Every organization has gatekeepers—people tasked with providing or denying access to people and assets. Database administrators (DBAs) have traditionally served that role in handling user requests for vital business and system data. The drawback is that these duties eat up a lot of time, as do other job actions such as troubleshooting and status updates.

A portal-based system-management solution, called Teradata Viewpoint, eases these burdens. Steve Ratay, Teradata Viewpoint chief architect, says it provides business and technical users with self-service access to data through a Web browser—DBAs can access performance data from virtually anywhere, while users can view the data warehouse using Web applications or portlets. Find out more about how it works and the variety of benefits it brings by reading the Teradata Magazine Q&A with Ratay.
 
Brett Martin
Associate Editor
Teradata Magazine 

Organizations spent more than $40 billion on content marketing last year, with a record-breaking $16 billion invested in digital and “other” content, according to a study by the Custom Content Council and ContentWise. Being successful in these efforts requires a detailed understanding of who the customer really is. 

Bob Costa, a product manager for Aprimo Master Data Manager, says getting the vital information necessary to create a single view of the customer across the enterprise and across channels is only possible with an integrated customer master data strategy. Once that’s in place, an organization has the means to improve customer relationship management effectiveness, profitability analysis and customer scoring. In turn, they can rest assured that when they talk, receptive customers are listening.

Brett Martin
Associate Editor
Teradata Magazine

The Y2K scare was instructive on many levels, not least of which was that lack of foresight and planning can turn a seemingly simple issue into a big problem that puts businesses on edge. It’s amazing to think that computer programmers writing code prior to the new millennium couldn’t see the folly of ignoring the first two digits of the year. Sure, allowing for a four-digit year might have cost some space and added complexity to the process up front, but in the end, the billions of dollars and untold hours spent on resolving the issue at the turn of the century could have all been avoided.

As organizations enter the analytics arena, they would do well to keep this lesson in mind: Investing in seemingly complex solutions to problems on the front end can often alleviate expensive fixes later. Rob Armstrong, director of the Teradata data warehousing group, offers sample scenarios and a list of critical questions enterprises should ask themselves to make sure they don’t create a new kind of Y2K for themselves!

Jennifer Niemela
Executive Editor
Teradata Magazine
 

One-size-fits-all doesn’t work in retail—there are just too many body types for a single size to dress everyone comfortably. The same holds true for business intelligence (BI) architecture for organizations. Wayne Eckerson, a noted speaker, consultant and author, says that shoehorning diverse type of business users, workloads and data into a single architecture can lead to disappointing results. 

To succeed in the next decade, BI professionals need to adopt a new way of thinking. Eckerson says the BI Framework 2020 offers the next-generation BI ecosystem that delivers a flexible approach to data architecture. This new framework has a simple concept—you can’t put all of your BI activities into a single environment. Sure, this requires breaking away from the traditional framework of the past, but the end result is an ecosystem with multiple reporting and analysis capabilities that are a better fit for your business users. It’s like wearing tailored clothes instead of trying to fit into your outdated T-shirt from 15 years ago.

Brett Martin
Associate Editor
Teradata Magazine 

There’s a lot of homework to be done before making a big purchase–gathering research, asking detailed questions and ultimately determining which product best meets a given set of requirements. When it comes to selecting a database system that can support the analytical needs of a business, William McKnight, an enterprise information consultant and strategist, points out that database capabilities have exploded over the last few years, giving organizations a variety of options.

According to McKnight, the key to finding the perfect match is to weigh both current and future workloads against the benefits of different types of databases by looking at categories of information management storage.

With growing amounts of data coming from a greater variety of sources, organizations must ensure their database investment not only satisfies today’s enterprise data management needs, but that it will also be able to meet unforeseen challenges in the years ahead. That’s how you gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Brett Martin
Associate Editor
Teradata Magazine 
 

Unlike its counterparts on the Strip, Las Vegas-based gaming enterprise Station Casinos sees many of its guests weekly or even daily, making a loyalty and customer valuation program a must-have. As part of the company’s Boarding Pass program, millions of guests signed up for a rewards card that earns points for all their activities from gaming to hotel stays to restaurant purchases and more. The rich data generated is integrated with various types of customer information and analyzed to measure customer value.

The deep customer insight has enabled more precise—and productive—marketing campaigns. The results: Station Casinos cut $1 million per month from its budget, saw a 4% increase in total monthly slot revenue, and gained a 14% improvement in guest retention. Now that’s quite a payoff.

Jennifer Niemela
Executive Editor
Teradata Magazine