2012 April | The TIBCO Blog

Dealing with Imperfect Data? 5 Things to Consider

April 30, 2012 by Dave Chamberlain Leave a Comment

When customers are looking for ways of dealing with imperfect (substitute your own expletive here) data, there are five major factors that should be considered. You will find many competing claims about approaches and algorithms, but at the end of the day, my (completely unbiased) view about evaluation criteria is:

1. First and foremost, it’s all about accuracy – here we could talk about specificity and sensitivity analysis and other statistical mumbo-jumbo, but for simplicity, let’s just focus on accuracy – that is measuring how close the system can come to reaching the same conclusions as a domain expert when faced with the same data.

2. It’s about scalability – dealing with big data. How easily can the system you select deal with increasingly large volumes of data and workloads?

3. To any organization doing business in and across country or cultural boundaries, being able to deal with any type of data in any language should be a key criteria. Systems are global and need to deal with data about many different types of entities – not just customers and product data – and do so in a way that is independent of language.

4. Data comes from so many different systems and sources that being able to easily configure requests to deal with whatever comes along is a must-have. So make sure you review the options provided to fine tune requests which can easily achieve the desired results.

5. Finally, of course, is seeing how easily the system can be integrated with existing and future applications, processes and tools that run your business. This involves looking at two main areas: What native language support is provided? How is that integration achieved? Then, make sure it will work effectively with your ESB, SOA, BPM andCEP products.

Filed Under: BPM, CEP, Complex Event Processing (CEP), Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Retail, Tech Trends, Two-Second Advantage Tagged With: Imperfect Data, TIBCO Patterns

The Healthcare Reform that Can’t Be Stopped

April 27, 2012 by Chris Taylor Leave a Comment

There are few more personal, passionate, and political topics than healthcare. The reasons for this are clear: Healthcare spending has reached 17% of the U.S. GDP, outcomes are worse than in other developed countries, and an attempt to fix the system through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) now sits in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. But regardless of ACA’s legal prognosis, the Pandora’s Box of true healthcare reform has already been opened — and it happened before most of us realized.

It happened in the throes of the recent Great Recession when Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (better known as the bailout). Nearly $800 billion was targeted to create new jobs, save existing jobs, and spur economic activity. What many don’t realize is that as part of those funds, the incentives created to digitize medical records were massive — amounting to $40,000 to $65,000 per physician and $11 million per hospital for the “meaningful use” of health information technology.

Just as important as the financial carrot was the accompanying stick wielded by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, the largest single payer in the United States — the threat to reduce payments to physicians and hospitals by 1% per year if they fail to submit invoices electronically. For an industry typically operating in the low single digits of profitability, this is a heavy stick indeed, prompting many organizations not to wait to see if the bill gets struck down before taking the necessary steps to comply. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Healthcare, Industries, Two-Second Advantage

The Data Analytics of the NFL Draft

April 26, 2012 by Spotfire Blogging Team Leave a Comment

Today is a big day for all you football fans and data geeks. Are you ready for the NFL draft?

This year’s draft features more analytics than ever before. Plus, the business decisions of NFL owners are center stage in light of what happened in Denver and I ndianapolis the past couple months.

Tonight, after nearly not having a 2011 season, we’ll see NFL teams lessen their risks as new NFL collective bargaining rules go into effect. According to an article in Forbes, this year’s draft is less of a risk than years past and “drastically” reduces the amount of moolah “an unproven player” can receive in his first year.

From a business perspective, it’s a good move to make a decision based on analytics and performance over the perceived value of talent. And some teams fare better than others when you look at the historical data.

To determine which teams have scored touchdowns in past drafts and which teams couldn’t even split the uprights, Forbes turned to a source after our own hearts – the analytics of drafted players over the course of four years (2005 to 2009).

The author defined parameters and specific questions before engaging the data and was able to make some solid decisions on which teams have made the best and worst NFL draft picks over time.

Best & Worst Teams in Draft Proficiency

We won’t leave you in suspense for the best and worst teams regarding drafting proficiency (according to research conducted by the author, Patrick Rishe, and a Syracuse sophomore with a bright career ahead – perhaps in analytics – named Tyler Wasserman). [Read more...]

Filed Under: Analytics and Optimization, general, Spotfire, Transform, Two-Second Advantage

Blame It on Ted

April 24, 2012 by Dave Chamberlain Leave a Comment

Imperfect data – A historic perspective

Our world of computing in 1969 was very different from today. In 1969, Dr. E.F. (Ted) Codd published his first internal IBM paper, “Derivability, Redundancy and Consistency of Relations stored in Large Data Banks”, followed in 1970 by the ACM publication, “A Relational Model of Data for Large Data Banks” – the birth of relational databases as we know them today.

