Data discovery is a “new” technique that takes a less formal and more agile approach to analyzing data. Okay, well, it’s not really new — people have been doing this with spreadsheets for decades — but the products that support it have improved greatly and have forced a more formal consideration of these techniques. The data discovery approach produces insights very quickly, but it also encounters challenges when dealing with data transformation. Most data discovery tools are limited in their ability to manipulate data. Additionally, understanding relationships between different data entities can require expertise that some users may not possess. In order to enable agile data discovery, organizations need agile data warehousing. Read more
Many of you have heard buzzwords such as “data science,” “big data,” or the “Internet of Things” before. You’re able to piece together that these fields relate to each other and deal with analyzing data in some way, but maybe you’re not so sure what these terms really mean. That’s what I’m here to help with. As a newer member of the data science field, I developed this short data science guide based on my experiences and perspectives in an effort to help those who are just starting out. Read more
Ironside CEO Tim Kreytak was featured as part of Japanese news outlet BCN’s June 13, 2016 article recapping the IBM Watson Summit that took place in Tokyo on May 24-26. Tim (shown bottom right in the following photo) was a guest speaker at the conference, where he talked about Ironside’s successes as an IBM partner, specifically discussing our predictive policing work with the Manchester, NH Police Department.
“Tim Kreytak, CEO of Ironside, introduced their success with Manchester Police Department in reducing the number of crimes by 26% in one year,” the article stated (translated from Japanese). It then went on to talk about Ironside’s partnership with IBM and the measures by which we judge our clients’ success, as well as some additional case examples around Watson Analytics.
Solution Shared at IBM Watson Summit in Tokyo
Ironside’s IronShield predictive policing platform gives police departments the tools and knowledge they need to anticipate criminal behavior and proactively prevent crime, which is one of the largest factors in crime reduction. It utilizes powerful predictive models tailored for each community’s unique geography, weather, and history right from the start through its core module for hot spot policing, producing intuitive visual map displays of where crime is most likely to occur.
If you’d like to check out the solution featured at the conference, take a look at our IronShield page. Or you can read about it in local news coverage at WMUR9.
You can see the article about the IBM Watson Summit in Tokyo on BCN Bizline.
Ironside’s partners help us empower our clients and deliver value from data and analytics using the best technology for their particular business needs, which is why we’re excited to announce that we’ve added Domo to that list. Domo’s flexible, collaborative, and intuitive platform represents a strong approach to modern self-service analytics, and being a Domo partner lets us bring our clients actionable insights from diverse data sources even in low-IT environments. Read more
Domo is a tool that has stood out among the many data discovery-oriented analytics solutions now hitting the market thanks to how quickly it can have a practical impact on specific functional or industry business cases. It represents the realities of modern business:
- The questions organizations ask to support decision making are constantly evolving.
- Traditional business intelligence (BI) solutions aren’t flexible enough to cope with the speed of these changes.
- Business leaders need tools that enable them quickly, not tools they fight to use.
Ironside is happy to announce that one of our long-time professional services veterans, Scott Misage, will be taking on a broader management role as our Business Intelligence Practice Lead. With his history as a crucial contributor to and point person on many diverse and complex analytics projects across a variety of industries during his time as an Engagement Manager, Scott was a natural choice to head up the Ironside Business Intelligence practice and keep us at the forefront of innovation in the space.
About Scott
Scott is one of those rare leaders who is fully immersed in every possible detail of Ironside’s business analytics offerings but who can also deliver on the big picture and see the overall goals and strategies behind those individual solutions. This is why Scott has made a name for himself as a top thinker around both the performance of our solutions and their integration with one another.
Scott’s Specialties: Business Intelligence Advisory and Implementation, Performance Management Strategy, Enterprise Data Management and Architecture, Data Discovery, Bimodal Analytics, New Technology Discovery/Evaluation, Analytics Adoption
Focus and Goals
In his new role as Business Intelligence Practice Lead, Scott is committed to expanding our clients’ understanding of what a business analytics solution can do for them.
“It’s way more than just your standard BI reporting,” he says. “With all the advancements that have occurred, both in terms of the expanding focus on data discovery and the integration of predictive capabilities, business analytics is becoming this central connective fabric that really unifies and communicates across your whole environment. Through data, it unlocks the past, present, and future of your organization.”
This evolution is something Ironside already has a jump on due to Scott’s leadership in embracing and pushing forward a philosophy of bimodal analytics. Building on both our foundation in traditional enterprise BI structures and innovations in the areas of visualization, dashboarding, and data discovery, Scott is helping us provide the ad hoc capabilities that are in such high demand currently without compromising on the governance standards that allow analytics systems to function effectively.
“The whole bimodal analytics idea really hinges on balance,” he states. “It’s about getting a conversation going between your formal mode 1 BI infrastructure with all those recurring enterprise reports and your moving-at-the-speed-of-business mode 2 data discovery tools that uncover new insights. The key is to make sure there’s a process in place for this and that data quality gets kept as the main priority.”
Scott is also involved in building a deeper connection between the Business Intelligence and Analytics Advisory practice areas. Because there are so many tools out there on the market, having the ability to smoothly transition between evaluating options and building strategies and executing the technical elements needed to make those recommendations real is critical.
“We’re spoiled for choice in terms of business analytics tools, so it can get tricky to find the exact right fit,” he asserts. “Our practices together have the unique ability to both evaluate the tools from a technical and business perspective and then see the results of those evaluations through to completion, enabling the client along the way and delivering highly valuable solutions.”
If you’d like to see more of Scott’s perspectives as both a consultant and Business Intelligence Practice Lead, check out the articles he’s written on our website. You can also visit our Business Intelligence page to see what Scott’s team is involved in and how they can help you discover and build your ideal business analytics solution.
Ironside is a data, analytics, and AI consulting and technology implementation company. We work with clients to understand their business objectives and day-to-day challenges, then employ our deep expertise in data strategy, architecture and engineering, integration, business intelligence, AI, and generative AI. We create technical solutions and practical approaches designed to drive smarter, data-driven decisions across a company and help it move further and faster toward its business goals.