by Kathy Sucich | Sep 19, 2017 | Beverage Alcohol |
Wine and spirits wholesalers in the U.S. account for 74,000 jobs and $6.5 billion in wages. While it is a male-dominated industry, women are increasingly making their mark.
Tweet: Honoring Women in the Wine & Spirits Industry
To promote and connect women in the industry, the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association (WSWA) created the Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) last year. This year, Dimensional Insight was proud to sponsor the group’s conference in Washington, DC. I attended on behalf of the company. Here are a few observations from the event.
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by George Dealy | Sep 14, 2017 | General BI |
If you’re involved in any way with analyzing information, you undoubtedly are acquainted with the term “big data” by now. There is certainly a proliferation of electronic data becoming available in increasing abundance. But just because there’s more of it, is it really that much different from the data we’ve had right along? I’d argue that the basics are still very much the same but with the addition of both rich possibilities for finding meaning and daunting challenges for filtering out the noise.
Tweet: Numeracy: Analytical Skills for the 21st Century
In this blog series, which I’m calling Practical Analysis, I’ll explore the emerging role of the analyst in helping to answer some questions that I’ll discuss below and in building a body of knowledge to take advantage of the data deluge. Hopefully by the end, you’ll be completely jazzed about your future as an analyst!
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by Jean Collins | Sep 13, 2017 | General BI, Product News |
Do you need to compare periodic sales data across different regions or different products to inform and support your sales team? You have the data, but you need to quickly turn it into easily consumable, visual presentations. Enter DivePort’s powerful chart portlet where you can produce and edit a multitude of visualizations without context switching as you customize your dashboard.
Tweet: Learn about Chart Portlet and the Future of Dimensional Insight Visualizations
The chart portlet is one of DivePort’s newest features. It was designed to be the main visualization tool for Spectre data in DivePort 7. However, you don’t need Spectre data to take advantage of the new chart portlet. Most of the features are compatible with models and marker files, too.
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by Rose Weinberger | Aug 31, 2017 | General BI |
Many of our customers have commented recently on how beautiful our new application interface designs look. But do they know who is responsible for these visually stunning displays? It is Zhenggang Hu, our user interface (UI) designer. Zhenggang has been the designer of many of Dimensional Insight’s software; he currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts and works out of the Dimensional Insight Burlington office.
Tweet: Meet Dimensional Insight’s Top Dashboard Designer, Zhenggang Hu
I sat down with Zhenggang recently to get an idea of how he works and thought our readers might also be interested in learning more about him. Read on to learn more about Zhenggang’s role at Dimensional Insight, his creative process, and the project he’s most proud of. (more…)
by George Dealy | Aug 29, 2017 | Healthcare |
Take any population – any group of people. Let’s say you have a group of healthcare professionals in one room. They have in common their area of work. But if you were to ask that group of people what “population” they belong to, you might get a variety of different answers. Red Sox fans, for instance – or Cubs fans. Or something else entirely, such as gender, age, residency, political leanings, etc.
Tweet: What to Consider as You’re Starting to Measure Population Health
That’s the thing with populations. There are myriad ways to define them. Sometimes they are easy to define, but most times they are not. There is a lot of overlap in populations, especially when it comes to the healthcare environment. In this blog post, we’ll talk about some of the biggest challenges when it comes to dealing with populations within the healthcare environment – what’s known as population health management. We’ll also look at some examples of how you can use population health information and apply it to solve real-life problems. (more…)
by Alison Nicoli | Aug 15, 2017 | Beverage Alcohol |
Cost-conscious consumers take advantage of instant access to pricing and item availability on their smartphones, often choosing the best bang for their buck over brand loyalty. To win and retain customers, companies are launching significantly more promotions and incentive programs. So how do you measure and analyze the effectiveness of these promotions?
Tweet: 5 ways your BI platform should optimize your distributed sales channel
Distributed sales channels, such as those in the beverage alcohol industry, are more challenging than direct-to-consumer sales models because of the limited visibility suppliers have downstream. As sales models become more complex, the number of data sources that need to be integrated and analyzed exponentially increases. With the right business intelligence (BI) platform, you can overcome these hurdles. Here are five ways your BI platform should help you optimize your distributed sales channel. (more…)
by Jean Collins | Aug 10, 2017 | General BI, Product News |
Everyone knows the old adage, “A picture is worth 1,000 words.” How true this is, too, for data represented geographically! Maps provide an intuitive way to compare data across various regions turning tabular data into easily interpreted visual information.
