Regular readers of this blog may recall that I mentioned the Kalido business modelling tool that was out with Kalido’s new software release. At TDWI Las Vegas yesterday Kalido launched this formally, and made it available for free download. There is also an on-line community set up to support this, in which as well as tool discussion, participants can share and collaborate on business models.
This seems a smart move to me, as by making the tool available for free Kalido will get some publicity for the tool that it would otherwise not get, and of course if people get hooked on the tool then they might wonder: “hey, maybe I could try connecting it up and building a warehouse” at which point, as the saying goes, a sales person will call. This follows the well-proven drug-dealer technique of giving away a free hit of something in order to lure you on to something more powerful and even more addictive in due course.
Business modelling does not get the attention it deserves, so the on-line forum could prove very interesting. The ability to share and improve models with others could turn out to be very appealing to those involved with projects of this nature; after all, essentially it is a source of free consultancy if the forum develops.
Visit http://www.kalido.com/bmcf to download a copy of the tool.
To join the community visit http://groups.google.com/group/bmcf
As usual, your insightg is right on track, especially in the context of master data management – understanding the business processes is critical to the identification of the key shared data bjects that will ultimately be absorbed into the MDM environment.
Readers interested in hearing more about the Kalido announcement at TDWI can listen to my Business Intellgence Network podcast interview with Kalido CTO Cliff Longman at:
http://www.b-eye-network.com/listen/6909