Top 11 Analytics Trends 2015 by TDWI and my Review!

Although now I am not focus on Analytics / Business Intelligence, I still have interest about it. I also have subscribed to TDWI since long time ago. It is a very good website to improve our insight about Analytics. Today, I have read about the Analytics trend and I would like to share it below. At the bottom section of this post, please see my review for the trends.

Top 11 Analytics Trends

Several interconnected trends in analytics are relevant for companies looking to advance their analytics efforts. They include the following:

1. Ease of use. 
Analytics in the past, especially more advanced analytics, often required command-line code. Today, vendors have made interfaces easier to use and visualizations easier to construct. Preparing and blending data has also become easier. And emerging automation techniques for more advanced analytics enable the software to actually suggest a model using the variables of interest and an examination of the data. This increasing ease of use means organizations can succeed early and then build on that success to become more
data driven.

2. The democratization and consumerization of analytics. 
Connected to ease of use, more organizations are “democratizing” BI and analytics to enable a broad range of non-IT users, from the executive level to frontline personnel, to
do more on their own with data access and analysis via self-service BI and visual data discovery. 

Part of this trend also involves making analytics more consumable (i.e., more accessible to different parts of the organization) often by operationalizing or embedding analytics into a business process. See trend #5.

3. Business analysts using more advanced techniques. 
Also connected to ease of use is the move from the statistician/ modeler to a new user of predictive analytics—the business analyst. These analysts are using more sophisticated
analytics techniques such as predictive model building. They might build relatively straightforward models. They may collaborate with the statistician to build the model or validate it, or other controls may be put in place before the model is productionalized. This often frees the data scientist/statistician (typically a scarce resource) to build more complex
and sophisticated models.

4. Newer kinds of analytics. 
In addition to predictive models, other kinds of analytics are emerging to drive business
value. These include text analytics (analyzing unstructured text), social media analytics, geospatial analytics (analyzing location-related data), and clickstream analysis (analyzing customer behavior on websites).

All of these techniques are starting to become more mainstream and can provide important insight, either by themselves or in combination with other techniques. Typically, the more mature an organization’s analytics efforts are, the more it makes use of newer forms of analysis.

5. Operationalizing analytics. 
When you operationalize something, you make it part of a business process. Operationalizing analytics is important because it helps make analytics more actionable and hence drive more value. For example, a statistician might build a predictive model for churn. The model is then embedded in a system, and the model scores customers as they call in. Based on this score, information flows to a call center agent as part of a business process—
say, to up- or cross-sell or take other measures to retain the customer. The agent doesn’t need to know how the model works but can make important use of the output for business advantage. Operationalizing analytics also helps make it more consumable.

6. Big data. 
Referring to ever increasing amounts of disparate data at varying velocities, big data is the buzzword du jour. However, it is much more than that. An important point about big data is that it is driving the use of existing techniques as well as the development of new techniques for data analysis.

Big data is also driving the use of newer infrastructure such as Hadoop and multi-platform data warehouse environments that manage, process, and analyze new forms of big data, non-structured data, and real-time data. This might include NoSQL databases, DW appliances, and columnar databases. Other technologies such as in-memory analytics
are also gaining steam. Leveraging big data processing tools allows analysts to perform queries on larger data sets—providing more robust models and deeper reports—and avoids sampling errors that might occur with smaller data sets.

7. New development methods. 
Unlike with BI reporting, analytics often demands that users explore the data and try
different visualizations and analytical techniques before they can arrive at insight. Analytics thus often demands a different methodology from what has been used for traditional IT projects to develop applications. Instead of “waterfall” methods and cycles that only deliver at the end of (usually) one long cycle, many organizations are employing agile methods. These faster, incremental cycles have helped guide organizations toward greater business-IT collaboration, faster and more iterative development cycles, and ultimately higher quality and satisfaction.

8. Open source. 
Open source is rapidly becoming more popular for infrastructure as well as analytics. Hadoop is a prime example of how these technologies are becoming important in analytics. Commercial distributions of Hadoop are becoming more powerful. On the analytics front, the emergence of the R language is also evidence of the growing popularity
of open source. Many analytics vendors are already incorporating support for R into their packages. The open source Python programming language is also increasingly popular for analytics. Open source is important because it enables the rising innovation happening around the analytics ecosystem.

9. The cloud. 
Although it has taken longer than some expected for the cloud to be used in BI, it is now entering the mainstream. One reason organizations are trying to move toward the cloud is to offset costs with zero capital expenditure on infrastructure, maintenance, and even personnel—often making BI more cost-effective. Additionally, deployment is faster. Organizations are making use of various types of cloud deployment and delivery options for BI and analytics. For example, data generated in the public cloud is often analyzed there as well. This analysis might be basic or complex. More often, companies are capturing big data in the cloud and experimenting with it there. Based on the analysis, certain data is brought on premises to the data warehouse.

10. Mobile BI and analytics. 
The increasing adoption of mobile devices has opened up new platforms from which users
can access data and both initiate and consume analytics. Executives on the go can apply analytics to gain deeper insight into business performance metrics, while frontline sales and service personnel can improve customer engagements by consuming data visualizations that integrate relevant data about warranty claims, customer preferences, and more.

