BOARD Benelux to participate at Sogeti / Ovum Business Intelligence & Information Management Symposium 2014

Growth in data and the advent of new analytical techniques has put the spotlight firmly on the capability of organizations to exploit both internal and external data sources for greater insight. Analytics and Big Data strategies abound and businesses in diverse sectors are seeking new product and service opportunities in a digital environment. However, many of these initiatives fail to reach take-off point, as the business comes to appreciate that new methodologies and technologies on their own are no shortcut to better decision-making and improved outcomes. From a strategic perspective, there is a powerful requirement to leverage data in every aspect of the business, or risk getting left behind. The diverse business and technology drivers include:

– Customer insight, enabled by augmenting transactional data with online, mobile and social interactions is at the forefront of creating compelling customer experiences and of data-driven marketing science.

– The Internet of Things and machine-to-machine (M2M) are driving the integration between information technology and operational technology, and leading to a data-driven transformation of business processes.

– The rapid streaming and analysis of ‘fast data’, and the accelerating adoption of in-memory technology is opening up new use cases for business optimization.

– Early adopters of analytics are looking to move beyond the descriptive and predictive stages, and use prescriptive analytics to create actionable insight in business operations.

– New cloud-based delivery models are making business intelligence and powerful computational capacity for analytics accessible to any organization.

– Individuals too are subject to these trends, as our daily lives in domains such as healthcare, work, finance, retail and the home, are changed rapidly by the expansion of a data-driven society.

However, the reality of the increased use of data and analytics, for companies and individuals alike, is by no means one of universal benefit. In practice businesses have struggled to come to terms with issues such as how to translate data into insight, how to build trust and confidence in the results, how to address consumer concerns of security and privacy, and how to establish good practices of information management and governance across their organization. From a technology perspective, many years of investment in BI and analytical platforms are now being confronted by a demand for new analytical capabilities, which disrupt existing architectures yet offer uncertain returns. The same disciplines of information management, including data quality and data integration, that have pertained to existing environments such as the data warehouse and business intelligence platform, are just as crucial in the world of Big Data and explorative analytics, yet are often neglected. Little wonder therefore that the potential advantages of these strategies, which are very real, have become subject to an increasing degree of scepticism and disappointment. Organizations seeking to find the positive aspects need to start by learning to love and value all of their data, irrespective of size, source, and application. Whilst we pay close attention to inventories of servers, desktops or software licenses, it’s unusual to find an organization doing likewise for its information assets. Similarly, a cohesive information architecture is typically an afterthought that trails far behind technical design work. That architecture should be establishing the informational framework and context for the business, in which the requirements for governance, management and integration can be set. The tensions created between business innovation and growth on the one hand, and the risks of costly failure on the other, have put the future of analytics and the data-driven business at a crossroads: it is possible to set a course to make a big impact or to head down a path of big disappointment. The 2014 Sogeti / Ovum BI & Information Management Symposium will give you an unparalleled opportunity to understand and debate the issues, to hear the views of industry experts and thought leaders, and to learn from the experiences of companies that are adopting these strategies today.

Find out more about the event here: www.bisymposium.nl