IE6/Windows XP

Microsoft wants users to give up IE6 & Windows XP.  I want users to give up IE6 & XP.  Please, please, please give those things up.  IE6 of course more than XP.  With what Windows 7 is though, go ahead, get on the bandwagon.  Win XP is moving the way of Win98/95 finally so let's keep that movement going.

Free SEO Toolkit from ole' Microsoft

So this looks interesting.  The thing is, as stated above, one has to kick the Windows XP Habit!  So drop it and check this out.  I am keen to see what anybody is coming up with as for these platforms these days.  Especially companies like Microsoft who have vast resources to put toward it.

Adbrite Switches to Webtrends

I see this regularly these days, as we are gaining tons of switchers, since our analytics generally rocks.  But this one really brings it home for me since I have worked with the Adbrite Team on the Implementation.  Great team at Adbrite, excellent implementation if I might say so myself.  If you are looking for a company to do advertisements on the web with, this is definitely a company to take a look at.

Where is the business intelligence?

This blog entry may instigate just a bit.  It will also be a little long for a blog entry. You've been warned.  I suppose though, if you know me & the work I do, that is not really something new.  I see something wrong, broken, or otherwise and I am likely to point it out and describe it in detail.

As I roll into 2010 coding, implementing, and rocking with Webtrends, I have noticed something lacking in the analytics industry.  I will add the clause that obviously Webtrends has people thinking about these things and actively working on this topic, but what I want to point out is a general issue.  Where is the other data, where is the existing data?

It seems, even though some company's kind of get to a certain point in connecting data points, not many really do.  The biggest reason is that most companies are just a few steps away from actually being able to do so.  The other even larger reason is, many do not realize what data should or should not be connected.

When someone starts pulling CRM (Customer Relationship Manager/Management), Analytics, POS (Point of Sale), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) data, and other sources into a single reporting repository we finally have real business intelligence.  Otherwise so many entities stumble through the land mines of data confusion.  I see this so much it really drives me crazy sometimes.

So how can a company or entity identify and connect these points of data?  It often starts with a ridiculously simple step.  At risk of oversimplifying things, let me just state the first step in getting out of the data confusion land mines is to first figure out your data.  Ask these things:

• What data does the business have?
• What data is currently used and available?

Do NOT ask what data you want, do NOT ask what may not be.  What you want to know first, and so many companies make this mistake, is to know what you know.  Do not, at the early stage of business intelligence information gathering start asking too many hypotheticals.  I promise the risk of failure increases exponentially for every hypothetical data point added.

Once you have identified what data is available, start figuring out how the data is related.  Once you understand the data you can then, and only then, make the huge leap to determining what data you want and how to get it to where you want.

Let me draw this out in a real world example.  Beware; I am using my creative mind now!

What we have so far, for Awe Widgets Incorporated, is several data points.

• Point of Sale/POS Systems in 300+ stores.
• Web Analytics (by Webtrends of course) tracking all sorts of great data points on the Awe Widgets Incorporated Website.
• Internal Accounting Software (Almost ERP, not really)
• In-house Built Customer Lists for Sales.

So there we go, four key pieces of tracking.  So how would they work together?  With a little further analysis (my key creative side now analyzes Awe Widgets Incorporated internal structure) and we find a few connections.

Correlation, POS to Webtrends Analytics

The POS System has a tracking identifier for customers which we can use to sync up with logged in users tracked via Webtrends Analytics.  This data can be used to derive who is and is not in stores purchasing.  In addition trending could follow the user flow to derive some actionable decisions on how to encourage online or store front shopping.  Just these two data points being connected add a lot of value.

Correlation, Internal Account Software ties to POS

Another data point tie in with the aforementioned POS & Webtrends data is the Internal Accounting Software (IAS).  The IAS holds information related to each sale, and other correlated information about how sales are going for the quarter, year, and other performance indicators.

Correlation, In-house Customer Lists for Sales

The sales department, in aggressive technical fashion has built a number of customer lists in Excel & Access.  The Access Application has a partially updated data store with a server based Excel file holding the updated piece of data about each of the sales person's current sales.  I know, I hear it now, every developer that is familiar with this scenario screaming, "OMG, you have your data in Excel AND Access, and it is supposed to have integrity, and be aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh noooooo!"  But you know, this @#$% happens.  : )  When things are like this, solutions get creative.

