Computerworld

Dell: Unlocking the value of Big Data

Having the ability to quickly and effectively react to customer needs and market demands is invaluable to a business.

Having the ability to quickly and effectively react to customer needs and market demands is invaluable to a business.

But according to Christine Fronczak, HPC Marketing Manager, Dell, too many decision makers are stymied by a lack of useful insight into their data.

“However, agility and efficacy in analytics is possible,” Fronczak says.

“With the right mindset, tools and technologies, organisations can become much more adroit about how they use the power of analytics to improve decision making.”

A recent survey indicated that 61 percent of organisations around the globe have data waiting to be processed. Despite this, only 39 percent felt they understood how to extrapolate the value from that data.

In order to unlock the value found in data, Fronczak believes organisations must firstly adopt the right analytics tools.

“Thanks to our every increasingly connected world, data miners in companies have access to greater amounts of data than ever before,” Fronczak says.

“That means your organisation must be able to aggregate the various sources to produce a full understanding of what customers and market conditions are revealing.”

Fronczak believes that leadership is also required, leadership that is solely dedicated to following the data.

“The point of analytics agility is to quickly altar your direction if your business decision is flawed,” Fronczak adds.

“Disagreeing with the data or hoping for different results isn't making the most of your data.”

For Fronczak, empowered IT teams can also help unlock the value of data, meaning decision makers should ensure IT teams are free to “continually and consistently” collect and manage data.

“It can help guarantee that gathered data is properly aggregated and analysed to provide for a single, correct version of what it is telling you,” Fronczak explains.

“Also, the analytics tools needed to drive fast and flexible business decisions are available.

But as Fronczak qualifies, it also takes the right mindset for the power of analytics to improve decision making.