Three big business problems with two commonalities. Can you name them?

Company #1: found a reporting solution that fit all of their criteria, over and above the usual players.

Company #2: created a series of wireless applications to allow their floor workers to quickly gain access to the information they needed from their blackberries.

Company #3: built a custom shopping cart application, like this one that was actually less expensive (and took less time to implement) than the packaged solutions they were considering.

So? What do these three have in common?

Aligning your CIOs and COOs to be more productive

With the advent of IT roles focusing more on executing business strategy, managing operations, and exploiting opportunities, there comes some growing pains.

CIOs and COOs often find themselves in overlapping roles, which can be counterproductive.

Here's what you can do to better align the roles»

Unique use of RFID data changes the face of new product sales

We don't often cover RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) best practices in this blog, mainly because although many clients use RFID, mrc's tools are more often used to analyze the BI data the method provides.

But, I also enjoy looking at new ways that technology can be used. Here's how one manufacturer used RFID to not only track their product, but also to measure whether it got promoted properly--and what they found out they needed to do.

Easily take advantage of drop downs in your mrc reports.

Drop down menus can be a great way to quickly narrow down the data in your reports to the data sets that you seek, and allow you to provide even more end-user friendly (and flexible) reporting options--freeing up IT time.

And, the newest changest to m-Power, particularly the inclusion of the m-Painter feature, make including dropdowns in reports a breeze.

Here's one how-to article posted in the user forum that gives you some tips on how you can get you started.

Four Business-IT Pitfalls to avoid

Here are four Business-IT pitfalls that cause IT projects to fail. Keep them by your desk, and remind yourself of some of the talking points you should bring to the table the next time you are called to a meeting.

Nipping these pitfalls in the bud, and finding a good dialogue in the process, may help you avoid many of these bumps in the road.

SOA in plain language.

SOA. Service Oriented Architecture.

The name says it all. Well...kind of. Hmm...not really. What service? It's an acronym defined by buzzwords.
And it might surprise you to learn that it is related to, but separate from, Web services...which it is sometimes lumped in with.

This article from Datamation breaks it down in plain language. Finally!

Web 2.0 and what it will mean to BI

If there's one thing technology marketers are really good at, it's complicating matters by coming up with new buzzwords to describe basic concepts...for example: Web 2.0.

What the heck IS that? And why have I never heard of Web 1.0?

In this article, you'll get a good read on how Web 2.0 is defined and how you can begin applying its basic tenets to your business intelligence.

10 steps to save a foundering project

We've all been there at one point or another. A project that started out strong suddenly takes a turn, and you are faced with a decision. Salvage it, or scrap it.

So, when you find yourself in this predicament--what do you do?

This Computerworld article has some great information to help you evaluate and make that call: Sink or Swim?

Web Design Tip #7: Choosing a color scheme based on images

A few weeks ago we gave you a basic guide to selecting Web colors, specifically hexadecimal colors, and how to use them in your Web designs.

Another consideration for selecting a color scheme for Web pages is by selecting colors that complement the images that you are using. Here's how»