Intelligent Insight on PerformancePoint : Blogging

Amazing statistics

btamblyn — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:26:05 GMT

Via David Brain - this is an amazing statistic and just goes to show how quickly YouTube has actually grown in the UK.

Technorati Tags: YouTube, BBC

Business Cards

btamblyn — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:37:32 GMT

Check out my new business cards.

OK - so there not official MS issue but they certainly kick off a conversation. Our vision for creating ubiquitous business intelligence and our vision for PerformancePoint is captured really neatly below.

You can order these from StreetCards.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, PerformancePoint Server, Gaping Void

Creating a Buzz

btamblyn — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:24:00 GMT

I read this great post via Seth Godin's blog yesterday...

If I think about some of the work Steve Clayton and Hugh MacLeod have done around creating a buzz for the Blue Monster the concept of creating positive and sincere enthusiasm is pretty much front and centre to their strategy and the blogoshpere has responded on the whole really positively.

I don't think Steve, Hugh or anyone at Microsoft in the UK would have believed that it would take off in the way it has which just goes to show that changing the status quo isn't necessarily about blowing a load of $$$ to change perceptions.

Those that have responded negatively have at the very least engaged in the conversation which was kind of the point in the first place.

50 Best Business Blogs

btamblyn — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 12:18:34 GMT

Kind of old news now but The Times have published the 50 best business blogs. They cover technology, media & marketing, and other industry sectors. So there's some obvious ones in there but a couple that I didn't know about. One in particular was the Freakonomics blog which is written primarily by the two author's of the well know book - Stephen D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner and provides some really interesting insight into the correlation between seemingly unrelated statisitics.

Now most people in the free world have at the very least heard of the book. If you haven't read it I would REALLY encourage you to pick up a copy on Amazon. If you're a data geek like me you'll really enjoy the read.

Oh and here are 5 blogs I read everyday...in no particular order.

Guy Kawasaki (has the ability to articulate common sense so succinctly)
Seth Godin (Ditto - see above)
Steve Clayton - (not because I have to just because he talks about interesting stuff, and has the ability to translate quickly uber-geeky stuff for mere mortals like me)
Todd Bishop - a great roundup of all things Microsoft. You would be amazed at how useful this is. I get asked a lot about things within MS which quite frankly I have no idea about. This prevents me from looking too stupid - no jokes please
The Intelligent Enterprise - everything from across the BI industry

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Steve Clayton, Todd Bishop, Business Intelligence

Hallam Foe

btamblyn — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 18:19:00 GMT

Last night I was kindly invited by Hugh MacLeod to attend a preview screening of David Mackenzie's new film Hallam Foe. This is a pretty dark film but really fascinating and tell's the story of a young guys struggle to come to terms with the death of his mother. At times it treads a really fine line between socially acceptable norms but this makes it all the more interesting and a real talking point.

It's being released on August 31st and stars Jamie Bell of Billy Elliott fame. Well worth checking out.

Here's a picture of me, Steve Clayton, Tony Cocks and Hugh MacLeod at the drinks reception afterwards. Can only assume Paul Walsh was behind the camera or off asking girls at the party for 50p.

You can check out the film preview here.

Hugh - thanks again - you rock.

Technorati Tags: Hallam Foe, Blogging, Hugh MacLeod, Jamie Bell

Is anyone else using Twitter...

btamblyn — Thu, 03 May 2007 23:03:46 GMT

I've just started to play around with it this evening. Not sure I really understand it's value yet.

Is anyone else out there using Twitter? I'd be keen to understand what you think.

My Twitter profile: http://twitter.com/btamblyn

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Blogging

Business Intelligence 2.0 re-visited

btamblyn — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 16:16:00 GMT

Anyone - who's a regular reader of this blog (I think there's about 3 other than my immediate family) will know that I have a real fascination of the role web 2.0 will have in transforming the business intelligence landscape. Over the past couple of weeks there's been some really interesting announcements.

In late March it was announced that Sharp Analytics had been acquired by digital marketing agency iCrossing. Undoubtedly an interesting and bold move. Tom Huddock interviewed CEO Chuck Sharp which you can find here. What's really interesting about this is that Chuck sees himself as a marketer first and a technologist second, and I kind of like this philosophy. Often we get bogged-down in the technology and often the business benefits were looking to deliver are lost.

Tom also pointed me to another Microsoft partner 90 degree software who have a new reporting solution that was designed using Windows Presentation Foundation, and integrates really nicely into the Microsoft Dynamics stack. I've attached a link to Tom's discussion with Michael Matrick - Co-founder and President. These guys will actually be exhibiting at BI Conference in Seattle - so if you get the chance I'd encourage you to go and have a look at some of the cool stuff they're doing on our platform.

Incidentally - if you're not regular readers of Tom's blog - I'd encourage you to check it out.

Finally I wanted to draw your attention to the guys at Proto.

