OBIEE Blog

Even though I’m hanging on the bottom of Top 10 users, I still managed to make it to Pro Level today Now I have a nice silver icon to my name (or maybe it’s platinum, since the previous one looked like gold). Now, after giving myself pat on the back – let’s continue.

I still think the point system for the forum is mostly benefiting 2 sides – the forum itself  & novices trying to make it to the market and not taking their due diligence to make simple forum or google search / RTFM. It’s encouraging me and fellow experienced colleagues to answer really rudimentary questions (”what is RPD? my AdminTool doesn’t work – oops I didn’t install it; I need to format my report a certain way – how do I change cell background?”   . There’re several major flaws of the point system on any forum – first, a lot of stupid questions and second, it’s bringing competition spirit and making experienced folks answering those.  Does “Pro” status mean anything? I’m not sure -since there’re probably many experienced consultants out there who’re  just readers or perhaps they don’t want to be bothered with silly questions. I don’t see Jeff actively participating on OTN forums (even though I think he had some postings in the past) – probably for that same reason.

Thank you everyone listed below! Excellent job!  Best of luck to all of you!  I also want to mention David T. and anyone else not listed.

	Kishore Guggilla (1775)
	Stijn Gabriels (1080)
	John Minkjan (990)
	Madan Thota (950)
	Turribeach (920)
	Christian Berg (635)
	Naresh Meda (625)
	gerardnico (605)
	mma1709 (590)
	wildmight (505)

I decided to come up with my own list of an ideal Business Intelligence consulting company. I know this is rudimentary, however, I’ve been thinking about various factors that help to distinguish between good and bad consulting companies. Partly, my motivation to write this post is coming from a surprising number of new companies that all claim to be business intelligence experts. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not bashing all new companies – I just have a grudge against fake companies / consultants that trigger a general distrust in BI technology software suite. Here’s a list in no particular order:

Consultancy that is successful:
- has adequate financial resources to maintain payroll and fight invoice lag
- has leaders who have excellent understanding of what’s involved in successful BI projects from the points of staffing, project management, and client relations
- rewards its consultants accordingly, deals with them fairly. it’s helping to increase performance and productivity and in the long run will bring more business from satisfied customers
- it is realistic – doesn’t promise to over deliver… doesn’t underbid the project intentionally and then “blackmails” the client
- actively participates in conferences and trade shows
- has a good informational web site that it’s using to communicate to prospective clientele

Those are few things that I’ve thought about. Please feel free to add more in your comments.