UFC 106 Review

We had a great night with friends last night watching UFC 106.  We have a little contest every UFC night to see who correctly picks the most winners.  I was pretty pleased in that I only missed one fight, picking Ortiz over Griffin in the final fight of the night.  I would have been very happy with that if my 15-year-old son, Noah, hadn’t correctly picked the winner of EVERY fight.  So now I need to blog a little about UFC 106 and spend at least some talking about Ortiz/Griffin and wondering what one judge was doing during the first round.

First of all, I’m a major UFC fan.  I love watching MMA.  I am also a martial artist, and I enjoy watching the especially skilled mixed martial artists employ their skills.  I do not enjoy or support those who display a lack of respect for the martial arts or for their opponents.  I don’t want to see UFC turn into anything like professional wrestling.

With that said, here are my personal observations on the major bouts from UFC 106:

Ortiz/Griffin:  I was hoping Griffin would win because I don’t like Ortiz’s attitude, but I thought Ortiz had more to prove and would come out with serious motivation.  While I don’t disagree that Griffin won, I have to believe the judge who scored it 30-27 for Griffin was smoking something.  Round 1 should most certainly have gone to Ortiz.  Round 2 could’ve gone either way on my scorecard.  Ortiz had a take down or two, but Griffin finished strong and defended well from the ground.  Round 3–Ortiz never actually answered the bell!  Even if Ortiz had been given rounds 1 and 2, I would personally have given Griffin a 2 point win for round 3.  Ortiz said he had a cracked skull (and he certainly had the black eye), but he simply didn’t show up for the final round.  Kudos to Griffin.  He defended the ground extremely well and landed some outstanding kicks on Ortiz.

Johnson/Koscheck:  I picked Koscheck to win, but not because I dislike Johnson.  Johnson has outstanding power and comes across as a good guy.  BUT THE BOY NEEDS A GROUND GAME!  Koscheck was just too well-rounded, and once it went to the mat, Johnson was toast.  This fight really can’t be discussed without addressing the knee that Johnson delivered to Koscheck’s head while Koscheck was still on the ground.  This was replayed over and over again in slow motion.  It was definitely an illegal knee.  However, Koscheck came up holding his left eye. The replays made it very clear that Johnson’s knee struck the RIGHT side of Koscheck’s head.  So why was Koscheck hold the wrong eye?  Personally, I think he was going for a breather and getting inside Johnson’s head.  Johnson was far more bothered by the later eye poke from Koscheck, which I’m not certain at all was incidental.  Koscheck’s after fight comments and tweets were filled with cockiness and arrogance–both unprofessional and immature.  This leads me to the conclusion that he may be a bit of a dirty fighter (or a cry baby), does not have the respect for the sport that it deserves, and he needs to grow up.  We don’t need someone else behaving like Lesnar in the UFC.  I’m anxious for him to be taken down a notch or two.  It won’t be long.

Thiago/Volkmann:  This was not the fight of the night, although I still enjoyed watching Paulo Thiago.  I didn’t know a lot about Volkmann prior to picking Thiago, but after seeing Volkmann’s less than impressive physique, I was feeling even better about my choice!  Volkmann, however, is a skilled athlete and an outstanding wrestler, and we now know he can take some punishment.  I was obviously not surprised he lost, but I was impressed that he stuck around for 3 rounds and held his own as much as he did.  He needs some jiu jitsu training, but I believe we’ll see more of him.  A solid outing for Thiago, but if you were going to pick a fight during which to head out to the concession stand…

Baroni/Sadollah:  When picking a fight with Baroni, all you really have to do is determine if his opponent has the ability to not get hit too hard during the first 30 seconds, because after that Baroni is gassed.  Baroni is a great physical specimen, but he’s all about that first 30 seconds of flash and dash before the crash.  Sadollah survived the onslaught and picked Baroni apart the rest of the fight.  I ended up a little disappointed that Sadollah couldn’t put Baroni down.  This left me questioning Sadollah’s cardio a little bit.

Nogueira (Little Nog)/Cane:  Big Nog’s brother was the easiest pick of the night, and he didn’t disappoint.  You know he was coming in with great experience, training, and conditioning.  Cane, well, Cane could use some of that training.  In particular, he needs to learn not to block with his head.  Little Nog capitalized quickly on Cane’s lowered right hand and dropped him to the mat.  No doubt we’ll be seeing Little Nog on a UFC pay per view in the future!

Zero Tolerance, Zero Sense–Part 2!

My rant continues.  Here’s another genius school system punishing a good kid because of a 2″ knife that he kept locked in his car in a survival kit!

“A 17-year-old Eagle Scout in upstate New York has been barred from stepping foot on school grounds for 20 days — for keeping a 2-inch pocketknife locked in a survival kit in his car.”

I think the story speaks for itself…

Zero Tolerance, Zero Sense

I just read the story about Zachary Christie, the 6-year-old in Newark, Delaware, who was suspended from school for bringing his Cub Scout tool to school.  The 1st grader’s Scouting tool looks like a Swiss Army Knife, and it contains a spoon, fork, and a small knife.  The school has a “zero tolerance” policy on knives, and Zachary was suspended from school for 5 days and faces 45 days in reform school.  I just cannot think of the appropriate words to express how ridiculous this is.

