Recent Posts by Barry Mostert

Let's face it—mobile devices are an indispensable part of our daily lives. These amazing devices keep us in touch with our friends and family, entertain us, and let us know exactly where we are and where we should be going. They enable our transport, be that by car, train, plane, or electric scooter. They monitor our daily activities and help us stay healthy. And they gently remind us when we stray too far from our target path. If we entrust them with the things that are most...

The latest version of Oracle Autonomous Analytics Cloud includes a refreshed data visualization a capability that empowers business users to explore, discover and visualize their data.  This marks its fourth year since becoming generally available with Oracle's initial cloud analytics offerings (Business Intelligence Cloud Service and Data Visualization Cloud Service).  Oracle Analytics Cloud's data visualization feature addressed that primary shift to user self-service with...

Data preparation—also known as data enrichment—isn't new. In fact, I can almost guarantee that every analytics deployment out there has their users doing some kind of data preparation to support their visualizations.  They might be using a specialized tool, like Alteryx, or a bespoke home-grown process that leverages several tools, Microsoft Excel, coding, and sometimes even Microsoft Access. However, the fundamental problem stems from the fact that source data systems don't...

Individually, a ceramic tile can have a unique color and shape. But when matched with other tiles in a specific pattern, an artist creates a beautiful mosaic that is pleasing to the eye and whose symbolism is understood by all of those around. The same can be said of financial business data. Part 1 of this blog series covered how FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis) can work Smarter leveraging machine learning techniques and Part 2 described how a modern autonomous...

In Part 1 of this blog series, I described how FP&A could work smarter by leveraging modern analytics.  In this piece I'll describe how FP&A can work faster with the same human resources and skills already in place, and still reduce costs.  Tomorrow's analytics for finance is here today. We call it, Extreme Finance.  Finance Working Faster Why work faster?  Because fast is cool. Just ask the people behind the Bloodhound Project (pictured above), which is working with Oracle...

Finance Planning and Analysis (FP&A) is always looking for greater insight and do more with fewer resources.  But, how can this be achieved with limited bandwidth?  Cloud infrastructure and software together with machine learning make it possible to bring innovation to all finance professionals.  Existing financial business processes may appear to be working for the average company, but is the stress associated with obtaining the data and building meaningful results actually...

For an artist or a writer, a completely blank canvas might inspire the next Rembrandt masterpiece or Pulitzer Prize winner. For a business manager performing data analytics, a blank canvas might cause extreme terror. Every data visualization tool on the market today looks and operates in a similar fashion.  They have a pick-box down the left of dimensional attributes and numeric metrics and a canvas onto which you would drag and drop those attributes and metrics thus...

It is already widely accepted that cloud is the future for every aspect of business, analytics included.  If you haven’t already embarked on your journey to embrace the cloud, then you’re probably behind the times.  The benefits of moving away from on-premises infrastructure and license based software are clear and have been quantitatively demonstrated across different industries and within different business units.  The question is no longer “to cloud, or not to cloud?” but...

When I think of a simple tool, I immediately think of a hammer – it’s a very intuitive, easy-to-use tool. You pick it up and you can begin striking things with little input or guidance. By itself, striking things, however, doesn’t make you a carpenter, or an architect – other skills are needed. Although they aren’t as simple as a hammer, visual analytics tools are designed to be much more intuitive than traditional BI tools, since mastering traditional BI tools often required...