The Performance Ideas Blog

Category: Analytics

  • Industry 4.0 and the sensor data analytics problem

    That sensor data problem A few weeks ago, I met with a number of IT consultants who had been hired to provide data science knowledge for an Industry 4.0 project at a large German industrial company. The day I saw them they looked frazzled and frustrated. At the beginning of our meeting they spoke about […]

  • Industry 4.0 & Big Data

    Industry 4.0 If you work in a manufacturing related industry, it’s difficult to escape the ideas and concepts of Industry 4.0. A brainchild of the German government, Industry 4.0 is a framework that is intended to revolutionize the manufacturing world. Similar to what the steam engine did for us earlier in the last century, smart usage […]

  • The Big Data Challenge of Activity Trackers

    The activity tracker revolution Activity trackers such as the ubiquitous Fitbit, Jawbone and the Garmin Vivofit are extremely popular these days. You can frequently spot them on colleagues, friends and customers. Their popularity raises a question: Does the collected data add value to your personal life? As a data hungry endurance athlete who relies on […]

  • Keep natural gas flowing with analytics

    The Power of Data Last week, I had the honor to moderate the OSIsoft 2014 user conference in San Francisco. Over 2000 professionals came together to discuss the value and use of real-time data across different industries. There were a ton of really interesting and inspiring customer presentations. It’s just amazing to see how much […]

  • Data is only useful if you use it!

    The value factor We have all become data collectors. This is true for corporations and individuals. Organizations store petabytes worth of customer transactions, social sentiment and machine data. SAP’s Timo Elliott recently wrote a nice blog post about the ‘datafication’ of our own private lives. Just to give you a personal example, I have over […]

  • The Power of Data – Collaboration

    It’s my data! No doubt – there is tremendous value in data. I use data collected from a small sensor in my bike to improve my cycling performance. Factories leverage data to keep their machines humming as long and as efficiently as possible. Unfortunately, most companies have historically tried to keep data for themselves. Sharing […]

  • Naked Statistics – A book review

    Scary Statistics Amazon.com recently recommended the book Naked Statistics: Stripping Dread from the Data. Since I already knew the author Charles Wheelan from his awesome book Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science (Fully Revised and Updated) I went ahead and bought this one for my Kindle. Great decision – it is one of those books […]

  • Big Data – Can’t ignore it?

    Big data 2012 is almost over and I just realized that I have not yet posted a single entry about big data. Clearly a big mistake – right? Let’s see: Software vendors, media and industry analysts are all over the topic. If you listen to some of the messages, it seems that big data will […]

  • Recommended reading for December

    Recommended reading December is always an interesting month. Analysts, software companies and journalists post a ton of predictions, reviews and opinions to celebrate the start of the new year. 2012 is not different. Here are a a few posts that I highly recommend reading. Most influential visualizations Tableau Software without a doubt knows a lot […]

  • Is your analytics solution a trusted advisor?

    The trusted advisor? Many of us get really frustrated when business people do not immediately embrace our analytics solutions. But let’s step in their shoes for a moment. Trusting analytics for decision making is leap of faith. Imagine you are a manager who is used to listening to his gut feeling and intuition. We can’t […]