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Month: September 2020

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Podcast

Season 2 Episode 5 – Heather Hill – Big, Bad Data: How B.I. Is Adapting to Overcome Challenges Posed by Unstructured Data

2020-09-28

Episode Summary

Welcome to Limitless B.I., a show that interviews real world, innovative business leaders who strive to see beyond the data to produce tangible results in their organizations using business intelligence.

In this episode, Business Intelligence Manager at Mobile Mini, Heather Hill joins the show to discuss her background as a leader and influencer in the business intelligence space. Heather speaks to her track record of leading teams to build innovative B.I. solutions as well as her passion for creating user adoption, business involvement, and sustainable processes. Additionally, Heather shares her opinions on big data, converting repository data to the cloud and what the future holds for B.I.

Highlights

00:37 – Introducing today’s guest, Heather Hill, who shares her background in business intelligence, highlights from her career and how she has advocated for more women in B.I.

05:33 – Heather speaks to the impact that Covid-19 has had on her personally and from a business perspective

07:51 – Heather shares her opinions on big data, the vital role it will continue to play in our future and best practices for managing and governing our data

13:05 – Heather discusses the challenges organizations face when it comes to ownership of data

16:05 – Challenges Heather has faced when moving her repository data to the cloud and how to overcome these obstacles

19:21 – Heather speculates on the prospect of doing good B.I. against unstructured data

23:44 – Heather speculates on the future of B.I. and expounds on the importance of user adoption

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We’re still on a journey to get to the place where we can elevate our data to action.

The biggest challenge is the hybrid environment. You can move your repository, your data warehouse, up to the cloud. But probably not every component of that architecture is cloud-enabled.

If the journey of B.I. is to move away from a technology-focused user to a business user, then it’s hard for that user base to do B.I. on that unstructured data. I don’t think the tools are easy enough yet for the audience that…

I think data storytelling is a new, hot topic of really having the folks who are telling a story with the data, rather than you having to go drive to the answers and really elevating that message to more actionable insights and…

I think data governance is becoming more and more important as people are struggling.

Links Mentioned

Limitless BI Website

Heather’s LinkedIn

Podcast

Season 2 Episode 4 – Harvey Smith – Adapting to a Gig Economy and What That Means for B.I.

2020-09-21

Episode Summary

Welcome to Limitless B.I., a show that interviews real world, innovative business leaders who strive to see beyond the data to produce tangible results in their organizations using business intelligence.

In this episode, expert in business intelligence and VP of Technology for Holman Strategic Ventures, Harvey Smith joins the show to discuss his background in information technology and B.I. Specifically, Harvey speaks to the work he does in the development of disruptive technologies that impact the automotive industry. Harvey shares his opinions on predictive and A.I. solutions as well as the enormous impact Covid-19 has had on his industry.

Highlights

00:37 – Introducing today’s guest, Harvey Smith, who speaks to his background in information technology and business intelligence

05:38 – Harvey expounds on the work he’s done at Holman Strategic Ventures, including their latest app, LYNKD and their shared vehicle subscription concept, Flexdrive

17:24 – Harvey speaks to the resounding impact that Covid-19 has had on his organization and their clients’ businesses

21:13 – Harvey’s thoughts on how the shift towards a gig economy is impacting business intelligence

24:37 – The work Harvey has done with predictive and artificial intelligence (A.I.) solutions

30:01 – The process of hiring talented developers, programmers and other subject matter experts

32:48 – Harvey speculates on what the future of B.I. applications will look like

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Basically we (Holman Strategic Ventures) build products and we look for opportunities adjacent to the core. And that’s been our mission for the last three years.

Imagine that you don’t want to lease, you don’t want to buy a vehicle. You just need a vehicle just for a certain amount of time and you don’t want to rent a vehicle. You could actually subscribe to a vehicle for the type of use…

Particularly, when you look at the FedExs, the Amazons of this world, they’re part of a gig economy. And those vehicles have to be up. If that vehicle’s down, then packages aren’t being delivered on time.

