BIG DATA
Unlocking the Value of Data There is a famous remark by Cisco stating that
‘data is the new oil’. It is a bold statement, but one that embraces the pioneering spirit of finding and extracting oil in the early days, right up to it becoming part of the everyday fabric of life – both transformative and wealth-creating.
Data can
be this game changer. With the right technology, investment and vision, commodity organisations can unlock value from both external and internal data, structured and unstructured data. With budgets
tight and projects under close
scrutiny for return on investment, the CIO has some serious work ahead. Big Data challenges the traditional technology stack and information integration across the enterprise, to ensure its usefulness. It is a paradigm shift and, some would say, an information revolution inside an organisation. EMC, a company with headquarters in the USA, and considered to be the world’s largest provider of data storage systems, recently surveyed clients at the EMC Forums across the globe on Big Data. With a survey population of 10,500 IT professionals, technical architects, data scientists and storage/infrastructure managers, they were asked to share where they currently are in their Big Data implementation and where they plan to be – as well as how IT innovation helps them compete locally and globally. The results make for interesting reading. 79% believe data will lead to better decision making; 36% advised they already had achieved better decision making; and 76% of these IT decision-makers report that their business believes technology investment is a strategic way to achieve its goal. Perhaps of greatest interest is that across Europe, the perceived barriers to investment in Big Data are relevance, ROI and culture. No-one said transformational projects were easy!
Summary Increased competition, tightening profit margins,
the new regulatory frameworks and Big Data all have a profound impact on the business landscape. Organisations need to recalibrate their business models to ensure survival at the basic level and to seek advantage. The future competitive advantage and productivity improvements will involve ‘intelligent’ technologies that can process, manage, analyse and provide ‘actionable insight’ from the unrelenting data streams, at speeds that a few years ago would have seemed impossible. Make no
Footnote 1: Source: Marcia Connor’s Data on Big Data Blog -
http://marciaconner.com/blog/data-on-big-data/
mistake – Big Data has arrived and is a disruptive force presenting many opportunities, as well as technical challenges. The Big Data industry still has a long way to go
to reach the level of corporate IT acceptance. For example, not many companies’ policies go beyond SQL and Relational Databases. But there are many vendors bridging the gaps in the technology fusion required to ensure this data alchemy. Notably, IBM with Cognitive Computing, Reuters and Bloomberg for Sentiment Analysis, and DataGenic embarking on its journey to provide AI, Complex Event Processing and Sentiment Analysis as part of the overall decision support process. There are numerous areas that will drive
innovation, competition and ultimately profits, including: • Narrower segmentation and profiling of customers services;
for more bespoke
products and
• Analysis of the company’s own transactional data to highlight areas of inefficiencies, variability, fraud and improving business processes;
• Achieving better, fact-based decision-making; • Using the right Big Data technology and vision to offer greater visibility at a higher time frequency;
• Reducing or averting business risk.
Make no mistake – Big Data has arrived and is a disruptive force presenting many opportunities, as well as technical challenges
Is this really a true business opportunity or a passing fad, as the title of this article ponders? For some, it really will be transformational and wealth creating. Trafigura and Danske Commodities are companies who have already started their Big Data journey. The horse hasn’t bolted yet, but it would be
prudent to note that the Hedge Funds have invested large sums of money in this type of technology to their advantage. Big Data IS the next frontier to drive innovation,
competition and ultimately profits. The revolution is only beginning. Make sure you are a part of it. •
Richard Quigley is Managing Director of DataGenic, an established leader in commodity and energy markets providing
Data Management, Quality Management and Decision Support Solutions.
E:
richard.quigley@datagenicgroup.com www.datagenicgroup.com
March 2014 53
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