I was lucky enough to attend this year's Annual Microsoft Business Intelligence conference in Seattle this week. This year's theme was "Think bigger about BI".
If you were at the conference and have come away inspired (or have a whole new set of questions!) then get in touch and lets discuss them. For those of you who were not at the event, I'll be posting follow-up thought leadership blogs over the coming days and weeks to elaborate upon, delve deeper into and analyse the topics discussed at the event and the opportunities it presents for clients.
As a first impression it is great to see that Microsoft have, and continue to, invest heavily in Business Intelligence. It was also enlightening to see that 'thinking bigger' wasn't just bigger in terms of the number of people who have access to and use BI, but thinking bigger in many dimensions - Impact, Strategic use of BI, collaboration across Business and IT functions, what BI actually encompasses and most importantly the concept of making BI leaner - more agile, lower total cost and the ability for BI to be managed by those who consume it in a way that works for them whilst maintaining IT imperatives.
Microsoft's aim is to embed BI in the very fabric of the business, altering the organisations information DNA to enable unprecedented levels of informed, empowered decision support. What Microsoft have also clearly grasped is that this is a journey and the ability to make manageable, pragmatic steps towards the bigger vision is critical to both your organisation's success and their success in meeting their objective to make BI bigger.
I look forward to your comments, discussions and feedback as I continue to provide analysis on the event.
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