Phil Simon's Blog, page 102

Simon 3.0: Site Overhaul

At some point in early 2013, this site is getting an overhaul. My friend and WordPress guru Todd Hamilton will be taking my site to the next level. I expect a cleaner, faster, and overall better user experience.

WordPress has evolved quite a bit since I’ve started using it and it’s high time that my site reflect many of these improvements.

Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions.

What’s Your Arc?

It’s one of my favorite scenes in The Sopranos. Christopher talks about his arc. Where’s my arc, Paulie?

I was watching that scene today and I started thinking about my arc as a writer. With the first book, I wrote about what I knew. It’s pretty common for a non-fiction writer to do this. I had seen so many IT projects blow up, why not write a jargon-free book about them? So I did.

The second book is based on the premise that organizations that can’t implement mature technologies well have a tough road to hoe with respect to emerging technologies like cloud computing, MDM, open source, etc.

But big companies face big struggles. What about smaller organizations? Aren’t they doing some cool things? Yes–and that’s the premise behind book number three.

And then there are those large companies that are acting like small ones. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are nothing less than “big small” companies. They still innovate better than many companies 1/100th their size. That’s the fourth book in a nutshell.

“The Gang of Four” does many things well, including managing vast amounts of data. Big Data. Really Big Data. That’s a big part of book number 5.

Where’s my arc taking me? I have no idea…but I can’t wait to find out.

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What’s your arc?

Will the iPad and Big Data Save Retail?

As I write this post, the holiday shopping season is in full swing. Retail is undergoing a massive transformation as we speak, what with constantly connected customers able to buy from Amazon while in traditional big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target. The process, called showrooming, represents a major challenge to brick-and-mortar retailers.

Count JCPenny among them. The storied retailer is trying to do the improbable: come back from the brink of death. New CEO and former Apple bigwig Ron Johnson is putting iPads in stores and trying to turn each “JCP” into a mini-mall of sorts. In other words, each JCP store will contain IZOD, Disney, Liz Claiborne, and other brand-specific stores.

Big Data: A Big Retail Opportunity

Will it work? If history is any guide, the answer is probably not. Department stores are well past their halcyon days of the 1950s. Johnson seems undeterred and appeared on 11/25 on CBS This Morning. For every company that has reversed its fortunes like Apple and IBM, hundreds or thousands more fade into extinction.

Now, I’ve never been CEO of a retail chain, but if I ever serve as one I’ll be sure to rely upon Big Data. As the holiday retail season unfolds, check the out the following statistics that IBM has culled from shoppers so far:

Online sales are up 20 percent for this same time period over Black Friday 2011.
The number of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site is at 28 percent, up from 18.1 percent in 2011.
The number of consumers using their mobile device to make a purchase is 14.3 percent, up from 10.3 percent in 2011.
Shoppers using the iPad led to more retail purchases more often per visit than other mobile devices, with conversion rates reaching 4.2 percent, higher than all other mobile devices.
Shoppers referred from social networks like Facebook and Twitter generated 0.18 percent of all online sales on Black Friday.

No doubt that Johnson has seen such statistics. I honestly doubt that he’s putting iPads on tables just for  kicks. Rather, the data shows that tablets induce people to make purchasing decisions. Plus, I’d bet that millions of avid fantasy football fans are more likely to accompany their significant others on Sunday shopping excursions if they could watch games on TVs or iPads. Bottom line: When you get customers in the store, try to keep them in the store.

Simon Says

I’ve said this many times over the past few years: every company is becoming a tech company. Embracing technology, new gadgets, and Big Data won’t guarantee a thing. Ignoring them, however, will almost certainly expedite the demise of challenged businesses like JCP.

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What say you?

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

More News on My Next Book

I’m pleased to announce that my new book will be titled Too Big to Ignore: The Business Case for Big Data. It’s now up on Amazon. I’m confident that it will be out in March of 2013.

Inc. Article #18: 4 Ways to Embrace Big Data

My 18th Inc. Magazine article is now live. Here it is.

I’ve spent most of the last four months finishing the manuscript for my fifth book, Too Big to Ignore: The Business Case for Big Data. In this post, I’ll share some data collection methods that may help your business make better decisions.

What if there’s existing data on the Web that you’d like to easily gather and view? You could cut and paste, but there has to be a better way, right? Check out Mozenda, a data extraction service. Its software can “scrape” data from a wide variety of sources on the Web.

That’s fine if there’s existing data you’d like to grab, but what if you need to generate your own data? Two sites here are very useful. The first, Mechanical Turk, is a crowdsourcing Internet marketplace that matches buyers and sellers. Want to submit the title of your book for a vote? Mechanical Turk is a little-known part of Amazon that incentivizes people to provide data. “Requesters” set up Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) and offer small rewards for voting. In a nutshell, Amazon uses human intelligence to perform tasks that computers are currently unable to do.

Not sure if the design of your homepage is working? Run an experiment–Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google all do this. (There’s a high degree of science behind everything on these company’s pages, up to and including the color of fonts.) Optimizely allows users to perform their own A/B testing. Over the course of a few weeks, generate metrics on which version of your homepage generates more traffic, lowers bounce rates, and the like. Author Eric Ries of The Lean Startup actually used this to convince his publisher that some of its covers and titles just didn’t work. (Of course, Google AdWords is still also capable of performing de facto A/B testing on a wide variety of things.)

And let’s not forget surveys. There are many online tools like SurveyMonkey, PollDaddy, and others. I’m a big fan of Wufoo. This über-easy site lets you create powerful forms, online surveys, and event registrations. Without getting all statsy, though, understand that online surveys typically need to be taken with a 20-lb. bag of salt. Use them as a guide, not gospel.

