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Author
Rajan Chandras

Profile of Rajan Chandras

Blog Posts: 129
Rajan Chandras has over 20 years of experience and thought leadership in IT with a focus on enterprise data management. He is currently with a leading healthcare firm in New Jersey, where his responsibilities have included delivering complex programs in master data management, data warehousing, business intelligence, ICD-10 as well as providing architectural guidance to enterprise initiatives in healthcare reform (HCM/HCR), including care coordination programs (ACO/PCMH/EOC) and healthcare analytics (provider performance/PQR, HEDIS etc.), and customer relationship management analytics (CRM).
Articles by Rajan Chandras

10 Tenets Of Enterprise Data Management

2/7/2011
Data quality, master data management, metadata management, data warehousing architecture and data integration: These are all pieces of the data management puzzle, but rare is the enterprise that has assembled these pieces into a cohesive and coherent picture. Get it right and you can count on clean and consistent data from transaction systems and reliable insight from business intelligence systems. It doesn't end there. Your data management strategy must also consider business processes and busi
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Microsoft: Missing the Mark in Mobile

2/2/2011
Even if Microsoft can't be an innovator in mobile, it's essential that disparate mobile technologies integrate as seamlessly as possible with the plethora of Microsoft enterprise technologies.
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Ray Ozzie Sees Cloud Computing in Our Future

11/3/2010
In an "internal" memo, Ozzie spells out where he thinks the IT industry is today, and where it is headed. Ozzie is a respected figure in the world of technology, and his memo is interesting -- but perhaps not in the way he intended...
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BI Governance (and MDM) in Context

10/11/2010
For my 100th blog with Intelligent Enterprise, I would like to share some thoughts on BI Governance -- what it is and isn't, and its relationship with information governance, data governance and Master Data Management.
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Why HP and Dell are Going Nuts Over 3PAR

8/31/2010
Of the many reasons why HP and Dell are wooing 3PAR, only one actually has to do with 3PAR... Beyond all the qualitative and quantitative factors, HP and Dell are betting that virtualization and cloud computing are the storage of the future.
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EMC's Greenplum Acquisition Invites Risk

7/8/2010
By acquiring analytic database vendor Greenplum, EMC is conforming to a recent industry trend and looking to rub shoulders with the big boys. But in the process, EMC is moving into uncharted territory and taking a risk that it might lose more than it gains.
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Twitter Gets Trendly

6/11/2010
Twitter just acquired SmallThought Systems, a company with a couple of cool analytic products that are small, simple, sufficient and sexy. In other words, they are a slap in the face of conventional Business Intelligence and conventional information modeling.
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Of SAP, Sybase, the Mets and the Yankees

5/13/2010
In SAP's acquisition of Sybase, conventional wisdom seems to lean towards Sybase mobile capabilities as the driving factor, but I'm leaning in a slightly different (and more old-fashioned) direction that goes to the very core of SAP's existence.
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Cloud Computing Climbs Adoption S-Curve

4/27/2010
If Cloud Computing is of more than passing interest to you -- and you're still sitting on the sidelines -- here's a series of recent happenings (and my interpretation of the S-curve) that should inspire you to move forward.
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My Take on BI Cost of Ownership

4/21/2010
On reading Gartner's take on BI cost of ownership below, at first glance the numbers seemed "out of whack". But the pieces quickly fell into place... and the *real* cost began to emerge...
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Forrester Sees 'Smart Computing' IT Growth

3/23/2010
Findings at Forrester Research indicate that every 15-20 years, there is a resurgence in IT spending -- and that we are on the cusp of the next big spend cycle, focusing on optimizing the balance sheet. They're calling it "Smart Computing."
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Google App Store is Boon for Businesses

3/16/2010
The newly opened Google App Store isn't going to shake any foundations (yet) -- and Apple's iPhone Store it's not -- but it looks like great news for small and midsize businesses, and a step forward for cloud computing.
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Will Oracle Kill MySQL?

1/17/2010
MySQL founder Michael "Monty" Widenius is spearheading an energetic attempt to stall Oracle's acquisition of Sun. His concern is that once Oracle buys Sun, it will decimate MySQL. Should we be worried?
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The Lighter Side of Consulting

12/31/2009
The other day I ran into an old Consulting mentor of mine. Smooth, superior and self-assured, the man was Consulting Personified. But now gone were the suit and smirk, replace by sneakers, stubble and a sullen look. Could it be The Curse of the Consultant?
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Data Architecture? What's That?

