Smart (Enough) Systems

New books on JBoss Drools

July 13, 2009

Syndicated from ebizQ
I have recently been a reviewer for Michal Bali’s new book on Drools (Drools JBoss Rules 5.0 Developer’s Guide), which will soon be generally available. In the meantime you could check out an example of the style by reading this two part article on Drools JBoss Rules 5.0 Flow – Part 1 and [...]

Read the full article →

Use decision management to make systems smarter

June 5, 2009

Syndicated from BeyeNetwork
Michael Vizard had an interesting post (via @merv) – Making Business Intelligence Applications Smarter in which he began with the great phrase:
One perplexing oxymoron of IT industry is the simple fact that most business intelligence applications are not all that smart
In Smart (Enough) Systems Neil and I argued that the way to make [...]

Read the full article →

Here’s how micro decisions turn blasting into targeting

May 29, 2009

Ginger Conlon had a nice post this week – Don’t Blast. Target. – Think customers: The 1to1 Blog.
many marketers are still drawn to the ease of blasting to a broad audience, instead of targeting for maximum impact among those most likely to respond
If you are trying to make this transition from blasting to targeting – [...]

Read the full article →

A reader asks about champion/challenger testing

May 27, 2009

A little while ago I got an interesting question from a reader about champion/challenger testing  – an element of adaptive control. Check out this brief on Adaptive Control or read the chapter in Smart (Enough) Systems for details on the approach. Anyway, here’s the question:
When testing a champion strategy with challengers, I assume sample [...]

Read the full article →

Almost Intellectual Systems

April 30, 2009

Well it finally happened – Neil and I became internationally published authors! Check out this link and what you see is a Russian version of Smart (Enough) Systems, the book on Decision Management we published a little while back. If any of my readers are Russian speakers and get hold of a copy in the [...]

Read the full article →

Another analyst firm (Ventana Research) gets it

April 6, 2009

Syndicated from BeyeNetwork
It can sometimes be lonely being a proponent of a big new idea like decision management. It is delightful, then, when you find out that you are less alone than you expected. Last week I came across a couple of white papers from Ventana Research – Extending BI to Support Operational Decision Management [...]

Read the full article →

Here’s how to build on Business Analytics

March 31, 2009

As I blogged earlier, at the SAS Global Forum this week some SAS speakers drew a distinction between Business Intelligence – BI – and Business Analytics. I worry that this is a distinction without a difference and that it fell short of what SAS can offer its customers. Neil Raden, on his blog, dismissed the [...]

Read the full article →

Decision Management focuses on Microdecisions for Macro Impact

March 5, 2009

Syndicated from ebizQ
Tom Davenport had a post today on Microdecisions for Macro Impact that pointed out on the key benefits of decision management, with its focus on operational decisions:
If you can identify a few key microdecisions that can be addressed and improved, you can often dramatically improve performance.
“Micro decisions” is a phrase Neil and I [...]

Read the full article →

IBM and ILOG for a smarter planet

January 27, 2009

One of IBM’s big initiatives is their focus on a smarter planet. One of the ways IBM could really use ILOG is to make the construction of smarter systems (or smart (enough) systems) easier and faster. To illustrate what I mean I took some quotes from Sam Palmisano’s Smarter Planet speech
our world is becoming instrumented

Absolutely [...]

Read the full article →

It’s not AI but…

December 10, 2008

Albert Wenger had an interesting post today Human Vs. Machine 2 in which he discussed the fact that some of the old AI promises may be starting to come true. While I am not sure I 100% agree with his characterization of Netflix’s recommendation engine as AI, I do see what he means.
The over promising [...]

Read the full article →

Nice article on EDM

December 9, 2008

Joe McKendrick wrote a nice article on how EDM give companies a competitive edge for the Teradata Magazine this month. Joe did a nice job, as usual, of bringing out some key points and quoting me. My two favorite quotes were:
In addition, it’s inherently difficult to build actionable intelligence into most existing applications. “Enterprise applications [...]

Read the full article →

How many different kinds of decision management are there?

October 21, 2008

Well at least one more as of today – Jim Sinur, over on his Gartner blog – has finally started to use the phrase he has been threatening to use for a while “Intelligent Decision Management”. While Jim has not published a formal definition – I expect he will soon now he is back at [...]

Read the full article →

Last chance for the EDM Summit

October 16, 2008

There are only 12 Days Left to register for the first Enterprise Decision Management Summit so get off your butt and register!

Neil and I Co-Chairs and readers of the blog can get a discount. We are presenting twice – A Pre-Conference Tutorial Succeeding as a Decision-Centric Organization and a Keynote Competing [...]

Read the full article →

Great event, nice little discount

September 3, 2008

There is a great conference coming up October 26-30 – not only are Neil and I Co-Chairs but readers of the blog can get a discount. We are presenting twice – A Pre-Conference Tutorial Succeeding as a Decision-Centric Organization and a Keynote Competing on Decisions. Because of this you can get [...]

Read the full article →

A reader asks – what makes a company ready (for EDM)?

August 27, 2008

A reader had an interesting question this week. As a comment to Using decision management to deliver intelligent business performance he asked “What makes a company ready?”. I suspect my closing line “The products are, mostly, ready. Whether companies are is another question…” prompted this.
So, what makes a company ready for enterprise decision management – [...]

Read the full article →

Is eBank the future of banking?

July 16, 2008

Thanks to my friends at Bankwatch I heard today about eBank in Japan. The bank is described in this nice article on swiftcommunity.net. What struck me about this was the focus on complete automation of decision making – not just the processes and information colleciton, but the decision making itself. Is this the person they [...]

Read the full article →

Should Enterprise Decision Management only cover automation?

July 11, 2008

The same reader who asked yesterday’s question had a second:
Do you see the terms “Enterprise Decision Management” and “Smart Enough Systems” concerned mostly with the automation of decisions — which means really only covering strictly operational and appropriate tactical decisions.
The term “Enterprise Decision Management” to me suggests a broader definition, one that I would expect [...]

Read the full article →

Book Review by Ade McCormack

June 30, 2008

Ade McCormack, author of The IT Value Stack (reviewed previously) and columnist at the FT in England, just reviewed the book for this blog. You can read his review of Smart (Enough) Systems over on his blog.

Read the full article →

Neil presenting in the smart semanticsâ„¢ series on data integration: what’s next?

June 5, 2008

Neil Raden, Co-Founder here at Smart (enough) Systems, is joining John Russell, Chief Scientist of   expressor software on June 19, 2008 at 2 p.m. ET
Here’s the blurb:
Today’s data integration (DI) tools claim to offer significant benefits in implementation and ongoing support. However, design and specification consume much of the effort in a DI project. [...]

Read the full article →

James and Neil presenting at Intalio’s user conference

May 20, 2008

The folks at Intalio invited us to speak at their user conference June 17-18. We are presenting on Applying Decision Management to Make Processes Smarter, Simpler and More Agile on the first day. We would love to see you there so drop by and say hello if you are attending. Also we have a discount [...]

Read the full article →