Check this out! NIIT’s latest video. Just found it on YouTube and could’nt wait to share it with you guys. 
Posts Tagged GNIIT
An ode to my Alma Mater :)
Top IT Trends
Heyllo People. How are you all doing? I hope great…
My blogging habits are getting erratic and yeah…I realize that I am not keeping my posts consistent, as I promised. But well…there’s a lot of stuff I’d been doing that kept me absolutely tied up to my desk. Work is work is work, after all.
But hey…I promise once again to be regular… I too don’t want to disappoint my readrs, you see… 
Well…this time around, I am going to treat you with nuggets of gyan I collected from different articles, while roaming on the internet. Experts around the world huddle together, time and again to predict, analyze and suggest IT Trends to watch for in future. So this post is dedicated to Hot IT Trends in the coming days. I’ve stumbled upon these trends in bits and pieces and I am compiling all of it into a post for you guys.
According to Experts and analysts define a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.
The hottest trends for 2008 include:
1. Unified Communications: Today, 20% of the installed base with PBX has migrated to IP telephony, but more than 80% are already doing trials of some form. Analysts expect the next three years to be the point at which the majority of companies implement this, the first major change in voice communications since the digital PBX and cellular phone changes in the 1970s and 1980s.
2. Business Process Modeling: Top-level process services must be defined jointly by a set of roles (which include enterprise architects, senior developers, process architects and/or process analysts). Some of those roles sit in a service oriented architecture center of excellence, some in a process center of excellence and some in both. The strategic imperative for 2008 is to bring these groups together. Analysts expect BPM suites to fill a critical role as a compliment to SOA development.
3. Metadata Management: Through 2010, organizations implementing both customer data integration and product integration and product information management will link these master data management initiatives as part of an overall enterprise information management (EIM) strategy. Metadata management is a critical part of a company’s information infrastructure. It enables optimization, abstraction and semantic reconciliation of metadata to support reuse, consistency, integrity and shareability…
4. Virtualization 2.0: Virtualization technologies can improve IT resource utilization and increase the flexibility needed to adapt to changing requirements and workloads. However, by themselves, virtualization technologies are simply enablers that help broader improvements in infrastructure cost reduction, flexibility and resiliency. With the addition of automation technologies – with service-level, policy-based active management – resource efficiency can improve dramatically, flexibility can become automatic based on requirements, and services can be managed holistically, ensuring high levels of resiliency…
5. Mashup & Composite Apps : By 2010, Web mashups will be the dominant model (80%) for the creation of composite enterprise applications. Mashup technologies will evolve significantly over the next five years, and application leaders must take this evolution into account when evaluating the impact of mashups and in formulating an enterprise mashup strategy.
And to end this one, here’s an interesting video:
Well well well….here we are. The top 10 IT trends according to the experts. Got any questions?
Leave a comment and I’ll answer. Ciao!
What is Business Intelligence?
So, many people asked me what exactly is BI (Business Intelligence), here and on Orkut. I expected this, I must agree.
Obviously, I will now give a brief introduction to BI here. This is info I have gathered from various sources to add to my own knowledge. Here goes
What is Business Intelligence?
According to Wikipedia, Business intelligence (BI) refers to technologies, applications and practices for the collection, integration, analysis, and presentation of business information and sometimes to the information itself. The purpose of business intelligence is to support better business decision making. Hmmm. I trust Wikipedia. Lol
But this does not give us the complete picture. Cuz Business Intelligence is much more than just a set of tools, technologies and practices. Business Intelligence is knowledge, and the value of that knowledge is in how quickly and accurately it can be applied to a business problem or an emerging opportunity. For example, the first company to identify the most profitable of its customers can get to them first – on the flip side, if you can find those who are most likely to defraud you before they actually do, you can take measures to protect yourself. Going a bit deep, Business Intelligence is an integral part of successful business management. Business Intelligence plays a key role in strategic business decision making, empowering managers with appropriate information for critical decision making. The end result of BI should be higher net income, increased performance & growth and efficient decision making. Needless to say, every organization need BI.
Most businesses have similar information needs for effective business management. Some of these could be
•Strategic direction and management of employees, goals, and objectives
•Software capabilities for at-a-glance decision making
•Basic but effective and efficient decision support capabilities, including training, customer support and project management
At the same time, information and knowledge need to be viewed in the context of how you need to use it. And that differs from industry to industry. Telecommunications is concerned with things like network usage or customer churn – while a pharmaceutical company is focused on things like compound discovery and optimizing the development and testing cycle. The front-burner concerns in retail banking include things like credit and operational risk, fraud, customer profitability – and compliance to anti-money laundering laws and regulations. So, you see what I mean when I say that Business intelligence (BI) is about more than just technology! !
Now you may ask where BI is being utilised. According a survey, key adopters of BI include Pharma, IT?ITES, Telecom, Banking & Financial Services, Hospitality and many more….
A BI application that goes through six stages between inception and implementation:
- Justification: An assessment is made of a business problem or a business opportunity, which gives rise to the engineering project.
- Planning: Strategic and tactical plans are developed, which lay out how the engineering project will be accomplished.
- Business Analysis: Detailed analysis of the business problem or business opportunity is performed, which provides a solid understanding of the business requirements for a solution.
- Design: A product is conceived, which solves the business problem or enables the business opportunity.
- Construction: The conceived product is built, which is expected to provide a return on the development investment within a predefined time frame.
- Deployment: The finished product is implemented (or sold) and its effectiveness is measured, which will determine whether the solution meets, exceeds or fails the expected return on investment.