11. Storytelling. 
As analytics and advanced analytics becomes more main stream, being able to tell the story with analytics is becoming an important skill. A data story—a narrative that includes analysis—can move beyond recounting of facts to weave together pieces of analysis that make an impact and move people to action. TDWI is seeing two different kinds of data stories emerging. The first is the one-time storytelling with a classic beginning, middle, and end. This is often a presentation style of storytelling which includes a call to action at the end. A more modern kind of storytelling is dynamic and often changes through time. It might use some sort of online dashboards or storyboards that are updated when new data arrives. The analysis is typically shared with others who comment and build an iterative and often
interactive story.

...

For no 1 (ease of use) I think it is very true. I have see several product roadmap and their major concern is to make it easier but with more rich features or functionality. For no 2 (The democratization and consumerization of analytics) and no 5 (Operationalizing analytics) in Indonesia is very challenging. It is already happened since long time ago, so it is not a new trend here in Indonesia. Most of the company won't invest new resource for data scientist so they will optimize their current staff to do operate the BI. At the same time, the existing resource (staff) will try to automate their operational things by using the Analytics / BI, so they don't do the "double" job.

For no 3 (Business analysts using more advanced techniques) no 4 (Newer kinds of analytics), no 6 (Big data) and no 8 (Open Source), I think is relate to each other. Basically to understand and learn more about the unstructured data, we need big data. Things like text analysis, sentiment analysis and social media analytics are something unstructured. We need hadoop for that. Today, most of the analytics Product also integrate with 3rd party application to enhance their BI, one of them is R (Statistics). To operate all that things above, we need something that much more advance than a business analyst, it is Data Scientist. The amount of data will be massive but it contain insight that could be revealed by Data Scientist. Most of the big or giant company in Indonesia has start moving to this part of Analytics. They have money to invest and demand to fulfilled. 

For no 7 (New development methods) is true! We cannot wait for the full enterprise Data Warehouse (DW) fully ready, so we try to build the analytics using agile approach. Usually the approach is by Data Mart (Slice of DW). The user also want to try as soon as possible their analytics. 

For no 9 (The cloud), to be honest I think it is not suitable here in Indonesia. Most of company are not the comfortable to store their data in the cloud because of the is strictly confidential. When we talk about the analytics investment, they are looking for the cloud solution, but for the realization I don't know why the discussion always end with the data protection and regulation. 

For no 10 (Mobile BI and analytics) it is a mandatory. The user want mobile! They are doing business and analysis using mobile. If you want to sell BI / Analytics, sell the mobile feature! It is work and most of the customer attracted by that kind of things.

Last review for no 11 (Storytelling). I don't know exactly what is this about at the first time. But from these sentences, you will understand : data story—a narrative that includes analysis and the analysis is typically shared with others who comment and build an iterative and often interactive story. It is sentences or words that appear on the dashboard to guide the user for read the charts / objects in the dashboard. It is very useful but you have to create it simple in order not to make the screen messy.

Thank you for reading, hope it will be useful! 

Aktivitas Presales Dalam Industry IT / Information Technlogy

Dalam dunia SI atau System Integrator, presales adalah satu bagian yang menurut saya paling penting. Istilah presales artinya proses sebelum sales / deal itu terjadi. Bukan karena pekerjaan saya adalah presales, namun karena saat presales tersebut adalah momentum dimana apakah customer / client kita membuat keputusan membeli solusi kita atau tidak. Post sales sendiri lebih ke arah maintain customer, tentunya kalau kita gagal menang apa yang mau di maintain. Hehehehe.

Ketika dalam fase presales, ada 2 hal yang penting menurut pengalaman saya. Yang pertama adalah "relationship", bagaimana hubungan kita dengan customer tersebut sehingga kita bisa mendapatkan informasi penting berikut ini :

• Problems / Pain Points : Apa saja yang menjadi masalah yang mengakitbatkan hilangnya revenue dan profit, tingginya cost dan lead time, dan sebagainya.
• Preferred Solution : Bisa jadi customer kita sudah memiliki solusi yang dihasilkan oleh researchnya mereka sendiri atau root cause identification yang telah mereka lakukan. Ketika sudah ada pastinya customer akan membandingkan solusi - solusi yang ada untuk melihat kapabilitas terhadap kebutuhan yang ada.
• Budget : Seberapa besar budget yang dimiliki oleh perusahaan untuk mengatasi masalah yang ada.
• Key Stakeholder : Orang - orang atau management yang akan terlibat nantinya di project sebagai owner, sponsor, advisor, dsb.
• Main PIC : Orang atau pihak yang akan menjadi lead, influencer dan decision maker untuk pemilihan solusi dan vendor.
• Status Competitor : Apabila sudah ada solusi yang dimiliki customer, kecenderungan competitor berada dibelakangnya pastilah besar.
• Customer Impression : Bagaimana impresi customer terhadap solusi yang kita bawa, apakah cocok atau bahkan mereka anggap kurang atau malah berlebih.

Hal penting yang kedua adalah POC atau "Proof Of Concept". Itu adalah suatu kondisi untuk membuktikan apakah solusi yang kita bawa bisa memenuhi kebutuhan customer dan menyelesaikan masalah yang ada. Hubungan yang baik tanpa ada solusi yang tepat adalah sia-sia. Ibaratnya dokternya baik, tapi ngasih obat yang salah, ya sama saja artinya tidak pernah akan sembuh penyakitnya.

