BI News – Donald Farmer Left Microsoft

Today I received the notice that Donald Farmer, one of the main business intelligence (BI) minds left Microsoft. Even yesterday I was writing about him on the predixion post and I had no idea what happened today… And imagine to where? To QlickTech…

I do not understand how Microsoft let their main BI reference Donald Farmer goes to the main concurrent of PowerPivot: Qlickview. Last year, Donald Farmer was defending his perspective of PowerPivot product agains Qlickview… now his in that side… what a great loss!

What can we think right now? Some question that we can do: Will Microsoft BI strategy follow Data mining Strategy? (Silenced) Why Donald Farmer left Microsoft? Exactly because there is a change on BI strategic? It’s the end of the line in Microsoft BI?

Read the entire Donald Farmer perspective through his blog in first person here.
Just some paragraphs here:

“When I joined Microsoft in 2001, the Analysis Services team was then about 50 people, and was the largest organization I had ever worked in. Along with Reporting Services, and later Integration Services, the BI org was an exceptional team including some of the smartest, most driven, and most amiable people I know. (Some were all three!)
…
So, where am I going? I am joining QlikTech, creating a role as the Product Advocate for QlikView. In my next post, early next week, I’ll write more, from QlikTech HQ. I look forward to telling you more about this role and what promises to be a thrilling new direction for me with the most exciting company I have seen in years"

Some Donald Farmer references in this blog during last years:

BI Interview – Donald Farmer BI Perspective
Yes we can!...see Donald Farmer in Portugal!
BI Webminar - Free Data Mining Webinar

I wish you the best luck in your new challenge.

Pedro

BI Webminar - Free Data Mining Webinar

If you are curious to know more about Data Mining and you use Excel as one of your favorite tools, I truly suggest you to assist at the Predixion Webminar that will take place next 11th January. Microsoft changed the strategy concerning to the Data Mining, and it was perceptible not only by the new position of Donald Farmer at PowerPivot team, but also after the main Microsoft team elements abandoned Microsoft Data Mining team on 2009. These elements created a new and amazing company named Predixion. I truly believe on determination and capabilities of the main founders of this company since the first time (like Jamie MacLennan an Simon) and it’s an honor to be a Beta tester of their fantastic Data Mining Product since the beginning.

The main and big improvements comparing to MSFT Data Mining Add-In:

- The amazing design
- The easy and flexibility to manage the models done with Predixion
- The huge performance (mainly because their cloud plataform)
- No cost-prohibitive software license fees
- The possibility to use PowerPivot dataset as source that support the process of millions of rows in seconds
- Connectivity with SAS and SPSS (world leaders) through PMML language
- (…)

Even Microsoft recognizes today the importance of Prexition in the Data Mining field and also as a Microsoft partner. Donald Farmer (He was the Microsoft Data Mining team responsible and now he’s the Microsoft PowerPivot responsible) assume that with this opinion:

"Many businesses have ambitions to use predictive analytics to improve their practices and intelligence. Until now, such projects have often been shelved because current tools were either too difficult or limited to the desktop. Now, we see an alternative – Predixion Software.

Predixion Insight’s deep integration with SQL Server Data Mining brings analytic power; the integration with Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel brings flexibility for end users to prepare almost limitless data for analysis, and their business model makes experimentation and incremental deployments practical and attractive. The result is a truly agile, yet potent, solution for predictive analytics.” Donald Farmer, Microsoft Corporation

Take a look into Predixion Corporate video on the YouTube:

Predictive analytics and data mining are now available to business intelligence experts everywhere with Predixion's cloud-based predictive analytics software. Predixion brings affordable, sophisticated predictive analytics to Microsoft Excel and PowerPivot.
Do not miss the Predixion Webminar!

You will learn on this webminar:
- What exactly is Predictive Analytics & who needs it.
- Where & how Predictive Analytics is being used.
- What Predictive Analytics can do for your bottom line.
- How to get started using Predixion insight

I’m preparing a post to show you into deep detail, how it's easy to create a Data Mining model through Excel using Predixion tool. If you want know more about Data Mining and the session I presented last year at Microsoft TechDays 2010, follow this link