Data without any context isn’t all that useful. Unfortunately, most of the data that we do collect in the enterprise has little to no context.
To compensate for this, IT organizations have been investing billions, maybe even trillions, of dollars in data warehouses and business intelligence applications. We are collecting more data than ever, which in turn is in straining not only our ability to make sense of that information, but also our storage budgets. What if we took an entirely different approach to collecting data in the first place that was inherently more efficient in terms of assigning context to information? That’s the strategic goal of a G2 project that Jeff Jonas, IBM distinguished engineer and chief scientist for Entity Analytics, is working on.

Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Or do without." That adage from the Great Depression is making a comeback these days among corporations that are digging deep to maintain profitability using business tools they already have in-house.

Microsoft plans to expand the number of countries where it offers the hosted version of its Dynamics CRM product, which has proved popular in the US and Canada where it is already offered.

Europe's head of competition has criticized Oracle for what she characterised as a lack of cooperation over the investigation of Oracle's planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, a spokesman for the European Commission said.

New Times Demand a New Strategy

In the wake of the financial crisis, businesses around the globe are being called upon to redefine their role in society, rebuilding trust and restructuring operations from the ground up to meet our planet's most pressing problems.
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Florida-based Frontline Homeowners Insurance has selected the complete iPartners Insurance Scorecard business intelligence (BI) solution suite

Of course failure can also be instructive; as the saying goes “we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes.” Given this, and indeed the Internet’s obsession with “x reasons why y fails”, I have also written on the subject of how Business Intelligence projects can go wrong a few times.

Social CRM is just what it sounds like. Rather than relying on software to track customer histories and then put that data in the hands of people who need it, social CRM is about the relationship itself. It's about using the plethora of social media tools to maintain an actual conversation with customers. Twitter is the tool that's most obviously suited for this function.

In this one to one interview with Ajay Ohri of DecisionStats.com, Timo Elliott passes on his thoughts such as covering trends in predictive analytics, cloud computing and social network analysis.

Ventana Research today introduces its 2009 Value Index for Business Intelligence, the second of a new category of quantified, research-based Indexes. This new Value Index provides research-based metrics that will enable organizations to ascertain the value to them of existing and future business intelligence technologies, systems and tools for business and IT in a simple and easy-to-use manner. Using the Value Index, businesses will be able to meet the challenge of evaluating vendors and their products and making choices based on an understanding of how well the offerings meet their needs