From time to time on our blog, we have profiled our employees who help make this company the strong, customer-focused organization that it is. Today, we introduce you to another one of our stellar employees – someone who plays multiple roles and takes on some of our most challenging tasks.
Tim Lindeman is Dimensional Insight’s vice president of business innovation. But that title doesn’t fully encapsulate the many different hats he wears here. Tim is someone who is involved in managing our Chinese operations, in our product development, and in our marketing and sales operations. He is one of our key staff who helps our organization run more smoothly. Here’s a conversation I had with Tim on how he came to our company and where he sees business intelligence heading.
Tim, what is your position at Dimensional Insight, and what do you do in that role?
I’m vice president of business innovation at Dimensional Insight, where I have worked since 2006. I have a large variety of roles in this position. I oversee Dimensional Insight’s China subsidiary and market that provides business intelligence products and services, which I inherited from my previous job in China. In addition, I am the product manager for the Teamer product, an internal collaboration and communication platform that has plans to go-to-market. Teamer is essentially a tool that enables organizations to centralize their communication and work for all business-related activities. I collaborate with our Netherlands development office on Teamer. I also handle legal and administrative matters, ranging from trademarks and contracts to patents. Additionally, I work on RFPs and pre-sales support. Finally, I oversee and collaborate with John Hu, our user experience designer, on product user experience. So my position overall tackles both strategic and administrative tasks.
How did you come to work at Dimensional Insight?
Prior to working at Dimensional Insight, I was working in China in a business development position at a different software company. I met Fred and Stan, Dimensional Insight’s co-founders, who were in China looking for potential partners. After conversations with them, I decided to connect with Fred, who offered me the position. Fred then allowed me to work in China and run the subsidiary there for 7 years. I’ve been working in our headquarters in Burlington since then.
Tell me about Dimensional Insight’s China subsidiary.
Dimensional Insight’s China subsidiary is located in Guangzhou, a city just outside of Hong Kong that is almost the size of New York City. There are 10 staff members there, and a general manager who oversees the business. I communicate with her weekly. Our China office targets mainly hospitals and health systems but also works with high technology, telecommunications, and manufacturing industries. It has more than 20 customers, and is considered one of the leaders of the healthcare business intelligence market in China.
Where do you see the business intelligence industry heading?
The future of the business intelligence industry is moving away from broad, generation reporting and analysis. In addition, there are new product functionalities and capabilities being introduced. The future of BI, in my opinion, is heading in a direction towards niche applications, which will target more specific problems. There is more of a focus on reporting and analysis for specific causes and solutions for highly specified problems. This is because basic reporting and analysis needs have been met, and many general BI tools are in market. Also, customer service and loyalty will be even more important in the future as vendors must maintain their current customers. They will have to work even harder to provide support and a positive user experience in order to have customers continue to use their products, rather than switch to a new vendor and product, which is expensive and onerous.
What do you think is top of mind for companies when it comes to business intelligence?
This makes me think of a list of questions that companies often ask in terms of business intelligence. They want to know: “Do you understand my industry?” “Do you understand my data and problems?” “Can you help me solve my problems?” “What have you done for other companies like me?” “Can you integrate data in a way that’s accurate?” “Can you manage my business rules?” “Can you make your tool/product easy for everyone to understand and use so everyone can trust the data?”
Why do you enjoy working at Dimensional Insight?
Every day is different, challenging and interesting at Dimensional Insight. I enjoy working here because the people are great, passionate, dedicated, and hard-working. Dimensional Insight is a company that is proud of its product, and our employees work hard to satisfy our customers and produce great software. We are a company with a strong engineering mindset, which I think is also another unique quality. Most importantly, we have excellent leadership whom I’m proud to work with, especially the co-founders who still work well together since running the company for 28 years.
Tell me about yourself. What do you like to do in your free time?
I come from a liberal arts background; I majored in international relations in college but always had an interest in computers. The intersection between computers/technology and international relations has always interested me, which is what drew me to work in China originally. I have a business degree from MIT Sloan and have interests in all aspects of management (strategy, marketing, administration, company culture). On a personal note, I love music – especially Bach – and enjoy spending time with my family.
Thanks for your time, Tim! Read more of our employee profiles.
- Understanding Wineries’ Top 3 IT Priorities - September 18, 2018
- 3 Skills Tomorrow’s Distributor Executives Need to Know - August 29, 2018
- Dimensional Insight Book Club: Why We Sleep - August 23, 2018