12/17/2009
Data architecture has always been a topic close to my heart. "Overloaded and overlooked" is how I define a data architect's role. Has anything changed over the past decade? Yes, but possibly for the worse. Consider the following...
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Pervasive Software Experiments Offshore

12/8/2009
Data integration leader Pervasive has been experimenting with the offshore model for some years now. The Pervasive experience is slowly turning into a business case study, particularly for companies looking at setting up captive offshore development centers.
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Integration Dogfight in the Clouds

11/6/2009
A startup called SnapLogic is poised to challenge incumbent Informatica with an approach that seems to combine data integration -- Informatica's forté -- with online app stores (think Apple). Things are poised to get interesting.
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Has Cloud Computing Finally Arrived?

9/28/2009
If cloud computing is to deliver on its (as yet latent) promise, we need a true heavyweight behind it -- like, say, the US Government. By a curious coincidence, that's exactly what seems to be happening. Are celebrations in order?
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Dell-Perot Deal Augurs Well for Customers

9/21/2009
Hot off the press! In a marriage of convenience, Dell just announced the acquisition of Perot Systems -- a deal that, while not particularly awe-inspiring or exciting, has very positive implications for customers and the combined businesses.
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No End in Sight for Offshore Outsourcing

9/2/2009
If McKinsey & Co is to be believed, the market for offshore services is set to grow significantly, with India poised to benefit the most. But there's silver lining for the domestic US IT services industry... and a note of caution for India...
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The Mystery of the Missing Technology

8/13/2009
The door burst open and the client rushed in, pale and delirious. "Mr. Holmes, the worst thing has happened -- EII has vanished!" "Come, come," smiled Holmes, as he put his finger tips together. "Enterprise Information Integration is too valuable to go away. Here, sit down and let us analyze the situation..."
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Google Chrome OS FAQ

7/15/2009
Google's newly introduced Chrome operating system has led to a media frenzy and flurry of analyst interpretations. Here are five key questions -- and answers -- about the Chrome OS...
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Google's Chrome Operating System: A Revolution in the Making?

7/9/2009
Operating system aficionados (I count myself in that group) have had very little to celebrate over the past many years. VMS? Gone. Unix? Gone. Linux? Very much there -- robust, capable and popular -- yet continues to underperform expectations. Ironically, the most exciting OS news in recent times has been...
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They Better Get This MDM Program Right

6/11/2009
The US Government is about to undertake a massive nationwide Master Data Management program. Like all big MDM programs, concerns over data quality, data governance and exception handling loom large, but there's a difference this time...
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The Resurgence of Data Modeling: Part 2

6/9/2009
The future of data modeling tools is beginning to look very different than their past. Organizations need to take a long, hard look at their IT strategy and requirements before committing to any tool (or a tool vendor)...
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The Resurgence of Data Modeling: Part I

6/4/2009
CA, Embarcadero and Sybase have all recently released significant upgrades of their data modeling tools. The good news is that all three products surpass previous limitations and step up to the challenges of enterprise architecture and information governance. The question is: which tool works best for you?
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PMP Certification for Info Pros: Part Deux

5/11/2009
What makes the PMP certification valuable is not so much the certification examination but the very fact that you cannot appear for it without having substantial project management experience. In other words, PMP is not so much about teaching... as validating our experience
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PMP Certification for Info Pros: Analyze This!

5/5/2009
I recently took some time off from my moonlighting activities (e.g., writing for IE) to get my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute. I then sat down to analyze myself. Why did I do the PMP certification? How can it be helpful for me and others like me?
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IBM Would Do Everybody a Favor by Buying Sun

3/18/2009
So what would IBM get for what is expected to be a $6.5 billion deal?... Sun does hardware, storage, operating systems, programming languages, databases, integration middleware, business process management, open source, office productivity tools and more. Come to think of it, who else but IBM could even think of purchasing Sun?
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Database in the Cloud: Microsoft Steps Up

3/13/2009
Microsoft recently announced plans to enable direct access to SQL Server databases in the cloud using Tabular Data Stream (TDS), the native SQL server network protocol. This is exciting news for Microsoft developers, and just the kind of thing that Microsoft competitors wouldn't want to happen too soon...
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Mobile BI Emerges on the Apple iPhone

1/26/2009
There's a "perfect storm" brewing that just might elevate the iPhone as the tool of choice for corporate types, not just for e-mail but for BI on the go. Apple equipment is still a rarity on the corporate landscape... But it looks like things might be about to change, with a groundswell led by the acclaimed iPhone.
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Satyam's Stunning Offshore Fiasco

1/8/2009
In news that is still unfolding, the founder and chairman of Satyam Computer Services, India's fourth largest offshore services vendor, has made a stunning admission of massive financial fraud. Are you impacted? If so, how do you react?
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New Year Meanderings...

