The Historical View circa 1958
The notion of intelligence is… “the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal.”
- Hans Peter Luhn, IBM Journal, October 1958
The above quote is generally credited with coining the term Business Intelligence (B.I.). Luhn’s vision was ambitious for his time and it’s still ambitious today. How much of the following article do you find relevant right NOW with respect to your business reporting challenges?
The following are direct quotes from the IBM Journal Article, “A Business Intelligence System” published 1958 with my commentary added:
Information is now being generated and utilized at an ever-increasing rate because of the accelerated pace and scope of human activities and the steady rise in the average level of education. At the same time the growth of organizations and increased specialization and divisionalization have created new barriers to the flow of information. There is also a growing need for more prompt decisions at levels of responsibility far below those customary in the past. Undoubtedly the most formidable communications problem is the sheer bulk of information that has to be dealt with. In view of the present growth trends, automation appears to offer the most efficient methods for retrieval and dissemination of this information.
With respect to the volumes of data being created in 1958, I think we can safely say, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Keep in mind that 1958 was really the primordial soup of computing and information management. At that time, the Integrated Circuit had just been developed which would pave the way for development of computing as we know it today. Looking back on IT in 1958, I’m thinking it consisted of a “series of tubes”.
Luhn continues:
Ideally, an automatic system is needed which can accept information in its original form, disseminate the data promptly to the proper places and furnish information on demand.
So, in 1958, the concept of “on-demand” is also christened. A blog I follow called, Only Dead Fish, by Neil Perkins references the Greek term, Kairos, recently when discussing the importance of context. Kairos refers to, “the right or opportune moment” or “the supreme moment”. I think this is the best way to think about the basic need/want underpinning the concept of on-demand. I think this is how Luhn was thinking about it too:
One of the most crucial problems in communication is that of channeling a given item of information to those who need to know it. Present methods of accomplishing this are inadequate and the general practice is to disseminate information rather broadly to be on the safe side. Since this method tends to swamp the recipients with paper, the probability of not communicating at all becomes great.
The story was the same, time and again, regardless of location, job function or technology involved: people everywhere are wasting hours, days, weeks and even months cutting and pasting information from their applications into spreadsheets in order to analyze their businesses. Why are they doing this? Because they don’t have any other solution that is easy to use and cost effective to implement.
This is my 10th year of attending Sage conferences and I’ve yet to be disappointed in the content, the venue and the people involved. On occasion, they can even arrange for the excitement of a tropical storm to pass our way and lend a little credibility to the overall agenda.
Entering the 
Every turn of a corner in the aquarium held new treasures and experiences, more fantastic food and drink and great memories to be made. It seemed fitting somehow to end the evening in the company of pirates, considering we had survived a visit to the depths of Davy Jones’ Locker and returned unscathed.
