I’m very pleased to have my white paper chosen as the winner of the 2011 Apex Marketing and PR Publications Award. I have written several Verizon white papers for my client Pivot Communications (who is terrific to work with by the way).

The winning white paper is Verizon’s “The Identity and Access Management Imperative.”  The paper speaks to enterprise security issues as organizations expand their boundaries globally, move data and applications outside company walls to the “cloud,” and extend access beyond employees to vendors, partners, and even customers.

APEX 2011 is the 23rd annual awards program put on by Communications Concepts recognizing excellence in publications work by professional communicators. There were over 3300 submissions in 11 categories. Apex handed out both Awards of Excellence and Grand Awards.

You can view the entire award list here. If you want to see the award I won, look under Pivot Communications, page 27, category 124.

AMC - Content Marketing for BI and High Tech - Freelance Marketer for High Tech with a focus on BI

Last week I wrote about the TDWI Executive Summit vendor panel discussion on the Future of BI. It was a great chance to hear what was on the mind of the business executive audience and hear what vendors have to say. There were no surprises in the topics and really none in the responses. And, for the most part, the vendors did a good job remaining neutral and not turning it into a chance to advertise their own products.

Here are the rest of the topics discussed. To read part one, click HERE.

Open Source – Open source can be good when it is properly defined and broadly accepted. For example, Google Search and Apache are now commonplace in many organizations. It’s critical that the open source products have a good following and great support.

Data Virtualization – The trend towards data virtualization or federation seems to switch back and forth – much like the trend to centralize and decentralize. There seems to always be a need for virtualization, but the real need should be identified in the business requirements.

BPM and BI – There is a trend toward monitoring Lean improvements with BI. Lean methodologies can drive out the metrics which can then be used in process decision points, sometimes through predictive models. Be sure to use BI to communicate the value that the business process change will provide.

Data Integration – Data integration is still a challenge for many. It’s critical to understand your business needs on timing for getting data through the “ecosystem.” Couple the timing needs with your organization’s ability and decide whether batch, trickle, or real-time makes the best sense.

Collaboration – Many products are beginning to do a better job incorporating collaboration features. For example, SalesForce.com has their Chatter feature, much like a Facebook for the enterprise. Now Tibco is offering Tibbr, with features also similar to Facebook. User expectations will only continue to rise.

IT Roles – IT roles for BI will become more specialized. With BI becoming mission critical, support responsibilities become more important and will require a greater understanding and closer monitoring. Interesting side note is that LinkedIn did an internal study and found the job title with the most growth is “business analyst.”

It was another good conference with great networking opportunities. It was fun to get a chance to talk to business people from many different industries. While they each face similar challenges, their need for BI can be so different.

I was also encouraged talking to vendors who tell me that the conversations they had with attendees were much more detailed and serious, rather than “window shopping” types of conversations.

Looking forward to next time!

AMC - Content Marketing for BI and High Tech - Freelance Marketer for High Tech with a focus on BI

Last week I had to opportunity to attend the TDWI conference on BI in Las Vegas. While TDWI actually holds four conferences every year, this first one of the year is always the largest. This year, things seemed to be hopping with over 750 attendees.

During the conference, I spent some time in the TDWI Executive Summit. The summit is meant to give executives who have some responsibility for BI a high-level overview of various topics of concern and interest. While the regular TDWI sessions (classes) are a half to full day, the Executive Summit presentations are generally an hour each.

Wrapping up the third day of the summit was the vendor panel. The forum was open, allowing anyone in the audience to ask questions of the panel. What follow is a synopsis of the most popular items that were discussed. The comments are from the vendors and not necessarily my own opinions:

Mobile BI – Mobile BI must do more than put a computer screen on a mobile phone. While it has a great form factor and can combine additional contextual knowledge, such as current location, security factors need to be considered and there needs to be a consistent semantic layer across all modes of distribution, whether it’s a phone or a laptop.

