About the authors
Steve Williams founded DecisionPath Consulting in 1999 with the vision of creating maximum business value for clients by using the most innovative, business-driven methods to architect and deliver customized business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing (DW) solutions. This proven, business-oriented approach to leveraging BI is described in the book The Profit Impact of Business Intelligence and in several articles in magazines such as DM Review, Business Intelligence Journal, and Strategic Finance.
At the applied level, Steve and his colleagues at DecisionPath have created an innovative approach to designing, developing, deploying, and leveraging BI to improve business performance. The BI Pathway method has been used at leading organizations in a variety of industries, including financial services, the U.S. federal government, high-tech manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, industrial products, food manufacturing semiconductors, and lodging and leisure. Over the past six years, Steve has had the privilege of applying the BI Pathway method on behalf of the U.S. Social Security Administration, The Principal Financial Group, McCormick & Company, Micron Technologies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Treasury.
Prior to founding DecisionPath, Steve worked for 20 years in several specialized consulting companies where he developed expertise in program management, systems integration, software engineering, IT strategy, management accounting, and business strategy. He holds an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Maryland.
Nancy Williams, Vice President—Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing
Nancy Williams is co-founder of DecisionPath Consulting and a recognized leader in the field of business intelligence and data warehousing. In addition to coauthoring The Profit Impact of Business Intelligence and several articles in publications such as DM Review, Business Intelligence Journal, and TDWI Flashpoint, she is a regular instructor at TDWI Conferences and is co-developer (with Jim Thomann and Steve Williams) of the BI Pathway method. Nancy is also a judge for TDWI Best Practices competition.
In addition to providing leadership on BI methods and approaches within DecisionPath, Nancy is substantially involved in many of DecisionPath’s consulting engagements. She typically helps clients achieve alignment between business strategies and BI opportunities, define their business requirements for leveraging BI to drive performance, and develop their architectural and program management frameworks for reducing risk and ensuring that BI investments pay off. Over the past six years, Nancy has had the privilege of applying the BI Pathway method on behalf of the U.S. Social Security Administration, McCormick & Company, Legg Mason, Marriott International, the U.S. Treasury, and a number of other organizations.
Prior to co-founding DecisionPath, Nancy worked for 14 years in several specialized consulting companies, where she developed expertise in business process engineering, business intelligence, data warehousing, IT project management and control, program management, financial management, and database systems. She holds an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and a B.A. in Education, also from the University of Virginia.