Tweet: How to use map portlet to visualize geographic data
Available in Dimensional Insight’s Diver Platform 7.0.26 and later, the map portlet is redesigned with a configuration wizard, graphical user interface, and significant new functionality to make it easy to integrate geographically represented data on your dashboards. (more…)
by Kathy Sucich | Aug 7, 2017 | General BI |
A few weeks ago, I attended the Real Business Intelligence Conference, which was hosted by Dresner Advisory Services on the campus of MIT. The show was packed with great presentations by speakers such as Dr. Theresa Johnson of Airbnb, Professor Thomas Malone of the MIT Sloan School of Management, and David Dadoun of the Aldo Group.
Tweet: The downside of data science
One of the more thought-provoking presentations was given by Cathy O’Neil, author of the book, “Weapons of Math Destruction”, in which she argues that mathematical models and algorithms give the illusion of being impartial, but in actuality, many of them end up perpetuating stereotypes and inequality. Following Cathy’s presentation, I sat down to read her book. Here are some of my thoughts.
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by Kathy Sucich | Aug 2, 2017 | General BI |
Over the last several months, we have profiled a number of our distributor partners on the blog. Today, the spotlight is on Andy Dennis of eProgram, based in Australia.
Tweet: Spotlight on our Distributors: Andy Dennis of eProgram
eProgram has been a Dimensional Insight distributor since 2002. In this blog post, Andy tells us a little bit about his company, the types of customers his organization works with, and the trends he is observing in technology and business intelligence.
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by Kathy Sucich | Jul 27, 2017 | Healthcare |
Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN) magazine recently announced its 19th annual Most Wired survey honorees, and I’m happy to report that several of our customers made the list! Congratulations to our 20 healthcare customers that were honored.
Tweet: Congratulations to our Most Wired customers
The annual Most Wired survey measures the level of IT adoption within hospitals and health systems. In addition to providing a list of hospitals and health systems that meet the criteria, H&HN also provides some interesting data with the survey. Here are a couple of points that stood out. (more…)
by Rose Weinberger | Jul 25, 2017 | Beverage Alcohol |
The role of a salesperson is difficult. Salespeople are often challenged with less than perfect working environments, yet they are expected to excel without the tools office workers have at their disposal. In the office, workers have all the resources they need readily available: presentations, files, data, and experienced staff to help with department-specific answers to questions.
Tweet: How to best support your salespeople
But what about those whose jobs require them to “live” on the road? How can they most effectively do their jobs and gain access to the same tools that in-house office workers have? That’s what we’ll be examining in this blog post. (more…)
by Kathy Sucich | Jul 17, 2017 | Healthcare |
Healthcare is inarguably facing some of the most daunting challenges today, with the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the uncertainty of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), numerous other regulations with which providers must comply, new payment models, and much more.
Tweet: 3 healthcare challenges and how analytics can help
At our recent Dimensional Insight Users Conference (DIUC17), Julie Beard from KLAS Research spoke at a couple of our breakout sessions about some of the biggest healthcare challenges providers indicate they are facing today and where the industry is headed. (more…)
by Rose Weinberger | Jul 6, 2017 | General BI |
People often confuse design with style. But this is misguided. They do not mean the same thing. Design principles do not change. Yet style is changing constantly.
Tweet: Visual standards in dashboard design
In this article, I am going to take a look at visual standards in dashboard design. We’ll examine how you can use design principles to determine the best dashboard – both in style and in functionality – for your users. (more…)
by Kathy Sucich | Jul 5, 2017 | General BI |
At our recent Dimensional Insight Users Conference (DIUC17), industry analyst Howard Dresner, who coined the term “business intelligence” back in 1989, joined our CEO Fred Powers on stage to talk about some of the trends in business intelligence today. The timing was serendipitous, as Howard had recently released the results of Dresner Advisory Services’ 2017 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study.
Tweet: 3 business intelligence trends and how they impact your organization
Here are 3 trends that Fred and Howard discussed at the conference. (more…)
by Sam Yarmuth | Jun 22, 2017 | General BI |
From time to time, we showcase a Dimensional Insight employee on our blog so you can meet some of the “best and brightest” who work here. Today, we introduce you to one of our support technicians based out of our Green Bay office.
Tweet: Meet the Dimensional Insight team: Michael Kostrewa
If you are a Dimensional Insight customer, chances are good that you’ve talked to Michael Kostrewa before. The support Michael provides enables our customers make the most of our software, and therefore, gain the most valuable insights for their company. We recently sat down with Michael to learn more about his background, how he came to work at Dimensional Insight, and his ideas for the future. (more…)
by Kathy Sucich | Jun 14, 2017 | General BI |
Many of our “Divers” descended on Boston recently for our annual Dimensional Insight Users Conference (DIUC17). The four-day event featured a keynote by our CEO, Fred Powers, a technology update and future preview from our lab, 4 training sessions, 8 customer presentations, 27 breakout sessions, a product showcase, and an evening cruise around Boston Harbor.
