This week I visited the TDWI Summer Conference in San Diego, with close to a thousand attendees. I did the Monday keynote presentation and did teach a half day class in advanced performance management.
If you click this link below, you will see a very good summary of the presentation, in which I try to make a few points as confrontational and provocative as I could: http://www.esj.com/business_intelligence/article.aspx?EditorialsID=8561
In the class that I taught, it showed that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Many people are still struggling with the "one version of the truth" problem. This problem has been around for 20 years, and it is still on everyone's calendar. Although more organizations are succcessful with their enterprise data warehouse strategies, tactical approaches still reign. They are easier to fund, as they support an immediate need. Unfortunately, it leads to a further accumulation of silo-systems. People find it hard to break the paradox. It is easier to do the wrong thing, ultimately leading to a high TCO. It is harder, if not impossible to do the right thing, that leads to the expected ROI.
There is a clear trend towards more heterogeneous business processes (due to mass customization), business models (due to sourcing and cross-company collaboration) and business systems (due to continued M&A for instance). Business is becoming more heterogeneous. This calls for a strong infrastructural IT approach, certainly for data and information management. However, most of the data architects that I spoke still felt they were not appreciated and didn't the chance to take a more strategic approach.
Something needs to change? But how? I don't have all the answers. What do you think?
frank
