Old School vs. New School in Basketball and BI

Like a lot of people, I was into the NBA Finals this year. There’s no doubt that the old-school matchup of Celtics vs. Lakers boosted TV ratings.

Though these were two traditional franchises, it was interesting to me how each team mixed up old-school and new-school approaches.  There was strong team defense and plenty of pick-and-roll (the oldest of old-school tactics), but also lots of three-point shooting and one-on-one isolation plays. Just looking at the teams, you could see how much the NBA has evolved over the last few decades. There were point guards who rebounded, big men who can shoot (hallmarks of the new-school game, ever since Larry Bird and Magic Johnson) and several foreign-born players.

BI works the same way. Tactically, companies need both traditional BI assets (like data warehouses) and newer toolsets (metadata-driven apps) to get the most out of their investments. And they must recognize emerging needs and evolving capabilities.

When it comes to BI project delivery, however, companies need to push fully into the new school. Because user demand is rising so rapidly, companies need to rethink and transform their approach to getting high-quality information and effective tools into the hands of users. When it comes to development, they need to replace the old highly controlled “stall” game and try to design an entirely new “fast break offense.” By speeding things up, companies will be able to press their advantages through superior insights.

Just compare typical delivery approaches and I think you’ll see what I mean.

Old-school data warehouses and big BI software solutions aren’t going away. They just need to be enhanced and extended with the new school, like lighter-weight, metadata-driven BI apps that score with users.