Berkaitan dengan POC, berikut adalah tips dari saya tentang POC : 

• perjelas goal dari POC  dan catat hal-hal yang berkaitan dengan tujuan dari POC.
• buat checklist kebutuhan / requirement, sampai menyiapkan manual untuk eksekusinya.
• lakukan latihan sebelum hari H POC sehingga nantinya bisa lebih cepat dan lancar.
• buat pembagian tugas sesuai dengan keahlian dan roles masing-masing team member yang terlibat.
• dokumentasikan semua network, security, authorization, access, dsb tentang infrastruktur yang dipakai / disediakan oleh customer.
• catat semua masalah yang muncul selama POC, dan dokumentasikan lewat screen capture atau camera, sehingga problem solving bisa dilakukan diluar jam kantor apabila dibutuhkan 
• apabila terdapat masalah / bugs ketika POC, cari bantuan bilaperlu sampai ke level principal dan terapkan secara paralel jangan menunggu jawaban saja.
• yang paling penting, dalam setiap checkpoint pastikan kita melakukan back-up untuk menghindari hal-hal yang tidak diinginkan.

Semoga bermanfaat. Terima kasih telah membaca.

8 Tips for Successful Business Development by Mashable

Many founders and CEOs come asking, “we need to hire a biz dev person, do you know anyone?” Few roles have more varied job descriptions than business development. It’s no wonder why it is hard to figure out who to hire, what this person should do and how to measure success. Read below for tips on successful business development for startups, including how to avoid many of the typical frustrations with business development.

1. Hire the Right Person at the Right Time
A person with deep industry knowledge and strong network ready to “do deals” can turn into a disaster if it is too early in a company’s product lifecycle. There are three stages in the commercialization process and not everyone is suited for every stage.

• Scouting: The earliest stage of a company. At this point, business development is about identifying various routes to market, points of leverage and providing the internal team early market feedback. The ability to work with product and engineering teams is a key skill.
• Testing: At this stage, biz dev will close a few deals to test assumptions and provide measureable input before you scale the business. Analytical skills to set up a framework for what to measure, and examining the data, will determine if and where to scale based on the company’s strengths and vision.
• Scaling: After gathering data from early deals and validating a path to achieve your goals, business development is ready to start replicating deals and putting a support structure in place.

2. Business Development Is Not Sales
In general, business development will identify and create partnerships that enable leverage for driving revenue, distribution or that enhance the product. Sales is focused almost exclusively on driving revenue. Similar distinctions will apply when hiring a sales leader for an early stage company versus a more mature organization.

3. Post-Deal Management Is Crucial
All successful deals are a result of accountability and proactive management — by both biz dev and account management. In most cases, the account manager is a different person than the biz dev person who did the deal. Ideally, the account manager has variable compensation or incentives tied to meeting the goals established by both parties. If you are not ready to allocate the resources to support a deal, think twice before signing it.

4. Qualitative Versus Quantitative
Companies sometimes try to build a business purely around a qualitative value proposition, which is difficult and has a higher likelihood of failure. The market is less willing to pay for a better user experience or the promise of increased engagement, even if they like the product and find it useful. A quantitative value (lowers cost, drives revenue, more customers, etc.) dramatically increases the odds of success. One way to remember this rule is the pacemaker versus the hearing aid analogy: If you could only have one, which one would you choose?

5. Support for Business Development Is Essential
A good business developer will engage internal resources along the way to ensure the company can meet the goals and expectations of a partnership. A lack of support will almost certainly lead to finger pointing and blaming when things go south. Everyone should own part of the success or failure from the start.

6. Establish a Framework for Assessing Opportunity
In order to gain support from your team, everyone needs to understand why the deal makes sense for your company. Does it drive revenue, lead to new users or enable the company to enter a new market or vertical? When the goal is clear and measurable, it makes it easier to address issues like, “Why are we converting below projections?”

7. Make Deals Carefully
There is a difference between doing deals and doing the right deals. A good dealmaker can help identify a false signal –- when there is just enough market momentum and revenue to mask the greater opportunity. Conversely, a less experienced dealmaker or one with the wrong incentives can generate enough momentum and distract the company from the bigger opportunity. Many companies have been weighed down by a bad deal they later regretted -– this is where you want to develop a level of understanding and trust with your business development person.

8. There Are No Legal Issues
A legal agreement codifies a business arrangement and includes commercial terms as well as what happens if things do not work out. This requires business development and legal counsel to assess the business opportunity versus the business risk and explain the trade-offs to management.

...

Building a company is hard and requires a lot of things to go well including having a great product and team. Watching an idea become a product and a product generate revenue that becomes a successful company makes it all worthwhile. Bringing in the right business development person at the right stage, and following these other guidelines, will keep your company on the right track.

Source : Mashable

How to Develop a Business Development Budget By wikiHow

Creating a business development budget is a vital part of planning for your new business, or for a new project within an existing business. Without one, you have no reliable method for estimating profits or for controlling expenses -- both vital tools in business success. Although developing a budget for any business can seem intimidatingly complex, the actual process is simple. It's a matter of systematically applying basic accounting and business principles to the particulars of your project.

1. Determine your development goals for the business or department. Good goals are specific, measurable, realistic and timely.

• Specific goals are clearly defined. "Make money" is not a specific goal. "Make $100k profit" is specific.
• Set measurable goals defined in terms where you can easily see whether you have attained them, and check your progress. "Increase market share" is not measurable. "Increase market share to 55 percent" is.
• Realistic goals are things you can reasonably reach given the resources and realities of your business situation. "Dethrone Microsoft" is not realistic. "Launch a viable streaming video product" is.
• Timely goals are set with a specific timeline for progress. Without a timeline, it's difficult to gauge how much money to put into your budget for any given quarter.

