I got an amazing birthday gift from my wife this year. She bought tickets for the Annual World Championship Hoop Dancing competition in Phoenix. It was something I always wanted to see and I was not disappointed. I watched the entire 2 days live and enjoyed every minute of it. We saw the overall winner of the adult category in the opening round and really liked him (and it wasn’t just because his brother was sitting next to us!). He had so much raw energy and enthusiasm and he won over the audience easily. In the final round, he tied with another dancer so there was a “dance off” between the t ..read more

While cleaning out the storage area at the InfoSol office recently, we came across a box of unopened Xcelsius Engage 2008 software packages. Yes, back in 2008, it was normal to deliver PC based software this way, putting it on CD’s and packaged in a nice-looking box with installation instructions and, sometimes, even a manual.  We used to sell a lot of Xcelsius Engage so it looks like we kept an inventory of them for a while.  Xcelsius was revolutionary and ahead of its time in both visualization and a no-code development approach. When it was deprecated by SAP at the same time as Ad ..read more

Last night I went to watch a Roller Derby game live on a banked track which I have not done for a long time. I loved the game especially since my team, “The Runaway Brides”, soundly defeated the “Brutal Beauties” but it also reignited my love of the sport. Both teams had great skaters, but “The Runaway Brides” also had very skillful blockers that really made the difference. After the main game, I stayed on to watch a mashup game between mainly youth players from another team, the “Minor Assaults”. It was the Red team against the Blue team with some senior players from the other teams participa ..read more

As we see in another new year, it’s that time to hear about all the new strategies from software and Business Intelligence( BI) vendors for 2024. The last few years, it’s been dominated by Cloud and everyone wanting to be the number 1 in the cloud. But the last year has seen generative AI become the new hot item and no-code application development starting to pick up speed too like InfoBurst Squirrel. So, I expect to see a slew of new strategies based around these areas for BI. The thing about strategies is they are transient – they come and go but they don’t stick around too long. Nowhere is ..read more

I always dread replacing my computer and try to put it off until I have absolutely no choice. It’s not that I don’t want all the great new features especially size, speed and battery life since I travel so much, it’s just that I have to go through this ever-increasingly long and painful process of setting everything up exactly the way I had it before. Yes, I can save my applications and most of my settings (not the cookies and all the preferences though) and I can even restore my desktop but invariably I will end up with new versions of some software products and have to re-log in to a ton of ..read more

I have a had a lot of conversations about data strategy this year. With both the rise in organizations looking to move their data to the cloud and the increasing awareness of the power of BI and generative AI, data strategy has become a top priority. If the data is not correct then its garbage in and garbage out, or as I have always said : BIG DATA + BAD DATA = BIG BAD DATA However, when it comes to a good data strategy, it’s not just about the quality of the data, it’s also about the design and functionality of the structure where it is housed. As organizations look to design and create new d ..read more

At the SpeakBO Experience Event last month, SAP presented some excellent sessions and demonstrations on both the current and future features of BusinessObjects and one thing was very evident. Namely, they are investing heavily in enhancing the functionality of Web Intelligence and Crystal Reports.  This makes a lot of sense.  If you look at the current landscape of BI tools, they are all focused on data discovery and visualization (and most are cloud based). This is great for the future digital enterprise in the cloud, but most organizations are not there yet and have a ways to go.&n ..read more

It’s been a summer of exciting and surprising wins in the international sports world. The Women’s World Cup saw some amazing upsets and results and then the World Track and Field Championships in Budapest had many surprise wins. Sha’Carri Richardson’s 100-meter gold medal was all the more fantastic because the pundits did not even expect her to medal in the event – but then experts often get it wrong! It’s also been a winning summer for BusinessObjects. Not only are more and more customers upgrading to BI 4.3 but many are completely abandoning their plans to get off BusinessObjects and expect ..read more

I have owned a motorbike most of my life and used it both for work and pleasure. When I was at university in the UK, I earned extra cash by being a motorcycle dispatch rider doing deliveries in Central London. We were often referred to as “suicide jockeys” due to both the stunts we did to get around traffic and to the high number of accidents and deaths. Nowadays, I just ride for pleasure maybe once a week on my little Honda Rebel.  Last week the chain came off. It was 105F (cool time of the day in Phoenix) and I was about 5 miles from home and a similar distance from a repair shop. I dec ..read more

One of my favorite organizations is the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. I love the work they do because they have figured out that the best way to help gorillas in the wild is to partner with both the local people who live closest to them and the gorilla lovers all over the world like me! The biggest threats to these gorillas are poaching and habitat destruction. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund through the help of international donors have shown the local community, by significantly improving their standard of living and investing in their people, it is better to keep the gorillas around and help them ..read more