Vox populi is Latin for “voice of the people”– in broadcasting and television, they use the “vox pop interview” to get spontaneous opinions on a subject, from different, randomly selected people. My idea is to apply the concept to our blog—whenever you see a blog post starting with “Vox Populi,” it means we’re seeking your opinion.

In broadcasting, only a few people are interviewed, and the answers are edited. On our blog, everyone can leave a comment—we will not change or edit what you say (although our moderators will remove comments that are abusive). That being said, here’s your first assignment: Read the rest of this entry »

Nowadays a company should not even question whether it needs business intelligence (BI) or not. Those who do not have it yet should include it in their future strategies, while those who do have it should search for ways to make BI work at its full potential.

You Don’t Have It Yet?
Let’s first analyze and understand why a company may not have BI:

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A new year is upon us and with that, the word “resolution” comes to mind…

res-o-l-u-tion – [rez-uh-loo-shun n] - noun

1. a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.

2. the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.

3. the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.

4. the act or process of resolving or separating into constituent or elementary parts.

5. the resulting state.

6. a solution, accommodation, or settling of a problem, controversy, etc.

7. reduction to a simpler form; conversion.

Taken from: Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

“Well, there’s always next year…”

Some people call this time of year the “holiday season.” Others just call it winter. And then there are those of us who call it the “end-of-the-year-crunch”—that special time when it seems there are far too many things to do, and way too little time to get any of them done. Some things just can’t wait, like putting the snow tires on your car before the first big blizzard (too late now, for people in most parts of Canada). Other things can get put off indefinitely, even when you know they have to be done—whether for deadline or not.

One of those things that can get put off indefinitely just might be your enterprise’s software selection project.

You’ve already obtained executive approval for the acquisition of a new XYZ software solution. Maybe a projected deadline has even been set for its implementation. And you’ve recently found out that you’re the lucky chump delegated to take charge of what can often be a rather complex and time-consuming task.

But you have your usual responsibilities, so this software selection thing… well, there’s always next year to get a start on it…

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If you’ve ever been involved in selecting a business software solution, you know how tricky it can be. Today’s software systems are quite complex, and it can be very difficult to tell which vendor has the solution best suited for the special needs and business processes of your organization. One way to help avoid making a bad choice is to have a complete list of software functions to refer to.

Let’s say you’re going to be choosing a new ERP system. With a list in hand of all the functions an ERP system can perform, you could flag all the functions your organization requires, prioritize them, and then submit them to vendors to see if, and how well, each vendor supports them.

Creating this prioritized list of functional requirements and submitting it to vendors would not only help make sure that no functionalities important to your organization are forgotten or overlooked, it would also help you eliminate those vendors who don’t support, or only poorly support, the functionalities your organization requires. You would be taking a giant step toward making sure you don’t end up with a software system that isn’t designed to do what you want it to. Read the rest of this entry »