1/2/2009
Searching for BI. MDM is for real. Multi-flavored data warehouses. It's why we love Google. As the title suggests, these are truly meanderings...
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The Lighter Side of Being CIO

12/17/2008
I recently came across an article on succession planning for CIO's... and I thought, are you kidding? The savvy CIO knows much better than to foolishly throw it all away through succession planning or any other such nonsense. Here are a few tips for the savvy CIO to stay indispensable...
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What Makes a Good Business Analyst?

12/12/2008
What's needed to excel as a business analyst and to get projects started on a good footing? Forrester Research, for example, has published a spreadsheet (called the Business Analyst Assessment Workbook) that lists more than 150 attributes of a good business analyst... Here are 10 items from the Forrester list that I found particularly interesting and beyond the obvious...
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SAP Pays Price for SaaS Maturation

12/1/2008
SAP CEO-in-waiting Leo Apotheker's recent comments on the company's SaaS ERP solution were very illuminating, and highlight one of the key challenges ahead for cloud computing vendors (and hence customers). SAP's Business ByDesign is "the coolest app ever written," according to Apotheker. Yet, he admits, it's a bad time, financially, for doing a big market push - "hurting our margin, and hurting our stock."
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Three Helpful Pointers on Data Modeling

11/12/2008
I had the pleasure the other day of listing to a Webinar presentation from Embarcadero that featured the Global Data Architect for a very large, global energy company, and I feel compelled to share three points that struck me as particularly sapient.
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Of 'Elephants,' Column-Store Databases and the Von Neumann Architecture

11/5/2008
Listening to Dr. Michael Stonebraker extol the virtues of column-store databases... it's becoming clear that a new data storage architecture is the need of the day... Stonebraker also seemed to imply that column-store databases are wonderful not just for data warehouses, they are pretty good for conventional (transactional) uses as well. That, of course, doesn't seem right...
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Microsofts Cloud Vision: Not Quite 'Azure'

10/28/2008
Microsoft has introduced Azure, a cloud computing platform. Interesting, but what does it comprise, and what is Microsoft offering that isn't already out there from the likes of Amazon and Google?... For the multitude of Microsoft developers out there, this is great news. For others, though, Azure is yesterday's news
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Tech Execs Predict Resilience in a Recession

10/22/2008
Reuters reports that technology executives don't expect the current slowdown to impact them as badly as the bursting of the tech bubble in 2000. That sounds reasonable, because there are fundamentally different reasons for the slowdown then and now, even from a purely technology perspective.
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50 First Blogs (Or, What Writers Want)

9/30/2008
As I "pen" my 51st blog for Intelligent Enterprise, I'd like to take a different slant on the usual blog: What I, as a writer, expect from you, our reader. The continuing, unprecedented economic turbulence that is roiling us all provides a relevant backdrop to this note... How do we help our customers and employers stay afloat in these sinking economic sands?
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Is Excel a Complete BI Solution?

8/20/2008
The recently released Forrester Wave for Enterprise Business Intelligence Platforms assesses 12 BI vendors/tools. The report does not include Excel as one of the 12 solutions, which led me to ponder: Can we consider Excel a BI tool in its own right? To qualify for the survey, the vendor (and tool) must provide...
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Who Should Own the BI Competency Center?

8/17/2008
This question came up at the end of a Webinar last week. One expert's response was: assuredly, the business should own the BICC - business intelligence is all about business, and business ownership brings along business commitment. Another expert disagreed: given the various technical complexities related to business intelligence and data integration, BICC, she thought, is probably better managed by IT...
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Recessionary Winds Threaten IT

8/11/2008
It's a disquieting thought, but signs are that 2009 may be the worst year for technology workers since the dot-com debacle... According to a survey of top CIOs by Goldman, Sachs & Co released last week, IT staff jobs are at increasingly at risk, both for contractors and in-house workers. Global services companies will also feel the pinch because of the slowing economy.
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Clouding the Cloud Computing Issue

8/5/2008
What's common between one-click purchasing and cloud computing? Ponder that a moment. If you haven't guessed it already,the former was assigned a ridiculous patent, and now the latter is on its way to an equally unwelcome trade mark... The phrase "cloud computing" is being claimed as trade mark by, who would have guessed...
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IBM's ILog Deal Shakes Up Rules Market

7/28/2008
IBM today announced that it plans to acquire ILog, an unquestionable leader in the business rules engine marketplace. The acquisition comes at a time when ILog seemed to be faltering, with declining profitability and reliance on a troubled financial sector, but there's no doubting the deal's tremendous value to IBM and customers.
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CIOs Are Not Business Leaders

