Mike Urbonas – Product Marketing/Management and Business Intelligence Blog

This page contains a number of Mike Urbonas’ writing samples, including case studies, presentations, and byline articles, plus selected articles for Productivity, the Boston Product Management Association e-newsletter founded by Mike. Also included are some informative articles Mike actively solicited for Productivity, written by others.

Case Studies

(T)here is a wealth of case studies on Datawatch’s web site – and they tell a wonderful set of stories.  — Merv Adrian, Business Intelligence Speaker, Thought Leader and Consultant

Mike wrote virtually all Monarch business intelligence case studies, white papers, technology briefs, datasheets, product newsletters and other online content for Datawatch. This content still comprises most of the content on the Datawatch website today. Mike also published many of these case studies and byline articles in BI technology and industry magazines.

Here is a sampling of Mike’s case study work both for iStrategy and Datawatch (Monarch):

• Blackboard Analytics (iStrategy) Case Study: University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) . (PDF) Working closely with UMBC, Mike leveraged the content from this case study with additional material to submit – and win – a Ventana Research Leadership Award honoring UMBC.
• Blackboard Analytics (iStrategy) Case Study: Montgomery County Community College.  (PDF) A case study informing the reader how MCCC, recognized three years in a row as the leading technologically-advanced community college in America, utilizes iStrategy HigherEd Analytics to achieve superior student outcomes, improved enrollment management and effective, proactive academic decision making.
• Monarch Data Pump Powers Esselte America’s Dashboards – Without Programming. (PDF) Mike later co-presented Report Mining BI technology with Michael Spielman, Manager of Systems Development for Esselte Americas, at the 2008 AIIM International Conference and Exposition. Esselte was also honored, along with Radiology Imaging Associates of Denver, as an award finalist in the Ventana Research 2007 Performance Management Leadership Awards. Both companies were recognized for their business success as a result of Monarch BI solutions.
• Loomis Fargo Cashes in on Easy Data Access and Analysis with Monarch. (PDF) A case study clearly conveying the operational BI benefits provided for a well-known international business.
• Monarch Yields Healthy Business Benefits for Good Samaritan Hospital. (PDF) This case study was quite recently touted by Datawatch in a July 2010 healthcare BI blog entry by Lou Agosta on the BeyeNETWORK.
• Auditor-Friendly Monarch Easily Turns Columbia Bank’s Reports into Live Audit Data. (PDF) This case study highlighting the use of Monarch BI technology to detect financial fraud was later extended into a guest presentation for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) European Fraud Conference (see below for slide deck).
• Global Imaging Systems Selects Monarch Data Pump for Programming-Free ETL. Published in Information Management magazine online (formerly DM Review).
• Checker Distributors: Say Goodbye to BI Complexities with Report Mining. Published in ebizQ Insider.

Presentations

Mike Urbonas has been a frequent speaker at conferences and trade shows and a prolific webcast presenter, including serving as the lead evangelist for the family of Monarch business intelligence solutions. Many of these presentations featured live customer testimonials, as a result of strong working relationships Mike cultivated with these customers.

Mike Urbonas was a guest presenter at the ACFE (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners) European Fraud Conference and Fraud World, both held in London. Mike spoke on the topic of Using High Tech Resources to Find Fraud; specifically, the use of Report Mining BI technology identify questionable activity without programming. Mike’s presentation featured an extended analysis of Columbia Bank’s success using Monarch as a fraud examination tool, as noted above.  Mike’s ACFE slide deck is available here in four parts (PDF):  [part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] .

Byline Articles

• Play the Product Marketing Game Like a Chess Grandmaster, Pragmatic Marketing Newsletter, published June 2011
• Bridging Structured and Unstructured Data, Infonomics, published 2/13/09
• Unstructured Data: Separating Value from Hype for Next-Generation Business Intelligence, DM Direct, published 5/23/08
• Financial Services Can Get an Edge with Data Mining, Mass High Tech, published 12/14/07
• Pervasive BI Hidden in Plain Sight: the Compelling Benefits of Report Mining, DM Review, published 11/20/07
• Are You Ready to Manage Semi-Structured Data, CMS Wire, published 11/13/07

BPMA Productivity Articles

• How to Write a Case Study (Without Putting Your Eye Out) by Mike Urbonas. Young Ralphie from the classic holiday film A Christmas Story helps Mike drive home the unintended consequences of a poorly-written case study, and how to do better.
• Company Holiday Party? Improve Your Career: Don’t Go by Mike Urbonas. Mike spoke with bestselling business author Jeffrey Fox, who offered some contrarian advice on how to navigate the company holiday party ritual.
• SolidWorks Founder Jon Hirschtick Shares Business Plan Lessons Learned by Mike Urbonas. Mike’s write-up of the BPMA’s most well-attended presentations ever; also highlighted in Mike’s May 9, 2009 blog entry.
• ‘What I’m About to Say is Very Important:’ Alyssa Dver Leads Effective Communication Presentation by Mike Urbonas. Mike’s write up of one of many outstanding BPMA presentions by product management writer and entreprenuer Alyssa Dver, which Mike also quoted from in the same May 9, 2009 blog entry as noted above.

As Contributing Editor of the BPMA’s Productivity, Mike also actively sought submitted articles of value for product marketers and managers written by others for publication, including:

• Optimism: The Hidden Asset by Bruna Martinuzzi. Optimism is a character trait that tends to come in handy for product marketing and management professionals! Author Bruna Martinuzzi addresses this topic in a very helpful, practical tone, as opposed to the superficial ‘pep talk’ tenor of many motivational speakers.  If you like this article, you’ll love Bruna Martinuzzi’s recent book The Leader as a Mensch: Become the Kind of Person Others Want to Follow, reviewed on this blog here.
• Product Management for the Net Generation by Jennifer Hay and Dave Wells of The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI). This original article, written exclusively for the BPMA, explored the topic of the “net generation” – the first generation who has constantly experienced technology, including childhood – and how they think, use information and problem-solve differently, and what are the implications for your product management and marketing work and for your career as the “net generation” become the majority among information technology consumers and purchase decision-makers.