One of the pros of zero tolerance policies is that they are extremely unambiguous.  Bring a knife to school, and you’re suspended!  It frees the administrator from having to judge intent.  Consider a situation where a kid who is a known trouble-maker brings in a knife.  (For starters, can we just agree that principals and teachers KNOW who the trouble-makers are?)  If the principal has to prove intent with the kid, there’s likely to be wailing and gnashing of teeth from the kid’s parents because of unfair treatment.  Let’s be honest, if the kid’s a trouble-maker, he probably learned it from his parents.

However, with a zero-tolerance policy, the principal and teachers are off the hook.  The bad kid gets suspended with no argument.

But then you have the Zachary Christies, perfectly innocent kids who unknowingly violate the policy and receive a punishment far outweighing the “crime.”  I believe these situations happen far more often than we think.  The son of good friends of mine recently received a similar suspension.

In this case the student was in a high school in a farm community.  Kids in these communities carry knives.  And they use them, not as weapons but as tools.  This student put on his jeans in a hurry one morning, not noticing the knife was still attached to his pocket.  He was “ratted out” by another kid at school and received the zero-tolerance suspension of 5 days.  This kid, by the way, is not one of the trouble-makers.

(An addendum for this example is that I had the opportunity to speak to the principal involved in this situation.  The local law enforcement was not interested in taking any action against the student.  The knife, which had a blade about 3″ long, was not considered that much of a threat.  The principal seemed disappointed that they were not interested in taking any action against the kid.  That’s my perception, of course.  But I felt the principal was borderline irrational about the entire affair.  I think he just didn’t like knives, and felt any kid with a knife ought to be punished.)

What we have here is two situations where good kids were taken out of school for 5 days.  In both cases, rational administrators should have been able to judge intent and adjust the repercussions appropriately.  Neither of these students benefited from being out of the classroom, and neither student posed the remotest threat to their classmates or teachers.

While I’m at this point, I must say that I can think of no more STUPID way to punish a student than to take them OUT of school.  If a student needs to be punished or reprimanded, they need to be in school MORE, or at least put into a location where they must study and can stay caught up on their schoolwork.  Especially in middle school and high school, if you punish a bad kid by saying, “You can’t come to school for the next 5 days!” their response is likely to be “Yee Haa!”  And then they are likely to hit the streets and get into even more trouble.   If you take a good kid out of school, they’re going to fall behind their classmates and see their grades go down.  Does this benefit them?  Stupid, stupid, stupid…  Really, really stupid.  On a stupid scale of 1-10, it’s about a 900.

Back to zero-tolerance.  No one likes it when they feel they or their children have been treated unfairly.  In school, this is particularly true of the trouble-makers.  They are the first ones to cry, “Foul!”  Adopting the extreme stance of zero-tolerance, however, punishes the innocent, like Zachary.

I also believe there’s a liberal agenda at work here.  Liberals, who seem to increasingly dominate the public schools, are far more opposed to “weapons” at school.  (I have friends who are conservative teachers, by the way.  But I do find them to be in a small minority.)  Zero-tolerance policies against knives are an opportunity for them to make a political statement about weapons in general, and to force their beliefs upon the students.  But these policy decisions should NOT be in the hands of the teachers or their unions.  Public schools should be controlled by the community and the duly elected members of the school boards.  (I could get off on another good tangent here, but I’ll try to limit myself to one rant per blog…)

Most principals are not poorly paid.  Under-appreciated perhaps, but not poorly paid.  Zero-tolerance on knives should be stricken, unless perhaps we are talking about combat knives or something totally extreme.  Let’s empower the principals and superintendents to exercise judgement in these cases.  A zero-tolerance policy limits good administrators from being able to apply rational judgement, and lets biased administrators off the hook.  Some people are paid to make difficult decisions.  Top school administrators fit into that category.

I would make the same argument for many over-the-counter medications.  If I want my child to take Advil or Midol at school, he/she shouldn’t need to go see the nurse because of a zero-tolerance on medication.  If I trust my child to take a decongestant at school, that’s my business.  If they start trying to medicate others at school, then the school may need to get involved.

Common sense appears to have become devalued in most of our public schools.  Zero-tolerance policies are a good indication.  Zero-tolerance on knives is probably a reaction to Columbine, or Columbine was a good excuse for those opposed to any type of weapon to start implementing draconian policies on knives at school.  And I’m not advocating weapons at school, by the way.  But kicking good kids out because no one is willing to judge intent?!?  That leads to totally irrational decisions, such as the one that got Zachary suspended.  What I’m really saying is that common sense needs to prevail, and zero tolerance makes zero sense.

Flying–September 2009

“If you’re going to vomit, either lean outside the plane or throw up inside your shirt.  It cleans up easier that way.”  My pilot, Mark Seest, told me this in the calm, matter-of-fact tone of one who had experience.  Sitting in the small, 1941 Piper Cub, tightly wedged into the seat behind Mark, I perhaps should have been a little more nervous after hearing his directions.  But Mark is a professional pilot with United Airlines, and some decades ago, I spent a lot time stacking hay on wagons while Mark drove the tractor.  I had great confidence in my pilot!

