What Is Design Thinking?

Today’s organizations face multifaceted problems that are part of increasingly complex business models. Continued expansion of global transactions, supported by partnerships that can span large ecosystems, create both unique opportunities and unique challenges for businesses.

These challenges demand multidimensional solutions and require going beyond basic applications of current products and services. This is where design thinking comes into play. By applying this framework, organizations can not only address everyday business problems and challenges but also gain a competitive edge.

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7 Definitions of Big Data You Should Know About

Faced with the ongoing confusion over the term ‘Big Data,’ here’s a handy – and somewhat cynical – guide to some of the key definitions that you might see out there.

The first thing to note is that – despite what Wikipedia says – everybody in the industry generally agrees that Big Data isn’t just about having more data (since that’s just inevitable, and boring).

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Sports And Analytics: Insight Through Mobile Dashboards

When it comes to sports and analytics, I see two main slices of the pie: the game where it all happens and the operation that supports the organization. There is a lot written about the former; however, the latter may be overlooked because of its distance from where the action takes place.

Sure, winning the championship may make up for all other business decisions, but as I wrote in my post Fan Experience Matters, at the end of a long season, only one team gets to go home with the trophy. Therefore, I subscribe to the notion that operational excellence is as critical to the execution of the sports organization’s strategy as any game-winning move.

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Sports And Analytics: Fan Experience Matters

Let’s get something out of the way: Nothing replaces the thrill of a championship. It is the measurement that counts most in sports. But the reality is that there are, for example, 3 2teams in the NFL. And that means each year, 31 teams and their fans go home empty handed. In the absence of a championship, the fan experience is the ultimate measure of success against which a sports organization is held.

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The Ethics of Big Data: Vendors Should Take A Stand

We can now gather, correlate, and analyze information in ways that were unthinkable in the past. The book “The Human Face of Big Data” does a particularly good job of rounding up some of the most interesting stories of how these technologies will touch our lives.

However, with great power comes great responsibility. Analytics is a very powerful weapon, and weapons can be abused.

The past clearly shows that without proper controls, there can be irresistible temptations for companies and governments to combine data in ways that threaten personal liberties. Misuse of every previous data gathering technology has eventually come to light, sometimes only decades after the facts, leading to new laws re-establishing privacy limits.

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Ten Mobile BI Strategy Questions: Executive Sponsorship

Of the ten mobile business intelligence (BI) questions I outlined in my last post, “Do we have an executive sponsor?” is the most important one because the success of a mobile BI journey depends on it more than any other. While the role of an executive sponsor is critical in all tech projects, several aspects of mobile BI technology make it easy for executive management to be involved closely and play a unique role. Moreover, although the CIO or the CTO plays a critical role in making sure the right technology is acquired or developed, the executive sponsorship from the business side provides the right level of partnership in order to run on all three cylinders of BI: insight into right data for the right role and at the right time.

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Sports And Analytics: A Perfect Couple

Statistical analysis in sports has been around for a long time, but the topic of sports and analytics has attracted more attention in the last decade. The release in 2011 of the movie Moneyball (based on the book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis, published in 2003) made the use of analytics a popular subject for public consumption.

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Sports And Analytics: Innovate With Design Thinking

The dynamics of a sports organization involve three main forces: the team, the game, and the fan. In essence, the team is the passion that gets the fan fired up, the game is where it all happens, and the fan keeps it alive. Of the three dynamics, the one the sports organizations can control the most is the fan experience.

The team and the game have many variables: Injuries can bench a quarterback or an unlucky miss of a three-pointer with two seconds left in the game could cost a team the championship. But the fan experience is the area sports organizations can shape the most by providing the right products and services the fans want at the right time and in the right format.

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Ten Mobile BI Strategy Questions: Enterprise Mobility

Is your mobile business intelligence (BI) strategy aligned with your organization’s enterprise mobility strategy? If you’re not sure what this means, you’re in big trouble. In its simplest form, enterprise mobility can be considered a framework to maximize the use of mobile devices, wireless networks, and all other related services in order to drive growth and profitability. However, it goes beyond just the mobile devices or the software that runs on them to include people and processes.

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