And so we approach the end of 2012. The world is still here, despite that little mix-up over the Mayan calendar, and summer at the beach is only a few days away.

Of course, year-end always brings lots of work - budgets to finalise, projects to complete, reports to write and holidays to cover. The Christmas break will be welcome indeed.

2012 has been a great year for Stellar. We welcomed 10 new staff, bringing our total to 25. On the "to-do" list for 2013 is a new team photo for our website!

Business Intelligence was embraced by more and more companies in 2012. We're seeing growing recognition of the importance of accurate and timely information in every aspect of business - from strategic planning to operational decision making, and we continue to evolve our product and service offerings to meet these varied needs.

It's also fair to say that at this point, despite the hype surrounding Big Data, we're not seeing a burning need for our customers to leap onto the crest of this wave. Major BI vendors, including Microsoft, SAP and Oracle, are rapidly expanding their product sets to incorporate the best and brightest innovations in the Big Data space, so our view is to let them do the hard work. By the time the opportunities offered by Big Data become a reality to most organisations, mainstream technology will be more than capable of rising to the challenge.

In the past few months, the hard work of our Stellar people has been recognised in a number of awards:

* In October, Stellar was named in the Deloitte Fast 50, as the 28th fastest growing company in New Zealand.

* In November, we were finalists in the Westpac Auckland Central Business Awards. Although the prizes went to some other great businesses, we were pretty chuffed to have been in the finals for two categories: Best Emerging Business and Excellence in Service Delivery.

* And earlier this month, Stellar was recognised as one of the 500 fastest growing technology companies (number 229 to be exact) across the entire Asia-Pacific region, in the Deloitte APAC Technology Fast 500.

With this sort of momentum, we intend to continue growing in 2013, and to bring Brighter Business Intelligence to even more New Zealand companies. Watch for the opening of a Stellar office in Wellington which, for us, means less time travelling and more time doing BI!

Thanks to all of you who have supported Stellar over the past year. It has been an honour to work with you and we look forward to seeing you tanned, refreshed and ready for success in 2013.

To close this holiday message: Blogger Timo Elliott on how Business Intelligence applies to selling Christmas Trees. Enjoy.

Best Wishes for a happy holiday season,
Grant, Travis, John and Grant

Stellar Consulting has been ranked in the Deloitte Fast 500 Asia Pacific technology companies list (at number 229).

Forty-five New Zealand firms made the list. In total, New Zealand had by far the highest representation per capita. Wellington-based businesses led the way with 18 making the index, while there were 17 from Auckland and five each from Christchurch and Hamilton - this is a top effort!

These results illustrate that for innovative Kiwi businesses the relatively small size of the New Zealand market is not a barrier to achieving stellar growth, as long as you get the business model right and remain true to your core values.

Increased digital connectivity and cloud computing have levelled the playing field for companies to achieve growth on a global scale and New Zealand companies are particularly adept at capitalising on this technology.

Being named to the Fast 500 Asia Pacific technology list is just the latest honour in a magnificent year for Stellar.

Our team have also claimed a spot in the Deloitte New Zealand Fast 50 (fastest growing NZ companies) and we made the finals in two categories of the Westpac Auckland Chamber of Commerce Business Awards.

We had a great evening last night at the Westpac Auckland Central Business Awards.

Not quite as good as winning one of the categories - but it was an honour to be named a finalist in not just one - but two - categories.

Our categories were Best Emerging Business, won by The Lovely Little Food Company, and Best Service Delivery, won by Sachie's Kitchen.

Obviously we're going to have to work on our food products for next year!

Seriously though, congratulations to all the winners and thanks to Westpac and the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.

Stellar Consulting is honoured to be in the Deloitte Fast 50 announced this evening in Auckland.

The annual list recognizes the fastest growing companies in New Zealand, and Stellar checked in at number 28, with annual revenue growth of more than 247% over the past three years.

To make the 2012 Deloitte Fast 50, companies had to achieve growth of 154%, while growth of at least 480% was required to make the top 10 on the index.

Working with a blue chip list of leading New Zealand companies and organisations, Stellar has engaged a top team of specialist consultants in Business Intelligence, and has grown rapidly from a team of five to over 25.

At Stellar, our aim has been to show the gains that can be made from better managing all the information needed in making business decisions, and to do this in a way that lets our clients choose the technology that best suits them.

The 2012 group of Deloitte Fast 50 businesses grew the New Zealand economy by $637 million in the past three years and created 1376 jobs.

For the full list of winners, visit fast50.co.nz

Thanks to all our Stellar customers and our fantastic staff who made this achievement possible.