Interestingly, I had not seen Mark in over 20 years, going all the way back to some time in college.  Prior to college, however, Mark and I spent many sweaty hours toiling under the hot and humid Indiana sun in his father’s hayfields.  My recollections of Mark’s father, Carl, are twofold.  First, the man put up a LOT of hay.  Second, I believe he used his hay money to pay for his addiction of attending farm auctions and buying truckloads of used equipment and oddities that now lie littered around his properties.  I attended one such auction for a neighbor about 20 years ago, and I questioned Carl about a welder he had just purchased.  I asked him what he was going to do with it.  His reply, “Mark might want it some day.”  I have no doubt that welder is still sitting in a barn waiting for Mark to need it.

Before I leave the topic of bailing hay, I have to address the topic of driving the tractor that pulls the hay wagons.  Anyone who has ever tried to back up  a trailer behind a vehicle nows that it can be very tricky.  The trailer goes the opposite direction of where the steering wheel is turned.  Backing a loaded hay wagon is even trickier, because it is hard to see over the stack of hay, and hay wagons are not designed for ease of mobility!  I used to believe I was a pretty skilled backer upper of hay wagons, but Mark was the champion.  Literally!  He was the Clinton County 4H champion in wagon backing.  And I did see him back some wagons into some pretty tight spots.  All this to say, I suppose, that I had confidence in my pilot even if we ended up flying backwards…or perhaps if we needed to land in a hayfield.

Before I get into the details of the flight, I need to back up a bit in my story.  My chance to ride in a vintage, albeit small, airplane is a testament to social networking, as well as to the generosity of Mark and his father-in-law, Tom Baker, who owns the plane.  Ironically, I had not seen Mark in over 20 years when we were both college students.  Even though we now only live 15 minutes away from each other, our paths had never crossed–except for online.

Mark and I became reunited via Facebook.  So this is my plug for Facebook, as well as my justification to my wife for all of the time I spend on it!  One night, after seeing pictures Mark had posted on Facebook of an earlier flight, I half-heartedly asked if he ever took up old high school friends.  At 6:40 the next morning, I had a message from Mark asking me if I was free that day.  It didn’t take me long to check my calendar, rearrange a couple of meetings, and at 10:30 I was pulling into driveway at Mark’s father-in-law’s house.

Mark’s father-in-law, Tom Baker, is a retired airline pilot and owns the beautifully restored 1941 Piper Cub, hopefully seen on my Facebook page by using the link.  Tom also has a wonderful collection of airline and airplane memorabilia.  Included in his collection is a picture of the Enola Gay autographed by pilot, Paul Tibbets.  I believe both Tom and Mark were surprised that I knew who Tibbets was, and that I was impressed that he had such a picture.  So on a side note to my history teacher, Mr. Jones:  See, I was paying attention!

As I arrived, Mark was washing off the plane, and it shown beautifully in the sun on a bright morning.  It was a great morning to fly, although I ended up wishing I’d brought along a jacket.  Fortunately, I did remember to bring along my camera, and you can see the pictures I took here if you have any interest.  Climbing into the compact 2-seater was a bit challenging.  While the plane can be flown from the front or rear, Mark gave me the back seat because it offered a better view.  The view was outstanding, primarily because there was nothing between the open air and me on my right side.  (Recall the comment about the jacket…)

It really was a great feeling speeding down Tom’s grass runway in a vintage aircraft and feeling and watching it lift off the ground.  My stomach only twitched a little, and I did not feel in any danger of having to heed Mark’s vomiting advice. Mark lifted off, circled around and dropped low over the runway to allow his aunt to take a picture.  Mark neatly skimmed right across the grass, barely allowing the tires to touch the ground.  I could tell this, because I was watching the right wheel just 2 feet below me.  The thought that Mark might be planning some mid-air acrobatics did briefly cross my mind…

From there, however, Mark flew us to our old hometown of Rossville, Indiana.  For all of us flying newbies, things sure look a lot different from the air!  Several times, Mark had to help me get my bearings so that I would know where I was.  We circled the small town and then flew over the farmwhere I grew up.  From there we headed to Lafayette to circle the house I live in now, and then we headed to a small airport in Delphi to refuel.  Mark, ever the gracious host, would not even let me chip in for the gas.  Leaving Delphi, it took Mark a couple of tries to head down the runway because the wind would spin the tail of the Piper around as if it were a windsock.

We now headed back to where we started.  However, on the way, Mark flew over a small “runway” used by a friend of his who flies ultralights.  This runway is actually a small yard in the middle of a cornfield.  Mark decided to drop down over this runway.  I mentioned earlier how close I was to the wheels.  I’m sure, if I had not been seatbelted in, that I could have reached out and plucked the tassels off the corn during Mark’s approach.  However, Mark smoothly came in and flew what appeared to be about 12″ off the ground and lifted back up over the corn.  I actually never felt uneasy.  I was impressed with Mark’s handling of the plane, and I further knew I was watching someone do something that they really enjoyed.

