How to Start Your Big Data Journey
Big data is vital in today’s technologically-savvy marketplace. Today’s companies have embraced this amazing technology and are using it to improve their businesses. In fact, the projection is that by 2020 companies will be spending around $34 billion on big data hardware, software and services. But is building an advanced analytics capability worth the investment?
According to a Bain & Company study, the best-performing companies are the ones that have advanced analytics capabilities. In fact, these companies are outperforming their competitors by a wide margin and are twice as likely to be in the top financial quartile within their industry.
As Dillon Burroughs once said, “Sitting on the sidelines in our interconnected world is not a sufficient response.” If you want to compete and you want to make a difference, you need to know how to properly harness big data.
Are you ready to get in the game? Here’s what you need.
Find a purpose
Clearly lay out what your purpose or ambition is in terms of your big data usage. Are you going to use it improve an internal process or transform a business model? Kabbage, for example, used big data to do just this. They created their own financial system to offer small business loans and aligned themselves with notable businesses to provide perks as well as loans, meaning customers can obtain the needed funds and then access exclusive deals to further help their startup grow.
Get started
First, determine where the company stands in terms of analytics. Compare yourself to your main competitors and determine from that the areas in which you can (and need to) improve your position in the market.
By experimenting, you will learn how advanced analytics will help your business. As you become more skilled at using big data, you will better learn how to use the system and your company will rise in the rankings.
Define your analytics capabilities
Your system will need both a horizontal analytics capability and advanced analytics capabilities. First, work on developing your horizontal analytics capability and define the owners and sponsors for the initiative. This action will ensure that key decisions will include the proper data, targets will be created for financial and operational improvement and the casual impact of big data will be registered.
You then need to create an organizational home for the advanced analytics capabilities. Your specific technique will depend on your company, but the five typical models are: Centralized, centre of excellence, consulting, decentralized and functional.
Once the system is set up and running, you will clearly see why the top companies are all using advanced analytics capabilities as problems will be easier to see and solutions easier to come by. Thanks to FinTech and big data, we are in a new golden age when it comes to business technology. Get ready, because now is the time for your business to reach its full potential.