2. Review any existing financial documents for your company or department. Use the expenses from your budget history to estimate the costs of development.

• If you're creating a business development budget for a new company, or a project your company has never taken on, you won't have applicable financial documents. In this case, you should base your estimates on numbers for other businesses in the same region and industry. You can get general industry statistics from trade associations and public records.

3. Define the cost categories for your business development plan. Some examples include facilities, payroll, taxes, insurance, raw materials and cost of goods sold.

4. Fill in your budget by filling in each category of expenses with the estimates you based on the financial documents you analyzed. Account for any unique costs associated with your particular business, such as payments to a former owner.

5. Check your work against numbers for similar departments and industry averages for your region. If your budget is too small or too large, there's a good chance you missed an important consideration. Review your work and revise accordingly.

Tips : 

• It's a good idea to include an "overrun and oversight" line item to make up for unexpected costs and unforeseen emergencies. Ten percent of the total of your other budget items is a good estimate for this consideration.
• Budget estimation is a complex practice, with potentially disastrous consequences if you guess wrong. If you're not skilled at budget analysis and business planning, you can hire a professional to perform this task for you. Be certain to include any fees in your budget estimations.

Source : wikiHow

How to Team Build for Business Development By wikiHow

To remain competitive and secure in the new economy, it is imperative that companies communicate to their employees the critical importance of proactive branding, marketing and business development. It is essential that management outlines corporate sales objectives and needs, thus creating an innovative business development atmosphere amongst all team members. The idea behind new corporate culture is to build the team for “exciting-times ahead” by communicating the key strengths, opportunities and competitive advantages of their company by first ensuring that all stakeholders are “on-message”. This article explains how to team build for business development.

1. Undertake strategic research and planning with your team. 
As part of doing this, you and your team will need to undertake the following:

• Develop a mission statement
• Create a vision statement
• Create business planning processes
• Do a S.W.O.T. assessment
• Assemble a competition analysis
• Do a risk assessment review

2. Source your competitive advantages. 
Have the team work these out together. When considering your competitive advantages, these are some of the things you should keep in mind:

• What is your unique selling proposition?
• Create a brand experience program
• Plan your sales and marketing thoroughly
• Investigate product and service life cycles
• Build the sales team
• Script the corporate sales

3. Target your marketing. 

In working out who to market to, have the team consider:

• Selection of prospects
• Segmentation of prospects
• Profiling of prospects
• Researching the decision-maker, timing, need, and budget
• Determining the entry point
• Customizing the sales approach

4. Assemble the distribution channel and communication tools with your team. 

When training up the team, get them to focus on:

• Matching the medium to the message
• Creating a brand design
• Using the 7 Touchpoints approach
• Considering how to implement brand delivery
• Overcoming barriers to entry
• Formation of business development tools

5. Have the team ready with a call-to-action program. 

As part of this final business development activity, have the team consider how the business will:

• Target a return on investment
• Target measurable results
• Review plans
• Target deadlines
• Construct programs to remain proactive

6. Get the team to report back to you their overall understanding of all the elements outlined above. 

Ultimately, all team members should externally “transfer this knowledge” to clients, suppliers, prospective customers, community, and, of course, to their families. In the new economy, the act of “team selling” is no longer a “luxury” for a select few but a critical “necessity” for all.

Source : wikiHow

PEST PESTLE Analysis Overview & Definition

Definition

PEST analysis ('Political, Economic, Social and Technological analysis''') describes a framework of macro-environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management.

It is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations.

#Wikipedia

PEST is an acronym for Political, Economic, Social and Technological. This analysis is used to assess these four external factors in relation to your business situation.

Basically, a PEST analysis helps you determine how these factors will affect the performance and activities of your business in the long-term. 

#PestleAnalysis

4 Main Reason

by Mindtools

• It helps you to spot business or personal opportunities, and it gives you advanced warning of significant threats.
• It reveals the direction of change within your business environment. This helps you shape what you're doing, so that you work with change, rather than against it.
• It helps you avoid starting projects that are likely to fail, for reasons beyond your control.
• It can help you break free of unconscious assumptions when you enter a new country, region, or market; because it helps you develop an objective view of this new environment.

open in new tab for larger screen - by PestleAnalysis

Political

Political factors are basically to what degree the government intervenes in the economy. 

• Tax Policy
• Trade Regulation & Restriction
• Government & Political Stability

Notes : 

• Political factors may also include goods and services which the government wants to provide or be provided (merit goods) and those that the government does not want to be provided (demerit goods or merit bads). 
• Furthermore, governments have great influence on the health, education, and infrastructure of a nation.

Consideration :

• Depending on the country, how well developed are property rights and the rule of law, and how widespread are corruption and organized crime? How are these situations likely to change, and how is this likely to affect you?
• Could any pending legislation or taxation changes affect your business, either positively or negatively?
• How will business regulation, along with any planned changes to it, affect your business? And is there a trend towards regulation or deregulation?
• How does government approach corporate policy, corporate social responsibility, environmental issues, and customer protection legislation? What impact does this have, and is it likely to change?
• What is the likely timescale of proposed legislative changes?
• Are there any other political factors that are likely to change?

