No matter what I can’t help but think about all the ways what I am doing or observing is feeding a company’s BI initiative. In talking with companies it is more likely that they are missing an opportunity for a meaningful touchpoint, improving operations or providing Executives with needed insight. The purpose of this blog is to share my experiences and encourage others to do the same.

My first observation was from a plan trip a few months ago. I was sitting next to a gentleman that had a small spiral notebook and laptop. Throughout the flight he was entering information from his notebook into a basic spreadsheet. I saw that it looked like a consultants trip expense report for the last few weeks. A lot of you probably already see where I am heading with this. You would be correct in saying all he needed was a smartphone and he would be done.

The real story is what happened as we were exiting the plan. Seeing we were in the back of the plane we stood the customary time all checking a seat back pockets and jackets for our personal belonging. About half way through this gentleman pulled out a “Costanza wallet.” (If I just lost you please Google “Seinfeld wallet episode”) This wallet contained a very neatly organized series of business cards, receipts, credit cards and personal information. All I could do was smile and say,” Now that is business intelligence. “

In today’s world it is easy to forget that all technology is based on a manual process or idea. As we all know a computer can only do what it is programmed to do. Thanks to code.org more people understand that. I wish I could have spent some time with him learning how his system worked. From that conversation I bet I could have outlined the next great Travel Management and CRM system. In closing we should never lose sight of “Why” we use technology at all.

Next topic: You won’t believe what Best Buy is doing…….

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