Nemours, one of the nation’s largest pediatric health systems, is dedicated to achieving higher standards in children’s health. Nemours offers an integrated spectrum of clinical treatment coupled with research, advocacy and educational health and prevention services extending to all families in the communities it serves. Nemours employs more than 4,200 individuals, including 400 pediatric physicians, specialists and surgeons who cared for approximately 250,000 children in 2006.

BMC Software, Inc. is a leading global provider of enterprise management solutions that empower companies to automate their IT and align it to business needs. Delivering business service management (BSM), the company’s solutions span enterprise systems, applications, databases and service management. The company’s BSM solution dynamically links business-focused IT services to the underlying IT infrastructure. A business-focused IT service may be a specific IT service or part of a business process, but it must support a significant, visible business metric for a business owner.

PSEG deployed the SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW) to provide a standard data warehouse infrastructure; however, SAP BW was limited in its ability to create reports that included billing and expense hierarchies as well as calculations between the two hierarchies. As a result of this limitation, users were creating multiple Excel reports for this data, resulting in a manual report-generation process that took several days after the month-end close to produce. This manual report generation led us to look for alterative approaches

Target setting, is equally important to and no less challenging than measure development to support an effective performance management system.

The combination of active business involvement, process realignment, and a well-constructed data warehouse will enable world class analytics.

It is strange to think that data sharing has been going on for a long time, but it is only now that it has become an issue of paramount importance.

DIRECTV, the nation’s leading satellite television service provider, presents the finest television experience available to more than 16.3 million customers in the U.S. Launched in 1994, they currently have 7,000 employees in the U.S. and Latin America and $13 billion in revenue (2006).

With more than 38 million members, AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired People) is the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people 50 and over in the U.S.

Statistics Canada is a federally mandated agency of the Canadian government charged with collecting, processing, maintaining, interpreting and disseminating the country’s census, social and economic information. To gather data, Statistics Canada conducts a nationwide census every five years and has about 350 ongoing surveys on virtually all aspects of Canadian life. Statistics Canada serves government agencies, business enterprises and private individuals.

Established in 1991, Easyssur is a pioneer of online insurance sales and builds targeted insurance offerings through several commercial brands. By using Web, telephone or video-conference technologies to handle customer relationships, Easyssur reinvents both proximity and personalized service.

We all know that many New Year’s resolutions don’t materialize or are short-lived at best. That is not the case at DM Review. We are celebrating our 18th year as a premier niche publication with a slew of original projects and a new online emphasis to serve our valued readers. Our mission for 2008 is to continue offering the best quality insight, instruction and perspective on the world of business intelligence and all it entails.

SAS Enterprise Data Integration Server eliminated delivery delays and the high costs associated with piecing together nonintegrated technologies by providing a single, integrated solution. It also eliminated problems caused by inaccurate, contradictory and inconsistent data by embedding data quality within CSOSA’s data integration processes and providing a single comprehensive view of offender, supervision and service delivery data.

Founded in 1994, LifeMasters Supported SelfCare, Inc. is a leading provider of health promotion and disease management programs and services that create health partnerships among individuals, their physicians and payors.

IPC is the largest group purchasing organization for independent pharmacies in the U.S. Headquartered in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, the company represents 3,200 primary and 2,500 affiliate pharmacy members. In addition to serving as the distribution facility for these stores, IPC processes orders, tracks rebates, negotiates bulk purchasing agreements and supplies sales analytics to its members.

RxHub was founded in 2001 to provide a nationwide, universal electronic information exchange to facilitate improvements in patient safety and health care delivery. Today the company provides access to more than 170 million patients covered through contracted pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), roughly 90 percent of the commercial prescription market. RxHub provides a central resource for determining drug eligibility, formulary and benefits, and dispensed drug history. RxHub also routes new prescription and refill requests between physicians and pharmacies.

The wave of acquisition and consolidation has created new opportunities and demand for BI products and services across the hospitality industry.

The year 2007 brought many changes to the data management area, one of which was a greater emphasis on alignment. This coming year will open up the age of convergence.

There is only one reason to present information visually: to bring to light meanings in data that might remain hidden from view if displayed in other ways. When pictures can tell the story better than any other means, visualization is the proper mode of display.