Tweet: Key takeaways from DIUC17
I’d like to extend a huge thank you to our customers and partners who traveled near and far to attend the conference, as well as our employees who spent countless hours putting together the agenda and ensuring that the conference ran smoothly. For those of you who weren’t able to attend DIUC17 (or if you did attend and just want a recap of events!), here are a few takeaways from the event and where we’ll be focusing our time over the coming months. (more…)
by Jean Collins | Jun 6, 2017 | General BI, Product News |
Dimensional Insight’s powerful Diver Platform puts extensive data visualization options at your fingertips. It provides quick access to large volumes of data and dashboards that help you transform insights into measurable information. So, wouldn’t it be great if Diver could integrate statistics into dashboards? Well, it can!
Tweet: Integrating statistics into Diver with R
In this blog post, we will show you how to leverage the muscle of R, the data scientist’s go-to statistical computing and graphics language, with Diver. With R, you can have interactive forecasts and predictive functionality right in your DivePort dashboards. (more…)
by Kathy Sucich | Jun 1, 2017 | General BI |
The 2017 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study is out, and with it comes some thought-provoking data about the state of business intelligence. Dresner Advisory Services, which conducted the survey, drew from a pool of more than a thousand users to gain insight into 33 different areas of business intelligence initiatives.
Tweet: Key takeaways from the 2017 Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study
The results show more people are using business intelligence in different ways, and to varying degrees of success. Here are some of the key takeaways from the report. (more…)
by Kathy Sucich | May 30, 2017 | Healthcare |
The American Health Care Act (AHCA) is on the minds of many healthcare professionals since the bill passed in the U.S. House and since the Congressional Budget Office recently released its score on it. As a result, the implications of the bill were front and center at the ACHE of Massachusetts Spring Conference, held on May 25th at the Sheraton Framingham.
Tweet: How healthcare is responding to the AHCA and value-based initiatives
In addition to the AHCA, the half-day conference also focused on how leaders are adjusting to the “new reality” of other aspects of healthcare. These aspects included new forms of reimbursement, a focus on quality, and how hospitals survive in a world of both consolidation and fragmentation. (more…)
by Sam Yarmuth | May 25, 2017 | General BI |
Dimensional Insight has a network of global distributors to help us sell to industries all over the world. Over the last several months, we have profiled several of these distributors and introduced you to their businesses. All of our distributors play a vital role in expanding the Dimensional Insight brand to customers looking to gain valuable insights in their data.
Tweet: Spotlight on our distributors: Meet Remi Gagnon of Telesafe Asia
Today, we introduce you to Remi Gagnon, managing director of Telesafe Asia Co., our main distributor in Southeast Asia. Based in Bangkok, Thailand, Telesafe Asia offers a wide range of business intelligence (BI) solutions in several industries. Remi sat down to tell us more about his company’s relationship with Dimensional Insight. He also discussed the future of business intelligence solutions. (more…)
by Kathy Sucich | May 19, 2017 | Healthcare |
On Wednesday, May 17, Health Data Management hosted the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT awards at the Sheraton Boston. The event brought together nearly 150 women from healthcare organizations, technology companies, and industry thought leaders.
Tweet: Honoring the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT
Dimensional Insight sponsored the event for the second year. For us, this provided an opportunity to honor the contributions of our female leaders at Dimensional Insight, as well as the female leaders at our hospital and health system customers. Here are a few highlights from the event. (more…)
by Kathy Sucich | May 16, 2017 | Healthcare |
I recently attended the New England HIMSS Spring Conference, held at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. (home of the Super Bowl LI Champion New England Patriots – yeah!) The event focused on some of the most pressing challenges in healthcare today. That includes the shift to value-based care, the complexity of healthcare, and patient engagement.
Tweet: 3 takeaways from the New England HIMSS Spring Conference
What’s clear is that there is no shortage of work to do in healthcare IT in order to support organizational drivers such as improved outcomes and reduced costs. I walked away from the conference with a number of ideas and insights, and here, winnowed it down to my top 3 takeaways. (more…)
by Sam Yarmuth | May 11, 2017 | General BI |
We are thrilled to announce the speaker lineup for the Dimensional Insight Users Conference (DIUC), which will be held June 5-8 in Boston. In addition to all the sessions and training seminars planned, some of our most prolific Diver Platform customers are coming to share their insights and knowledge that helped grow their businesses.