Economic

Economic factors include 

• Economic Growth 
• Interest Rates
• Exchange Rates
• Inflation Rate
• Growth In Spending
• Rate of People in a Pensionable Age
• Recession or Boom
• Customer Liquidations

Notes : 

• These factors have major impacts on how businesses operate and make decisions. For example, interest rates affect a firm's cost of capital and therefore to what extent a business grows and expands. Exchange rates affect the costs of exporting goods and the supply and price of imported goods in an economy.

Consideration :

• How stable is the current economy? Is it growing, stagnating, or declining?
• Are key exchange rates stable, or do they tend to vary significantly?
• Are customers' levels of disposable income rising or falling? How is this likely to change in the next few years?
• What is the unemployment rate? Will it be easy to build a skilled workforce? Or will it be expensive to hire skilled labor?
• Do consumers and businesses have easy access to credit? If not, how will this affect your organization?
• How is globalization affecting the economic environment?
• Are there any other economic factors that you should consider?

Social

Social factors include 

• Cultural Aspects 
• Health Consciousness
• Population Growth Rate 
• Age Distribution 
• Career Attitudes
• Emphasis on Safety
• Value / Beliefs
• Language
• Religion
• Education
• Literacy
• Time Orientation

Notes : 

• Trends in social factors affect the demand for a company's products and how that company operates. For example, an aging population may imply a smaller and less-willing workforce (thus increasing the cost of labor). Furthermore, companies may change various management strategies to adapt to these social trends (such as recruiting older workers).

Consideration :

• What is the population's growth rate and age profile? How is this likely to change?
• Are generational shifts in attitude likely to affect what you're doing?
• What are your society's levels of health, education, and social mobility? How are these changing, and what impact does this have?
• What employment patterns, job market trends, and attitudes toward work can you observe? Are these different for different age groups?
• What social attitudes and social taboos could affect your business? Have there been recent socio-cultural changes that might affect this?
• How do religious beliefs and lifestyle choices affect the population?
• Are any other socio-cultural factors likely to drive change for your business?

Technological

Technological factors include technological aspects such as 

• R&D Activity 
• Automation 
• Technology Incentives
• Rate of Technological Change
• Internet
• eCommerce
• Social Media
• Electronic Media

Notes : 

• They can determine barriers to entry, minimum efficient production level and influence outsourcing decisions. Furthermore, technological shifts can affect costs, quality, and lead to innovation.

Consideration :

• Are there any new technologies that you could be using?
• Are there any new technologies on the horizon that could radically affect your work or your industry?
• Do any of your competitors have access to new technologies that could redefine their products?
• In which areas do governments and educational institutions focus their research? Is there anything you can do to take advantage of this?
• How have infrastructure changes affected work patterns (for example, levels of remote working)?
• Are there existing technological hubs that you could work with or learn from?
• Are there any other technological factors that you should consider?

Environmental
Environmental factors include 

• Ecological 
• Competitive Advantage
• Waste Disposal
• Energy Consumption
• Pollution Monitoring

Notes :

• Ecological aspects such as weather, climate, and climate change, which may especially affect industries such as tourism, farming, and insurance. Furthermore, growing awareness of the potential impacts of climate change is affecting how companies operate and the products they offer, both creating new markets and diminishing or destroying existing ones.

Legal
Legal factors include 

• Discrimination Law
• Consumer Law
• Antitrust Law
• Employment Law
• Labor Law
• Health and Safety
• Product Safety
• Advertising Regulations
• Product Labeling

Notes :

• These factors can affect how a company operates, its costs, and the demand for its products.

Source 1 : Wikipedia
Source 2 : Mindtools
Source 3 : PestleAnalysis

SaaS - Software as a Service - Overview & Characteristics

Wikipedia
is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. 

Webopedia
is a software delivery method that provides access to software and its functions remotely as a Web-based service. (Webopedia)

Salesforce
Software as a service (or SaaS) is a way of delivering applications over the Internet—as a service. Instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it via the Internet, freeing yourself from complex software and hardware management.

SaaS applications are sometimes called Web-based software, on-demand software, or hosted software. Whatever the name, SaaS applications run on a SaaS provider’s servers. The provider manages access to the application, including security, availability, and performance.

Characteristics :

#MULTITENANT ARCHITECTURE
A multitenant architecture, in which all users and applications share a single, common infrastructure and code base that is centrally maintained. Because SaaS vendor clients are all on the same infrastructure and code base, vendors can innovate more quickly and save the valuable development time previously spent on maintaining numerous versions of outdated code.

#EASY CUSTOMIZATION
The ability for each user to easily customize applications to fit their business processes without affecting the common infrastructure. Because of the way SaaS is architected, these customizations are unique to each company or user and are always preserved through upgrades. That means SaaS providers can make upgrades more often, with less customer risk and much lower adoption cost.

#BETTER ACCESS
Improved access to data from any networked device while making it easier to manage privileges, monitor data use, and ensure everyone sees the same information at the same time.

Kepribadian Saya Versi Lanjutan Menggunakan MBTI

Minggu ini adalah minggu kedua saya berada di perusahaan yang baru. Yang belum tahu dan belum baca kesan pertama saya di tempat yang baru bisa baca klik disini. Minggu ini saya mengikuti training softskill dengan judul "Sales Team Engagement Using MYER BRIGGS Type Indicator (MBTI) Tool". Sekilas terdengan seperti test kepribadian, dan memang ini juga berkaitan dengan test itu. 