Tool Consolidation – It’s very difficult to get the organization to agree to one tool, but you can get close. It’s important to make sure users have the tool they need but also important that there is interoperability across the tool suite. Additional thoughts are the ability for users to self-service their BI needs and to provide governance.

Cloud BI – It’s very early in the cloud BI space. The recommendation is to start with a specific project, especially one that might require external data such as sentiment data. It can make for a great exploration sandbox. Cloud BI must be a solution to a business need, not a shiny new trend to be embraced.

Social Media Data – Also known as social media analytics (SMA), this is definitely a new trend that has incredible value. It’s a great way to understand what people are talking about, looking at patterns in conversation. The discoveries can be surprising. For example, a hotel chain did a customer survey and found they have good results. But, when they looked at conversations on Trip Advisor they were surprised by the negative feedback with specific details.

Check back next week for the rest of the topics discussed in TDWI’s Future of BI vendor panel!



AMC - Content Marketing for BI and High Tech - Freelance Marketer for High Tech with a focus on BI

With deadlines looming, it’s easy to remain heads down and not take a moment to reflect on the year. So, I’m taking a few minutes to look back and send my thanks to some wonderful clients. Since the start of the year, I’ve had steady work  that’s even meant often working weekends and evenings. Any self-employed person could not ask for a better gift!

I’ve also had the opportunity to learn about some great topics:

• Pervasive, self-service BI
• Biometrics
• Call centers in the cloud
• Auto Demand Response (energy)
• Thin film coatings
• Sustainability
• Networked Audio
• OpenXML
• Enterprise Data Management
• Retail in the cloud
• Smart Grid
• Data Breaches
• Information and Computing Technologies (ICT)
• Identity and Access Management
• PCI
• Emerging Markets
• 4G/LTE

Just to name a few!

I’d like to thank these wonderful clients for the opportunity to learn about these new topics and to be a part of their world, helping them to be successful:

• Pivot Communications
• Verizon
• Microsoft
• Karsof Systems
• Honeywell
• LogiXML
• Extra Mile Marketing
• Filmetrics
• Biamp
• InContact
• Teradata

I look forward to working with all of you again. May 2011 be even more successful!

AMC - Content Marketing for BI and High Tech - Freelance Marketer for High Tech with a focus on BI

Yes, my posts have been sparse these last 6 months, I admit. The carousel of life threw me off, and when I tried to jump back off it threw me off again, whirling so fast it took a while to catch up and jump back on. Only, I’m not the same person I was.

Optional Growth: Last summer I decided that in order to grow, my business needed to change. I decided to narrow my “high-tech” niche to that of just business intelligence. It’s my space, it’s what I know. I’ve been a consumer of the very marketing pieces I am now creating. I decided to revise my own marketing message and website. Well, the stars aligned or the planets collided or something like that. The Universe decided I had some personal growth to do as well. After 20 years in the same house, we decided on a whim to downsize and sell. Eight days later, our house was sold and we were packing. That whole event set me back for the summer and things like this blog suffered from lack of time and attention. It was now September and I was ready to jump back on the carousel, but I guess I wasn’t done growing just yet.

Forced Growth: On a warm Sunday evening in early October, everybody was outside socializing, including the dogs. In the blink of an eye, I was changed forever when our dog Lily was hit and killed right in front of me. I was devastated and in a daze for weeks. Like a flower that has been trampled, I struggled to sprout again. I’m finally back to work and have finished the launch of my newly redesigned website.

Growth and Your Business: Growth is often optional – to a point. In business, we can sit back and continue to do the same things for a long, long time. However, even if the world sat still, our business would wither. And, with increasing external pressures from changes in technology, global marketplace, legislation, politics, and the economy, growth is really not optional.

As the end of the year draws near, it’s time to reflect. How has your business changed and grown? Are there areas you have become complacent in or have you embraced new challenges? Have you had the luxury to choose our opportunities or have they been thrust upon you?

