Data accounts for up to 75 percent of value in half of businesses
From the post:
As the volume of data stored in the enterprise continues to grow, organizations see this information as representing a substantial portion of their assets. With tools such as Hadoop for Windows, businesses are unlocking the value of this data, Anthony Saxby, Microsoft U.K.’s data platform product marketing manager, said in a recent talk at Computing’s Big Data Summit 2013. According to Microsoft’s research, half of all organizations think their data represents 50 to 75 percent of their total value.
The challenge in unlocking this value is technology, Saxby said, according to Computing. Much of this information is internally siloed or separated from the external data sources that it could be combined with to create more effective, monetized results. Today’s businesses want to bring together unstructured and structured data to create new insights. With tools such as Hadoop, this type of analysis is increasingly possible. For instance, record label EMI uses a variety of data types across 25 countries to determine how to market music artists in different geographies.
The headline reminded me of Bilbo Baggins:
I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
As the narrator notes:
This was unexpected and rather difficult.
I don’t follow the WSJ as closely as some but what of inventories, brick and mortar assets, accounts receivable, employees, IP, etc.?
Not that I doubt the value of data.
I do doubt the ability of businesses that manage by catch phrases like “big data,” “silos,” “unstructured and structured data,” Hadoop,” to realize its value.
Hadoop will figure in successful projects to “unlock data,” but only where it is used as a tool and not a magic bullet.
A clear understanding of data and its sources, how to measure ROI from its use, are only two of the keys to successful use of any data tool.
Pilling up data freed from internal silos upon data from external sources results in a big heap of data.
Impressive to the uninformed but it won’t increase your bottom line.