Business Intelligence Competency Center

December 15, 2008

Storage companies are quite creative. Consider the phrase “business intelligence”. When one applies this phrase to General Motors or the Chicago Tribune, the word oxymoron comes to mind. An oxymoron expresses an incongruity; for example, “government efficiency” or “go fast slowly”. EMC wants to certify competency, so the company created a one-stop shop for business intelligence in a Competency Center. You can read the Intelligent Enterprise (another oxymoron?) article by Antone Gonsalves here. Mr. Gonsalves wrote:

The center would help IT organizations evaluate, plan and architect their implementation with EMC acting as the information infrastructure provider and the data warehouse/business intelligence software provider. EMC would take on the dual role through its consulting services, which would provide white papers, planning and design and the integrated joint applications.

Now EMC is a publicly traded company with a share price in the $10 range. Google Finance says here:

EMC’s Information Infrastructure business consists of three segments: Information Storage, Content Management and Archiving, and RSA Information Security. In December 2007, the Company acquired Dokumentum Services CIS, a distribution and consulting services provider focused on providing marketing, support and maintenance, consulting, training and localization services related to its Content Management software. In March 2008, the Company completed the acquisition of Document Sciences Corporation and Infra Corporation Pty Limited.

My brief and memorable encounters with Documentum gave me a new respect for complexity. I assume the Competency Center will bridge the gap between storage devices and information management and access. Nifty marketing angle. When I was younger, I would have less skeptical about a Competency Center. Now I think it is a way to teach customers how to get really complicated stuff to work.

Stephen Arnold, December 15, 2008

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Enterprise, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.