Simon Says

Some say that data is the new oil. You’ll get no argument from me. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and other companies are extremely valuable and successful in no small part from their exceptional data management, collection, and analysis methods. All else being equal, in 2013 and beyond, companies that understand and take advantage of Big Data will do better than those that don’t.

What say you?

Click here to read the article on Inc.

 

 

 

On Hadoop, Security, and Data Silos

Is Hadoop secure?

It’s a fair question, and one that many CIOs are asking themselves as they realize that Big Data is here to stay. There are major benefits to consolidating data sources, but what are the drawbacks?

About a year ago, ComputerWorld ran a story about Hadoop and security issues. From the piece comes the following quote from Richard Clayton, a software engineer with Berico Technologies, an IT services contractor for federal agencies:

Aggregating data into one environment also increases the risk of data theft and accidental disclosure.

You’ll get no argument from me that there’s a potential downside to one-stop shopping. After all, if all of an organization’s data is in one place, then it’s theoretically easier to steal, right? And I’d be silly to completely discount legitimate security concerns like this one. There are enough bad guys out there without helping them out.

Silos Aren’t the Solution

But what’s the alternative? For some, the answer can be summed up in two words: data silos. And this just grinds my gears.

I have encountered my fair share of tricky data issues throughout my consulting career. None has infuriated me more than data silos, primarily because of the other problems that the cause. Exhibit A: lack of master data (read: a single version of the truth.) For a long time, I dismissed master data management because I felt that all transactional data should be stored in an organization’s system of record. Period.

Now, I’ve soften my stance on that issue over the years, but I still can’t stomach data silos. I recognize that they can be valuable, as does my friend Jim Harris. Harris writes on his blog that “data silos are bad when different business units are redundantly storing and maintaining their own private copies of the same data, but data silos are good when they are used to protect sensitive data that should not be shared.”

Simon Says

Fair enough, but put me squarely in the anti-silo camp. In my view, the costs of data silos far exceed their benefits. It’s kind of like taking a very strong grip in golf to correct for a nasty slice. You’re “fixing” one problem by adding another.

Why not attempt to beef up security on operational and analytic systems throughout the enterprise? That way, Hadoop or a data warehouse contains both comprehensive and accurate data protected from troublemakers.

Feedback

What say you?

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

Big News on My Next Book

I’m pleased to finally spill the beans on my fifth book. Here goes.

I like to think that I pay attention to nascent business and technology trends. Over the last 18 months, I have been intrigued about organizations’ use of Big Data. It turns out that I’m hardly alone. Many organizations of all types are doing fascinating things with the vast amounts of data out there. For instance, President Obama was reelected in no small part to his team’s use of analytics.

I have signed a contract with John Wiley & Sons to publish a book on the business case for Big Data. (We’re still finalizing the title.) I expect the book to come out in March of 2013. The book will be part of the Wiley and SAS Business Series. I suspect that, when all is said and done, the book will contain about 220 pages, give or take.

At a high level, the book will explain why Big Data is a very big deal. More business book than technical guide, it will include several length case studies and many examples of organizations harnessing the power of Big Data in exciting and creative ways.

I’ll keep this site updated with news related to the book, including when it hits Amazon.

 

Big News on My Next Book

I’m pleased to finally spill the beans on my fifth book. Here goes.

I like to think that I pay attention to nascent business and technology trends. Over the last 18 months, I have been intrigued about organizations’ use of Big Data. It turns out that I’m hardly alone. Many organizations of all types are doing fascinating things with the vast amounts of data out there. For instance, President Obama was reelected in no small part to his team’s use of analytics.

I have signed a contract with John Wiley & Sons to publish a book on the business case for Big Data. (We’re still finalizing the title.) I expect the book to come out in March of 2013. The book will be part of the Wiley and SAS Business Series. I suspect that, when all is said and done, the book will contain about 220 pages, give or take.

At a high level, the book will explain why Big Data is a very big deal. More business book than technical guide, it will include several length case studies and many examples of organizations harnessing the power of Big Data in exciting and creative ways.

I’ll keep this site updated with news related to the book, including when it hits Amazon.

Writing Plans for 2013

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be writing in 2013 for the SAS DataRoundtable as well as MIKE2.0. I’ve been writing for both sites for the last three years about data management-related issues. I’ll have some big ideas for 2013 on each site.

The Laws of Subtraction by Matt May

Just because we can pack more in doesn’t mean that we should.

So says Matthew May, author of The Laws of Subtraction (affiliate link). (Full disclosure: I received a copy from the author and I quoted him in The Age of the Platform.)

I am a big fan of May’s previous works. I’d put In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing (affiliate link) on my top-100 list. After dabbling in business fiction in his last book, May is back with a more conventional business text–and he doesn’t disappoint.

In an era of feature-creep and superfluous functionality, May shows how it’s often best to do nothing or remove things. May’s examples are fascinating, from the WSJ artist who creates those funky drawings to the design of streets and urban areas to Albert Einsten. Backed by solid research in neuroscience and psychology, May’s central premise hits home with me: less is more.

Over the last few years, I’ve become an Apple convert because PCs and many applications tend to include too many “features.” Something tells me that May would wholeheartedly agree.

Some of the 50 essays from thought leaders were more interesting than others. Truth be told, I would have preferred 50 additional pages of insights from the author himself. I just like the way the guy thinks and writes.

I highly recommend the book and look forward to more from May.