Organizations used to have complete control of their data. With just a few systems (usually to automate back office functions) there was no concept of customer self-service, or integrated supply chains, or third party data feeds, or just about anything we take for granted today.

Data was generated by professional data entry staff; they took pride in getting the data entry right, with very low error rates. Data was processed sequentially, tapes spinning round and lights flashing brightly; often you could tell what job was being processed by the noises in the computer room.

What’s changed?

What’s changed over 40 years? Today the typical organization runs hundreds, if not thousands, of systems spread across large data centers – many of these applications sharing data with external sources, their supply chain, external data feeds and, of course, we are constantly trying to get our customers to do as much as we can get them to do. When you add up 40+ years-worth of growth and change, we can see how organizations have come to have such volumes of “imperfect” data to deal with – data that is full of errors, inaccuracies and inconsistencies. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Analytics and Optimization, Automation, Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Retail, Tech Trends, Two-Second Advantage Tagged With: Big Data, Imperfect Data, RDBMS, SQL, TIBCO Patterns

Living in the Cloud: Cool vs. Critical

April 20, 2012 by Don Adams Leave a Comment

The critical elements you need to fully understand before living in the cloud are the physical attributes of the cloud center: staffing, patrols, power, law enforcement and fire or other disaster access, location and method of secure backup, and recovery. This is all in addition to the nature of the hardware itself. You wouldn’t live in a house without understanding the physical security aspects, and you certainly should not place your sensitive information and processing somewhere with any less care.

At a major communications hub in South Korea, we conducted a security and resilience audit for critical secure voice systems. We tested security and access controls, interviewed security forces on response procedures, and exercised re-constitution plans. We checked all supporting systems, microwave radios, and antenna towers. We determined a simple loss of one tower would destroy not just primary, but backup communications into and out of the entire country. The moral of this story is that you cannot overlook even the simplest physical security and continuity element of your system. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cloud, Cyber Security, Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Industries, Retail, Tech Trends

You Had Me at, “Would You Like a Grande Latte?”

April 18, 2012 by Chris Taylor Leave a Comment

My local Safeway isn’t what I would call a very modern store. And the employees are either high-school kids bagging groceries and collecting carts, or middle-aged cashiers, bakers and butchers. It was a big step forward a few years ago when I could sign for my credit card purchase on an electronic device. This morning, I had just finished my transaction when the store manager stepped up and said, “Mr. Taylor?” I nodded my head slowly as I didn’t think he knew my name. I was even more surprised when he said, “My system tells me you’re one of our best customers. Would you like a grande latte? I’d like to offer you a grande-sized drink of your choice at our Starbucks.”

I asked him how he knew. He pointed to his smartphone and said, “It’s a new thing we’re doing to show our appreciation.” Interesting… my low-tech local grocery store has taken a big step up in having the right data, in the right hands, at the right moment, and with the right context. I wasted no time getting my latte and left the store with a big smile on my face.

Personalization

But, I have a secret… we really like shopping at Trader Joe’s. We go to Safeway because it’s closer to my house and carries some things TJ’s doesn’t. Recently, we’ve begun gradually spending less at Safeway and more at the other store, probably something he didn’t know. The “personal” touch he showed, however, is more than we get elsewhere and provides something to think about before we take our business a few miles away. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Loyalty, Mobility, Retail, Tech Trends, Two-Second Advantage

Automate Risk Management with a Highly Secure IT Backbone

April 16, 2012 by Kenan Frager Leave a Comment

High performance, highly secure IT integration of business process systems is now becoming a requirement to compete. Without automated communication between disparate systems, a business runs the risk of leaving important information on the table that can be used to discover opportunities and mitigate risks. Connecting a risk management solution to other systems allows for further monitoring and prevention of possible problems.

When considering government regulations and fines for non-compliance, in fields like securities trading or healthcare, quick and reliable automation of reporting systems becomes essential to function with operational efficiency. Manual data entry is an inefficient use of expensive man-hours, while also greatly increasing the risk of human error. TIBCO solutions leverage years of experience in real-time automation and integration to enable seamless monitoring and documentation.