Dulu saya pernah test online juga, bisa dibaca disini. Banyak kok di internet untuk test semacam ini. Hasil yang saya dapat ketika itu adalah INTJ dan ISTJ. Penjelasannya adalah sebagai berikut :

Jadi jelas dulu saya adalah orang yang introvert, lebih suka menyendiri dan suka sekali ketenangan dan privasi. Namun ternyata dengan pekerjaan saya yang lebih membutuhkan "E", hasil kemarin saya mendapat ESTJ. Menurut trainer-nya, pak Fidelis Waruwu itu adalah hal yang normal karena adaptasi saya dengan pekerjaan dan lingkungan.

Menurut beliau juga, kepribadian ini tidak akan berubah, dan selalu akan ada yang dominan meskipun kemampuan menyeimbangkannya sudah OK banget. Kembali ke kasus saya, memang saya lebih menyukai "I" daripada "E". Kemudian kalau dilihat dari test saya sebelumnya "S" dan "N" saya juga cukup seimbang, namun dari hasil beberapa test dan penilaian saya, hasilnya lebih condong ke "S" daripada "N". Untuk yang lainnya "TF" dan "JP", semua hasil test dan pengalamannya lebih ke "T" dan "J".

Saya tuliskan dibawah ini kekuatan utama dan kelemahan dari ISTJ, INTJ, ESTJ dan ENTJ.

#ISTJ

Kekuatan: 

1. Menyelesaikan tugas tepat waktu.
2. Bertanggung jawab dan dapat diandalkan.
3. Kuat dan hati-hati dalam detail.
4. Meletakan barang secara tepat dan cermat.
5. Mempunyai komitmen yang tinggi.
6. Prestasi akan optimal dalam organisasi yang berstruktur.

Kelemahan:

1. Mengabaikan implikasi jangka panjang karena terlalu terlibat pada tugas rutin.
2. Kurang peduli terhadap hubungan interpersonal.
3. Cenderung kaku dan terpaku pada jalan berpikirnya sendiri.
4. Mengharapkan orang lain untuk mengikuti cara kerjanya dan tidak mendukung adanya inovasi.

#INTJ

Kekuatan:

1. Memberikan gagasan dengan konsep dan desain yang kuat.
2. Mengorganisir ide ke dalam rencana tindakan.
3. Bekerja untuk mengatasi hambatan agar dapat mencapai sasaran.
4. Mempunyai visi apa yang kuat tentang apa yang bisa terjadi pada organisasi.
5. Mendorong organisasi untuk memahami bahwa suatu sistem itu adalah suatu kesatuan yang kompleks dan ada keterkaitan yang kuat antara unsur-unsurnya.

Kelemahan:

1. Terkesan sebagai orang yang tidak mudah mengalah, sehingga membuat orang lain enggan untuk mendekati atau berargumentasi.
2. Untuk mencapai yang terbaik, cenderung mengkritik secara tajam.
3. Bila ada gagasannya yang dianggap tidak praktis oleh orang lain, sulit baginya untuk berubah.
4. Cenderung mengabaikan akibat dari ide atau tindakannya pada orang lain.

#ESTJ

Kekuatan:

1. Cepat melihat kekurangan.
2. Mengkritik sesuatu dengan cara yang logis.
3. Mengorganisir proses, produk, dan orang.
4. Memonitor apakah pekerjaan sudah diselesaikan.
5. Diikuti karena rencananya yang bertahap.

Kelemahan:

1. Terlalu cepat memutuskan
2. Tidak melihat adanya kebutuhan untuk berubah.
3. Mengabaikan ketepatan demi terselesaikannya pekerjaan.
4. Kurang peka.

#ENTJ

Kekuatan:

1. Mengembangkan perencanaan yang matang.
2. Memberikan struktur pada organisasi.
3. Mendesain strategi yang dapat diterapkan untuk mencapai tujuan.
4. Cepat tanggap
5. Langsung dapat mengatasi masalah yang disebabkan karena adanya kebingungan dan cara kerja yang tidak efisien.

Kelemahan:

1. Cenderung mengabaikan kebutuan orang lain karena terlalu berorientasi pada tugas.
2. Cenderung mengabaikan pertimbangan-pertimbangan praktis dan hambatan yang ada.
3. Terlalu cepat memutuskan, tampak tidak sabar dan dominan.
4. Mengabaikan dan menekan perasaannya sendiri.

Terlampir juga dibawah ini tambahan informasi dari gemintang.com:

ISTJ – Si Petugas

Orangnya cenderung serius, pendiam, namun bisa diandalkan dan bertanggung jawab. Ia akan selalu menyelesaikan setiap tugas yang diberikan dengan baik dan teliti. Ia sangat tradisional, suka bekerja keras dan terorganisir.

INTJ – Si Ilmuwan

Cenderung mandiri, sangat analitis dan bersungguh-sungguh. Menjunjung tinggi pengetahuan dan kemampuan sehingga mereka selalu berpikir panjang sebelum memutuskan untuk melakukan sesuatu. Memiliki standar yang tinggi, baik menyangkut diri sendiri maupun orang lain, dan merupakan seorang pemimpin alami.

ESTJ – Si Penjaga

Cenderung praktis, tradisional, dan sistematis. Tidak terlalu suka berteori, tapi lebih banyak beraksi. Memiliki pandangan jelas akan segala sesuatu, pekerja keras, setia, dan senang memimpin.

ENTJ – Si Pengusaha

Orangnya pandai bicara dan pandai memimpin. Mampu menyelesaikan perkara-perkara rumit dan memberi solusi terbaik. Ia pandai dan berwawasan luas. Sangat teratur dan cenderung tidak sabaran.

