Insight #1: Big Data is Here to Stay
Understandably, there is a tremendous amount of interest, along with some confusion, about “big data”–what it is, how it can help create competitive advantage. If you ask the opinion of thought leaders at highly regarded academic and corporate institutions like MIT, McKinsey and IBM, for instance, you will hear largely universal consensus that big data is real and that it is only going to get bigger.
Imagine the strides companies could make if they had access to all the petabytes and zettabytes of data they’ve collected over the years. Not only would it allow for potentially groundbreaking customer and market insights, but it would also enable significantly improved, real-time decision making.
Big data is definitely on a lot of executives’ minds. Consider these findings from MIT Sloan School of Management and IBM’s New Intelligent Enterprise Global Executive Study (2011),
- 50% of the 3,000 respondents across 30 industries and 100 countries said that improvement of information and analytics was a top priority in their organization.
- 60% said innovating to achieve competitive advantage was a top business challenge.
- 60% said their organization had more data than it can effectively use.
Bottom line, big data exists and it’s here to stay.
Insight #2: To Be Useful, Big Data Must Be Made Smaller
Most CRM and automation technologies introduced in the past two decades are simply not equipped to handle the volume, velocity and variety of today’s big data. This is especially true of unstructured data from the digital channel (e.g., social networks, online shopping, digital marketing).
While today’s big data is too big for most existing technologies to handle, there are valuable insights waiting to be unlocked in the massive amounts of operational (e.g., sales, costs), non-operational (e.g., sales forecasts) and unstructured digital (e.g., search engine marketing) data being generated today.
To unlock those insights, companies must do two things:
a) Choose technologies designed to handle big data and
b) Facilitate effective data mining to chunk data down to a manageable size.
Bottom line, big data must be made smaller through data mining.
Insight #3: Beware of a DIY Approach
While effective big data and data mining technology are readily available today, the bigger challenge is the acquisition, implementation and adoption of this advanced technology.
According to Bill Franks, Chief Analytics Officer of Teradata, “Today you can find products and solutions for whatever you need to do with big data. The real problems are getting budget, doing the implementation, getting people up to speed on how to use the tools, getting buy in from various stakeholders, and pushing against a culture averse to change.” We see this daily in our engagements with clients.
Bottom line, in order to get to full benefit from big data, avoid the temptation to do it yourself. Outside help will cut light years off your learning curve, saving you money and frustration.
To learn more about how to improve or launch a multi-channel analytics system for your organization, call me at 972.496.7033 to schedule a no obligation appointment.
