Business Productivity Infrastructure Optimization (BPIO) - blog

THE BI Blog : Tracking Swine Flu with Microsoft Virtual Earth and Live Search

2009-05-05T21:12:01Z

I'm quite certain that more people are trying to cure Swine Flu than will every catch it. I'm also reasonably certain I'll end up regretting saying that. However, its interesting to see how a multitude of more modern technology is being applied to the issue. We can see from the Microsoft Virtual Earth heatmap that statistical data takes on a completely new life when combined with geographical data: Microsoft Live Search Maps highlights reported cases Virtual Earth Swine Flu Mashup This concept is...(read more)

Productivity, Innovation at the NHS - Windows Live

2009-05-01T08:35:19Z

Some interesting insights from Dan Rasmus on Productivity, Efficiency and Patient Care at the NHS. Measuring productivity gains in meaningful and tangible business oriented outcomes is an ongoing challenge. "It isn’t good enough to create correlations informed by intuition. We need to understand where productivity morphs into something else and we need to be able to put a name on that and understand its attributes so that we can more effectively craft the business environments of the knowledge...(read more)

Is SharePoint the right investment, right now?

2009-04-27T06:53:13Z

This article from freshbusinessthinking.com would suggest it could be. http://www.freshbusinessthinking.com/business_advice.php?AID=2375&Title=SharePoint+Steers+Companies+Through+Economic+Downturn SharePoint forms the cornerstone of Microsoft's Business Productivity Infrastructure. It delivers the foundation for Collaboration, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Search and Enterprise Content Management solutions from Microsoft. Having all of these capabilities delivered by one product makes SharePoint...(read more)

Two birds with one stone

2009-04-27T06:45:10Z

If there are two things we're all desperate to save right now it is money and the environment. How fortunate it is, therefore, that by enabling the workforce to work from any place and at any time Unified Communications technology can save both travel expenses and the associated carbon emissions. The UC team have prepared this whitepaper to help understand the magnitude of savings on offer: Achieving Cost and Resource Savings with UC White Paper...(read more)

THE BI Blog : Microsoft Business Intelligence Vision and Strategy Slides

2009-04-27T06:40:38Z

I think our BI vision is one of the most clearly defined market visions Microsoft has. I also think that it is a market where we can really add value and change the dynamics of the market. Making BI commercially viable enough for every employee to utilize it is a key factor. This deck is much recommended reading (and for good measure it is only 12 slides long - also a fantastic achievement for a Microsoft marketing division...) THE BI Blog : Microsoft Business Intelligence Vision and Strategy Slide...(read more)

THE BI Blog : Top 10 demos for Microsoft BI

2009-04-27T06:35:30Z

Somehow the BI team seem to corner some of our most exciting demos. Thanks to Nic for compiling this top-ten list in one place. http://blogs.msdn.com/bi/archive/2009/04/23/top-10-demos-for-microsoft-bi.aspx As a side note, its worth noting that the best demos show how combining BI with other Business Productivity capabilities makes the whole activity so much more valuable (and the demo that bit cooler...) THE BI Blog : Top 10 demos for Microsoft BI...(read more)

Recession, recalibration or reset?

2009-04-27T06:31:48Z

While no one is under any doubt whether that we are now experiencing a set of economic conditions we have not experienced for a generation (if not more), there is a growing debate on the nature of these conditions and for how long we should plan for "recovery". This article captures the mood quite well: The way your business generates results is different, now. Your customers think differently, now. Your customers care about different things, now. Your customers act differently, now. Your...(read more)

How CIOs Are Setting IT Strategy Amid Economic Uncertainty -- IT And The Economy -- InformationWeek

2008-10-14T05:54:00Z

With the endless resurrection of the "ghosts of 1929" I'm starting to believe that even the dead have failed to miss the economic events of the past few weeks. Typically, in times of economic uncertainty and downturn, IT braces itself for an uncomfortable series of budget cuts. The mood this time seems notably calmer . Is this a broad acceptance of the inevitable? "When aren't I faced with cuts?" Perhaps. Whatever your view, now is the time to start pitching IT as the opportunity to be the strategic...(read more)

Seth's Blog: The growing productivity divide

2008-10-10T08:02:05Z

Seth calls out a number of functions that most people could use to become more productive. Seth calls these out to call people to learn how to use the technology at their fingertips. He asks "Can you imagine someone who works in a factory that processes metal not knowing how to use a blowtorch?" Helping your people get the most from their technology is critical. It's a shame that it's often the training budget that gets cut first. Also critical to closing the "productivity divide"...(read more)

Not that we haven't been saying it all along but...

2008-10-08T01:42:53Z

"BI applications do not exist in isolation - they are an integral part of what Forrester calls Information Workplace, which involves many other applications such as collaboration, portals, search, office applications and others. While many BI vendors provide seamless integration with office applications like spreadsheets and word processors, www.panoramasoftware.com delivers BI integration with email and instant messaging. And what application is more widely used and more mission critical in...(read more)

Gemini Announcements

2008-10-08T01:28:18Z

You can check out the full release on our next wave of BI here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-06BI08PR.mspx It's great to see this kind of vision so early. And it's also incredibly timely. If the credit crisis has taught us anything it is how a lack of knowledge and a lack of transparency can destroy confidence between a business and its investors/customers. Our vision for pervasive BI is to enable all employees at all levels to have incredibly powerful insight at their fingertips....(read more)

THE BI Blog : Boris Evelson of Forrester looks into his Crystal Ball and sees Gemini

2008-10-08T01:18:20Z

The BI Team are having something of an exciting week this week at the BI Conference. There have been a number of exciting announcements this week and it's great to see this kind of recognition from Forrester. One of the most important aspects of any BI solution is the ability to take the insight that analytics and scorecarding gives you and be able to communicate and affect change. This is one of the key strengths of Microsoft's BI solution - the surrounding Business Productivity capabilities. THE...(read more)

Jason Langridge's WebLog - MR Mobile! : Nearly half of Britons suffer "discomgoogolation"

2008-09-05T04:18:04Z

Nearly half of Britons -- 44 percent -- are discomgoogolation sufferers, according to a survey, with over a quarter -- 27 percent -- admitting to rising stress levels when they are unable to go online. Interesting statistics. It appears that not having access to technology we depend on actually creates physiological side-effects. In the same context, with reference to "Software Consumerization", I wonder whether people experience real distress when they come into work and can't use the...(read more)

//steve clayton: geek in disguise : Unilever staff use Facebook

2008-09-02T23:54:00Z

Another good spot from Steve. I blogged about Software Consumarization before. The Unilever example is not atypical. Businesses from all walks of life are finding it challenging to integrate a digitally enabled workforce into an organization viewed by that workforce as digitally disabled. Call them Gen-Y, Digital Natives, Millennials, whatever you want - a changing workforce has changing expectations. I personally don't believe in such classifications (I am one of the so-called Gen-Y workers) as...(read more)

CIOs On Cloud Computing - Cloud Computing Blog - InformationWeek

2008-08-26T23:23:39Z

There's been much press on this lately. We've long held that whilst there's a future in cloud computing and software-as-a-service, the current limitations in reliability and privacy mean a pure-play cloud solution is unlikely to ever be truly viable. That's why we prefer the software+services model. Giving choice between hosted and on-premise should ensure we get the best of both worlds. CIOs On Cloud Computing - Cloud Computing Blog - InformationWeek...(read more)