It wasn’t much longer before we landed.  And I’ll admit that by now my stomach was feeling a tad less pleasant.  After landing, I got to meet Tom and talk over some of his memorabilia.  Interestingly, our house is located next to what used to be Aretz Airport.  Aretz has now been closed for many years.  Among Tom’s possessions are the old Aretz sign, as well as a large, glass display case from Aretz.  My thanks go to both Mark and Tom for generously offering this experience to me.  I wouldn’t hesitate to go again, especially not now that my stomach has also safely landed.

Indy International Wine Competition

My wife and I had the wonderful opportunity to work on the “Pit Cru” at the 2009 Indy International Wine Competition.  This was the 3rd straight year wehad applied to work on the Pit Cru, and we were delighted to have the opportunity to be accepted this year.  Because it is so much fun and such a wonderful experience, there are a lot of people who would like the opportunity to be a part of this excellent event.

I would not consider myself a serious wine connoisseur.  But I do like to drink wine, and my tastes have certainly evolved from the Boone’s Farm syrup that I sometimes drank in college to the Cabernets, Merlots, and Chardonnays that I enjoy now.  A lot of the transformation has to do with the difference between drinking for the alcohol and drinking for the exquisite tasting experience that a well made and finished wine offers.

I’ve also made wines from pre-packaged kits for several years.  Even though this is a fairly easy way to make good wine, (not to say all of mine have turned out well…) I was quickly impressed by the complexity involved in creating a wine that was fit to drink.  I’ve absolutely enjoyed sharing and consuming my successes.  I’ve also poured more than a little down the drain.  All this just to say that I believe I have an appreciation for the skill and persistence required to make a good wine.

I can easily see how the passion for wine making gets into one’s blood.  It is both a science and an art.  Additionally, it is an ever-changing challenge.  Mother Nature ensures that no two growing seasons are identical, and a wine maker must apply his or her skills to the juice the vines offer in a given season.  There are many more complexities, details, and subtle nuances to making a good wine that could keep a person who likes challenges and appreciates quality vintage motivated for a lifetime.

But back to the Indy Wine Competition… This was my first wine competition, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  My thanks to Cheri Rawles, a Pit Cru veteran who helped get me connected.  Her husband, Phil Rawles, is a professor in the College of Technology at Purdue University, and he wrote the program that tracks the entries for the competition–over 3,000 this year.  I highlight this because, as an IT junkie and adjunct IT professor myself, I was very impressed with how smoothly the tracking of all of the wines went.  The behind-the-scenes work of Professor Rawles and his programming was wonderfully accurate, reliable, and inconspicuous.

I’ve been a part of many large competitions, usually either public speaking or martial arts competitions, so I have an appreciation for the planning, attention to detail, coordination, and execution that is required to put on such a large event.  The Indy Wine Competition is one of the largest in the nation, and it included over 3,000 entries from multiple countries, 72 judges, 100 workers, food, glassware, decorations, trophies, etc…  This event ranked right up there with some of the most complex events with which I’ve been a part. 

And it ran like clockwork! I’m not the person to bestow thanks to the people who worked on this, but I primarily worked with Jill Blume, an Enology Specialist at Purdue University and a member of the Wine Grape Action Team at Purdue.  My hat is off (Or should I say “My glass is tipped!”) to Jill for her work in coordinating this competition.  This woman keeps her cool under pressure and keeps things moving.  Christian Butzke in an Enology Professor at Purdue University and was the master of ceremonies for the competition.  I believe he was the “official” in-charge person.  I really enjoyed the snippets I learned from Dr. Butzke.  He’s a very knowledgeable, friendly, and engaging man who maintains the dignity of the event, gives credit where credit is due, and maintains a sense of humor throughout.  My wife and I are anxious to take his wine appreciation course!

I learned a great deal about wines, wine judging, and the wine community.  I learned to get 70 pours from one bottle.  This is particularly impressive when you consider that I’m usually doing good to get 2 or 3 pours from one bottle!  We also made several new friends, including some neighbors with a new winery only about a mile from our house! Please check out Rick and Kathy Black’s Wildcat Creek Winery in Lafayette, Indiana.  They’ve only recently started, but they will soon be doubling the number of wines that they offer, and they are simply delightful people.  One of the judges at the table we supported was Mark Wenzel, winemaker and owner at August Hill Winery in Utica, Illinois.  I haven’t yet tried any of his wines, but I intend to.  He was not only very knowledgeable and very willing to share that knowledge, but he is also one of those people who made sure to thank those who served on the Pit Cru.  Our head judge, Stephen Somermeyer, is likely one of the nicer guys we’ve met, and his wife did a lot of the picture taking at the competition.

I have a couple of wine kits left to process at home.  After some encouragement from Rick and Kathy Black, I believe it is time that I left the convenience and safety net of the commercial packages behind.  So after I process these kits, I intend to take my education and experience to the next level and make a wine from scratch.  I have a new goal to enter my own wines in the Indy Competition.  What’s one more hobby?