When you’ve got people doing work for you remote – whether it’s Lyft drivers, snow plow drivers, lawn care, housesitting – it’s crucial to have the data to give you the comfort that it’s being managed correctly. It truly is…

It’s also critical that you understand and bring some real world experience to the data because you can make data fit any story that you want.

Links Mentioned

Limitless BI Website

Link to LYNKD App

Harvey’s LinkedIn

Podcast

Season 2 Episode 3 – Donald MacCormick – A Time of Change: How B.I. Has Evolved Throughout the Years

2020-09-14

Episode Summary

Welcome to Limitless B.I., a show that interviews real world, innovative business leaders who strive to see beyond the data to produce tangible results in their organizations using business intelligence.

In this episode, B.I. entrepreneur and Chief Strategy Officer at Squirrel365, Donald MacCormick joins the show to talk about his background and experience working in enterprise and desktop software. Donald provides his thoughts on self-service B.I., the cycle of business intelligence and what the future holds for the industry.

Highlights

00:37 – Introducing today’s guest, Donald MacCormick, who speaks to his background in business intelligence and highlights from his illustrious career

07:10 – Donald breaks down the cycle of business intelligence, technology and IT

12:47 – Donald speaks to why self-service B.I. means different things to different people

17:13 – Acquisitions in the B.I. industry

19:50 – Donald speculates on the future of B.I.

24:29 – Why Excel remains so pervasive and popular

30:19 – Donald provides his thoughts on enterprise reporting systems and the numerous other ways B.I. can be utilized

39:31 – Donald gives his opinion on Covid-19 and the future impact it may have on our world

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The sad thing is that we have gone through at least three cycles and we’ve just delivered slightly better capability to the same people over and over and over again.

That’s what business intelligence is like. It’s a supply chain that gets the right thing to the right people.

Technology has moved on, but actually in the last thirty years, has B.I. really changed that much? And, will it change in the next five? I don’t know, but I could take a guess.

I characterize it (Excel’s popularity) as the three ‘F’s: it’s familiar, it’s flexible and it’s free.

If an enterprise reporting system is something that end users can quickly and easily access the data they need then it’s good.

It’s a time of change. And if you can spot how your business fits into that change, then you can thrive.

Links Mentioned

Limitless BI Website

Donald’s LinkedIn

Podcast

Season 2 Episode 2 – Jefferson Lynch – Predictive Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)

2020-09-09

Episode Summary

Welcome to Limitless B.I., a show that interviews real world, innovative business leaders who strive to see beyond the data to produce tangible results in their organizations using business intelligence.

In this episode, Managing Director and Founder of Red Olive, Jefferson Lynch joins the show to talk about his experience with predictive artificial intelligence and using data to help businesses and organizations unlock value. Jefferson speaks to the impact Covid-19 has had on his business, the importance of data analytics and the future of business intelligence.

Highlights

00:42 – Introducing today’s guest, Jefferson Lynch, who speaks to his background in business intelligence and some of the projects he’s been working on with predictive A.I.

08:40 – Trends Jefferson has observed in predictive A.I. and where he sees A.I. fitting into the business intelligence equation

18:38 – Jefferson makes the case for utilizing intelligence automation over artificial intelligence and provides specific examples

21:45 – Where Jefferson sees B.I. going in the next five years

24:58 – Jefferson speaks to the impact Covid-19 has had on his company and how they have pivoted in these difficult economic times

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I think what we’re starting to see is there’s a common way to go about tackling that kind of problem. And I think what’s left to happen is these more defined problems likely get encapsulated into the likes of a B.I. tool and to…

A little anecdote if I could, there was someone who is the head of quite a large hedge fund who said to me, ‘What we’re aiming to be is more Iron Man than Terminator.’ What he was getting at is that actually to be really augmented,…

Lots of organizations have been taking advice on what their information and B.I. strategy should be. And, I think the general move continues to be towards the act of self-service.

I think a potential benefit for its longer term, if this (Covid-19) all carries on, is I think maybe we’ve had a limiting belief, in a way, in that thinking we had to meet physically with an organization that we haven’t perhaps gone…

Links Mentioned

Limitless BI Website

Jefferson’s LinkedIn

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