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The Next Generation of BI
How will it impact you?
Mark Madsen
October 13, 2010
www.ThirdNature.net
The world is changing
 The world is changing
Always available
Always‐on
Everywhere
Interactive
Real‐time

How organizations and 
individuals interact is 
changing as well.
Welcome to the future of BI




                      Is it so much different today?
Delivering information visually is not so new




 Some visualization books, 90‐100 years old
Change is the Only Constant
              This was your father’s 
              Oldsmobile:
              Computerized innovation
              Greenbar!
Change is the Only Constant
              Personal computerized 
              innovation: Greenbar… 
              on a screen!




              aka, your Oldsmobile
Change is the Only Constant
              The latest Oldsmobile:
              Greenbar, on a screen…
              in a browser!




               Look how far we’ve come.
Change is the Only Constant
             Let’s put it on a mobile phone!




             Innovation through 
             reapplication of the same 
             idea eventually fails to pay 
             off because accumulated 
             differences in context are 
             meaningful.
Commoditization!

“There is no reason anyone
 would want a computer in
        their home.”
        Ken Olson, CEO of DEC, 1977



“…by 2008 we will be producing
 one billion transistors for every
man, woman and child on earth”
 Semiconductor Industry Association, 2007
                                             Meet your new
                                            data warehouse
The consumerization of IT means innovation from 
        the outside, just like the 1980s.
Unexpected Consequences of Data Volumes
Unexpected Consequences of Data Volumes




This and commodity pressure are the real business 
drivers for more advanced analysis techniques.
Clustering + Visualization + Query = Explanation
Mountains of data hiding signal, new UI 
expectations and cheap cycles mean new visual 
interfaces are both possible and expected.
Reality check: what’s the user experience here?
What does usability focus on?




       We moved this
       button to the
       right because
       it’s used most
       often!
Reality, meet expectation.
“When technology
delivers basic needs,
user experience
dominates”
          Don Norman
“Better experiences, not more features.”
                                 Roland Rust
The problem:

The product is designed under the expectation 
that it’s an important part of people’s work.

The reality is that most users spend less than 15 
minutes per day using a BI tool, and more people 
don’t use one at all.

Key design assumptions are wrong, and that it is 
the real reason for the failure of self‐service BI.
Example: What’s the most common BI activity?
How Does BI Address Findability?

Taxonomies
  aka
Categories
 implemented as
Folders
Architecture of Participation, giving gets




                                             Where are
                                             my report
                                              folders?
Social architectures in 
web 2.0 are changing our 
software like mobile 
phones changed the 
telephone industry.
Web 1.0




                            Web 2.0
The invisible Crowd




BI products are still rooted in timesharing design models
Findability and 
collaborative / 
interaction 
features are the 
most important 
and most ignored 
aspects of the BI 
environment.
They are not 
bolt‐on features.
Technology frames for BI
BI as reports
BI as ad‐hoc query
BI as power tools for analysis
BI as support for another analytical process
BI as exploratory tools
BI as a domain application
BI as alerting and exception detection
BI as information delivery (small data in context)

 Many tools, not one. Use is dependent on the scenario.
 These do not take the larger picture of collaboration and 
 interaction into account.
New BI design point: context and point of use
                       Information use is diverse
                       and varies based on context:
                        ▪ Get a quick answer
                        ▪ Solve a one-off problem
                        ▪ Make repetitive decisions
                        ▪ Use data in routine
                          processes
                        ▪ Make complex decisions
                        ▪ Choose a course of action
                        ▪ Convince others to take
                          action


                       BI standardization is for IT, not
                       for the end user.
What’s Happening in the BI Industry?
The big stack / app vendors bought the top end of the market.
Very little innovative work has been done since then, nor was there 
much from these vendors for several years prior to acquisition.
BI Tools Also Need New Capabilities
Embedding BI within 
applications
 ▪ UI embedding
 ▪ Full embedding
Event‐based integration
Feeding BI data to 
applications: services, not 
SQL, may be desired

Custom UI code may be preferable 
to a BI tool
Two BI usage models, one causes problems
                  Demand driven
                   • Users ask for current data
                   • Most BI tools work this way
                   • Harder to adapt these tools to
                     event-driven models


                  Event driven
                   • System takes action based on
                     data, e.g. alerts, rule engines
                   • May not have (or need) an end
                     user interface
                   • Need understanding of decision
                     & action process for this model
Different Data and Usage Patterns
Be prepared for changed 
assumptions regarding BI:
 • Strategy and practices change 
   more frequently, particularly 
   in marketing.
 • This means data sources 
   change frequently, as well as 
   information needs.
 • Much newer data use is like 
   experimental science, and 
   unlike the read‐only BI usage 
   model.
Old style                    New style
Standardized tool, 1 size   Many tools, custom fit
Kitchen sink                Specific functions
Big central applications    Big central platform, small
                            distributed applications
Controlled process          Get out of the way
Force users                 Attract users
Focus on the important features
    BI is a mature market. Beware of feature creep.
      User Productivty & Happiness




                                     I’m kicking ass!          Where’s the manual?

                                                                            Why can’t I find that
                                                                             transform option?
                                             This tool is great!
                                                                                      I can’t believe this
                                                                                      *@%! cost a million
                                                                                            dollars.
                                          Yay, they finally added a
                                               feature I need!

                                      It’s ok but kinda limited                                 Despair


                                                   Number of Product Features
Third Nature, January 2008                                    Mark Madsen                            Slide 34
And now for something completely different
Creative Commons
    Thanks to the people who made their images available via creative commons:
    anne hathaway.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/barbaradoduk/177959197/
    laptop face.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/sd/7746599/
    teapot.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/joi/411403/
    Girl on phone - http://flickr.com/photos/8024992@N06/986538717/
    motionless in crowd.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/cactusmelba/1065738186/
    well town hall - http://flickr.com/photos/tuinkabouter/1135560976/
    cadillac ranch line.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/whatknot/179655095/
    febo amsterdam.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/jshyun/1573065713/
    sand_beach_tide2.jpg - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ccgd/100703045
    baby birthday.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/yoshimov/19513076/
    baby_with_lemon.jpg - http://flickr.com/photos/pichichi/55381094/




March 2009                                              Mark R. Madsen           Slide 36
About the Presenter

                      Mark Madsen is president of Third
                      Nature, a technology research and
                      consulting firm focused on business
                      intelligence, data integration and
                      data management. Mark is an
                      award-winning author, architect and
                      CTO whose work has been featured
                      in numerous industry publications.
                      Over the past ten years Mark
                      received awards for his work from
                      the American Productivity & Quality
                      Center, TDWI, and the Smithsonian
                      Institute. He is an international
                      speaker, a contributing editor at
                      Intelligent Enterprise, and manages
                      the open source channel at the
                      Business Intelligence Network. For
                      more information or to contact Mark,
                      visit http://ThirdNature.net.

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