Who’s Really Using Big Data by Paul Barth and Randy Bean. (Harvard Business Review)
From the post:
We recently surveyed executives at Fortune 1000 companies and large government agencies about where they stand on Big Data: what initiatives they have planned, who’s leading the charge, and how well equipped they are to exploit the opportunities Big Data presents. We’re still digging through the data — but we did come away with three high-level takeaways.
- First, the people we surveyed have high hopes for what they can get out of advanced analytics.
- Second, it’s early days for most of them. They don’t yet have the capabilities they need to exploit Big Data.
- Third, there are disconnects in the survey results — hints that the people inside individual organizations aren’t aligned on some key issues.
The third point, disconnects, is addressed when the authors say:
Recall that 80% of respondents agreed that Big Data initiatives would reach across multiple lines of business. That reality bumps right up against the biggest data challenge respondents identified: “integrating a wider variety of data.” This challenge appears to be more apparent to IT than to business executives. We’d guess that they’re more aware of how silo’d their companies really are, and that this is another reason that they judge the company’s capacity to transform itself using Big Data more harshly.
I don’t know that “harshly” is the term I would use. Realistically is more accurate.
The eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. just passed and improved intelligence sharing between U.S. intelligence agencies is still years away, if it remains on schedule. (Read’em and Weep)
Fact: Threat of death and destruction raining out of the sky is insufficient to promote information sharing beyond intelligence silos.
Question: What motivation are you going to use to promote information sharing beyond your silos?
De-siloing of information means:
- Loss of power – X doesn’t have to ask for my report
- Loss of control – Y might do something with my data that makes me look bad
- Loss of job security – I am the only person who knows how to obtain the data
Not to mention fear of change and a host of other nasty reactions. The ones who aren’t afraid are panting with lust for the data of others to strengthen their positions.
Which means nearly everyone in your organization is going to start with a minimum of passive resistance to de-siloing and escalate from there.
There are alternatives.
Why not let people keep their silos and breach them one by one with topic map bungholes?
What is the purpose of de-siloing of information? So we can use it with other information? Yes?
Which means we know what information we need for some particular purpose with a defined benefit. Yes?
In other words, making all your silos transparent is likely a waste of time, even if it could succeed.
Breaching a data silo with a topic map bunghole means specific information for some specified benefit. Amenable to cost/benefit analysis.
Which works better in your organization: High value, specific returns or “it could be valuable someday, we just don’t know,” diffuse returns?
Topic maps are the first option, transparent data silos are the second. Your call.