Section 5. About the Authors

James Taylor is a vice president at Fair Isaac Corporation, where he has been developing the themes of enterprise decision management for the past several years. He has seen many systems that are smarter than most and the value they bring to companies as well as the technologies and approaches that make them possible. James has experience in all aspects of software development, including designing, developing, researching, and marketing application development technology and platforms. James writes many articles and frequently presents at trade shows and conferences. He writes a popular blog at www.edmblog.com and has contributed chapters to The Business Rules Revolution (Happy About, 2006) and Business Intelligence Implementation: Issues and Perspectives (ICFAI University Press, 2006).

Neil Raden is the president and founder of Hired Brains (www.hiredbrains.com), a firm offering research and analysis services to technology providers as well as consulting and implementation services in business intelligence/analytics, information integration, and semantic technology throughout North America and Europe. Neil began his career as a casualty actuary with AIG in New York before moving into software engineering, consulting, and industry analysis, with experience in the application of information technology to business processes from fields as diverse as health care, nuclear waste management, and cosmetics marketing. The recurrent theme in his work is the transformative effect of rationally devised information systems for people. He is a popular speaker, his articles appear in industry magazines, and he is the author of dozens of sponsored white papers for vendors and other organizations.