BI is an area of great interest, one that deserves our attention and analysis. Therefore, for this issue, we tapped the expertise of two individuals with a few decades of combined expertise in the field. Our objective is to benchmark the state of BI and allow our authors to comment on the emergent lessons.

The importance of business intelligence is well recognized by practicing managers and in academic literature. However, there are a lot of inconsistencies about what BI really is. I define it as providing decision makers with valuable insights by leveraging diverse sources of external and internal information. These information sources could be structured or unstructured, could reside within or outside the organization, and the information could be quantitative or qualitative. I distinguish between BI tools developed by BI vendors and BI solutions deployed within organizations.

For me, the most telling and important statistic in Cutter's recent survey on the state of BI is the percentage of employees that use BI tools: 57% of respondents indicate 0%-9.99% and 70% indicate 0%-14.99% (see Graph 9 in the Survey Data section beginning on page 24). This confirms what I have long since observed -- most employees do not use business intelligence tools. Experience has also shown me that of those that do use BI tools, most use the more mundane features of the tools.

This issue of CBR is one of personal relevance to me. One of my research interests is IT-enabled customer service, and I have spent the last four years of my career thinking about how to structure optimal customer service system infrastructures. More recently, I have begun to advocate a move toward data obstetrics (I know, I know, we need to come up with a better name!).

This survey investigated the current state of business intelligence in organizations worldwide (55% of respondents are headquartered or based in North America, 22% in Asia, 12% in Europe, and the remainder in Australia/Pacific, South America, and Africa). Sixteen percent of the 77 responding organizations have more than 50,000 employees, 13% have between 5,000 and 50,000 employees, 18% have between 1,000 and 5,000 employees, 22% have between 100 and 1,000 employees, and the remaining organizations have 100 or fewer employees.

CIOs and IT managers and professionals can no longer afford to simply ignore social networks, dismissing them as a platform for fun for young people. However, in order to harness the opportunities social networks present, you must first gain a deeper knowledge of social networks, including an understanding of how they work and their inherent power.

CIOs and IT managers and professionals can no longer afford to simply ignore social networks, dismissing them as a platform for fun for young people. However, in order to harness the opportunities social networks present, you must first gain a deeper knowledge of social networks, including an understanding of how they work and their inherent power.

In this Executive Report we address these questions and explore what social networks mean to you and your enterprise. Specifically, we begin by examining the dark side of social networks, including dangers, risks, and privacy and security issues. We then look at the future of social networks, identifying and discussing several yet-to-be explored trends and your potential opportunities. We conclude by looking at the impact social networks have on the business and what IT can do to take advantage of its potential.

In this Executive Report we address these questions and explore what social networks mean to you and your enterprise. Specifically, we begin by examining the dark side of social networks, including dangers, risks, and privacy and security issues. We then look at the future of social networks, identifying and discussing several yet-to-be explored trends and your potential opportunities. We conclude by looking at the impact social networks have on the business and what IT can do to take advantage of its potential.

One of the most exciting areas of interest in IT today is information extraction. While the prospect of unlimited information coming our way can be thrilling in some respects, users have become wary of the risks and threats associated with such proliferation (for example, the huge amount of time necessary to filter, acquire, and usefully apply all such knowledge).

Innovation is important for economic development at a national level and for business survival at a corporate level. However, if the trend toward global virtual activity and outsourcing continues, then we are heading for an overall slowdown in innovation as the corporate problem space is outsourced and virtual working practices raise barriers to collaboration and problem sharing.

Innovation is important for economic development at a national level and for business survival at a corporate level. However, if the trend toward global virtual activity and outsourcing continues, then we are heading for an overall slowdown in innovation as the corporate problem space is outsourced and virtual working practices raise barriers to collaboration and problem sharing.

Innovation is important for economic development at a national level and for business survival at a corporate level. However, if the trend toward global virtual activity and outsourcing continues, then we are heading for an overall slowdown in innovation as the corporate problem space is outsourced and virtual working practices raise barriers to collaboration and problem sharing.

Progressive organizations recognize that well-understood requirements are at the root of delivering relevant products. These organizations commit resources to improve skills for discovering and communicating requirements and for integrating these techniques with agile development.

This Executive Report by Suzanne Robertson discusses how managers can use consistent and understandable requirements knowledge as input to making decisions and steering a project down its most agile path.

There is an interesting story from the early days of software told by one of the luminaries of software engineering, University of Southern California Professor Barry Boehm. He quotes an air force general frustratingly trying to manage the development of a complex project:

Business publications and conferences are buzzing with talk of metrics and analytics. Stories abound of companies working to get more sophisticated about what they measure and how they assess success -- in particular, trying to understand how the "special sauce" of how more subjective/less quantifiable aspects of their work can impact the bottom line and effect competitive advantage.

Business publications and conferences are buzzing with talk of metrics and analytics. Stories abound of companies working to get more sophisticated about what they measure and how they assess success -- in particular, trying to understand how the "special sauce" of how more subjective/less quantifiable aspects of their work can impact the bottom line and effect competitive advantage.

If there's a mantra in IT, it's "Listen to your customer." We've had that preached at us -- and preached it ourselves at others -- almost from the beginning. In this month's Opinion, Council members, along with Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Vince Kellen, look at the wisdom of this advice. Not surprisingly, they detect ways it can skewer you -- and ways that not following it can hurt you as well. So you almost can't win. What else is new?

If there's a mantra in IT, it's "Listen to your customer." We've had that preached at us -- and preached it ourselves at others -- almost from the beginning. In this month's Opinion, Council members, along with Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Vince Kellen, look at the wisdom of this advice. Not surprisingly, they detect ways it can skewer you -- and ways that not following it can hurt you as well. So you almost can't win. What else is new?

If there's a mantra in IT, it's "Listen to your customer." We've had that preached at us -- and preached it ourselves at others -- almost from the beginning. In this month's Opinion, Council members, along with Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Vince Kellen, look at the wisdom of this advice. Not surprisingly, they detect ways it can skewer you -- and ways that not following it can hurt you as well. So you almost can't win. What else is new?

This is the third and final installment of a three-part Executive Update series on applications outsourcing based on a recent Cutter Consortium survey of 95 organizations. 1 Here in Part III, we examine patterns regarding the client-supplier relationship after reflecting upon the survey question, "Do you plan

This is the third and final installment of a three-part Executive Update series on applications outsourcing based on a recent Cutter Consortium survey of 95 organizations. 1 Here in Part III, we examine patterns regarding the client-supplier relationship after reflecting upon the survey question, "Do you plan

This is the third and final installment of a three-part Executive Update series on applications outsourcing based on a recent Cutter Consortium survey of 95 organizations. 1 Here in Part III, we examine patterns regarding the client-supplier relationship after reflecting upon the survey question, "Do you plan

Recently, I was having lunch with an old friend who is in the first year of a three-plus-year project. I remarked that whenever I see him he is on the way to a meeting or he's just getting out of one.