Tujuan dari training ini adalah untuk meningkatkan PQ (Personality Quotient) dengan 4 cara berikut ini :

1. Mengerti diri kita pribadi dan gaya kepribadian kita.
2. Mengerti orang lain dan gaya mereka.
3. Beradaptasi untuk mendapatkan hubungan yang lebih baik.
4. Membangun team yang lebih baik.

MBTI membantu untuk mencapai 4 tahapan PQ tersebut sehingga kita mampu berkomunikasi dengan lebih baik dengan anggota tim, atasan, bawahan, dan sekaligus customer kita.

Jadi sekarang saya telah mengetahui kekuatan dan kelemahan, yang mana kekuatan harus tetap diasah agar menjadi semakin kuat dan kelemahan harus dilatih agar bisa diperbaiki. Balik lagi, utamanya adalah semuanya ini dimulai dengan mengenali diri kita dahulu. Saya tutup dengan quote terkenal lewat gambar berikut ini. Terima kasih telah membaca.

My New Journey at My New Company

Good morning. Last time I have published a post about my graduation from my previous company ("Akhirnya Lulus"). Today I wanna share not my first day, but my first week in my new company. Before  I tell you about my experience in the first week, I will tell you more about my new company. Everybody ask me about that, and I told them to see in my LinkedIn. I have updated the information there, and now I will update the information here.

My new company is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and service named "FUJITSU".

#Overview
Approximately 162,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. Fujitsu use experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.8 trillion yen (US$46 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31,2014.

#Fujitsu Logo
Fujitsu strive to be an approachable and global company. Fujitsu corporate logo depicts Fujitsu's infinite possibilities. 

The infinity symbol that dots on the 'j' and 'i' located in the center of the seven characters of Fujitsu are represented graphically by the Infinity Mark circles, thus making it a unique mark that also expresses Fujitsu's infinite possibilities. Further, it expresses expansion into the universe by symbolizing "earth" and "sun." 

Fujitsu Red, the main color which expresses enthusiasm for the future, brightness and approachability.

#Fujitsu Facts
Did you know?

• Fujitsu is the world's fourth-largest IT services provider and No.1 in Japan.
• Fujitsu is among the world's top five providers of servers.
• FORTUNE named Fujitsu as one of 'the World's Most Admired Companies' in 2013.
• Fujitsu Group holds about 97,000 patents worldwide.
• Fujitsu is part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (World), FTSE4Good Index Series, and Oekom research.
• Newsweek ranks us as the seventeenth most eco-conscious company in the world. (Newsweek's Green Rankings).

#Corporate Philosophy "FUJITSU Way"
Like my previous post about my previous company, I always post about company philosophy. In my perspective, it is very important to know and understand them, so we can align our action with the company itself.

The Fujitsu Way embodies the philosophy of the Fujitsu Group, reason for existence, values and the principles that Fujitsu follow in our daily activities.

The Elements of FUJITSU Way

#Corporate Vision
Through our constant pursuit of Innovation, the Fujitsu Group aims to contribute to the creation of a networked society that is rewarding and secure, bringing about a properous future that fulfills the dreams of people throughout the world.

#Corporate Values
What we strive for:

• Society and Environment = In all our actions, we protect the environment and contribute to society.
• Profit and Growth = We strive to meet the expectations of customers, employees and shareholders.
• Shareholders and Investors = We seek to continuously increase our corporate value.
• Global Perspective = We think and act from a global perspective.

What we value:

• Employees = We respect diversity and support individual growth.
• Customers = We seek to be their valued and trusted partner.
• Business Partners = We build mutually beneficial relationships.
• Technology = We seek to create new value through innovation.
• Quality = We enhance the reputation of our customers and the reliability of social infrastructure.

#Principles

• Global Citizenship = We act as good global citizens, attuned to the needs of society and the environment.
• Customer-Centric Perspective = We think from the customer's perspective and act with sincerity.
• Firsthand Understanding = We act based on a firsthand understanding of the actual situation.
• Spirit of Challenge = We strive to achieve our highest goals.
• Speed and Agility = We act flexibly and promptly to achieve our objectives.
• Teamwork = We share common objectives across organizations, work as a team and act as responsible members of the team.

#Code of Conduct

• We respect human rights.
• We comply with all laws and regulations.
• We act with fairness in our business dealings.
• We protect and respect intellectual property.
• We maintain confidentiality.
• We do not use our position in our organization for personal gain.

#Business Policy

• We use Field Innovation to find new approaches and the inspiration to improve ourselves, while delivering added value to our customers.
• We provide global environmental solutions in all our business areas.
• Fujitsu Group companies work together to accelerate our global business expansion.

...

It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.

-Steve Jobs-

It's quite a long story above about my new company, Fujitsu. I wish that Fujitsu give me a chance to proof my self that I'm worth. I am ready and happy to help Fujitsu achieve more than before. 

In my 1st week I try to know more about this company in global perspective and Indonesia perspective. From this first week, I learn that Fujitsu has a strong foundation and methodology. It is very good because most of the ICT project failed because they are not have a strong foundation. In Indonesia perspective, Fujitsu well known as manufacture company, battery, notebook, etc.. But this company not just only offer product, but also solution and services : IT consultant and system integrator.

