Alison Smith

Alison Smith: New organizational mash-ups: a cure for the convergence conundrum

In our last column, The time has come for the Operations Data Warehouse, we suggested that manufacturing operations organizations put on their IT hats—a timely tip given the airplay that the “convergence” term is currently enjoying. While it's largely vendor-speak at the moment, it captures the spirit of two market trends: one technology-related; the other, an...

Alison Smith: The time has come for the Operations Data Warehouse

The market's appetite for manufacturing operations performance visibility continues to blossom, maturing slowly from an early fascination with key performance indicators (KPI) to a more sophisticated recognition that while the right KPIs have value, key performance drivers (KPD) are needed. At the technology level, this is driving a convergence between the world of traditional business intellig...