A purported 60%-70% of business intelligence (BI) applications fail. The root causes for these failures are not related to the technology but to organizational, cultural, and infrastructure issues.

Over the past decades, organ-izations have adopted some unsound habits, which have produced disparate silo decision support systems with a great number of impairments.

Web data analysis has received considerable attention in the general computing and IT trade press, and it is frequently cited by business intelligence (BI) tool vendors as an application area for the use of their products.

One form of the distinction between information and knowledge is that knowledge is information about how to connect information. Not uncommonly, the discovery of a pattern connecting previously unrelated bits of information occurs through serendipity. The churning of stuff through one's mental inbox generates random juxtapositions that can suddenly suggest new meanings to anyone ready to notice them.

This is the second in a series of three Advisors on methodology design.

For most of us, it is a rare day when we aren't caught wondering about the pace of change confronting us. Along with those changes, new business ideas and concepts appear, disappear, sometimes reappear, or are otherwise transformed or forgotten.

Customer relationship management (CRM) can be found among the most important business movements of the past 10 years. CRM is not entirely new, since its roots are in customer satisfaction. However, CRM moves beyond simply measuring happy customers; it strives to gain more information and knowledge about the customer and to use that information effectively to benefit both the customer and the business.

"So little information controls so much behavior," or so wrote theoretical biologist C. H. Waddington. In this Executive Update, we begin a multipart look at the issues involved in project management husbandry, drawing on data from Cutter Consortium's ongoing surveys.

"Out of intense complexities immense simplicities emerge," or so wrote Winston Churchill. In this Executive Update, we continue our look at the issues involving project management husbandry, drawing on data from Cutter Consortium's surveys.

"Out of intense complexities immense simplicities emerge," or so wrote Winston Churchill. In this Executive Update, we continue our look at the issues involving project management husbandry, drawing on data from Cutter Consortium's surveys.

"Out of intense complexities immense simplicities emerge," or so wrote Winston Churchill. In this Executive Update, we continue our look at the issues involving project management husbandry, drawing on data from Cutter Consortium's surveys.

William Zucker (WZ): We are meeting today to discuss procurement and, in particular, procurement as it applies to outsourcing. I know that at Vantage Partners, one of your focuses is the interconnect between vendor and customer and that you have worked with customers and vendors to help in business alignment when they are parties to an outsourcing arrangement.

William Zucker (WZ): We are meeting today to discuss procurement and, in particular, procurement as it applies to outsourcing. I know that at Vantage Partners, one of your focuses is the interconnect between vendor and customer and that you have worked with customers and vendors to help in business alignment when they are parties to an outsourcing arrangement.

It's often the case that what we have come to accept as best practices need to be periodically reviewed against industry experience. Outsourcing -- though acceptance is growing, and there are many instances of success -- is still in its infancy. Many of the techniques that are used for outsourcing procurement have been imported from other procurement systems.

It's often the case that what we have come to accept as best practices need to be periodically reviewed against industry experience. Outsourcing -- though acceptance is growing, and there are many instances of success -- is still in its infancy. Many of the techniques that are used for outsourcing procurement have been imported from other procurement systems.

One of the many consequences of the September 11 terrorist attacks has been a reassessment of priorities and values.

One of the many consequences of the September 11 terrorist attacks has been a reassessment of priorities and values.

If your fiscal year begins January 1, you probably had already begun creating your IT plans and budgets before September 11.

If your fiscal year begins January 1, you probably had already begun creating your IT plans and budgets before September 11.

"The more efficient you are, the harder it is to change." In this Executive Update, Tom DeMarco's adage will be our guidepost as we examine issues concerning IT and business, drawn from Cutter Consortium's surveys.

"The more efficient you are, the harder it is to change." In this Executive Update, Tom DeMarco's adage will be our guidepost as we examine issues concerning IT and business, drawn from Cutter Consortium's surveys.

"Slack represents operational capability sacrificed in the interests of long-term (organizational) health." So writes Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant and Cutter Business Technology Council Fellow Tom DeMarco in his most recent book, Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busy Work, and the Myth of Total Efficiency (Broadway Books, 2001).