More to Life than BPM
I am the shy, quiet type so I have to push myself to network at these conferences. It is the casual conversations during the breaks and at the exhibit hall that are the gems here.
Co-workers from a financial services firm are trying to understand what each other does. The data warehouse team wants to know what the finance team does with all these Hyperion products, and the finance techies want to know where the data warehouse fits in. I am glad to see the dialog.
However, confusion about the benefits of System 9 for customers with simple deployments abound. “If I only have Planning (or Intelligence … or FM …), why should I upgrade?” Gripes about the enablement fee and pricing are repeated several times.
Yet the conversation that stays with me the longest is with Tim Tow, President of Applied OLAP (http://www.appliedolap.com/olapFront.asp?ID=2), a long-time Hyperion partner. Our paths have sometimes criss-crossed, and it’s years since I’ve seen him. I try to understand how their spreadsheet product can actually be better than SmartView when our conversation drifts to something I had read about him. One of Tim’s hobbies is flying so he owns a plane. When Hurricane Katrina struck, Tim volunteered his plane and his time to fly rescue missions for Angel Flight. He shares stories of things I didn’t catch on CNN, some disturbing and some inspiring. Our conversation reminds me there is more to life than BI and BPM and that those who have teased me about my “rose-colored glasses” are wrong: there are many good corporate leaders out there.
My journey home is a long-one, and I stumble through the door in the early morning hours. There are two home-baked cookies waiting for me on the table with a note from my 10-year old daughter. “Welcome back. Megan XOX.”
Co-workers from a financial services firm are trying to understand what each other does. The data warehouse team wants to know what the finance team does with all these Hyperion products, and the finance techies want to know where the data warehouse fits in. I am glad to see the dialog.
However, confusion about the benefits of System 9 for customers with simple deployments abound. “If I only have Planning (or Intelligence … or FM …), why should I upgrade?” Gripes about the enablement fee and pricing are repeated several times.
Yet the conversation that stays with me the longest is with Tim Tow, President of Applied OLAP (http://www.appliedolap.com/olapFront.asp?ID=2), a long-time Hyperion partner. Our paths have sometimes criss-crossed, and it’s years since I’ve seen him. I try to understand how their spreadsheet product can actually be better than SmartView when our conversation drifts to something I had read about him. One of Tim’s hobbies is flying so he owns a plane. When Hurricane Katrina struck, Tim volunteered his plane and his time to fly rescue missions for Angel Flight. He shares stories of things I didn’t catch on CNN, some disturbing and some inspiring. Our conversation reminds me there is more to life than BI and BPM and that those who have teased me about my “rose-colored glasses” are wrong: there are many good corporate leaders out there.
My journey home is a long-one, and I stumble through the door in the early morning hours. There are two home-baked cookies waiting for me on the table with a note from my 10-year old daughter. “Welcome back. Megan XOX.”