Tweet: DIUC17 speaker lineup is here!
You’ll hear from experts in industries such as healthcare, beverage alcohol, and education talk about how Diver has transformed their decision-making. As a result, you’ll be able to implement this knowledge in your own organization to drive change. Here’s what you can expect on the agenda. (more…)
by Kathy Sucich | May 9, 2017 | Healthcare |
As this week is both National Nurses Week and National Hospital Week, we’d like to take a moment to salute medical professionals who work tirelessly day in and day out on behalf of their patients. In addition, we’d like to thank our healthcare customers who provide excellent care to their patients, and who allow us to help them get there.
Tweet: A salute to our medical professionals
Medical professionals face a number of challenges in their jobs, ranging from the difficulties of patient care to the uncertainties of public policy to the demands of technology. Here we’d like to talk about just a couple of our healthcare customers who are successfully navigating these challenges. (more…)
by Jean Collins | May 2, 2017 | General BI, Product News |
Dimensional Insight provides online help for WorkBench 7.0 and ProDiver 7.0. In the Workbench help, you can find all the documentation for Workbench plus the DiveLine Server, DiveTab, Production, DiveMaster, DIAL, Spectre, Visual Builder, and Visual Integrator. Online help for DivePort 7.0 is in the works.
Tweet: How to access Dimensional Insight online help
How do you access the online help? Could you use some tips or tricks to find what you need and get you back to work faster? Read on to learn the highlights of our new online help. (more…)
by Sam Yarmuth | Apr 27, 2017 | Beverage Alcohol |
As many of you know, being out of the office for a few days for an event can throw you for a loop! After settling back in and catching up on emails, it’s important to reflect on the conference you recently returned from in order to understand the true value it brought to the company. For us, the WSWA 74th Annual Convention and Exposition, held in Orlando, Florida, was a great success. Our hospitality suite, Del Lago 3/4, had excellent foot traffic. We also saw a host of familiar customer faces as well as exciting new ones.
Tweet: 3 takeaways from the WSWA 74th Annual Convention & Exposition
In addition, we announced our newest applications, Program Advisor, Supplier Advisor, and Distributor Advisor, which were all well received. We also had a killer customer presentation from one of our close friends from Lipman Brothers, Susan Adkins. Here are some additional details on my takeaways from the event. (more…)
by Natalie Cantave | Apr 26, 2017 | General BI |
We always enjoy profiling our employees on our blog because their hard work and dedication make this company the strong organization it has been. Today, we introduce you to another one of our stellar employees – someone who strives to support our customers.
Tweet: Meet the Dimensional Insight team: Susan Mays
Susan Mays is Dimensional Insight’s vice president of customer services. She contributes to conversations surrounding the healthcare industry and manages our consulting team. She plays a key role in making the company customer-focused. Here’s a conversation I had with Susan on the recent changes in the healthcare industry and the challenges hospitals face in leveraging business intelligence/technology. (more…)
by George Dealy | Apr 18, 2017 | Healthcare |
Healthcare organizations understand the need for business intelligence and healthcare analytics. However, there still seems to be a lot of uncertainty around exactly what kind of demonstrable value can be realized from BI solutions.
Tweet: Key takeaways from the ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership
That was one of the biggest takeaways from the ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership. The event, which took place in Chicago, featured more than 150 educational sessions for the 4,000 healthcare executives in attendance. Here are some of my other takeaways from the event. (more…)
by Kathy Sucich | Apr 13, 2017 | Healthcare |
Our previous blog posts on value-based care focused on the need for healthcare analytics, and gave examples of how some hospitals are using analytics with great success. It is clear from those examples that the changing landscape means now is the right time for healthcare organizations to use analytics to give greater insights into their data and make better decisions that improve outcomes. This will be critical to succeed in the value-based world.
Tweet: Why the time for healthcare analytics adoption is now
But in order to make that change, you need to decide on the right healthcare analytics solution. Here are 3 things your solution must have so your organization can gain the right level of insights. (more…)
by Sam Yarmuth | Apr 12, 2017 | General BI |
In June, we will once again be holding our Dimensional Insight Users Conference (DIUC) for Diver Platform users. It will be held at the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor. We have a jam-packed schedule of speakers, training courses, sessions, and more to help you learn more about the Diver Platform not only from us, but also from other Dimensional Insight customers.
Tweet: 3 reasons to attend DIUC17
The theme for this year’s conference is “MORE”. That stands for “Measures of Reaching Excellence”, but it also means “more” in terms of more sessions, more training, and more networking. If you haven’t signed up for DIUC17 yet, here’s why you should register. (more…)