7/21/2008
We read all the time that in order to succeed, CIO's should be business leaders. But the fact is, leading the business is not the CIO's business. Yet that's not bad news... in fact, it actually makes the CIO more influential.
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Business Process Optimization on the Cheap

6/24/2008
Homeowners know that installing energy-efficient windows help save money in the long run, yet are reluctant to make the investment in these challenging times. Businesses are no different, but even in this difficult economy, companies looking to optimize business processes have a very useful yet inexpensive tool at hand. It's called the Hawthorne Effect...
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Another Data Breach? Don't You Worry, Dearie

6/6/2008
Bank of New York Mellon recently reported the loss of back-up tapes. True, the breach might jeopardize about 4.5 million people nationwide, but there's nothing to worry about... only about 500,000 persons are directly affected. Also, the backup tapes weren't encrypted, but there's no cause for concern... Why didn't someone tell me earlier that getting my credit frozen is actually a benefit?
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The HP-EDS Bulls Eye (and Collateral Damage)

5/13/2008
As the mists clear away on the HP-EDS deal, it appears that there's good news in the making for companies that outsource their infrastructure, and not-so-good news for HP competitors. Judging from the technology analysts/media response, here is an early assessment of the impact of the merger…
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Birth of a Behemoth: HP to Purchase EDS

5/12/2008
News is that HP is purchasing EDS. HP was already marginally bigger than IBM, and now with this bold move, HP is looking to catch up with IBM in the lucrative Services sector, which provides a large chunk of IBM's revenue and an even larger chunk of profitability. In data management, though, IBM continues to have a formidable lead.
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Is BPMN Overrated?

5/8/2008
A survey on the Business Process Management Notation standard that has stirred up quite a controversy... In nutshell, the researchers reviewed 126 BPMN diagrams... and found that out of the 52 distinct elements (symbols) that exist in BPMN 1.1 specifications... only nine elements were used on the average in each diagram...
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Is Web 2.0 Disruptive to Databases?

4/25/2008
Are Web 2.0 innovations (mashups, cloud computing, web communities, etc.) conspiring to bring about the downfall of the relational database as we know and love it?... Or, to paraphrase a popular quote, is the news of the conventional database's demise greatly exaggerated?
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Message in a Bottle: On Outsourcing Science

4/21/2008
We outsource manufacturing. We outsource services. Farming and mining already follow a natural global-sourcing model. Now, research says that we should outsource science too; it's good for American innovation. I guess the outsourcing genie is well and truly out of the bottle…
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H-1B Visa Debate Warms Up (Again)

3/26/2008
This month, Bill Gates urged lawmakers to increase the number of H-1B (guest worker) visas and two bills were introduced in Congress seeking to raise the visa cap... As we approach April 1, the date when the US Citizenship and Immigration Services begins accepting H-1B applications, the controversy is reigniting yet again.
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Data Modeling and the Canonical Conundrum

3/20/2008
The definition of canonical information model only serves to highlight the confusion out there around [enterprise] [canonical] [business] [data/information/object] models... As somebody (Confucius? African proverb?) once said: "If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there."
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The Lighter Side of Information Democracy

3/14/2008
It's time to take a closer look at the increasingly popular catch-phrase "Information Democracy." Some time back, I received a vendor e-mail message promising "information for all" through MDM. But deep contemplation of this important matter (interrupted only by intermittent wakefulness) led me to an astonishing revelation: Information isn't a Democracy, it's...
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India Outsources to US Tech Workers

2/25/2008
The buzz in the local Indian trade magazines is about IBM recently grabbing a multi-year outsourcing deal from the Indian operations of Vodaphone, the global communications giant. Deals like these demonstrate that countries like India and China are more than a source of competition for US-based IT jobs, they offer a solid opportunity for those willing to brave the geographical and culture gap.
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A Tale of Two Economies

2/4/2008
The signs are familiar and worrying: a US economy that cannot seem to rebound, job losses on the rise, and consumers getting increasingly jittery. Will US companies, in a desperate bid to cut costs, intensify their push to send work offshore? Not so fast.
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ELT vs. ETL: Much Ado about Something

1/31/2008
There's no doubt that ELT - yes, that's extract-load-transform (also called "pushdown") not conventional extract-transform-load (ETL) - is now a mainstream capability. Informatica's inclusion of pushdown optimization in the recently released PowerCenter version 8.5 brings ELT the legitimacy it deserves... I fully expect pushdown will be come a new frontier in the battle for ETL supremacy.
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Sun Rises At Last

1/17/2008
The acquisition of MySQL by Sun Microsystems, right on the heels of the Oracle-BEA merger, is great news for everyone. After languishing on the sidelines for years, Sun has, in a single stroke, reclaimed its relevance, taken the open source movement a step further, and opened up new (and promising) options for customers.
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Oracle Gets BEA: Dare I Say 'I Told You So?'