Thoughts on the IBM Cognos 8 Go! Dashboard–Dr Pepper Snapple Group Presentation at IBM Cognos Forum 2009

I was just going back and revisiting my notes from the IBM Cognos Forum 2009.  I need to go back and look at my notes and read over the presentations to make sure I don’t forget any of the useful items I learned.  This year, I took my session notes on my laptop using the Microsoft OneNote application.  This application deserves a blog all of its own.  I’ll plan to write more on that wonderful application later.  Suffice it for now that OneNote makes it very easy for me to conveniently and easily pull up my notes anytime that I have my laptop with me.

Today, I pulled up my notes from a session I attended that focused on the Cognos 8 Go! Dashboard.  The primary presenter was Mr. Craig Sindorf from the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.  He was joined by Andrew Popp from the IBM Cognos marketing area.  This was one of my two favorite sessions of the conference.  Here are a few tidbits.

First of all, for the purpose of establishing the importance of quality Business Intelligence (BI), please consider the following, as presented by Sindorf and Popp:

• 47% of users don’t have confidence in their information.  This is a “WOW” item, although I’m going to split a very small hair.  I define “information” as data that has had meaning attached to it by a user.  I’m guessing the statistic here refers to a lack of confidence in data.  Regardless, if nearly ½ of all people don’t trust the data upon which they are making decisions and performing actions, then I must question either the quality of the decisions/actions being made/performed, OR I’m assuming that the financial outlay on fancy and large data systems is, for the most part, poorly spent.
• 42% of managers use wrong information at least once a week.  (Ditto on my earlier commentary regarding data versus information.)  Still a wow item.  These managers are making poor decisions, their decisions weren’t that critical to begin with, or they’re smart enough to trust their experience more than the data presented to them.  I’m also curious if the wrong data is because of poor quality, because the data was presented out of context, or because the delivery of the data was either non-intuitive or was misleading.
• 59% of users say they missed information they should have used.  I see two readily obvious reasons for this.  The users either didn’t know the data existed or they couldn’t get to it.  Both of these are serious problems if one believes that good decisions and proper actions are based upon quality information.

What does all of this have to do with dashboarding?  First of all, in my Introduction to BI and Information Quality (IQ), I emphasized that data delivery is just one piece of a 3-part function for IQ.  Dashboarding is one way to delivery data to the user.  A dashboard provides a set of users with a quick, high-level, intuitive view of how a part of their organization is working.  It’s very much like the dashboard of your car.  A quick look tells you how fast you are going and how much fuel you have left.  And without having to focus a great deal, you can determine if the engine is working well as indicated by the absence of orange and red lights.

A data dashboard works on the same premise.  A dashboard presents key information regarding the operation of an organization or part of an organization.  In the illustration of Dr Pepper’s Snapple group, dashboards are being used to track production at different facilities.  The dashboard quickly indicate to a user what the production levels are at various plants.   The dashboard could even put up a red indicator or warning sign if production dropped below a certain threshold, just like the low fuel warning light on your car’s dashboard.

The role of dashboards for the IQ of an organization is that, when properly designed, they are extremely intuitive, allowing the user to quickly interpret the data without having to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to understand the details.  When you’re driving down the road, there’s very little detailed information you want, other than perhaps your speed, unless something is malfunctioning.  When the check engine light comes on, then you want to go to a service center and drill into the problem.  It’s usually the same way with your organization.  You want to start with the big picture, and only drill down when the situation calls for it.

Does IBM Cognos 8 Go! Dashboard do a good job of this?  Well, the demo looked good, and the interface was quite appealing.  I’ll keep this on my radar screen, and hope that I get to implement dashboarding at some point, but my organization isn’t there yet. 

Some people who know me are aware that I’m always on the lookout for Purple Squirrels–the perfect solution to a problem.  Do data dashboards fit the bill as a Purple Squirrel when it comes to delivering an ideal solution?  Well, they look good, and they have tremendous potential and upside.  But remember, a dashboard is only going to be as good as the data that is fed into it.  A spiffy and polished dashboard that presents inaccurate information isn’t going to be of much value.  Several years ago, a coworker was late getting to work.  His car had run out of gas.  “But the gauge said I had a quarter of a tank!” he claimed upon finally arriving at work.

My thanks to Mr. Sindorf and Mr. Popp, as well as to the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.  It was a good presentation with a nice mix of information and demonstration.  It was also an excellent illustration of where a data dashboard is very useful.

A Tip on Leaving Phone Messages-for Vendors and Others

As I recently posted, I attended the IBM Cognos Forum 2009 last week.  I attend 2-3 conferences per year.  For any of you who do not attend conferences, there is nearly always a vendor show where companies peddle their wares and services.  These companies typically trade “goodies” in exchange for your contact information.  The goodies are typically candy, cheap pens, t-shirts, flash drives, or chances to win really cool items like a Wii or a Big Bertha golf club.  In order to receive a goodie, the people staffing the booth scan your name badge, which contains all of your contact information.  Then you can get your gift or be entered for the drawing.

There were approximately 2,200 attendees at least week’s forum scurrying around, gathering information, collecting goodies, and providing sales reps with an influx of people to call in hopes of bringing in some revenue during a recession.  You can guess what happens next.  The phone calls begin!  In the old days, before the scanning of name tags simplified the information gathering process, we would have to fill out forms with our contact information in order to receive the gift or enter the contest.  I always put down someone else’s phone number.  It really cut down on the sales calls I received, and it offered an excellent opportunity to get back at whoever had most recently irritated me!

