Some businesses are now starting to take big data more seriously, while others have still barely heard of the two words in the same sentence. There's a schism developing between the data haves and have nots, and that will soon translate into commercial success for the early adopters, and a missed opportunity for the laggards.
These are some of the findings from Computing's latest research into the topic, in preparation for the Big Data and Analytics Summit on the 17 March.
"People are taking [big data] more seriously now. They weren't really a couple of years ago, but now they are and by that I mean they're actually putting a little bit of money into a proof of concept or something like that," a chief data scientist told Computing.
However, a global head of insurance said that in his experience: "They've heard of the two words ‘big' and ‘data'; but they really have absolutely no idea in the commercial space, as opposed to the retail space, what to do with it. It's hard for them to identify what actual value they can get out of it and therefore apply for the spend that's going to be required to set up a proper big data initiative."
Thirteen per cent of firms who participated (over 500 companies of 100+ employees) said that they're currently deriving major benefits from their analytics, whilst 20 per cent said they were reaping some degree of value.
So what's stopping the rest?
"We're swamped with a sea of data," said a technical architect in the legal industry. "The challenge is deriving meaning from that data. We have huge amounts of data about all sorts of things, but what is significant, what is useful, what gives us business advantage? And there's no real kind of understanding in any kind of empirical sense. The people who've made the most progress have kind of felt their way through and by trial and error got to a useful scenario where they can derive value from it, but there's no kind of empirical model where you can say, ‘Actually, if you do this and analyse it this way you'll get this value from it.'"
Others cited barriers like cost, ignorance, resources, uncertainty, lack of focus, "fuzzy" data, lack of tangible ROI and regulatory and security concerns. A big data architect in the retail sector said: "It's the cultural change which is the hardest change to make, So it's resistance to change. Not just technology/business but cultural."
The danger is that some firms are allowing themselves to bounce off these barriers, whilst others find ways over and around them. It will be the latter group which finds itself the best equipped to make critical decisions in the future.
So how can you ensure that your business stays in the right side of this big data divide?
Computing's event will be the best place to start, packed as it is with panel debates, presentations and opportunities to put your questions to the experts.
It is free to qualified end users.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Stuart Sumner
Quelle/Source: computing, 19.02.2016
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