The ‘Big Data' hype and what it means for business thinking

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Sydney, Australia, 20 August 2013: Standing firm against ‘big data’ hype, marketing analytics business Data-driven Marketing and parent company Veda say that leveraging big data effectively doesn't necessarily require a seismic shift in business thinking.
‘Big data does require different tools for capture, reduction and storage’, says Veda Chief Data Officer, Simon Bligh, ‘but the fundamentals of data management and analytics aren’t significantly different once you have set the right framework in place. What is crucial is that you need to engage a team across many levels and areas of the organisation in order to establish the right infrastructure, data streams and analytic capability’.
‘One thing that the ‘big data’ hype disguises is that big data – in fact any data - in its raw form has negligible commercial value’ says Mr Bligh. ‘The big data value proposition lies in being able to use new and expansive data sources to answer questions that the organisation has not previously been able to address, or to answer questions more rapidly and robustly’.
Speaking at ADMA’s ‘Big Data Big Opportunity’ seminar, Bligh and fellow panelists Pierric Duthoit (Digital Marketing Director of Meetic, EU) and David Whittaker (Managing Director of Marketdata Brazil) expressed starkly divergent approaches to leveraging big data in their respective enterprises, but were in total agreement when it came to identifying the most significant issue businesses are facing in their search to conquer big data.
‘The biggest concern for businesses wanting to take advantage of the vast streams of information flowing through web analytics, social and transactional systems is building a team with the necessary skills, aptitudes and experience to leverage this opportunity. More data is no substitute for good analytic skills – in fact, the analytic expertise to draw out the ‘signal’ from the ‘noise’ is even more important with large and diverse data sets. Finding and nurturing analytic talent is the most important thing you can be doing right now.’
And if you can’t hire – then you partner. ‘Our marketing analytics team within Data-driven Marketing are skilled at dealing with unstructured and messy data sources, and the Veda Group has been providing real time analytics through our decisioning tools for many years’ says Mr Bligh. ‘Integrating diverse data sources to produce a holistic picture of individuals and businesses is central to our business, and this makes us uniquely placed to help clients develop a viewpoint and approach to leverage big data’.