NicolaThomsonOKG

Accepting Anxiety

Everyone suffers with anxiety to some degree at times. Yes – everyone! Even those people who seem uber confident and appear to have the world at their feet. We have become masters of disguise and in reality we all have our doubts and worries and those pesky little thoughts which play on our minds and…

Can you really build a cloud data platform in six weeks?

In short: yes, but no, but yes…sort of…it depends. For a better answer, let’s start by describing what we mean by a cloud data platform, as it can mean a few different things. Generally, it refers to a series of different components and resources deployed in the cloud to ingest, store, process, and report upon…

Why do you need a data platform?

Before discussing the challenges and process of launching a data platform, let’s consider why you actually need it. At its simplest you need a ‘platform’ to help your audience find its data and the data find its audience. Most organisations that have a desire to get more from their data will at some point require…

Accentuate the Positive

For many people, the month of September can bring back fond memories of a new school year and the anticipation of wiping the slate clean and starting afresh. Who remembers the excitement of writing in a blank exercise book, picking out a new school bag, wearing shiny new school shoes or the thrill of catching…

The rise of Power BI (and BI as a whole) 

The rise of Power BI (and BI as a whole) Over the last few years, Power BI has gone from a visualisation tool on the side to become front and centre in the business intelligence (BI) industry. A combination of including the tool in Office 365 subscriptions and adding more and more features over the…

Gain control of your SharePoint Data

Most medium to large companies have a sizable Microsoft SharePoint space, containing thousands, if not millions of data files – but do you know what exactly is in them? In this post, we’ll lay out three core elements for gaining control of your SharePoint data, below, and most importantly why. Outlining the strategy and tooling…

Is Data Governance at a crossroads, and does it need a “Data Mesh” refresh?

We’ve recently seen a trend in Data Governance with much debate over the differences between Data Governance and Data Management. Industry expert, Gartner, suggests that in 2025 some 80% of organizations seeking to scale their digital businesses will have failed because they do not take a modern approach to data and analytics governance (Gartner –…

What is Quality 4.0?

I am delighted that this week we can make more widely available the first publication on our leading-edge research project carried out for and with the CQI on Quality 4.0 (Q 4.0). In the July edition of Quality World, there was a cover feature – ‘Defining QUALITY 4.0.’ The editor Tracy Tyley and her team…

What If…? Self-doubt and The Elephant in the Room.

Anyone familiar with the TV programme Ru Paul’s Drag Race will recognise the saying “Remember if you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you gonna love somebody else?” All too often we beat ourselves up when we make mistakes and given the past eighteen months, we should more than ever, celebrate our successes and…

Why bigger isn’t always better…. Maximising returns through cloud-based proof of concepts:

Part 1 – Starting out and getting over the first hurdle!  So, about ALL of that data you have…  Pushing data into the cloud was once seen as a skill confined to tech companies, who had either started with at least one foot in the door or had the skills readily available to make it happen. However,  it is now much more commonplace for organisations to want to lift and shift their data and operations…

The Use Case For Project Analytics

In this final article of the Project Analytics series, now that we’ve covered how to launch your Project Analytics capability, we explore what each category of users will make of their newly created capabilities now the skills, processes and technology are finally in place.  There are typically four basic use cases that we observe when building out…

The Four Phases of a Project Analytics Roadmap

In this article, we continue our discussion into the process of building out a complete Project Analytics capability for your major projects initiatives.    Last week, we explored the engineering architecture required for a modern Project Analytics capability. This week, we look at how to create a roadmap from your Project Analytics pilot into a production-ready solution that…