TDWI is always a great conference. Not only do I get to see a bunch of good friends but I also get to hear about all the latest trends, technological wonders, challenges, and success stories swirling around business intelligence and data warehousing. There appears to be no slow down in this industry's economy!

I noticed that partnerships between the vendors are booming as well -- I like this trend. These partnerships run the gamut from technology company to technology company, to systems integrators with technology companies, to solutions providers and resellers with technology companies. The booths were filled with logos and case studies documenting these. This means that customers get deep expertise and good integration in all facets of their BI or DW projects.

My own talk on Tuesday with Barry Devlin dealt with the need for this type of collaboration -- especially between the different technologies. Out talk, titled "Navigating the Next Fork in the BI Road", dealt with how companies can get more business value from their traditional BI environments, how they can develop operational BI capabilities, how collaborative technologies can enhance the BI experience, and finally, how BI now needs to reach up the decision value chain to the strategic decision makers. We had a large and lively audience who contributed thoughtful and useful content. Many thanks for your input!

I gave a talk on Wednesday on BI software as a service (SaaS) to an equally lively bunch of attendees. We discussed BI SaaS pros and cons, challenges and success factors, and the guidelines for bringing these novel BI capabilities into your organization. Lots of good discussion on integration issues, data control and privacy, architectural needs, pricing considerations and ROI for BI SaaS. It is a session that I will be doing again for TDWI in the Fall conference.

Finally the Expo was as exciting as it always is -- the energy surrounding each vendor's booth was palpable. There were new companies being launched, new versions of technology being demonstrated, and new customers being listed and discussed. I found it to be as informative as ever -- I think some of the best stories come from just "walking the floor". Netezza's booth was one of the highlights for me -- when I could get to it. They always seemed to be crowded with attendees but I was able to get information on NPS and a few of their customers before moving on!

Hopefully you can be a part of the next conference in August. I guarantee it will be a great time for all, in a great locations - San Diego. Be sure to look me up if you go!

Yours in BI Success -- Claudia Imhoff