1/16/2008
The big news today is that Oracle is buying BEA. Everyone saw this coming, but I offered my take on the appeal of BEA's middleware and virtualization technology last October. The question is, what will Oracle do with BEA, and how will this help or hurt BEA and Oracle customers?
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Is Informatica Losing Relevance?

1/8/2008
Informatica was recently named among "The Dozen" most influential companies driving the intelligent enterprise in our just-published 2008 Editors' Choice Awards. As a contributor to the nominations, I too had recommended Informatica. Why, then, this apparent about-face, and why does it matter to you?
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Process Analysis: The Downside of Participation

1/4/2008
I was recently asked to review a business process diagram that was intended to capture current state for a service disruption planning process. I quickly found out that the challenge was not so much assessing the diagram itself, but resetting expectations of users that seemed to be already sold on the diagram, despite its numerous deficiencies. This is a classic pitfall in business process analysis.
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Consolidation Hits the Business Rules Market

11/27/2007
Business rules engines are yet another example of a niche technology that is powerful, yet seemingly needs to constantly strive for the recognition it deserves. Other eclectic-yet-deserving technologies in this category include master data management and data quality solutions, etc. The challenge is to be perceived as an essential part of the corporate technology portfolio...
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Bye Bye, BEA: Why Oracle Needs This Deal

10/26/2007
After rejecting Oracle's initial bid for $6.7 billion, BEA has now indicated readiness to sell itself to Oracle ("or any other bidder") for about $8.2 billion. With Oracle's insatiable appetite, BEA's relative stagnation, and incessant pressure from billionaire investor Karl Icahn on BEA management, the acquisition now seems a sure thing. So, what does Oracle get for $8 billion and change? A cake that it has always coveted with an icing to die for.
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Whose Data Is It Anyway? 'PITI' the Poor Homeowner

10/25/2007
Think the sub-prime mortgage crisis is someone else's problem? Here's an eye-opener. Lending giant American Home Mortgage (AHM) recently filed for bankruptcy due to its sub-prime lending exposure. AHM clients Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae promptly terminated client-servicing agreements and asked AHM to return client files, including data related to mortgage principal, interest, taxes and insurance (PITI)... AHM, however, refused to comply.
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Master Data Directions: Q&A with Siperian's Ravi Shankar

10/21/2007
The Master Data Management (MDM) market is growing at a double-digit pace on the strength of three promised benefits: a cross-enterprise perspective for better business intelligence; greater consistency across customer records for improved transaction management; a solid foundation for service-oriented architectures (SOA). Has MDM turned the corner from leading-edge to must-have? Ravi Shankar, Director of Product Marketing at Siperian, shares his thoughts on MDM progress and next steps.
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Rethink Three Myths When Picking a Consultant

9/28/2007
Independent consultants (a.k.a. sub-contractors) are often the back-bone of data management activities, especially database administration and ETL/database/BI development. Yet, finding good consultants is difficult. That's why you should steer clear of these three myths: #1: Vendors are always knowledgeable about the candidates they provide. #2: Prior work references can be easily obtained. #3: The candidate must be an absolute best-fit for the requirement...
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Governance is a Four-Letter Word

9/10/2007
It's probably true in more ways than one, but the four-letter word I'm thinking of is RISK. The ultimate objective of IT governance is two-fold: enhance business value and reduce business risk from information technology. A new book out from the Harvard Business School Press does a pretty good job of addressing the latter and goes onto my "Recommended Reading" bookshelf.
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The Lighter Side of Outsourcing

8/31/2007
Consumer confidence faltering in a sputtering economy, jobs continuing to move offshore at rapid pace… is this a time to laugh at outsourcing? Why not? As outsourcing vendors get increasingly sophisticated, and as corporate America gets increasingly greedy about the cost savings, here are a few glorious changes that we can look forward to.
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Master Data Management: Minimizing the Complexity

8/23/2007
There are many factors that pose a challenge for enterprisewide Master Data Management. Business ownership and ongoing participation, business process disruption, data integration and synchronization - these and other factors can make an MDM implementation painful, time-consuming and expensive. But there are also some factors that help reduce the pain and effort.
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