Proto is a Windows based mashup application designed to join your desktop apps with the web. You need the Windows application to both create and use the mashups. It’s component based, joining your desktop and web apps by pulling data from your desktop applications, such as Outlook, and feeding it into online web components, such as Yahoo! maps. Guys if you're reading this - I'd love to see the mashup recreated using Microsoft virtual earth . Proto has the Visual Basic for Applications development environment (VBA IDE) and Adobe Flash baked in, so you can create your own modules to pull and display data from your applications.

Extremely cool.

So what of Microsoft BI and a foray into the world of Web 2.0 - it's a question I get asked a lot. I think priority 1 for us at the moment is getting the rich-client performance management solution in market - but there's huge amounts of work going on within our Live Services group at the moment which we'll hopefully be taping into in the not too distant future. We're discouraged from hypothesizing any more than this but it's certainly something I'd love to see.

Technorati Tags: PerformancePoint Server, Performance Management, Web 2.0, Sharp Anaytics, Proto, 90 degree Software, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Microsoft

World's first IT guy...

btamblyn — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 18:37:53 GMT

This should resonate pretty well with anyone who's worked in IT longer than about 5 minutes.

Oh and it perhaps goes without saying that I'd rather be using SoapBox to publish this video but it doesn't appear to be up there.

Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Fun, Blogging

Google vs. Live Search

btamblyn — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:12:58 GMT

This video is absolutely brilliant and is now doing the rounds on the blogosphere. Now I don't want to suggest that using Google could cost you a fortune BUT...

Video: Who Wants to be a Millionaire

Just so some of the context is not lost here. Millionaire host Eddie McGuire is also the boss of channel 9 in Australia who have a stake in MSN.

Technorati tags: Fun, Blogging, Google, NineMSN, Live Search

My name is...

btamblyn — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:49:12 GMT

Ben Tamblyn

I was at the Microsoft Business Intelligence Partner Day on Wednesday and met some great partners who are beginning to look seriously at the Microsoft performance management platform as a viable and cost effective alternative for their customers. There was some amazing feedback on the solution offering given that the planning, budgeting, and forecasting components of the PerformancePoint solution is still in BETA.

Equally as interesting was the fact that some of the guys in attendance are also regular readers of my blog. Jim Plant asked me during one of the breaks why my name was not published anywhere on my blog which surprised me a little - so I went back to check and sure enough Jim was correct.

It was quite timely as it happens, because there's been a lot of talk internally about providing contact information (should I/shouldn't I) including email addresses and telephone numbers on blogs.

So here's my take on why its just a GOOD IDEA.

Blogging provides a human face to an organisation like Microsoft and allows us to connect with an audience that it's just not possible to meet with one-to-one.
We each have a responsibility to change the perceptions many people have of Microsoft, and making ourselves inaccessible confirms the misconception that we are arrogant, aloof and misguided - none of which I believe is truly representative of the large majority of people working at Microsoft.

Incidentally my contact information can now be found in the "About" section of this blog. Jim - my apologies for the oversight.

Which Office application are you

btamblyn — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:31:00 GMT

This is actually just a bit of fun.

Microsoft Office meets the Cosmo quiz.

The Office Personality Test won't tell you your dating identity or break-up style but instead which Office application is best suited to your personality.

As per my previous post - it will come as a great surprise to know I'm not PowerPoint.

Technorati tags: Fun, Blogging, Office 2007

Clippy has left the building

btamblyn — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:57:22 GMT

Jensen Harris has put him out of his misery. Check it out.

Amen.

Technorati tags: Clippy, Office 2007, Jensen Harris, Fun, Blogging

Zune Phone - Coming Soon???

btamblyn — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 22:14:00 GMT

OK - this is news to me - but I read it on TechCrunch so it must be true. Perhaps the geek in disguise can confirm/deny.

Check it out

Technorati tags: Zune, Blogging, Steve Clayton, TechCrunch

Is Budweiser the next YouTube?

btamblyn — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:25:42 GMT

God I hope not - TV can't taste that bad - although I do like the idea of mixing two of the world's greatest inventions TV and beer.

I think this will happen more and more: the Internet now competes head-on with TV as a platform for delivering rich media content.

Maybe Bud is not so bad after all

Bud.TV arrives on February 4th - Check this out.

Technorati tags: Fun, Blogging, Web 2.0, Budweiser

Why Web 2.0 is the new black

btamblyn — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:45:00 GMT

Barely a day goes by where someone is not asking me about what Microsoft is doing in preparation for Web 2.0. Here's a link to a great introductory whitepaper at ChangeThis.

Troy Angrignon's introduction to the principles and concepts of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 will significantly shape the Business Intelligence and Performance Management landscape and here's some interesting early examples.

If you're like me and live for charts check out this blogpost from Patrick Husting introducing swivel.com

Steve Clayton also directed me to this little beauty - a London tube map styled view of the trends for 2007. It has ten "lines" across society & culture, government & politics, work & business, media & communications, science & technology, food & drink, medicine & well-being, financial services, retail & leisure, and transport & automotive.

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, Patrick Husting, Business Intelligence, Performance Management, ChangeThis, Steve Clayton