The changing world

I presume we’ve all had those conversations about how the world had changed since we were kids…looking forward to the Christmas TV guide to see what the big movie was going to be, as that was the time they would be premiered in our own homes (and were usually several years old, as they’d done numerous circuits of the cinemas before they got there). From this we progressed to the VCR when you could watch films whenever you wanted, but had to get it from the video shop and then make sure you rewound the tape before returning it (or face the fine!). The next step was DVD with surround sound, and having it delivered directly to your door, no longer even having to leave the house to enjoy your favourite film! All that has now been left behind by all the latest streaming services which not only allow you to go from selection to viewing in seconds, but then also suggests other films you might like that you may not have heard of! So, in our own homes we adopt new technologies and move with the times, but how do we do at work? Not as well, it would seem! To book a holiday for our families, all it takes is a search across the internet, comparing the flight/hotel deals and, in a matter of minutes, everything is booked, and we’re ready to go. You get to work and want to understand what the sales are for a particular product in a particular region and, if this is a new question, first of all, this will be too difficult for you to actually answer yourself, secondly, the person who does have the skills to answer this will take a number of days to do so and, thirdly, you’re in a queue of another 100 or so questions before yours, so it will likely be weeks or months before they will even start looking at it! All of this also presumes the best case scenario, that the data is already available, transformed and aggregated appropriately in the data warehouse/data mart, or all bets are off as to when you will get your answer! Does this sound familiar? Is this the best we can do?

Well, thankfully not!

The IT industry is also moving on, for those willing to move forward! If you’re interested to find out what the new world looks like, come and talk to us, otherwise, make sure you rewound VCR before returning the tape…