Wave Analytics is great

Salesforce just announced Analytics Wave, the analytics tool that is not only for the common user, but also for the common smartphone user, which makes up pretty much all of us. There have been many inputs from the market of analytics tools that claim to be a tool “for the rest of us”, so I fear reporting this fact again. But in reality, there are none that I know of that (a) I can use, (b) I can find my own information on and (c) that I can use on my iPhone.

This has pretty much revolutionized the industry for analytics and is something that will take the industry by storm. Why? Because as soon as you have answered one question, most users will have a follow up question to ask. If I now know, which region is selling the most in my area, I will suddenly want to know more. Which products are selling better? Where to I personally make the most money? Are the margins the same across all of my products?

With Analytics Wave, the user can interactively model the data any way she wants it and at any time.

Here is the article that I learned this from: http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/19/salesforce-analytics-tool-waves-hello-to-mobile/

Human Decisions: the real reason for Big Data

It is true and well stated by Joe Hellerstein, CEO of Trifacta. We find ourselves often in love with technology and the development of something and lose site of its real intent. Same is happening with Big Data and the statement that some are making that technology will eventually eliminate the need for a Data Scientist.

Let's remember that humans make qualitative decisions out of the quantitative data that is provided to them, ever faster and more complete by Big Data technology (review article written on this blog). Within the data research process that ends with enough data to make a decision, there is a constant analytical process that asks how can I get to what I want to know using the data I have. The data scientist will always be in control of that process, no matter how much we automate it.

This was well described in Joe's article.

Integrity in Business - a thing of the past? Or do we all aspire to be a "Wolf of Wall Street"?

It's hard not to want what the Wolf has. He has it all. He has money, friends, drugs, wild parties where prostitutes are used like the salsa bowl. And, as the movie painted for us, he never really had to feel bad - not even a hangover the next day! He never felt bad about the investments he misappropriated, of the lies he told to those who were trying to invest their money. Most of his clients lost everything, but the Wolf didn't lose a thing.

And when we hoped our laws would put such scum where he belonged, he ratted out his closest associates and only got three years in a celebrity jail cell. The last scene shows that he got out and is a celebrated author, speaker and probably got a % of the $12 of my movie ticket. What a hero!

My values are different. I am a consultant who does not lie to his clients. I don't lie to my employer. I don't lie while I am selling something. I don't lie to my wife of 26 years and have always chosen to come back to my family. Martin Scorsese would have me believe I screwed up and have missed out in life. This movie is heralded by my society as a great movie that will win many awards.

Am I wrong?
Do we have to lie to clients to get ahead as a consultant?
In order to sell something do I have to lie?

If I do, then I quit and accept my success as the little that those get who believe integrity has value...and I will be happy with it.

The Focal Point of Data Integration: Did Salesforce Get It Right?

We've all been brought up believing that the focus of data integration is a back office function and that this process should be something that is completed by large ERP and CRM applications deep in the bowels of the IT department. All ERP vendors promote their own add-ons that can facilitate the data integration process.

The problem with data integration is not the transfer of data, which has to go through a migration process and follows a rigorous MDM (master data management) exercise to determine a unified enterprise-wide data schema. No, the problem lies in determining the final functionality and higher level business goals that need to be reached after the integration has been completed.

Traditional integration projects worry about ensuring that the back office systems are integrated and are based on sometimes justifiable needs to share data between systems. But the focal point of determining what data needs to be integrated from which back office systems has to happen at the customer level, in the front office to ensure that the business process flows correctly.

This is where Salesforce.com has it right. A company should determine what their sales people, customers or partners need on a smart phone or tablet to ensure that the business process flows faster and more efficiently. Based on that need, an integration project needs to be completed. The focal point of all data integration needs to be in the front office as SFDC proposes, not in the back office where we usually find it.

Last Night: I was invited to Advanced Screening of The Hobbit IMAX in 3D!

This was an amazing play on the 3D effects that only come to life when viewed in full IMAX technology. I have never seen anything like it and it gets a full 2 thumbs up!  It was simply amazing. This is as much a roller coaster ride as I have ever experience even in real life. The 3D makes this movie amazing, so that the experience is more than you physically fathom and I walked out drained of energy.

Go and see this, but don't waste your time with 2D or anything less than IMAX!

2013 Dreamforce: Lots to learn from results

I was unable to attend Dreamforce, which is the major event put on by Salesforce.com, but there were a lot of comments that could boil down some of the lessons for many of us who weren't there.

On this blog, I have spoken much about the Cloud transition and how the datacenter of the future will be in the cloud. Many companies offer real cloud solutions for companies ready to go, the leader in this industry is AWS. But for the mainstream customer with a data center the transition to the cloud is a major disruption and until things break, they are unwilling to move.

The other offering is the traditional SaaS model that companies can transition to, where a major business process transition that involves the use of a new SW package in the cloud can make the same transition. Here, there is often no choice. If the functionality you are searching for is in the cloud, then you will move to the cloud. 

In the case of Salesforce.com, many companies are finding the best of both worlds. Yes, following an improved sales strategy with a CRM model will lead you to their core CRM package and therefore to the cloud, since SFDC (=Salesforce.com) does not offer any other model. But what they have been able to create is a cloud based platform that can take the core of your customer data and expand it to include all other data your company needs or will need from here. SFDC can run your company's cloud transition completely from soup to nuts. Yes, AWS offers the cheapest computing and storage option and many different SW packages are becoming available in a SaaS model. But no where will you find the complete data landscape package that will allow you a transition on your time, piecemeal or complete, as you can with SFDC.

Here are some choice links that I learned a lot from:

Many new ideas
Idea is the customer
Take aways from Marissa Meyers

PaaS the Fastest Growing Cloud Segment

This is something I have written about before, but it seems that the market has finally caught on: PaaS will be the dominant segment throughout 2014. For more information on exactly what the market is and to understand what PaaS means, read this.

Why PaaS? Because the easiest business case for cloud adoption is the area of Software development and operations, called DevOps. The business case is simple and ask anyone who has ever run a data center why. Whenever a new version or release of a piece of code was ready for functional/regression/production test, there needed to be a new environment created for that test. The datacenter guys had to find servers, implement servers, install servers and create a complete environment to complete the test. Once the test was done, the hardware needed to stay untouched, so that a new test (yes, they did find bugs) could be implemented quicker.

The problem here is not only unused hardware and wasted hardware set up skills, but the worst was the time it takes to get a new release out the door.

Cloud and especially PaaS promises to change that forever. Users (SW development guys) can set up an environment on their own as a cloud account, test, and then only use the hardware environment when they need it. As soon as they don't need it, the resources no longer cost money. DevOps is the easiest to understand use of Cloud computing.