thing that matters is if what's implemented allow users to make correct decisions based on the information taken from the BI system.
My passion is the visualization layer of BI. Usually known as dashboards, I think of them as much more than that, as the main interface between users and *their* data, and more than numbers they need to transmit an emotion, create a bond. It's not enough if the numbers are right, there has to be more than that. The user must feel comfortable using it, has to enjoy it. It's all about User eXperience.
The immediate conclusion is that users couldn't care less about where the data comes from. We don't need datawarehouses anymore. We need *whatever* allows us to provide that rich experience. And sometimes the classic datawarehouses are not the best approach.
Exciting times for IT. Lot of buzzwords. Lots of new technology. New ways of accessing information. All the hype about SQL vs noSQL and the bigdata movement. For me there's one clear winner: All of us. We now have more tools available to choose the right one for the job.
Don't just settle for getting the numbers right. Also try to get a smile from your user.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
5 days, 5 dashboards, 5 websites - 5/5
Day 5, mission accomplished!
Dashboard 5: Product Demo
This is an older proof of concept that we developed a while back. It's not feature complete - you'll notice only the last selector works and it doesn't render properly in older IEs - but it's by far one of the most advanced ones in terms of showcasing all the customization capabilities of the Ctools. And, by the way, we got the project :)
Try it here
Site 5: cst.webdetails.org
CST, Community Startup Tabs, is a great example how community projects should be created. St. Antonius Ziekenhuis requested us to develop the ability to define and customize the tabs that are visible to users that log in to Pentaho User Console (PUC) and in the end allowed to release that to the community. Bravo!
And that's it for now. In time, the list of samples will grow, but it's a great start in my opinion and should give everyone a better notion of what can be achieved using the Ctools.
Have fun! (quoting Thomas)
Dashboard 5: Product Demo
This is an older proof of concept that we developed a while back. It's not feature complete - you'll notice only the last selector works and it doesn't render properly in older IEs - but it's by far one of the most advanced ones in terms of showcasing all the customization capabilities of the Ctools. And, by the way, we got the project :)
Try it here
Site 5: cst.webdetails.org
CST, Community Startup Tabs, is a great example how community projects should be created. St. Antonius Ziekenhuis requested us to develop the ability to define and customize the tabs that are visible to users that log in to Pentaho User Console (PUC) and in the end allowed to release that to the community. Bravo!
And that's it for now. In time, the list of samples will grow, but it's a great start in my opinion and should give everyone a better notion of what can be achieved using the Ctools.
Have fun! (quoting Thomas)
Monday, August 1, 2011
5 days, 5 dashboards, 5 websites - 4/5
Day 4. You really didn't expect me to work on a weekend, right?
Dashboard 4: CDE Demo
This one is probably familiar if you installed CDE before, as it's included in the main distribution. A very simple example of what can be done in about one hour with the tool. This is not a standard Dashboard, with lots of KPI's, but more of a documentation-oriented approach, which can be very useful. Even though CDE can hardly be placed on the same league as a wiki or any of it's relatives, the truth is that since it's remotely accessible to edition it can definitely be used like that.
Try it here
Site 4: cde.webdetails.org
The crown jewel, CDE was initially started (like most of the others) for the Mozilla project. Starting as a proof of concept, quickly proved to be a boost of productivity. With almost 2 years since it's initial version, is now a mature project with tons of optimizations for both editing and rendering dashboards.
Dashboard 4: CDE Demo
This one is probably familiar if you installed CDE before, as it's included in the main distribution. A very simple example of what can be done in about one hour with the tool. This is not a standard Dashboard, with lots of KPI's, but more of a documentation-oriented approach, which can be very useful. Even though CDE can hardly be placed on the same league as a wiki or any of it's relatives, the truth is that since it's remotely accessible to edition it can definitely be used like that.
Try it here
Site 4: cde.webdetails.org
The crown jewel, CDE was initially started (like most of the others) for the Mozilla project. Starting as a proof of concept, quickly proved to be a boost of productivity. With almost 2 years since it's initial version, is now a mature project with tons of optimizations for both editing and rendering dashboards.
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