Tying Together the Pieces

Alright, this is when the awesome nerd bits start to happen.  But I have covered enough for this entry.  In the following entries on this topic I will step through this first data finding mission and start discussions on how to connect these sources and get that data mart, warehouse, or other middle tier piece into action.   I will continue on and lead into how the data can finally start telling a real story.  Because in the end, the real story is, somebody needs actionable data to act upon.  Does it really matter where it is?

Check out Part II of this series. 

Where am I headed?  A lot of shifts are taking place in my life right now, one of the most notable is some slightly different directions in technology I?m making.  There are certain bits that are staying the same;  I will keep learning as fast as I can, stay on the bleeding edge of technology, and probably stay primarily within the Microsoft stack.  The biggest change will be a more dedicated approach to UI, UX, Charts & Chart Rendering, and the math that goes into that.  With Microsoft's release of Expression into the MSDN that has encouraged me to step beyond my normal UI & UX work into these new realms.

So what does this do for me?  A number of things really.

1. My analytics work dictates usage of many charts, and some charts that are sometimes complex.  The more layers and spines of data, the more one needs better and more descriptive charts.
2. Financial, analytics, statistical, and other math doesn?t escape high demand.  There is always some entity, person, company, or a desire to have better data, more accurate information, more correlations, increased understanding.  Combining financial, analytics, statistical, and other mathematical practices into my work I bring even more of these demands to my supply of skills.
3. I am promising myself to finally meet promises I have posted on this blog, and expand my reach.  I haven't done nearly as much as I would have liked to, I am more dedicated now than ever to make what I want happen.  I have been surfing long enough, not that I won't do a fair amount of surfing, if given the opportunity, it is important to the mental accuity and sanity of my person ;)
4. I definitely intend to get more involved in the Web Analytics Industry.  I have too many ideas and knowledge about this industry to not share what I know.  Beyond that, I am sure there are even more ideas and knowledge to be built upon mine, expanded by others that I hope to interact with in the future.

These may sound like new years resolutions or some mumbo jumbo, but I deny that resolutely.  These are simply things I will be working on in the future.

This is a serious smackdown ad, I LOVED it.  I've been pondering dropping the iPhone as it has never felt robust, but the Windows Mobile was just a disgrace.  Now though, WOW!  Between the ad & the seriousness of Android coming to other phone platforms I am honestly getting pretty stoked.  The development environments are better (I mean, Object C, come on), there are multiples to choose from, the platform is open.  Sounds like Windows stomping Macintosh those years ago.  Cept' this time it is Google vs. Apple.  It is about time this battle got real!!  I'm looking forward to it with bated breath.  :)

So with that, it just kicked off the motivation to start doing some real Mobile Dev.  Yes, I will probably get some iPhone Apps built, but my focus will definitely be Android.

Wow.  Today has been one of those, "go here, go there, do this, do that, quick hurry, finished, done, thanks, awesome, bang" type of days.  Getting a lot accomplished, but also so busy it is hard to see the finished efforts for all the new efforts coming by way.

Lunch 2.0

Today I did manage to make it to my first Lunch 2.0, saw some familiar faces and some new faces I haven't met.  One of these new people that I met was Eric M. Curtis, the creative director & interface designer for rgb Design Studio.

Business Development

I also had a morning coffee at a ridiculously early 7:10am today with some un-named sources.  We discussed some new upcoming analytics business opportunities that may be heading Webtrends way and the recent large event in the analytics industry, the acquisition of Omniture by Adobe.  This of course is on my mind as I have developed tons of Flash & AIR tagging solutions over the last few months, which now gives me pause.  Many in the industry wait with bated breath as to the path Adobe will now take with this acquisition.  As many in the industry have already stated, it is a somewhat strange pairing and not to jump on that bandwagon, but it does seem that way.

In Other News

I have a number of projects I am working on, all which will benefit Webtrends Analytics customers as well as people in the analytics industry in general.  A few blog entries (which you'll have to read on the Webtrends Blog or the Webtrends Developer?s Blog), and a whole bunch of awesome technical bits, code snippets, and other code based sundry.  So stay tuned, more to come.  :)

I've been working on some ActionScript code for work related projects, and was really hoping that I could get a Flex Builder 3 and Flash CS4 License purchased for ongoing use.  The Adobe tools & frameworks are really pretty sweet.  So with ongoing efforts continuing with the Adobe Tools/Codez the decision was made to purchase the tools.  I'm stoked, and looking forward to more ActionScript work and getting to figure out this framework stack.

