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Hrvoje Smolic

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Co-founder | CEO | Creative Director, Qualia d.o.o.

206 points

Data Warehouse - design/implementation, ETL procedures, aggregations, data quality
BI on MS Dynamics Navision
Business Objects Enterprise XI - deski, webi, Dashboards
MS Analysis Services 2000/2005/2008
MS Integration Services 2000/2005/2008
Advanced Data Visualization - best practices
Flex
TARGIT
Business Analytics
QlikView
Tableau Software
Java Development
Fortran

WEB: BLOG

Hrvoje Smolic and 7 other people answered this question

Jan. 30, 2012

What are some examples of good KPIs (key performance indicators) to track?

Alvin,
whatever information you collect here or elsewhere, more general approach can be also helpful. Ask yourself, do you want to measure
a. Raw numbers (like number of products sold)
b. Change % (a % change in a metric -say revenue- compared to last month, ... more

Business Intelligence

Key Performance Indicators

Hrvoje Smolic is now following Bill Cabiro and 9 other people

Jan. 26, 2012

Hrvoje Smolic recommends this answer by Bill Cabiro

Jan. 26, 2012

How thin is the line between business intelligence and business analytics applications?

There is a lot of confusion in the market because there are almost as many definitions as vendors or experts.
The following terms are frequently used interchangeably: Analytics, Business Analytics, Predictive Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Mining, Pattern Based Analytics. These terms have evolved in the ... more

Business Analytics

Business Intelligence

Data Governance

Data Management Software

Hrvoje Smolic and 24 other people answered this question

Jan. 26, 2012

What is the single most important business related lesson you've learned this year?

That Crisis really IS an opportunity. People don't want to pay mediocre service. So, if you really are good, this is your time! more

Human Resources

Information Technology

Hrvoje Smolic answered this question

Jan. 26, 2012

What is a good dashboard for a services company that includes financial, operational and strategic metrics?

Hi,
If you know all the metrics (financial, operational, strategic) that have to be involved and represented in your Dashboard, you are at the next step - to actualy make a dashboard.
As I see it, that is very important and often neglected step. All ... more

Business Intelligence

Hrvoje Smolic and 4 other people answered this question

Sept. 19, 2011

What is the difference between business intelligence and business analytics?

Business Analytics is a subset of Business Intelligence.
Business Intelligence is a set of techniques used in identifying, extracting-transforming-loading data and their visualization in form of reports, data analysis or information dashboards. If I must say a definition, it will be "Crucial business information to the ... more

Information Technology

Business Analytics

Business Intelligence

Information Management

Hrvoje Smolic recommends this answer by Herschel Chandler

Sept. 15, 2011

How do I evaluate our current reporting system?

Whew. That's a question that could result in a really long answer.
Let me start with it depends - Is the current system meeting the needs of the business in a cost-efficient manner? If yes, then no need to proceed.
So you need to start with ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Hrvoje Smolic answered this question

Sept. 15, 2011

What are the real advantages of having "in-memory" data management?

Nomaan,
it is the speed. My first contact with in-memory solution was in Business Intelligence waters - when I worked with a BI tool QlikView. Contrary to what I was used to, QV stored everything (dimensions, measures, calculations) in computer memory. When such a tool need ... more

Information Technology

Analytic Database

Business Intelligence

Data Management

Hrvoje Smolic answered this question

Sept. 15, 2011

What are you dashboard best practices?

To start a little on philosophy side, let's begin with Paul Grice, a famous English scholar. He noted that all conversations follow a basic set of rules, which people use to express themselves when speaking. The four basic rules, also known as Maxims are those ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Hrvoje Smolic asked a question

Sept. 14, 2011

What are the best steps for marketing a new product?

Marketing Information Technology

Hrvoje Smolic recommends this answer by Matt Heinz

May 30, 2011

What's the one piece of advice you would give to an entrepreneur who is looking to start a company?

I'll never forget the very first day of Heinz Marketing. It was just me, a laptop and a (pending) business license. I had a meeting with a new client in downtown Seattle in the morning, and a prospect in the afternoon. My mid-day office? The ... more

Entrepreneurship

Hrvoje Smolic and 3 other people answered this question

May 28, 2011

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

Hi Gertjan,
from my point of view and experience here are 3 pros and cons:
Pros:
1. Reporting and analysis are made on data warehouse data, not directly on ERP, transactional data. That way we avoid unneeded load on ERP system.
2. With data warehouse you are able ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Hrvoje Smolic recommends this answer by Neil Raden

May 11, 2011

Reports vs Analysis

Reports have been around since about a day after computers were invented. You can't sell technology that old, so the industry constantly comes up with "new and improved." Today's version is "analytics." there is nothing wrong with "static" reports, only static report processes. When authoring ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Dashboard Development

Hrvoje Smolic asked a question

May 10, 2011

Pricing scheme - Fixed Price, time and materials, something else?

General Management

Pricing Strategy

Hrvoje Smolic and 7 other people answered this question

May 10, 2011

When founding a company what measures can you take to prevent disputes with your co-founders?

I have a co-founder in my company. So, what measures can I take to prevent disputes with my co-founder? This question is for me much like a question before marriage - what should I do to prevent fighting with my wife? Of course, if you ... more

General Management

Hrvoje Smolic recommends this answer by Bill Cabiro

May 6, 2011

Who are the top 5 BI vendors for enterprise businesses?

According to Gartner Research, the big five (SAP, Oracle, SAS, IBM and Microsoft) accounted for over 70% of the BI market in 2010.
In addition to them, there are fifteen more vendors that were included in Gartner’s 2011 BI Magic Quadrant as described very well ... more

General Management

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Hrvoje Smolic and 2 other people answered this question

April 9, 2011

How can a dashboard software enhance a BI solution?

Some BI software products have dashboarding capabilities built-in, some don't. Whinch solution you implemented?
Dashboards for business users represent powerful means of communications nowdays when companies build large amounts of data. Those visually compressed representations of only the most important data are used for tracking current ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Hrvoje Smolic and 4 other people answered this question

April 9, 2011

What's the benefit of having a 'real time dashboard' in a business intelligence solution?

Having a "real time" business dashboard can be nice, but it is not essential. There are some other points that dashboards have to fulfil in order to be truly benefitial. Being "real time" is just nice-to-have feature because dashboars are not operational reports, their purpose ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Hrvoje Smolic and 4 other people answered this question

Feb. 28, 2011

What are some things that need to change in the BI industry in order to see a higher adoption rate?

There are political and tehnical things that have to change in order to see a higher adoption rate. Apart what is already said, I can add
1. Political : If BI implementation is not adequatelly supported from the top of the company (management), then most ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence Implementation

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