Some more Business intelligence basics:
The term “business intelligence” hasn’t been around forever; Howard Dresner, a BI consultant and author, coined the term in 1992. SearchDataManagement.com sat down with Howard Dresner, the “father of BI” at a Gartner BI Summit in Chicago. Learn why Dresner says he invented the term, find out his take on the BI market and get his recommendations for achieving BI success.Career? – you may ask. Sure. J
Industry estimates suggest a demand-supply gap of over 100,000 professionals globally faced by the current BI market. According to Gartner, in near future, enterprises will need three times as many professionals on their analytic staffs as they need today. The demand for analytic talent today outweighs supply by at least two to one.
Ways to begin a business intelligence career :
Some experts may argue that certification and education are the best way to begin a BI career. Others may say that experience is more valuable.
Career opportunities in BI are just as exciting as the growing executive-level interest and technology outlook. As with most professions that require knowledge of various subjects, areas of specialty exist. Within BI, an individual can participate in numerous areas, including planning, design, development, deployment, maintenance and support. The roles range from a business analyst to a technical architect to the project manager. Each of these roles requires a blend of business knowledge, technical expertise and people skills. The various roles can be grouped into three areas of focus: business, technical and a blend of both.
· Business Focus. Individuals who possess business function or process knowledge, such as finance or supply chain, would be well suited for a business analyst role. In addition, industry-specific knowledge may be required, given the subject matter that is being addressed. For example, in health care the terminology and business processes surrounding patient care are unique to that industry. Having command of the appropriate terminology and an understanding of the business processes enables the business analyst to gather requirements and help create the BI strategy. In addition to subject matter knowledge, business analysts must excel in verbal and written communications, possess strong organizational skills and understand data modeling and business process design.
· Technical Focus. There are several roles for technologists in BI, ranging from architects to software specialists. Architects are knowledgeable about DW, BI or data integration frameworks and corresponding software technology. They work with the business analysts to design the approach and configuration of the technology to support the organization’s information needs. Software specialists have a commanding knowledge of a particular software application, such as reporting or data integration software. They understand the capabilities, features, functionalities and limitations of the software. They collaborate with architects and business analysts to implement the software in a manner that supports the objectives of the BI solution.
· Blended Business and Technical Focus. With BI initiatives, the project manager and the data modeler must have an understanding of the subject area and BI/DW principles. The project manager must also demonstrate outstanding organizational and communications skills to lead the team. The data modeler is typically well versed in data modeling principles and has the ability to understand and translate business requirements into a data model.
Employment Options: (Click on the image to enlarge it)
I hope this looong post will help in the understanding about BI. Trust me, if I were you, I’d never miss this opportunity. Okay folks, got to rush but let me wrap this post with yet another cartoon strip. J
IT and Commerce
Hi there! This one is for Satya who commented on my last blog and asked if he is really missing out on IT by going for Commerce. Well Satya, the reason I replied to your concern in a new post is that I realized it is a question on pretty much every one’s mind who goes for commerce. So here I am. J
When I did the Information Technology/Software program from NIIT, a lot of people had the same question – is IT and Commerce a mismatch?
Well, first of all IT is important in every field/industry. Very Important infact. And students need not necessarily get into hard core IT, not at all! Because IT can be used to enhance one’s productivity even if one is not a hard core IT professional. The modern collaborative, work environment regardless of industry or sector demands the right IT skills for efficient & smart work. And so my personal belief is that everyone must be prepared for such a scenario with the right IT skills.
Having said that I must point out that IT professionals need not just be engineers or IT graduates as is commonly believed. You may be surprised to know that a large percentage of knowledge professionals today are graduates in Arts, Commerce and Science! So if you dream of a career in IT, don’t be disheartened if you are studying Commerce cuz you can still be an IT professional!
IT professionals work in wide array of industries . For example, both IT related and non IT related like Advertising, Telecom, Management etc require IT professionals. In fact, there are three broad streams that one can work towards: Software Engineering, Infrastructure Management and Information Management. With the latter two, you will not just be restricted to IT companies since other industries like banking, retail, telecom are also big users of IT and require IT professionals.
Also, I have some interesting news to share with you – NIIT is launching a program called the GNIIT Business Systems & Information Management program. This might interest commerce students like Satya. This program revolves around Business Processes, Information Systems and Business Intelligence Technologies, along with other things. This means what? Well, simply put the key to thriving in a competitive marketplace is staying ahead of the competition. Making sound business decisions based on accurate and current information takes more than intuition. Data analysis, reporting, and query tools can help businesses wade through a sea of data to synthesize valuable information from it – these tools collectively fall into a category called ‘Business Intelligence’. (And I am quoting a Gartner Report here!) - So you see? This is a catch for all the commerce people who have an interest in and aptitude for IT. What do you say?
I say IT is a must in todays’ life. Any field you chose, any industry you see, IT is the backbone. Besides, how cool it is to be in a position of a CA and still being able to figure out your laptop and your softwares? There! You got the picture now.
Man, in order to write this, I had to dig a lot of information from my gang, and I realized that in all the hum drum of life and work, I was being a lil’ laid back in catching the latest buzz and interesting updates. Phew! Now I take a blood oath (okay, may be not a blood oath, but a simple promise to myself) that I will be glued on to news like this along with my regular technology interests. Hmph.
Moral of the story is IT fits well with almost everything and everyone, unlike dresses. hehe..This reminds me of a cute cartoon I came across on this amazing site. Sharing it with you.
Okay, time to review a company for one of my clients (it is a curse not being able to speak about work in detail, like naming people, client and all, but work is work. And besides, I love my work too much to mix it up with anything.) So I will have to rush. Hope to be more regular. Keep the comments coming in people.
