I like web mashups. They excite the imagination combining two or more data sources to create a new service. These web mashups first started with consumer-oriented services such as using Google Maps for real estate listings. Now businesses are starting to use business mashups to combine multiple data sources for reporting and analysis.
Actionable Business Mashups. The key thing for a business mashup is that it be actionable, not just “eye candy”. Just because you can mash together an Excel spreadsheet to data in your ERP system is not a good reason to do it. A good example of a business mashup is where you combine data from your order management system and transportation management system in order to improve customer service.
Flexible, Near-Realtime Business Mashups I see business mashups as a valuable tool for many companies. Business mashups offer the opportunity to get near and even-real-time decision support to all levels of management. This is becoming more critical where business cycles and activities continue to become more compressed as well as more interactive (social). Business mashups offer a lot more flexibility than having to make software changes to existing systems.
Alternative or Supplement to Business Intelligence (BI) Applications. The Enterprise Web 2.0 blog’s posting, Why you shouldn’t be getting your ‘BI 2.0’ from your BI vendor, provides some insight into business mashups, specifically business intelligence mashups. Provides great insight of why BI applications and data warehouses are falling short and how business mashup may be a better alternative.
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Tags: BI, Data Movement, Integration, Mashups