I met Scott today and he raised the question of real-time analytics. Hmm.
I should take the opportunity to talk in general terms about what I know and think as regards this matter. The first is my theory of Industry Speed. I basically say, that depending upon which business you are in, you need and more importantly, your imagination for analytics is limited what you do. This sounds like a common sense observation, but it should be noted that this is the first idea that is ignored in a sales situation.
Successful people like successful people, and nobody wants to be limited by technology. So it is likely that a technical person is going to want no limits, on sure-fire way to kick OLAP to the curb is to raise the question of real-time processing, or as Scott put it, why can't we just get Essbase to query directly into JDE?
This is only a reasonable request in the context of demand for real-time analysis. As a nice to have, it's too expensive. But I want it. Why shouldn't I want it? Why should I stick a second tier of databases between myself and my operational real-time data? The answer is materiality.
How much is your management willing to pay to know now? And how long are they willing to wait for you to build this thing that will allow them to know now? How critical is it to the direction of your company that you provide this service. Like the old chestnut goes, sometimes working smarter to avoid working harder is just too much hard work. The last thing you want to do is spend money that doesn't augment human intelligence. You need to find a sweet spot.
Here's my ramp on Industry Speed for Analytic & BI Apps. The lower the tier, the more demanding they are.
Tier 1
Scientific Visualization
Telemetry & Remote Sensing
Securities Trading
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Tier 2
Banking & Finance
Aerospace & Engineering
Retail
Energy
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Tier 3
Pharma
Manufacturing
Insurance
Health Care
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Tier 4
Construction
Restaurant & Hotel Mgmt
Real Estate
Government
The cost of analytical applications is going down, but that is the technology factor. What's keeping the price high is the amount of specilization is inherent in the way the tools are maturing. I find now, that in order to get the kind of job done that one person did in 1995, at least three people are doing now. In any case, the technology is not the hardest nut to crack, nor is staffing. It is the ability to comprehend and capture the initiative from management about clear definitions of the business, the domain to be studied and the speed and accuracy necessary for process improvement.