When a new transparency regulation asked for market price data to be published within just three minutes of a trade, Postbank AG (one of Germany’s largest financial services providers) implemented a TIBCO solution in just six weeks. By integrating 15 different solutions, automating pricing, and using internet platforms, they achieved the highest level of automation in trading transactions. This not only reduces the significant manual effort previously needed, but ensures the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of processes.

“TIBCO Software’s predefined tools and range of interfaces allowed us to map our business processes extremely quickly – much more quickly than would be possible with normal tools … in a record time of just six weeks – clear proof of the flexibility of our architecture.” - Dr Michael Schlosser, Head of Group Client Execution, Postbank AG

Read the details of this rapid implementation.

Filed Under: Automation, Financial Services, Integration, SOA, Tech Trends, Two-Second Advantage Tagged With: Architecture, automation, Dr. Michael Schlosser, Global Innovation Series, innovation series, integration, IT Integration, Postbank AG, Risk Management, Risk Mitigation, Service Oriented Architecture, SOA, TIBCO

Reducing Project Duration by 25%: Magic or Common Sense?

April 13, 2012 by Paul Brown 1 Comment

For years, I’ve been telling IT folks how to shorten the duration of their projects: Make the upfront investment in getting the architecture right. Evidently, this idea hasn’t sunk in. I continue to hear complaints from the business side about IT project’s long duration, only to find that there is no architecture step in the IT project plan. I don’t understand it – it’s like leaving money on the table.

Rework causes the delays – not getting it right the first time. Without an effective investment in architecture, rework in large projects that span multiple systems approaches 100%. That means for every hour spent doing something, another hour is spent fixing it.

Investing in architecture significantly reduces the volume of rework. What the architects do (or should do) is examine the end-to-end business processes and the end-to-end systems dialog that supports them. From that perspective, they determine the changes required of both the business processes and systems to achieve the project goals. The alternative – the one leading to 100% rework – is to let the groups responsible for the individual systems figure it out. This turns out not to be particularly efficient. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Integration, Retail, SOA, Tech Trends, Two-Second Advantage Tagged With: integration

Nothing New in Cloud Security

April 12, 2012 by Don Adams Leave a Comment

Many in the business and academic communities have been up in arms that security risks are too high in cloud implementations, and therefore the status quo is better for sensitive government and commercial environments. Many of those same individuals and organizations are pursuing research grants to come up with new and revolutionary ways to meet this “menacing challenge.” Others joining the chorus have significant investment and long-term contracts to exploit and continue to profit from the status quo. In reality, the issues – when viewed clearly – are the same for a cloud-hosted environment or any well-managed bespoke data center. Let’s delve into the fundamentals that we have known for decades to address the security questions about cloud deployments;l they are the fundamental technical solutions we often ignore or forget in our rush to pursue the “latest and greatest.”

Let’s begin by asking: “What do you know about your cloud provider?” What certifications, evaluations and practices define them? From Amazon Web Services (which has nearly every certification from PCI and FIPS and FISMA to FedRAMP) to your favorite legacy systems integrator, (who has some subset of the measures of trustworthiness) you need to know why they are adequate and appropriate to your information and mission. While the mentioned certifications are mostly for targeted environments, they are very significant to how much you as an end-customer can trust their environment and processes. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cloud, Cloud, Cyber Security, Government, Tech Trends

Technology is at the Heart of Keeping Patients Safe

April 11, 2012 by Dave Chamberlain Leave a Comment

Health Insurance Exchanges (HIX) were supposed to be a cornerstone of the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010, providing a way for individuals and groups to shop around and get affordable healthcare. Federal law mandates every state has to have a fully operational HIX in less than two years time. The act is designed to reduce overall spending on healthcare and raise taxation in a variety of ways by more than $400 billion over the first 10 years. To date, the federal government has awarded over $220 million to help the first 13 states design, build, and go live with their HIX, and over $600 million altogether.

So far so good, it seems. Reduce costs by introducing competition and provide more affordable healthcare for all—sounds great, right? Here’s the rub: Chaos abounds—as reported in the New York Times. States are taking a wait-and-see attitude for the results of the Supreme Court decision due over the summer and also for the results of the November 2011 general elections. On January 1, 2013, Obama will decide which states are advanced enough to run their own HIX, and which will be run by the federal government. Some states have backtracked. According to the New York Times article dated February 27^:

“Wisconsin began planning an exchange last year under an executive order issued by Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican. But he repealed his own order last month and told state officials to stop work on the exchange.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Analytics and Optimization, Automation, BPM, Event Processing, Healthcare, MDM, Spotfire, Tech Trends, Transform

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