Alas, with the scanners, I can no longer set up my colleagues to take my calls.  The conference ended last Friday.  This Tuesday, the calls began.  I’m not often in my office, so most of the calls go to my voice mail.  I had 5 messages from vendors when I checked this morning (Thursday).  I have interest in speaking with a few of the vendors.  But I’m not going to call them back.  And I’m going to tell you why.

Each of these vendors left a long message.  Their messages all consisted of the following:  An introduction, a lengthy description of their product or service, a repeat of their name, and their phone number.  This all sounds pretty standard and acceptable, right?  Sorry, but I disagree.  In EVERY one of these messages, the phone number was provided so quickly, that I was unable to write it all down.  One of the vendors also had an extension, and just read off all 13 or so numbers so quickly that I didn’t stand a chance!

The only option for me is to replay the message in order to get back to the phone number and hope I can finish writing it down the 2nd time.  I’m pretty sure it would have taken 4 or 5 times to write down the number of the guy with the extension!  If it’s a long message, I have no desire, much less the time, to keep hitting the “repeat message” button.  Once in awhile, if the message is from a vendor with whom I really want to speak, I’ll replay the message.  After a conference, when I get many messages, forget it.

Does this mean I’ll avoid these vendors?  Absolutely not.  They also usually send emails, and I’ll respond via email.  Or I have the business cards of the vendors with whom I want to speak, and I’ll contact them myself.  But if the vendors who call me want me to call them back, they need to improve their voice mail communication.  And I’ll tell them now how to get better response from me!

First, a little boosting of my credibility in the area of communication.  While I am an IT director, my educational background includes a bachelors and a masters degree in communication.  I’ve also taught a number of soft skill seminars on communication.  (A “soft” skill, by the way, is a non-technical skill, like speaking, that you need to be successful on your job.)  Okay, patting-myself-on-the-back session is over.  On to leaving phone messages.

Here’s how I leave phone messages: 1) Name and organization; 2) Brief message on why I’m calling; 3) Phone number; and 4) Repeat my name, organization, and phone number.  For instance, “Hi Mr. Smith.  This is Brad Skiles calling from Purdue University.  I met you at the IBM Cognos forum in Orlando, and would like to get more information on the training services you offer for Cognos.  Please call me back at (765) 412.1234.  Again, my name is Brad Skiles from Purdue University, and my number is (765) 412.1234.”

I’ve actually had people thank and compliment me on the way I leave phone messages.  Even if the person doesn’t get the phone number written down the first time, they’ve at least had the opportunity to grab their pen and be ready for it the second time I give it.  Repeating my name between the 2 times I provide the number gives them a little more time to find the pen.  If they do need to replay my message to get the number, they should only have to replay the message once.

I ALWAYS make sure I provide the phone number slowly and clearly.  There have been a couple of occasions where I replayed a message on my answering service a few times and still couldn’t make out the number, either because of sloppy articulation or because of a poor cell connection.  Also, I try very hard to keep my messages as short as possible in the event the other person does need to hit replay to hear the number again.

That’s my rant/advice column of the day.  That’s also my real cell phone number above.  So if you’re a salesman and you call, I will be carefully evaluating any message you leave.  However, if you’re looking for someone to do a seminar on soft skills, I’ll be a little more patient!

IBM Cognos Forum 2009

The 2009 IBM Cognos Forum was held in Orlando the week of May 11.  This was my 3rd forum.  It was also the final forum before it joins with the IBM Information on Demand (IOD) forum that will be held in Las Vegas in the fall.  Overall, I give this forum a thumbs up, although it left room for improvement.

This trip began with my first departure from the new Indianapolis International Airport.  I only bring this up because I really like the airport.  I flew out on a Monday and experienced no delay getting through security.  The airport is open, clean, attractive, and easily navigable.  Two thumbs up! 

Next, on a purely non-technical note, Orlando is already getting very hot and humid by the middle of May.  It was a real scorcher when I arrived in Orlando from my far cooler environment of Indiana.  If I’m going to be that hot and put up with that humidity, I need to have a beach nearby!

Okay, on to the conference.  My kudos to the planners of the Tuesday Welcome Reception and to the coordinators of the Performance World area.  The latter being the vendor show.  Excellent food and accessibility to an impressive array of vendors!  I expected a sharply smaller vendor turnout due to the economy, but instead I found a nice sampling of vendors, several of whom I will be following up with in the next few weeks.

This was the first Cognos forum that fully integrated IBM staff since IBM purchased Cognos over a year ago.  I found that the IBM staff added a great deal to the quality of the conference.  I went with several questions regarding the integration of Cognos with SAP, and the larger pool of IBM resources was very helpful to have present.  While I’m on this point, I want to offer my commendations on the accessibility of the IBM staff and their willingness to make themselves available for question on the Performance World floor.  I’m sure they were required to, but all the same, I found them very willing to help, and their input may have paid for the conference all by itself.

