OK, I have to be fair on this one. This is just a rant to release some of the thoughts that have piled up today...
I just can't figure out why you want the data dump?! They (customers) always want a bloody data dump. Buying a BI solution for insane amounts of cash and then making DB extracts with them, at the same time getting furious with bad performance... And to top it off, export the result to bloody excel and work themselves to death for half a day there (but that is good performance already!).
Come on people, it is just about time to wake up from the excel based nightmare. THINK what you want out of the numbers. If you think for a month or two, follow closely what you do every day, you will eventually find patterns to your work. You will find the things you do over and over and over again. So tell me one good reason why you want a list with five thousand rows (in the very best of cases) in a report, when all you need is total, top 10 and bottom 10 out of it? to complicate, add the subtotals per product line... fine, it is just as possible. Delivered to you on one page, readible in 1 minute... Spend the rest of the day figuring out what to do to get the bottom 10 moving, instead of trying to locate it!
Ok, I did use a very simple and plain example, but you do get the point? Right? The more complicated things are just as possible. It is possible to replicate almost any (logically explainable) activity in excel into an automated BI solution. Get information delivered to you instead of a boring old table! All it takes is a bit of sane thought, but could save you a couple of days a month to say... play with your kids (work on something else, for you workaholics? ;) ).
There. I feel much better now. The only thing left is to make myself heard arround here. Anyone knows a good "Make Yourself Heard" course?
Good night!
//M.
A little update:
Today reading Seths blog came across this old I need more time post which kinda fits the mood here.
2 comments:
Cognos is great, Cognos is smart, Cognos saves you time but Cognos is also new compare to Excel. Not every person in a room is quick to embrace new technology. Most people like to be in control, like to understand how they arrive to a conclusion, but mainly they just don't trust Cognos/you (no offence there). They trust themselves! All those programming, SQL, logic, is not what they are good at, they don't understand and therefore they don't trust it. Also if Cognos is doing their job, they will feel a little insecure that they are now not so 'busy' and thus the word 'redundant' plays on their mind. But it's not all hopeless. Some people can be converted but it takes time and effort (your time and your effort). If you are up for it, here's what we do in our BI world to convert our customer:
1) Talk to them and understand what their ultimate goal is before giving them the 'dump'. Of course you need to be real smart and dig the info out casually or under the pretense that you need those info before you can extract the dump.
2) Once you get them talking, give them the dump but also give them the Cognos report you have created, give them the option. Don't say you have spent heaps of time creating the report but say you've got some time on your hand and you think that report may be useful for them, it's up to them if they want to use it.
3) Prepare for disappointment, and move on knowing you've tried your best to educate someone and that some people can't be upgraded!
Good comment. Got me thinking at least.
http://numberstoinfo.blogspot.com/2011/11/progress-of-user-requests.html
M.
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