Using unified global keys architecture is one way to address the familiar key mapping requirement of nearly every data integration instance. The benefits of creating an extensible utility as a cost-effective solution to this very common problem are discussed, along with implementation considerations.

This overview of the evolution of relational database management systems discusses how the gap between data warehouse requirements and data warehouse database capabilities originated. Read about the seven database innovations that will revolutionize data warehousing.

DataFlux President and CEO Tony Fisher discusses the convergence of data quality, master data and governance with DM Review Editorial Director Jim Ericson.

What is missing includes both the true purpose for integration and the means by which we might achieve it. Without that context, how can we hope to solve even more complex situations, such as (SOA) transformation and cross-domain data integration?

The virtualization revolution is upon us: first storage, then servers and applications, now data itself. Data virtualization, also referred to as a virtualized data layer, an information grid or information fabric, brings together data from multiple, disparate sources - anywhere across the extended enterprise - into a unified, logical virtualized data layer for consumption by nearly any front-end business solution, including portals, reports, applications and more. …

This column focuses on why you must have people, processes and technology to continuously advance on the data quality front.

In this third column, we are ready to design the first stage of the data pipeline leading from the operational sources to the final BI user interfaces.

Data is the lifeblood of an organization when it is timely, accurate, complete and secure because it supports better decision-making. Yet for many organizations, these core data management and architecture components have yet to be fully harnessed.

Achieving a single version of the truth takes more than a unified data model: it means a thorough change in how companies analyze their data.

In this new column, I hope to cover how businesses are changing as they become "smart enough," what kinds of systems they are building to become smarter and how they are building them.

In this column, I’ll attempt to lay out the primary components of a data governance strategy and give you a starter kit for each one.

I regularly hear the complaint, “I can’t get basic information” from the business side - particularly from sales and marketing individuals.

Are there techniques that you have used with success to help get people thinking data instead of processing it?

This column focuses on why you must have people, processes and technology to continuously advance on the data quality front.

In this third column, we are ready to design the first stage of the data pipeline leading from the operational sources to the final BI user interfaces.

I regularly hear the complaint, “I can’t get basic information” from the business side - particularly from sales and marketing individuals.

Are there techniques that you have used with success to help get people thinking data instead of processing it?

In this column, I’ll attempt to lay out the primary components of a data governance strategy and give you a starter kit for each one.

In this new column, I hope to cover how businesses are changing as they become "smart enough," what kinds of systems they are building to become smarter and how they are building them.

Data is the lifeblood of an organization when it is timely, accurate, complete and secure because it supports better decision-making. Yet for many organizations, these core data management and architecture components have yet to be fully harnessed.

Achieving a single version of the truth takes more than a unified data model: it means a thorough change in how companies analyze their data.

The year 2007 brought many changes to the data management area, one of which was a greater emphasis on alignment. This coming year will open up the age of convergence.

The wave of acquisition and consolidation has created new opportunities and demand for BI products and services across the hospitality industry.

The combination of active business involvement, process realignment, and a well-constructed data warehouse will enable world class analytics.

It is strange to think that data sharing has been going on for a long time, but it is only now that it has become an issue of paramount importance.

Target setting, is equally important to and no less challenging than measure development to support an effective performance management system.

We all know that many New Year’s resolutions don’t materialize or are short-lived at best. That is not the case at DM Review. We are celebrating our 18th year as a premier niche publication with a slew of original projects and a new online emphasis to serve our valued readers. Our mission for 2008 is to continue offering the best quality insight, instruction and perspective on the world of business intelligence and all it entails.

DataFlux President and CEO Tony Fisher discusses the convergence of data quality, master data and governance with DM Review Editorial Director Jim Ericson.

There is only one reason to present information visually: to bring to light meanings in data that might remain hidden from view if displayed in other ways. When pictures can tell the story better than any other means, visualization is the proper mode of display.

Using unified global keys architecture is one way to address the familiar key mapping requirement of nearly every data integration instance. The benefits of creating an extensible utility as a cost-effective solution to this very common problem are discussed, along with implementation considerations.

This overview of the evolution of relational database management systems discusses how the gap between data warehouse requirements and data warehouse database capabilities originated. Read about the seven database innovations that will revolutionize data warehousing.

