Informatica Perspectives

Are BI managers and professionals sometimes too eager to please the business? Are centralized BI efforts slowing down progress? Should BI teams address requirements before the business even asks for them? These questions may seem counter-intuitive, but Wayne Eckerson, director of research for TDWI, says that the best intentions for BI efforts in many organizations may actually result in sluggish projects, duplication of effort, and misaligned priorities between BI teams and the business. [Read more]

Any budget crunches that hit organizations this year may not directly affect enterprise data management initiatives, but EDM and associated middleware will be called upon to help businesses through turbulent times. [Read more]

Consistent, correct data. That doesn’t sound too complicated, does it? But actually, one of the most daunting challenges facing CFOs and their staffs today is how to ensure that the financial information they supply to stakeholders, both externally and internally, is consistent and correct.

The checklist for compliance seems to grow whenever you turn around. Sarbanes-Oxley, US Patriots Act, HIPAA. MiFID, Basel II, PCI data security standards, etc. – were these even part of our vocabulary several years ago?

Even when we have achieved statutory compliance, can we really audit our data from the point of origin to consumption? Why do we rely on so much manual reconciliation to audit and trace the data flows across systems each month, whether for cash flow forecasting or revenue recognition validation? Wasn’t each one of these financial systems supposed to get us the “single version of the truth?” [Read more]