And here are some facts and figures about the average company in the Fast 50.

A recent issue of Reseller News looked at the transition of some IT resellers from "moving boxes" to selling services - including Business Intelligence services.

But the article includes a cautionary comment from Stellar BI's Managing Director, Grant Broadbent (pictured).

"If you just drop the technology on the floor you might get some passionate soul to use it and show their fellow business unit [members] how great it is, but if that person leaves or if the business changes its focus, then a lot of those projects just end up dying. There’s a lot in BI that people don’t realise."

Paul Plester of Express Data adds that teaching users how to analyse and use data is a key part of a good Business Intelligence offering.

"That type of skill is going to be more in demand, it’s not a box move any more, there’s value add around it."

“With BI, you’re not really selling software,” says Richard Johnson,  sales director of consulting firm Cortell.

"I mean you are, of course. But you’ve got to understand [a customer's] data and then you’ve got to build the underlying data structure that you then report on and do your analysis.”

Business Intelligence, Analytics, Data Warehousing and Project Management are skills in short supply, according to a number of recent articles looking at IT staffing trends for 2012.

Demand for these skills is expected to grow, as the recession eases.

According to Computerworld's annual Forecast survey, 29% of IT executives (the highest percentage in the past three years) plan to add staff during the first half of 2012, while 17% expect to reduce staffing.

The magazine surveyed more than 350 IT leaders in the United States during June.

Business Intelligence and Analytics

BI is included in Computerworld's list of nine hot IT skills for 2012, and staffing company Robert Half International's list of the five hottest technology jobs.

In New Zealand, Robert Half expects strong demand in the related area of Business Analysis.

Computerworld's survey found that 23% of IT executives plan to hire people with BI expertise in the next 12 months, up from 13% in the 2010 survey.

"The uptick indicates a shift from focusing on cost savings to investing in technology that provides access to real-time data, enabling better business decisions," writes Computerworld's Rick Saia.

Start-up headhunter Keith Cline sees Analytics as one of the five areas facing a talent shortage in 2010.

"Analytics is becoming a central hub across companies where everything (web, marketing, sales, operations) is being measured and each decision is supported by data," he wrote at inc.com.

"Thus, we are seeing a high level of demand for analytics and business intelligence professionals."

Megan Alexander, New Zealand General Manager of Robert Half, predicts that "decision makers will be looking for candidates who can drive business intelligence and will be prepared to invest in hiring the right people to deliver infrastructure change."

Data Warehousing

IT recruiters interviewed by CIO Magazine predict that mobile application developers - and, in particular, mobile game developers - will remain "the hottest commodity in IT" throughout 2012.

But mobile isn't the only area offering exciting opportunities. CIO's list of the six hottest IT jobs, published last month, also sees strong demand for data warehousing experts:

"Companies' desire to extract insights from the petabytes of data streaming into their back office systems is driving demand for data warehouse architects, analysts and developers," says CIO writer Meridith Levinson.

Eighteen per cent of executives in the Computerworld survey said they planned to hire IT staff with data centre skills in the next 12 months, down slightly from 21% in the 2010 survey.

Project Management

One of the five skills most in demand, according to Robert Half, Project Management is also on Computerworld's list of the top nine hot skills.

Computerworld notes that 44% of executives in its survey plan to hire project managers in the next 12 months, up slightly from 43% a year ago.

But a PM designation may not be enough to land every job:

"Big projects need managers, but they also need business analysts who can identify users' needs and translate them for the IT staffers who have to meet those needs and complete projects on time," writes Rick Saia.

He quotes John Reed, executive director of Robert Half Technology who says: "The demand has been more for business analysts than project managers, in other words, those who can help deliver projects rather than merely oversee and monitor them."

Opportunities abound

As a Business Intelligence consultant, I work with executives and managers who believe in basing their business decisions on solid data.

Managing and analysing that data are two of the biggest challenges most companies face. That's where good BI systems and great people come in.

"As we head out of a recession hiring managers will be looking for more analytical abilities," says Megan Alexander. "Those in senior roles who ‘sat tight’ during the recession have now been in the same role for 3-5 years and will be looking to up skill or are ready for a change.

"Candidates with the ability to analyse will be well placed in this market."

Here at Stellar, our 2012 pipeline reflects the strong demand seen by recruitment agencies. We currently have openings for Oracle and Microsoft BI developers, so if you think you've got what it takes to consult alongside New Zealand's best BI talent, get in touch!

Travis Barker, Consulting Partner