The virtualization revolution is upon us: first storage, then servers and applications, now data itself. Data virtualization, also referred to as a virtualized data layer, an information grid or information fabric, brings together data from multiple, disparate sources - anywhere across the extended enterprise - into a unified, logical virtualized data layer for consumption by nearly any front-end business solution, including portals, reports, applications and more. …

What is missing includes both the true purpose for integration and the means by which we might achieve it. Without that context, how can we hope to solve even more complex situations, such as (SOA) transformation and cross-domain data integration?

PSEG deployed the SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW) to provide a standard data warehouse infrastructure; however, SAP BW was limited in its ability to create reports that included billing and expense hierarchies as well as calculations between the two hierarchies. As a result of this limitation, users were creating multiple Excel reports for this data, resulting in a manual report-generation process that took several days after the month-end close to produce. This manual report generation led us to look for alterative approaches

Nemours, one of the nation’s largest pediatric health systems, is dedicated to achieving higher standards in children’s health. Nemours offers an integrated spectrum of clinical treatment coupled with research, advocacy and educational health and prevention services extending to all families in the communities it serves. Nemours employs more than 4,200 individuals, including 400 pediatric physicians, specialists and surgeons who cared for approximately 250,000 children in 2006.

Nemours, one of the nation’s largest pediatric health systems, is dedicated to achieving higher standards in children’s health. Nemours offers an integrated spectrum of clinical treatment coupled with research, advocacy and educational health and prevention services extending to all families in the communities it serves. Nemours employs more than 4,200 individuals, including 400 pediatric physicians, specialists and surgeons who cared for approximately 250,000 children in 2006.

BMC Software, Inc. is a leading global provider of enterprise management solutions that empower companies to automate their IT and align it to business needs. Delivering business service management (BSM), the company’s solutions span enterprise systems, applications, databases and service management. The company’s BSM solution dynamically links business-focused IT services to the underlying IT infrastructure. A business-focused IT service may be a specific IT service or part of a business process, but it must support a significant, visible business metric for a business owner.

DIRECTV, the nation’s leading satellite television service provider, presents the finest television experience available to more than 16.3 million customers in the U.S. Launched in 1994, they currently have 7,000 employees in the U.S. and Latin America and $13 billion in revenue (2006).

With more than 38 million members, AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired People) is the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people 50 and over in the U.S.

IPC is the largest group purchasing organization for independent pharmacies in the U.S. Headquartered in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, the company represents 3,200 primary and 2,500 affiliate pharmacy members. In addition to serving as the distribution facility for these stores, IPC processes orders, tracks rebates, negotiates bulk purchasing agreements and supplies sales analytics to its members.

RxHub was founded in 2001 to provide a nationwide, universal electronic information exchange to facilitate improvements in patient safety and health care delivery. Today the company provides access to more than 170 million patients covered through contracted pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), roughly 90 percent of the commercial prescription market. RxHub provides a central resource for determining drug eligibility, formulary and benefits, and dispensed drug history. RxHub also routes new prescription and refill requests between physicians and pharmacies.

Founded in 1994, LifeMasters Supported SelfCare, Inc. is a leading provider of health promotion and disease management programs and services that create health partnerships among individuals, their physicians and payors.

SAS Enterprise Data Integration Server eliminated delivery delays and the high costs associated with piecing together nonintegrated technologies by providing a single, integrated solution. It also eliminated problems caused by inaccurate, contradictory and inconsistent data by embedding data quality within CSOSA’s data integration processes and providing a single comprehensive view of offender, supervision and service delivery data.

Statistics Canada is a federally mandated agency of the Canadian government charged with collecting, processing, maintaining, interpreting and disseminating the country’s census, social and economic information. To gather data, Statistics Canada conducts a nationwide census every five years and has about 350 ongoing surveys on virtually all aspects of Canadian life. Statistics Canada serves government agencies, business enterprises and private individuals.

Established in 1991, Easyssur is a pioneer of online insurance sales and builds targeted insurance offerings through several commercial brands. By using Web, telephone or video-conference technologies to handle customer relationships, Easyssur reinvents both proximity and personalized service.