Q & A

Interactive Data Visualization Blog Q&A

Q: What is the purpose of the Interactive Data Visualization / Ryan Goodman blog?

A: I started this blog in 2006 as an effort to spread knowledge in what was then a non-existent Xcelsius community. The original goal was to write about my personal/professional interests around data visualization, dashboards, Xcelsius, etc. Very quickly I found that most people visited for my tricks, templates, and advisement on dashboard development. Now I have added mobile visualization, and location intelligence into the mix as I have broadened my technology interests and expand my own business at Centigon Solutions.

Q: Are you paid by BOBJ to write nice things and market Xcelsius?

A: Absolutely not!  I write this blog because I truly enjoy sharing my ideas and work for the greater good of the community. If something doesn’t work, I usually suggest how it could be better. I only post articles with hopes that you walk away with a more tools and information to build the best possible solutions for your own customers. There are times where I do product reviews for other vendors, but at the end of the day I only write about technologies that are really good (or really bad).

Q: Do you provide consulting services?

A: Unfortunately I do not provide consulting services any longer as I spend most of my time driving strategy, sales, and marketing efforts for Centigon Solutions. All business opportunities should be sent through my company’s contact page

Q: What is your association with Centigon Solutions?

A: I am the founder of Centigon Solutions Inc., a business that I started shortly after leaving Business Objects in 2007. We initially targeted the Xcelsius marketplace and have since narrowed our focus to Location Intelligence with GMaps Plugin as our flagship product and have ventured into the mobility space with our stand alone app and cloud platform, GMaps Mobile. Visit CentigonSolutions.com to learn more about what I do at Centigon Solutions.

Q: What is your background?

A: During my under-grad, I studied graphic information technology and business. My early career was spent doing design and technical consulting and Macromedia Flash 3 was my entry into interactive visualization. In the early-mid 2000s I worked on a small Information Origination/Research and Development team where I helped design innovative human-to-computer experiences for business analysts using voice recognition, multi-touch, and data visualization techniques. I started using Xcelsius in 2004 to develop desktop widgets and financial dashboards and knew immediately that this technology would be game changing. It was in 2004 that I first met the Xcelsius team and finally joined them them in 2005. After acquisition by BusinessObjects, I spent two years traveling around the world evangelizing Xcelsius, working with some of BusinessObjects largest accounts,and helped BusinessObjects transform Xcelsius into a $100M a year enterprise dashboard solution. Immediately after SAP announced the acquisition of  BusinessObjects, I cashed out my stock and used the funds to found Centigon Solutions in 2007. I partnered with Evan DeLodder six months after founding Centigon Solutions and together we started building Xcelsius add-ons and in the process re-shaped our product strategy to focus on location based visualization, using Xcelsius as our starting point. Now we have a leading Google Maps powered geo-visaulization solution for SAP BusinessObjects dashboards, and have our standalone mobile location intelligence platform, GMaps Mobile.