Even the best laid plans hit roadblocks. You just have to be ready to regroup and take the detour.

AMC - Content Marketing for BI and High Tech - Freelance Marketer for High Tech with a focus on BI

Just a quick one to provide you the link to my interview with Ajay Ohri from DecisionStats. In the interview I talk about trends in the business intelligence space, how marketing for BI is evolving, and a teeny bit about corporate sustainability (one of my personal interests). Hope you get a chance to read it!

http://www.decisionstats.com/2009/09/02/interview-terri-rylander-advanced-marketing-collateral-bi/

AMC - Content Marketing for BI and High Tech - Freelance Marketer for High Tech with a focus on BI

This week I had the opportunity to attend the 2009 Tableau Customer Conference. Tableau is a business intelligence company which is my niche and they specialize in visual analysis and data visualization. I struck a deal with them to do some conference blogging in return for a press pass. Something you might want to think about for your own B2B niche.

Anyway, I must say I’m thoroughly impressed with this company. They are relatively small but you’d never know it. In this tight economy, with travel budgets clamped down, they still managed to get over 300 attendees, half again what they had the previous year. And, their customers are passionate about their software. The conference has been very successful at staying in touch with customers and keeping them engaged.

Tableau does a great job marketing without being over the top. They reach their customers and prospects at their level. Their website is fairly simple but has all the information the web visitor needs. They have a full-time web analytics/search marketing manager who provides input into the web design, helps with web testing, and works to rise Tableau to the top of search results.

They also continue to touch but not bombard their customers with their newsletter that comes out every other month. Another way they stay in touch is through Twitter. Their employees regularly use Twitter and their company Twitter handle is active as well.

In fact, what impressed me most was how passionate and happy their employees are. From the CEO, Christian Chabot, to the VP of Marketing, Elissa Fink, down to the sales staff and developers, they have fun. And what I know is that happy employees make happy teams that make great products.

Bottom line, you are always in the eyes of your customer so make sure they are seeing the best side. Find ways to show them your company’s true personality. Tableau has obviously done that.

If you’re curious about Tableau’s data visualization software, check out their beginner’s guide to data visualization.

AMC - Content Marketing for BI and High Tech - Freelance Marketer for High Tech with a focus on BI

Marketers today are spending a lot of energy trying to do more with less. We’re running around, trying to keep the sales staff happy, trying to create content that stands above the crowd, trying to measure title effectiveness with split testing, trying to prove our ROI to our executive team, all with less money and headcount. If we’re not working on a corporate marketing team, we’re trying to find and convince prospects to use our services, trying to stay up with the latest social media trends, and competing with thousands of other independent marketers or agency marketing teams. Needless to say, these are stressful times.

A few weeks ago, I asked Can B2B Marketing Be Fun? and now the “fun” mirror has been turned back at ourselves. That’s why when I saw this video, I thought, “I just have to share this! My marketing friends need a good belly laugh.”

I found several things I could personally relate to, especially in a corporate setting. I’ve seen people (not just marketers) do what they could to look both smart and busy. I’ve seen them hustling around the office with an heir of importance. I’ve heard them claim to be double and triple booked with appointments. I’ve seen them excuse themselves from meetings to take a phone call (from their friends, no doubt). I’ve seen them use buzzwords du jour to sound like they fit in. I’ve worked with these people – they really do exist.

On a similar note, one of my favorite TV shows is The Office. I can pretty much identify someone I know in every character. I’ve seen every one of them in some capacity during my career. I think the producers of The Office should hire the marketing guy in this video – he’d fit right in and they need a marketing person.

Anyway, all of this is just for fun. It’s a chance to laugh at ourselves. I’ll bet you found something you can relate to like I did. Perhaps you even saw a bit of yourself in the video. I’ll leave you with this last thought, “Are we more alike than dare to admit?”

AMC - Content Marketing for BI and High Tech - Freelance Marketer for High Tech with a focus on BI