In Focus: Our Top-15 Stories of 2006

You came, you surfed, you read, and now we can report on the 15 most-visited stories of 2006 at IntelligentEnterprise.com (see list below). The breakdown reveals a bit about Web publishing, a bit more about emerging trends and technologies, and a whole lot about our readers.

As in years past, our Annual Editor's Choice Award coverage topped the most-read list, with the 2006 installment drawing more than 3.0 percent of site visits and nearly double the traffic of the next-most-read story. We know our opinions about "The Dozen" companies that matter the most and 48 "Companies to Watch" are valued and respected, but we have to admit that a basic law of Web publishing boosts this story's popularity. To wit, many of the award-winning vendors proudly link to our coverage, so this story always has a built-in edge in traffic-driving power.

Our weekly analyses of site traffic have always made it clear that you thrive on practical advice. Technology is expensive and complex, so there's little wonder you crave insight on best products and best practices. Delivering just that are our top-two traffic-driving contributors, BI expert/product analyst Cindi Howson (author of our 2nd, 3rd and 9th most-read stories of 2006) and the data warehousing gurus at The Kimball Group (who contributed the 6th and 13th most-read stories on our site). Rising star Bruce Silver, who joined us as a columnist in 2005, penned the 12th and 15th most-read stories of the year on the emerging topic of business process management.

Our cover stories have always looked out over the horizon to spot emerging trends and opportunities, but to better serve your needs, we're redoubling our efforts to infuse those articles with actionable advice. So whether it's Neil Raden's "BI Megatrends Special Report" (#4), Wayne Eckerson's "See it Coming" take on performance dashboards and scorecards (#5) or Mike Ferguson's "Let the Data Flow" analysis of master data management (#7), you'll find plenty of helpful information for long-range planning and day-to-day practice.

We'll keep watching to see what you like best, but for 2007 we plan to increase the number of product reviews we publish and keep the actionable insight coming. Thanks for reading and have a Happy New Year!