Author: Martyn Jones

  • A Brief History of Data Warehousing

    A Brief History of Data Warehousing

    There is a general consensus that Data Warehousing first appeared in the 1980s. However, the components of Data Warehousing were being developed and implemented as early as the 1960s. Many individuals are credited with discovering Data Warehousing. Wikipedia has a great chronological timeline that provides a lot of context for the evolution of data warehousing methodologies.

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  • Understanding Building Scientific Value: A Homeowner’s Guide

    Understanding Building Scientific Value: A Homeowner’s Guide

    Twenty years ago, you wanted a new bathroom, so you hired a building contractor to come in and build a bathroom of your own design.

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  • Understanding IT Failures: A Path to Improvement – REMASTER 2026

    Understanding IT Failures: A Path to Improvement – REMASTER 2026

    My original intention was not to write a book on the decline and fall of so many projects, but rather to pen a short essay, a sort of hard-hitting criticism of the litany of IT failures. Of course, this is rarely enough; it wasn’t enough because it identified the issues without provoking debate, and it highlighted common issues without providing guideline suggestions, which meant that it appeared upon reflection to come across as too much like a hi-tech hit and run exercise, beating up on IT failures without actually offering tangible solutions.

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  • Transforming IT: A Guide for CEOs – REMASTER 2026

    Transforming IT: A Guide for CEOs – REMASTER 2026

    Far too few CEOs regularly think about IT on a habitual basis, and especially as something that is potentially integrated into everything their companies do and could do. This, however, is not at all surprising; there is a general lack of time for any CEO to be actively involved in what IT does, and they will generally have some degree of misunderstanding of both the historic roles and the relative successes and failures of IT.

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  • Transforming IT: Strategies for Business Success – REMASTER 2026

    Transforming IT: Strategies for Business Success – REMASTER 2026

    From banking to airlines, through communications businesses to pharmaceutical companies, the IT landscape is littered with failures of Homeric proportions, lost opportunities and profligate waste. Across the spectrum of commercial enterprise, the IT bottom line is inevitably familiar: in general, businesses expose themselves to unnecessary levels of disruption, and spend far too much time and money on IT projects, IT products and internal IT services that frankly suck.

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  • The Human Side of IT: Bridging Technology and People – REMASTER 2026

    The Human Side of IT: Bridging Technology and People – REMASTER 2026

    Martyn Rhisiart Jones

    Remastered for 2026

    INTRO 2026

    Reality bites down hard when it wants to, and more often than not when we are least expecting it. IT is seldom given importance for valid business reasons, such as its support of operational excellence or the quality support of valuable, mission-critical business, and bureaucratic reasons are not necessarily business reasons; they are frequently at the forefront of business life for primarily negative reasons.

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  • Aligning ICT with Business Strategy for Growth – REMASTER 2026

    Aligning ICT with Business Strategy for Growth – REMASTER 2026

    As a CEO, CIO, or student of Business Management, you will understand this. Information and Communication Technology (ICT, also known as IT) has become essential. It is crucial. It is a pervasive element in the fabric of corporate life. What I mean by ICT encompasses three essential elements: Processes, Information and Technology. ICT should be seen as an important corporate asset. More importantly, Information, Processes, and their Management (IM) should be considered as such. They should be made to work as contemporary business enablers. They should bring about value-adding alignment in business. Thus, they should be managed as such. Although it does work that way, it typically doesn’t.

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