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Jill Dyché

There you are! What took you so long? This is my blog and it's about YOU.

Yes, you. Or at least it's about your company. Or people you work with in your company. Or people at other companies that are a lot like you. Or people at other companies that you'd rather not resemble at all. Or it's about your competitors and what they're doing, and whether you're doing it better. You get the idea. There's a swarm of swamis, shrinks, and gurus out there already, but I'm just a consultant who works with lots of clients, and the dirty little secret - shhh! - is my clients share a lot of the same challenges around data management, data governance, and data integration. Many of their stories are universal, and that's where you come in.

I'm hoping you'll pour a cup of tea (if this were another Web site, it would be a tumbler of single-malt, but never mind), open the blog, read a little bit and go, "Jeez, that sounds just like me." Or not. Either way, welcome on in. It really is all about you.

About the author >

Jill is a partner co-founder of Baseline Consulting, a technology and management consulting firm specializing in data integration and business analytics. Jill is the author of three acclaimed business books, the latest of which is Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth, co-authored with Evan Levy. Her blog, Inside the Biz, focuses on the business value of IT.

Editor's Note: More articles and resources are available in Jill's BeyeNETWORK Expert Channel. Be sure to visit today!

Recap of TDWI Las Vegas

In which Jill fondly remembers winning at poker in Vegas. Oh, and some other stuff too.


The pre-buzz about last week's TDWI World Conference in Las Vegas was that it would be smaller than past Vegas conferences. Since TDWI regularly pulls over 1000 attendees into Vegas in February, how small could small be? While the throngs of attendees weren't on display as in years past, it turns out that smaller might actually be better.

On Sunday, Tracy Austin (former CIO of Mandalay Resort Group and past winner of the Computerworld Top 100 CIOs) and I presented two classes, on IT Governance (am) and BI Governance (pm). Our audience of about 50 included three IT executives, a dozen or so project managers, and some practitoners eager to understand how to align business strategy with IT and BI program plans. We both noticed how engaged everyone was. After all, it was a Sunday and we were in Vegas, for chrissakes. There was plenty of other stuff to do.

I noticed the full engagement phenomenon in my Monday class, too, and in Baseline Consulting's Frank Dravis' Night School session on data management. It flowed into Evan Levy's Tuesday workshop on data integration options. Cindi Howson, Maureen Clarry, and other faculty members noticed it too.

When teaching at TDWI, instructing consultants who are often also competitors comes with the territory. But these attendees were in short supply in Vegas. One theory was that the recent Bearing Point bankruptcy might be a bellwether and consultants are hunkering down for the time being. It seemed wherever we went that there were people working for commercial and government organizations doing real work and looking for tips and techniques with which to do their jobs.

Even the vendors seemed to be burning the midnight oil. Briefings with Lyza, Informatica, Netezza, Paraccel, DataFlux, and others revealed new product enhancements and fresh strategic thinking. 

And, I came in second in a Texas Hold'em tournament, hosted by our friends at BEyeNetwork. So if you hear me whistling a little bit after TDWI Vegas, it won't be in the dark. 

Technorati tags: TDWI, TDWI Las Vegas, business intelligence, data integration


Posted March 2, 2009 7:22 AM
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