I arrived at the Fresh Pot on Hawthorne after attending the Bar Camp 2009 kick off day.  This is a good place to chill and code, think tech, or finish some work and blogs as I was doing.  I also was thoroughly testing out my Clear Wimax USB Device.  This was pivatol for me to do ASAP to be sure I wanted to keep the service or not.  So far I got disconnected once, which you can read about on my Transit Sleuth Blog.

We've covered a ton of ground this week at work in training.  I've learned a bit, am prepped for the new efforts I'm going to undertake, and am jumping back into taking care of some things that have gotten backed up since I've been in training this week.  I've gotten a dose of SQL Server 2008 Administration, and am happy with the changes over the previous versions, and got to review the Webtrends Visitor Intelligence, Score, and Warehouse Solutions.  I often forget, especially when doing development on a single part of the overall suite how many awesome tools Webtrends has.  There is really some powerful functionality in the technologies.

On that note I've finished up most things for the day and am jumping into some ASP.NET MVC work I've been doing.  Hopefully with more to be posted soon.  Right now I have been digging through various ways to do theming/skins.  One thing, is that the CSS, HTML, etc that can be produced with the ASP.NET MVC Framework is light years beyond the complete catastrophe that comes out of standard ASP.NET WebForms.  I've spent years designing, building architecture, and trying to compensate for its lackluster ability in that realm, but now with the new framework elements I feel like the .NET Framework has once again gotten back onto a solid and good path.  In the past the .NET Framework has always seemed more cohesive than any framework out there, but now it seems like it might regain that after losing it over the last year or two.  It?s a relief as I do like working with the tools and framework.

On other fronts, I will be digging into some prospective speaking engagements and am trying to figure out if I want to do some sessions (or A session) at code camp.  I definitely will be there, as I've been working with the organizing committee and been having fun doing so.  I also intend to attend at least a few of the sessions if I have time between volunteering.  Do you have a session that you could present?  If so get over to the site and sign up for a session!

Anyway... I'm done rambling on for now.  Got some things to write up for code camp and some code to get done.

I finally got all my virtual image loads setup and my Ubuntu Install is running smoothly again.  I also got a Windows 2008 install running and hope to use it to try out some WAS, Velocity, and other WCF related features.

In addition to that I've got my work in progress up and running at http://mystuff.adronbhall.com if you want to check out my story list application.  This sub domain is literally the work in progress, so don't expect much of anything here.

So far that's been my weekend.  I've also had an onslaught of allergies kick me in the face.  This is never fun, even when I'm trying not to do anything constructive, and I was working on the exact opposite of that.  Argh!

Next step, Mono, getting Silverlight to run on Mono, and a few other tasks.  Then back to Cockatoo, HighBall, and MyStoryList (which has no link, as I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this project yet).

I'm pondering doing an updated tools, trips, and tricks list of my current environment, but right now I'm still putting the finishing touches on it all.  So maybe that is a Monday entry.

With the recent upgrade the ReSharper 4.5 I've noticed two MAJOR things.  The first is that the speed is much improved.  This is a big plus when I'm on machines that can always use a little bit of a boost.  :)

However the other thing that has been added, which I very much enjoy, is the fact that I can use the ReSharper Unit Testing Interface now with mstest.  This has been one of my biggest frustrations with mstest (aside form the fact that they're slow, awkward, aren't as feature packed, etc).  I still prefer NUnit, xUnit, mbUnit, or some other framework more than mstest but at least mstest is tolerable now.  Mstest is used in many shops, so now it won't be as painful and slow to step into development in shops that use mstest - I'll be rolling ahead full speed now.

On completely different topics...   code, code, code, code, code...

I've been pondering how Twitter will continue a year, two years, five, or more from now.  What will people use it for?  Will companies kill Twitter?  Will spam kill Twitter?  Will users get burned out?  My friend Aaron Hockley video blogged his thoughts on these questions which I've embedded below.

Twitter Value and Filters for Effective Microblogging from Aaron Hockley on Vimeo.

Go provide some comments for Aaron on your 2 cents about what?s up with Twitter's future and even Twitter's current usability and issues.