The performance ideas blog

Category: Analytics

  • Inspiration from Stephen Few

    Greetings from San Francisco. I am back here to attend Osisoft’s vCampus developer conference. The conference kicked off with a true highlight: Stephen Few delivered one of the keynote presentations. Hopefully, all of you know Stephen and the awesome work he has done over the past years. Today’s presentation was content-rich and also very entertaining.…

  • Recommended reading: How to convert complex data into a story

    The Analytics Communicator Analytics professionals need to be communicators. Just being technically proficient is longer enough. It is not enough to slap a report or dashboard together on the go. Rather, we have the responsibility to help the business get information out of their data. This is especially true as data volumes continue to grow.  I…

  • Three simple ideas for better software demos

    Better software demos The other day I wrote about lessons for delivering a better software demo. This article ended up being one of the most popular ones in recent times. I have therefore decided to add a few more tips as a solid demo can really make a difference. Likewise a bad software demo can…

  • Analytics professionals need to be communicators

    Are we communicators? Analyics are an extremely hot topic. While there is a lot of talk about it, too many companies are still failing to reap the true benefits from “bread and butter” tools such as dashboards. It’s safe to say that there is a disconnect: lot’s of talk and excitement, yet little true engagement…

  • The art of the technical presentation – 5 lessons from Gary Fong

    The Technical presentation As an analytics professional, you often have to show your work to select audiences. This could be a demonstration of a new corporate dashboard at the monthly townhall meeting. It might also be a training class for the operations team or a 1:1 session with the CEO. Regardless of the occasion, you…

  • Guest Post: Become the topic of conversation with content marketing

    PR and Social Media Expert Bernhard Lermann Content Marketing If Dr. Johann August Unzer would have had a company website, it would have been a very lively place. The practicing physician from Altona, Germany, was the publisher of the well-known medical weekly journal “Der Arzt” („The Physician”) as well as the author of numerous medical,…

  • 6 Performance Management lessons from the Tour de France

    The Tour de France The toughest sporting event of the year is in full swing right now. No, I am not talking about the Olympics. I am talking about the Tour de France. No other sport requires its athletes to perform at the highest level for 21 consecutive days. Think about this: Riders burn an…

  • Is it worth going the extra mile?

    That last bit of effort Most of us have encountered many situations where we need to make a decision: do we want to put in just a little bit more effort or should we just let it go. There is the project proposal that we have been working on for days. Should we do another…

  • Updates, updates, updates

    Busy times Wow. It’s been a busy but exciting week. There is a lot going on in the business analytics space these days. Here are some updates that you might find interesting. There is a new version of the IBM Cognos iPad app. You can download it from the iTunes store. The new version has…

  • TM1 – The swiss army knife for the finance department?

    IBM Cognos TM1 No doubt, IBM Cognos TM1 is a unique solution. I have never met so many loyal and enthusiastic long-term customers than for any other finance-related software solution. TM1 is special indeed. There is a lot to like: it is lightening fast (64-bit in memory), configuration does not require rocket-science, it supports Excel,…