How can businesses reap the benefits of big data?

Many of today’s businesses are drowning in the data that is flowing in from all directions and are struggling to get their heads above the surf to turn the data into actionable insights. Established software solutions, which have been around since the 70s, are just not engineered to cope with the data deluge. That’s why many organisations have yet to harness big data - they lack the tools to take advantage of it and this problem will only get worse as data volumes continue to mount. Businesses that fail to embrace big data as an opportunity will to be left behind by those that do as the power of data-informed strategic decisions fuels companies forward.

But what is the first step of the analytics journey? How do we move from the static reports of the 70s to the analytics-enabled business processes needed to survive and thrive in the Age of Data?

Start small: Find the areas of your business operations that are most data-intensive – for example, areas where you either have lots of data, or where you have the potential to add data feeds. Start by identifying one problem that can be easily solved with big data analytics for a quick victory. This approach will help you build credibility within your organisation and gain the momentum you need to address enterprise-wide problems with big data analytics.

Identify the desired business outcome: According to Gartner, 50 percent of Hadoop implementations have no defined value proposition. To be successful on your analytics journey, you should begin with the end in mind. Are you aiming to improve customer relationships? Improve risk analysis? Find new sources of revenue for your company? Before you invest time and money into a big data analytics initiative, first determine your desired business outcome, then build your strategy and data architecture to help you meet your goal.

Foster a data culture: In some industries, like healthcare, organisations discard 90 per cent of the data they generate. Game-changing data is simply flowing down the drain. Why? For too long, organisations haven’t had the resources to effectively capture and store the data, much less analyse it. With the advent of next-generation technologies like Hadoop, this is no longer an issue. These days, it may be more expensive to discard data than it is to keep it. It’s imperative that we create a culture that respects data and makes data analytics an integral part of every business decision.

Find good partners: We’re living during an interesting time when technology is evolving at a pace never seen before. Not many organisations have the internal resources on hand to create and operate effective big data analytics workflows. Find a partner that is dedicated to enabling you to be successful in every stage of your analytics journey. This partner that will help you embrace your current investments and work with you to build processes that won’t require hard-to-find, specialised skillsets that run the risk of becoming outmoded in a manner of months.

Many companies try to use yesterday’s technology for today’s data opportunities. Legacy approaches for data management and analytics won’t work with today’s data volumes or types, and can’t produce results in the timeframe needed to make impactful decisions. By using new tools like Hadoop and the ecosystem created around it to make it industrial and enterprise-grade, organisations can materially improve their business processes and enable them make better decisions faster. Companies need to put an analytics roadmap in place to address the most vexing business challenges and maximise data analytics investments so they can achieve data-driven business decision-making nirvana.