Predictions for 2015: Four Key Trends in Harnessing High-Speed Analytics By Karthik Palanisamy No matter where your company stands in terms of data collection and analysis, I am predicting four trends that business leaders will want to consider in this New Year to gain a competitive edge and grow: Trend #1: BI/Analytics are getting more advanced There is growing importance for analytics and this trend will continue. While it’s not where it should be and lot of organizations still talk the talk, there is a shift happening. Companies have started deploying more forward-looking analytics versus the traditional operational analytics; and automation is getting more commonplace as is user-empowered analytics. Along with simplification and automation, advanced analytics (like predictive analytics) are being piloted to validate predictability of the metric based on the data available. Some organizations are deploying predictive analytics to certain functions of their businesses, such as customer retention, turns or buying patterns and others.
Trend #2: In-Memory and Alternates are critical strategies Going hand-in-hand with this analytics trend is also the fact that leaders are accepting that in-memory is here to stay. The past year saw more organizations starting to invest in in-memory solutions in some form, versus just kicking the tires. Innovative organizations are beginning to realize that advanced analytics and, therefore, high-speed computing are critical strategies for achieving a competitive edge. However, most organizations still look at in-memory more as “compute power” versus looking at the overall strategic advantages, such as being able to effectively store data in a compressed form, de-layering data warehouses and speed to market for new solution deployments based on changing business needs. Software companies will continue bringing alternatives to in-memory solutions to the market, which are more cost-effective and based on a flexible model so that companies can either ramp up or down the “compute power” based on need. Trend #3: Chief Data Officer will grow in importance As the maturity and adoption of BI/Analytics grows, so will the role of analysts. No longer is it possible to be a one-person show. Today’s roles of vice president of BI / Analytics/ Data Management are not uncommon. This trend will gain momentum and the role of Chief Data Officer, which is still relatively new, will grow in importance. With the continued explosion of data further magnified by the Internet-of-Things, organizations are waking up to the fact that information in various forms is a key ingredient of their product or service — one which is especially unique to their business and requires the same level of leadership as other functions, such as finance and technology. Trend #4: Big data and self-service are today’s realities While these buzz words can still be heard in the industry, I think big data and self-service should be looked at as commonplace realities of today — in the same way we look at smart phones or smart TV’s. It should be inherent in your process. How you define it within your organization may vary similar to how you define your business rules or process. |
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