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Dan Linstedt

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President, Empowered Holdings, LLC

250 points

World reknowned expert in business intelligence and data warehousing. 25+ years of consulting experience building systems for companies like Nike, Visa, AMEX, Department of Defense, UBS Bank, and more. I have a passionate interest in helping the BI market to ...

World reknowned expert in business intelligence and data warehousing. 25+ years of consulting experience building systems for companies like Nike, Visa, AMEX, Department of Defense, UBS Bank, and more. I have a passionate interest in helping the BI market to mature, to develop standards and best practices that are flexible and scalable in the industry. More is available: http://www.linked-in.com/in/dlinstedt

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WEB: Learn Data Vault

Sept. 14, 2011

Dan Linstedt is now following Doug Laney and 4 other people

Aug. 25, 2011

Dan Linstedt and 9 other people answered this question

Why should SMBs consider investing in BI and which kinds of SMBs don't need it?

While I agree with most of Pauls' sentiments, I would add to this list:
SMB's who are looking to compete with larger shops, or who want to break in to the market share race need to seriously consider BI. When done properly, the analytics can provide ... more

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence & Analytics

June 17, 2011

Dan Linstedt and 1 other person answered this question at this roundtable

Is Data Warehousing a Dead End Approach to Information Management? [6/15 @ 9:30 am]

Do you need a data warehouse when your business only has one transactional system?

I would tend to say the following:
Yes, if you need historical trend analysis or you want to perform gap analysis between business perception and business process execution and data collection.
No, if you only need alerts and current operational reporting.
Hoe this helps,
Dan Linstedt more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

June 16, 2011

Dan Linstedt and 2 other people answered this question

How do you ensure correct data entry in your enterprise applications?

I think corporate incentives (placed carefully) also help ensure the work is done accurately the first time. In addition, I think governance and gap analysis between the business users' perception of what they think they expect, and what the source system is actually collecting is ... more

Human Resources

Information Technology

June 15, 2011

Dan Linstedt and 2 other people answered this question at this roundtable

Is Data Warehousing a Dead End Approach to Information Management? [6/15 @ 9:30 am]

Does the use of Excel as a reporting tool create multiple versions of the truth?

If Excel is not "governed", it can be a travesty. I think governance is the real issue, no matter which "BI" program is used to get results. At the end of the day, Excel is just another BI tool (just happens to be everywhere, and ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

June 15, 2011

Dan Linstedt and 1 other person answered this question at this roundtable

Is Data Warehousing a Dead End Approach to Information Management? [6/15 @ 9:30 am]

How about the Data Warehouse feeding real-time/near real-time OLTP systems?

Hi John,
Thank-you for attending, I'm sorry we didn't have time to discuss this on the call. I personally believe that the Data Warehouse will become more of a back-office seamlessly integrated system, and on it's way, it will be "plugged in" to the Enterprise Service ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

June 15, 2011

Dan Linstedt is speaking at this roundtable

Is Data Warehousing a Dead End Approach to Information Management?

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

June 12, 2011

Dan Linstedt and 5 other people answered this question

What are some ways to empower BI business users to be self-sufficient?

I find it interesting that the answers here tend to lead business users to believe that they no longer "need" data warehousing to achieve self-service BI... I find this hard to swallow, especially in light of the fact that this statement was made:
"The results are ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Information Management

June 9, 2011

Dan Linstedt answered this question at this roundtable

Is Data Warehousing a Dead End Approach to Information Management? [6/15 @ 9:30 am]

What is the relationship between data warehousing and virtualization?

Virtualization (as I see it) is a technological advance, where the software (that would be the data warehouse + data in the warehouse) can be "placed in a virtual environment". It doesn't impact too many things except for performance and scalability. Once the DW is ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

June 2, 2011

Dan Linstedt and 3 other people answered this question

What are the top 3 pros and cons of data warehouses?

To answer the original question: here are my top 3 picks:
Top 3 reasons to have a data warehouse:
* Auditability, Raw Data Set is required in the DW for this
* Compliance with internal and international regulations
* Historical snapshots of "old, retired systems", or systems which are ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

March 15, 2011

Dan Linstedt answered this question

What are the first steps to take when purchasing a business intelligence solution?

First, ensure the business requirements have been captured properly. Always start with the business. Questions like: Where are the pain points? How many users on-line concurrently? Are there a set of standardized reports to be pre-run? Is access via mobile devices required? Are printed copies ... more

General Management

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

March 5, 2011

Dan Linstedt recommends this answer by Barry Devlin

What is 'Big Data' & how will that market be affected by Teradata's acquisition of Aster Data?

First, the phrase "Big Data" is one big red herring! As Dan's answer points out, absolute size of the data has little meaning, because where size becomes an issue depends on a variety of factors - hardware speed and capacity, organizational ability and familiarity with ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

March 3, 2011

Dan Linstedt recommends this answer by Tom Breur

Would you recommend datamart or data warehouse for a first time BI project?

The business wants an answer at the lowest possible cost, and more often than not they couldn't care less about the solution. It is up to us BI professionals to come up with a reasonable and sustainable solution. Omitting the data warehouse, in favor of ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence Forum

Business Intelligence Implementation

March 3, 2011

Dan Linstedt and 5 other people answered this question

Business Intelligence Best Practices: What are your 3 tips for implementing an agile BI strategy?

1. Start with the business pain points - what are the top 10 pain points the business has today that BI / Analytics can solve? Find out what the time-line is for delivery (which in Agile should be "yesterday" according to the business.
2. Apply a ... more

General Management

Information Technology

Dec. 7, 2010

Dan Linstedt answered this question

What are the top online resources that BI professionals use?

I use a number of resources, it depends on what I'm looking for... but here's a few:
B-Eye-Network.com
TDAN.com
ZapThink.com
Teradata.com (magazine)
CRN.com
CIO.com
And a few government magazines. I try to watch the trends, see what people are writing about, and what they are ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence Leaders

Dec. 7, 2010

Dan Linstedt answered this question

Business Intelligence (BI) and IT infrastructure: top "gotcha(s)?"

There are probably over 150 items (or more) that can be added to this list, but in my experience, I will list some of the top issues from both the business and the technical side.
Business Side:
1) Uninterested business sponsors
2) IT projections cost ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence Implementation

Business Intelligence System

Nov. 2, 2010

Dan Linstedt and 8 other people answered this question

What's the #1 reason why business intelligence projects fail?

@Daniel,
Yes, I totally agree. I missed that very obvious one. People need to be a part of WANTING it to succeed, and willing to invest the right amount of energy and time to get it done. more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence Applications

Nov. 2, 2010

Dan Linstedt and 1 other person answered this question

What should be in place before companies invest in Business Intelligence?

I agree that there are a number of things that should be put in place before starting a BI initiative, I disagree that BI is a system you can simply purchase.
#1 in most everyone's books is: requirements. What is the business trying to meet ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence Applications

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Followed by 17 People

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