The majority of the sessions I attended were of excellent value.  I never walked out on a session because it was just bad.  I walked out early on two sessions after I realized that the information wasn’t really what I was after.  This was not a problem in either case, because it gave me the opportunity to track down the analysts at Performance World from whom I wanted more information.

My favorite session was from Linda Whitney, a Technical Solutions Architect from IBM.  Her session, “Best Practices with IBM Cognos Framework Manager and SAP BW,” was chock full of useful, practical advice that was relevant to where we are right now.  I’ll be following up with her via telephone in the next week or two.  I also picked up some excellent dashboarding ideas from Craig Sindorf from the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.  It’s always good to hear customer success stories.

I also got to see a fair amount of what the next Cognos release, 8.4, has to offer.  This type of information is always appreciated when I attend a conference like this one.  What I found lacking, however, was any insight regarding what will be happening with Cognos 9.  In fact, I would have to say there was a notable lack of information regarding the midterm and long term direction of Cognos technology.

The host of the forum, once again, was Mark Jeffries.  Mark is an excellent speaker and a “soft skills” expert/consultant.  This appealed to me, because I’ve done some soft skill speaking myself.  Mark is entertaining and a good facilitator.  He also got the conference on a “Twitter” binge.  (A twinge???)  He was tweeting throughout the conference, as was someone else from Cognos. Despite my skepticism, I found the tweets to be a rather useful way of communicating during the forum, especially since I was able to access the tweets from my Blackberry.

What I had hoped to be my highlight of the conference was a 30 minute meeting between myself, my IBM Cognos sales rep, and Cognos GM/Head Honcho, Rob Ashe.  Mr. Ashe is undoubtedly an ingenious man, and he also seems rather down-to-earth.  Both are respectable qualities.  I left really unsure that he would remember any of the issues/concerns I brought up.  I am particularly concerned that Cognos not repeat the charging scheme they used when moving from version 7 to version 8.  During this move, they repackaged functionality we had purchased into new products and attempted to make us pay for the new products.  I’m told Business Objects did the same thing.  I did not find Mr. Ashe’s response particularly reassuring when I brought up my concern.  I believe my sales rep probably found the meeting to be more useful than I did.  We’ll see…

Probably the low point of the forum was the customer appreciation event on Thursday night at Universal Studios.  Outside of seeing the largest cockroach I had ever seen, the event was rather dismal.  It was billed as running from 7-10.  The only event I really wanted to go to was a 30 minute Blues Brothers concert.  However, by the time we were bused to the park and got through the meal line, it was 8:10.  The concert started at 8:30.  So, I ate, went to the gift shop (where I saw the impressive cockroach), and grabbed a bus that got me back to the hotel by 10.  I don’t go to conferences for these events (Really, I don’t!), but I also don’t like to waste my time.  This event was a waste of time.

Looking forward, as I mentioned earlier, this forum will be a part of IBM’s Information on Demand conference.  I see major benefits of using the entire IBM Information Sphere suite of products to integrate ETL, Information Quality, Metadata, and Reporting.  I’m optimistic that the IOD conference will take up where this conference left off in terms of the quality of the sessions and the accessibility of the experts.  I would also encourage them to continue to utilize Twitter to facilitate communication during the conference.

Business Intelligence and Information Quality–An Introduction

Several years ago, while presenting at a Data Administration Managers Association conference, I admitted that I was, indeed, a data nerd.  As my 9 year old son would now say, I might as well have bought a pocket protector!  There are different things in my life about which I’m passionate.  Professionally, however, what drives me is information.  Or, more specifically, information quality (IQ).  The art of delivering IQ is referred to as Business Intelligence (BI).

It doesn’t take a great deal of research on the web to uncover some astounding statistics about the value of information to today’s corporations and organizations.  In fact, as budgets become tighter in the current economic downturn, the importance of making sound decisions based upon quality information is greater than ever before.  The return on investment for BI initiatives, while difficult to calculate, is unquestionably high.

Last week, I attended a BI conference in Orlando.  I will be writing a few blogs on the experience.  First, however, I wanted to lay the groundwork for my perspectives on BI and IQ.  I have read and studied these topics for several years.  While my opinions may not necessarily perfect, they are based upon substantial research and experience.  The primary influences on the principles I extol are Larry English and Bill Inmon, both of whom I have had the pleasure of hearing in person on multiple occasions.

What is BI?  While there are many definitions available if you Google BI, for my purposes BI is the collection of processes, technologies (hardware and software), data, and services that are used by an organization to make decisions, meet internal or external reporting mandates, determine strategy, or to perform the correct actions.  At one point in time, I remember Larry English stating, “The goal of business intelligence is to enable the information consumer to either make the correct decision or to perform the correct action.”  Anyone with experience in this area knows that this is not as easy as it sounds!

So, what is IQ?  First of all, information is NOT “data.”  It may sound like I’m being particular, but this is an important distinction.  Data is nothing more than the bits and bytes that are stored somewhere.  Without some means to attach meaning to the data, the data has no value.  Information, then, is the meaning of the data to a particular information consumer or to the organization.  Information Quality therefore refers to how good, complete, accurate, or reliable that information is.

