On behalf of the local TDWI DC chapter board we invite you to join us at the
next meeting of the chapter. This is a FREE event and all interested BI / DW
professionals are invited!

Please, mark your calendars!
WHEN: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2007

WHAT: THE DC AREA CHAPTER OF TDWI
THE DATA WAREHOUSING INSTITUTE - Quarterly Meeting

WHERE: Allegis Group
7312 Parkway Dr, Hanover, MD 21076

TIME: 9:00AM-12:00PM

Your pre-registration is required by the event hosting organization’s
building security rules. Please, complete the attached Chapter Attendance
Form, print it by pressing “Print this Form ” and bring it with you to the
event.
Please, RSVP: Ron Allan at allanr@georgetown.edu
or
Margaret Ikeda at Margaret Ikeda mikeda@tdwi.org

AGENDA:
8:30 - Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:00 - Welcome: M.C. Sankar, Vice President, Enterprise Applications
Development TD Ameritrade
9:30 - Speaker: Nancy Williams, Vice President DecisionPath Consulting
“Charting the Path to Real Business Intelligence”
10:30 - Break and Networking
11:00 - Speaker: Alan Simon Managing Principal, Precision Business
Intelligence “Long-Lived BI: The Ten-Year (or longer!) BI Architecture; Best
Practices and How to Avoid Common Pitfalls.” Case study: Quaker Oats (now
part of PepsiCo)
12:00 - Feedback and Closing Remarks: M.C. Sankar
12:30 - Adjournment

“Charting the Path to Real Business Intelligence”
Where are you with BI today? And where does your organization want to go?
Successful BI organizations actively seek ways to optimize information as a
tool to continuously improve business performance. Because real BI requires
the difficult task of “rethinking” how to use information - as much a
business challenge as one for IT - few organizations realize the full
potential of BI. Using the BI Maturity Framework, Nancy discusses the
journey that commonly occurs as organizations mature from their legacy
information processes to true business intelligence. Common obstacles are
part of the migration and an important part of the discussion.

You’ll Walk Away From this Presentation with a Better Understanding of:

* How to identify your organization’s stage of BI maturity
* The common obstacles to real BI and how they manifest in your organization
* How to envision a BI future where your business and IT organizations work
together to navigate the path to BI maturity

Nancy Williams is a vice president and principal consultant with
DecisionPath Consulting and has more than 20 years of business and technical
experience. Nancy is co-author of the recently released book entitled “The
Profit Impact of Business Intelligence”. She is also co-author of The BI
Pathway Approach, a full lifecycle BI implementation methodology, has
written numerous articles for leading BI and DW publications, and presents
regularly at TDWI conferences. Her consulting experience includes
requirements facilitation, business case development, program planning and
logical data modeling for a wide range of clients in the commercial and
government sectors.

“Long-Lived BI: The Ten-Year (or longer!) BI Architecture; Best Practices
and How to Avoid Common Pitfalls.” Case study

An all-too-common occurrence - even today - is the BI architecture that even
when successfully established and deployed quickly becomes obsolete, leaving
behind yet another expensive legacy environment that does little to achieve
an organization’s BI intentions. Using work done at Quaker Oats in the
2000-2001 timeframe while the PepsiCo acquisition was occurring, this
presentation will explore best practices in:

- Overall component-based architecture principles
- Aligning architectural properties and constructs with organizational
structure and culture
- Technology selection, including when incumbent technology should - or
shouldn’t - be retained
- Dealing with evolving technologies and products
- developing a realistic roadmap that takes into consideration contingency
plans and long-term organizational goals
- How to handle inevitable pitfalls and challenges from vendors,
consultants, and other corners whose interests aren’t necessarily aligned
with organizational needs

Alan Simon is a recognized authority on the subjects of business
intelligence, data warehousing, and enterprise-scale information management.
He has held global or national VP-level positions as a consulting practice
lead with several firms in the past decade including Business Objects,
Alliance Consulting, and Cambridge Technology Partners. He is the author of
27 books, including Data Warehousing for Dummies, 90 Days to the Data Mart,
How to be a Successful Computer Consultant, and Data Warehousing and
Business Intelligence for E-Commerce.

DIRECTIONS TO ALLEGIS GROUP:

From I-295 North or South:
Take the Route 100 WEST (towards Ellicott City) Exit.
Go about .5 mile and take Exit #8 - Coca-Cola Drive
At the light at the top of the exit ramp make a LEFT.
At the second light make a LEFT on to Dorsey Rd.
Dorsey Rd becomes Parkway Dr.
Allegis Group is up the hill on the RIGHT immediately following the Red
Roof Inn.

From I-95 North or South:
Take the Route 100 EAST (towards Glen Burnie) Exit.
Go about 2.5 miles and take Exit #8 - Coca-Cola Drive
At the top of the exit ramp, bear RIGHT.
At the next light make a LEFT onto Dorsey Rd.
Dorsey Rd. becomes Parkway Dr.
Allegis Group is up the hill on the RIGHT immediately following the Red
Roof Inn.

Please, RSVP: Ron Allan at allanr@georgetown.edu
or
Margaret Ikeda at Margaret Ikeda mikeda@tdwi.org

See the Chapter Web Page for directions:
http://www.tdwi.org/Membership/Chapters/display.aspx?id=8055

Sincerely,
Your D.C. Chapter Officers