Wikipedia defines big data as “a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications. The challenges include capture, storage, search, sharing, analysis and visualization.”
Today, a lot of business people don’t know really what predictive modeling, forecasting or design of experiments mean or do. But over the next 10 years, if businesses want to thrive in a highly competitive marketplace, the use of these powerful analytical techniques will have to become a mainstream.
This is going to be the case the same way the use of financial analysis and computers have become mainstream. Executives, managers and employee teams who do not understand and correctly interpret their data as an asset will be challenged to survive.
There is always risk when decisions are made based on intuition or feeling. In the popular book, “Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning,” Babson College Professor Tom Davenport makes the case that increasingly the primary source of attaining a competitive advantage will be an organization’s competence in mastering all flavors of analytics.
If your management team is analytics-impaired, then your organization is at risk.
Business analytics, as well as predictive analytics, is arguably the next big thing for organizations to successfully compete.
Analytics will not only be applied to predict outcomes but also to reach higher to optimize the use of their resources, assets and trading partners.
It is not just about the big data, but rather the big value that can be created by converting data into meaningful and relevant information for insight, foresight, decisions and actions.
Source:information-management.com