BI and IQ are inextricably bound.  In actuality, they overlap a great deal.  I refer to both of them because some people believe BI refers only to reporting.  Some people would also say that IQ refers only to the data and the structures in which the data are stored.  I take a holistic view that says all of these components must be looked at together to provide a reliable environment in which the information consumers in an organization are, in English’s words, making the right decisions or performing the right actions.

I’m going to wrap up this blog by borrowing from Larry English again.  In his book, Improving Data Warehouse and Business Information Quality, Larry refers to IQ as being a function of the quality of the data, the quality of the data architecture, and the quality of the data delivery.  I’m paraphrasing a bit, primarily because I don’t have the book right in front of me.  However, the important issue to establish here is that data, architecture, and delivery must ALL be present to have high IQ.  The data itself must be complete and accurate; the architecture must be reliable and sensible to the business users; and the delivery mechanism must be intuitive and useful to the end user.  I like to emphasize the latter point:  An organization can have the highest quality data in the world, but if the users cannot access it and make sense out of it, business intelligence will fail!

Several years ago, the motto I had for my data team was to deliver, “The Right Data to the Right People at the Right Time.”  I still like this motto, and I’ve seen it pop up in other places.  Larry English told me I needed to append, “and of the Right Quality.”  I acknowledge his point, but that got a little long to put on my email footers!  For the purposes of my continued blogs, I consider the “Right Data” to be data of the necessary quality. 

As I continue these blogs, I plan to expand on the many components and aspects of BI and IQ.  Initially, these blogs will be for my edification and to assist me in working out my thoughts on these issues.  If anyone else decides to read these, I welcome comments, questions, and challenges.

Purple Squirrels–March 6, 2009

Recently, my Facebook status said I was searching for a purple squirrel.  Several people were unfamiliar with purple squirrels, and one dear friend even suggested that I stop drinking so heavily in the morning!  As I don’t want to give up drinking in the morning (It’s always 5:00 somewhere, right?), I thought I would expand on the nature of my quest.

Simply put, a “purple squirrel” is an ideal solution for a problem.  However, this perfect solution either doesn’t exist or, if it does, is virtually impossible to find or implement.  This would be the perfect mouse trap, the cure for the common cold, a government spending program that ends a recession, or finding the motivational method to get a teenager to clean their room, do their homework, and fold all of their laundry.  A purple squirrel is the answer you’re sure must exist, but in reality it probably doesn’t.  And, if it did, you either wouldn’t be able to find it or afford it.

A lot of people spend a lot of time looking for purple squirrels.  Sometimes they think they find one!  As I was doing a little research for this blog (a very little research), I came across the following article from the UK, “Purple Squirrel Baffles Experts.”  There are actually several stories about “Pete, the purple squirrel.”  He’s real and has been amazing the teachers and students at Meoncross School in Stubbington, Hants.  He’s also offered a fair amount of encouragement to all those people who have been searching for purple squirrels of their own.

Unfortunately, “Pete” exposes a problem with many purple squirrel searches.  If you read the articles on Pete, the animal experts are pretty sure Pete’s hue is temporary–the result of something he ate or got into.  One good molting and the purple will be gone and Pete will be exposed for what he really is:  just another normal gray squirrel with purple ambitions.

I work in information technology, and I interact with a number of software vendors.  Software vendors are masters at taking gray squirrels, brown squirrels, black squirrels, and sometimes even chipmunks, and making them look like the most amazing purple squirrel you’ve ever seen!  If you’ve ever had a problem you were just desperate to solve, you know how tantalizing and tempting a well-dressed purple squirrel can be.  Software vendors have perfected the art of selling purple squirrels.

However, just like Pete, after you put these software packages thru a rinse cycle or two, their real color comes out quickly.  Can you say, “Microsoft Vista?”

So why am I searching for a purple squirrel?  This is where the blog becomes technical.  If you don’t care about ERPs, stop reading now.  (HINT:  If you don’t know what an ERP is, you don’t care about them.)  We use an ERP from the #2 software company in the world.  It’s a little company based in Germany called, SAP.  SAP utilizes a data warehouse called the Business Warehouse or BW, for short.

Data warehouses exist because people need to get data out of their ERPs.  The extraction and presentation of usable business information is a challenge that has had IT staff like me searching for a purple squirrel for decades.  BW is SAP’s purple squirrel offering.  I mentioned that some software vendors dress up gray squirrels as purple squirrels.  SAP put some fur on a slug and painted it purple.  At least a gray squirrel will gather nuts and amuse you as it scampers around.  A slug is slimy and goes nowhere fast.  This latter attribute is particularly appropriate for SAP BW.

I’ll save further discussion about SAP for another time.  Suffice it for now that I’m looking for the purple squirrel that will allow our users to get meaningful information from our SAP implementation in an accurate, timely, and intuitive manner.  This marks the end of the technical section of the blog.

I don’t really believe purple squirrels exist.  But I must admit that a part of me hopes Pete’s color won’t fade.  I cling to the hope that a few purple squirrels are out there.  So if you’ve seen a purple squirrel or know of one, please pass it along to me or add it as a comment here. 

Oh, and for those of you who may not know me well enough, I don’t actually drink in the mornings.  Afternoons and evenings however…    Cheers to you, Pete!