In my job, I sell some of the products and solutions that just I know now, trusted by my new manager. My manager and team are good people with good skills. They are nice and I am not doubt their knowledge and ability.

Simply, I spent my first week with administrative things, understand company rules and standard, met a lot people, learn about my job, etc... I hope what will coming next is good and enjoyable. I wish that God always able me to finish what I start, complete the jobs and the most important thing : realizing the value (to internal, to customer). Last famous quotes:

"Think like genius, speak like diplomat, and act like consultant." 

Thank you for reading. Gbu. :)

Berapa Biaya Lisensi dan Implementasi BI / Analytic ? #Seri Petualangan

Selamat siang. Mungkin sebagian orang telah mengetahu pekerjaan lama saya sebagai konsultan dan di bidang analytic. Sebagian besar orang tersebut juga menjuluki saya "Analytic Expert" atau "BI Expert". Syukurlah kalau ada yang mengakui saya begitu. Hehehe. Sekarang, mungkin saya akan meninggalkan dulu dunia analytic dan mencoba rasa lain. Sebelum melangkah, ke senin di tempat yang baru saya menyadari bahwa saya belum menyelesaikan salah satu artikel tentang FAQ BI, yakni: Berapa biaya lisensi dan implementasi BI?

3 tahun lebih saya berada di dunia IT khususnya analytic membuat saya mengetahui ragam produk dan implementasi BI. Secara umum biaya terbagi 2 sesuai judulnya : 

• Lisensi
• Implementasi

Lisensi / License

Licensing Scheme / skema license tiap produk sangat berbeda. Ada yang per CPU Core, ada yang per NAMED User, ada juga tambahan biaya lainnya untuk developer-nya. Selain itu juga beberapa produk menerapkan license per module / feature, misalnya ketika akses untuk mobile dibutuhkan biaya tambahan. Berikut saya lampirkan 2 contoh yang harga list-pricenya bisa diakses umum :

Diatas adalah contoh pricing yang saya ambil dari MicroStrategy Analytics. Penerapan licensenya ada 2 : CPU Core dan NAMED User, serta dibedakan lagi berdasarkan jenis penggunanya: web dan  mobile. Harga diatas adalah listprice sehingga pastinya harga setelah diskon akan menjadi berbeda.

Contoh kedua saya ambil dari SAS, mereka menerapkan harga berdasarkan produk dan jumlah penggunanya. Negara dan kategori sektor perusahaan yang membeli juga mempengaruhi harganya.

Sekali lagi saya ingatkan bahwa skema harga dari setiap produk adalah berbeda. Masih banyak BI / Analytic lain diluar sana, seperti Google, Tableau, Qlik, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Tibco, Pentaho, Birst, dsb.

Implementasi / Implementation / Services

Komponen kedua yang berpengaruh selain lisensi adalah jasa. Jasa disini bisa jasa setup, jasa training, atau jasa pembangungan aplikasi analytics itu sendiri. Untuk yang ini dikembalikan ke vendor / konsultan masing-masing. Penawaran dan model bisnis setiap perusahaan pastilah berbeda. 

Ketika saya jualan dulu, penerapannya dibagi menjadi 2 secara umum, yakni data modeling dan dashboard development. Bicara tentang dashboard adalah tentang seni dan logika. Karena seni dan logika itu tidak terbatas pastinya dashboard yang bisa dibuat dan desainnya pasti akan beraneka-ragam tergantung user-nya. Alhasil pastinya semakin banyak jumlah dashboard yang dibuat dan semakin kompleks dashboardnya, akan membuat semakin mahal jasa-nya. Jumlah data model atau penjelasannya adalah data yang analisa mempengaruhi SOW / ruang lingkup pekerjaan. Semakin banyak data yang ingin dianalisa, semakin banyak waktu dan tenaga yang dibutuhkan. Data modeling ini berhubungan dengan Data Warehouse / DW. 

Ketika perusahaan telah memiliki DW, maka biaya untuk data modeling ini bisa diminimalisir sehingga hanya biaya jasa untuk analisa. Sedangkan ketika tidak memiliki DW, biaya DW akan dibebankan pada customer sehingga akan menambah ruang lingkup dan jasa pekerjaan. Ketika kita berbicara DW, maka kita mungkin akan bertemu dengan istilah atau kosakata seperti "Big Data" dan Hadoop". Semuanya bisa menjadi luas. Variabel biaya di dalam DW juga akan dipengaruhi komponen lainnya seperti ETL. Detail untuk  masing-masing DW dan ETL sudah ada diartikel lain ya, dan kalau mau tahu bedanya DW dan ETL bisa klik disini.

Kembali ke biaya jasa, rate setiap perusahaan akan berbeda juga. Ketika memilih perusahaan asing sudah dipastikan bahwa tarif mereka akan ribuan dollar beda dengan perusahaan lokal atau malah kelas software house. Pengalaman yang diberikan juga pasti berbeda. Untuk tips memilih perusahaan, silahkan lihat disini ya.

...

Masih banyak yang bisa saya ceritakan kepada anda semua namum pastinya karena keterbatasan ruang dan waktu mungkin bisa disambung lain kali ya. Sekarang terserah kepada anda untuk memilih yang terbaik sesuai dengan anggaran / budget yang anda miliki. Setiap produk pastinya memiliki kelebihan dan kekurangan, begitupun dengan jasa perusahaan yang anda pilih. Pilihlah dengan bijak dan tentunya yang paling penting adalah sesuai dengan kebutuhan. :)