Companies Investing in More BI, Despite Reported Use of Multiple Tools

The Challenges of Gaining Useful Insight into Data

As I discussed yesterday, a shift is happening in business intelligence and experts aren’t sure how it will change software or IT’s role.

One item that I didn’t discuss in that post, though, is the possible impact on BI teams. Self-serve BI will mean an end to BI teams who simply generate reports, Gartner research Vice President Rita Sallam told ComputerWeekly recently. To compensate, BI teams should adopt digital business, which includes more analytics work, she added.

For now, BI teams must be safe: A recent survey by TrustRadius shows that more technical BI users actually use multiple best-of-breed tools, averaging anywhere from 1.7 to 2.5 tools, depending on the size of the organization.

Organizations are still investing in tools, too. Fifty percent of the organizations surveyed said they plan to spend slightly more or substantially more on BI tools in 2015.

Will Data Quality Problems Lead to Lawsuits?

The Supreme Court will hear a class-action case that could have wide ramifications for companies who collect and publish data on individuals.

Thomas Robins sued Spokeo.com, which compiles and publicly publishes data on people, when he found that the company’s information on him was full of errors on core information such as his age, degree acquired, employment and marital status.

The case centers on whether publishing incorrect information publicly violates the Fair Crediting Reporting Act, regardless of actual harm, AP reports.

If the high court upholds the suit, Spokeo could face damages of $1,000 per violation under the Act. Of course, Internet companies such as Google and Facebook are keeping a close eye on this case, but in the age of monetizing data, it also highlights the importance of using data quality and governance.

Hospital Offers No Opt Out for Apple HealthKit Data Integration

Internet of Things advocates have long talked about how personal devices could be used to aid doctors and patients. Now, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has retooled its electronic health records system to integrate data from Apple’s HealthKit platform, Bloomberg Business reports.

Technically, that means more than 80,000 patients’ data would feed data into the system, making this the largest health care integration for Apple.

Two things struck me about this particular deployment:

1. There’s no way to opt in or out, except to not use the app. Hospital CTO Darren Dworkin was pretty matter-of-fact about this apparently: “The opt-out is just don’t use it,” he’s quoted as saying. That position is a bit unusual, so it’ll be interesting to see how that works out.
2. The hospital has no particular plans for how to use the data. That’s a bit unusual to see in print but, of course, it’s the default plan for most Internet of Things data. Again, I’ll be watching to see how that pans out.

Loraine Lawson is a veteran technology reporter and blogger. She currently writes the Integration blog for IT Business Edge, which covers all aspects of integration technology, including data governance and best practices. She has also covered IT/Business Alignment and IT Security for IT Business Edge. Before becoming a freelance writer, Lawson worked at TechRepublic as a site editor and writer, covering mobile, IT management, IT security and other technology trends. Previously, she was a webmaster at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and a newspaper journalist. Follow Lawson at Google+ and on Twitter.