The Critical Path

A few years ago I found myself running a B.I. project focused on implementing a global BPM solution for a professional services company. Whilst I was familiar with data warehousing and OLAP cubes this was by far the largest and most complex project I had managed. At the time, my biggest challenge was selecting technology partners. In sales everyone has the winning solution, and I felt I really needed something to cut through the fluff and get down to the core competencies of these companies.

Then a colleague sent me a link to Obis Omni, a Business Intelligence community. I signed up, began attending events and found that overnight I had access to a number of people who had been in my position. I was extended invitations to visit other companies to look at the solutions they had implemented, and had the doors opened to a wealth of valuable advice.

Roll forwards to December 2010 – I find myself considering technology strategies once again. This time the deployment of a Global CRM solution. It looks like a single off-premise database could answer a number of issues, but is the Cloud up to it? Enter “The Cloud Circle”, bought to you by the people behind Obis Omni.

“The Cloud Circle is the UK’s first Independent Business and IT focused Cloud Computing Community. It was formed in 2009 to get beyond the hype, to get to the business issues around Cloud Computing, and to help our members:”

• “Understand what Cloud Computing really means and the potential advantages of Cloud Computing to their organisation”
• “Evaluate the key Cloud technologies and solution providers and explore what services they have to offer”
• “Derive the maximum benefit from their Cloud initiatives”

I hope The Cloud Circle is going to act as a catalyst for the transfer of knowledge and information between organisations with an interest in off – premise / cloud computing. If Cloud really is the new paradigm in computing, communities like The Cloud Circle are going to become increasingly important in managing and disseminating knowledge. The team behind The Cloud Circle have created a great community in the Business Intelligence space and I see no reason why The Cloud Circle shouldn’t follow suit.

I am hoping to get some good Cloud content up during January and extend an open invitation to anyone with a blog, a service or even an axe to grind to submit url’s to me through the comments function for inclusion.