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December 13, 2006
Smart Space
On November 30, 2006, Hyperion announced plans to release Hyperion System 9 Smart Space, an innovative composite application environment that will deliver always-on” business intelligence (BI) to every user in the enterprise, utilizing Microsoft Windows XP and Vista.
The idea of Smart Space is based on literally thousands of desktop gadgets (or widgets) that are already available for Windows. A gadget is a small application, sitting on the desktop, that tells you something. It can contain a webcam, a to-do list, an analogue clock, the weather forecast, a CPU usage monitor, the list of possibilities is endless. They become active the moment the computer is started and is connected. Hyperion Smart Space applies these technologies for a number of BI gadgets, and will also offer Instant Messenger integration.
Ofcourse a gadget is not as functionally rich as a complete analytic system or a full interactive report, or even a full dashboard. It brings a snippet of data to the desktop, in a visual way, so that you can look at it, and if there is an issue, immediately either launch a full report or any other BI or BPM application, or you can use IM to show someone else and collaborate on what to do.
The idea of mini BI will speak to groups of user for whom starting an application or even a report (also when it is web-based) is already too much, or -- in some cases -- simply too complicated.
Here are some examples you can think of:
- A fast food outlet manager may be responsible for multiple locations. As a hands-on manager, there will be no time, or it will not be natural behavior, to get behind a PC and start to study reports. However, with a BI gadget on on-going sales, can tell there is an immediate problem in a location. A webcam gadget can show there are people waiting in line, but there is not enough staff at the cash register.
- A manager in the local zoo may want to see an hourly update of ice cream across the facility. Perhaps this could be combined with a local weather forecast (freely available) gadget, to see if more staff or ice cream is needed across the zoo. Ofcourse weather forecasts can be loaded into a data warehouse as well, but how times does that happen (a project proposal, budget, ETL process, data modeling, information requirements, meta data management, pffffffffff). By combining 2 gadgets there is an immediate result.
- A call center manager may not see the huge TV screen in the call center and may want to glance at some operational statistics (queue length, average call duration, etc) once in a while.
- A logistics manager may want to track how the various cars and trucks are delivering goods exactly on time. A second gadget with traffic information will give an early warning already.
As you can see, all these examples are very operational of nature, a new field for BI where many BI die hard professionals need to get used to an build up an understanding of new user behaviors. It will be interesting to see which innovative uses customers will come up with.
Posted by Frank Buytenkijk at December 13, 2006 4:14 AM
Comments
I would like to call this principle "information magnetism", where supply and demand of information are attracted to each other based on common rules and understanding
Posted by: Richard Cox at December 20, 2006 1:49 PM
Please excuse my last post, there was some sort of mistake when I tried commenting. This is what I actually wanted to say:
This Smart Space tool sounds like a great addition that could be very useful. But I was wondering… where do you think we draw the line in terms of real time information – or is there a line? Is there a point where there is too much real-time information and data and where management needs to take a step back before making a decision based upon this info?
Posted by: Richard Cox at December 20, 2006 1:52 PM
