Big Data and the CFO

"Rugby is a game played by gentlemen with odd shaped balls" - Anon . . . .

The Big Data wave

BIG DATA is all the rage with every company jumping on the bandwagon to claim they have a 'solution' for big data (hmm . . .).

Every survey or report we read seems to bang on about the enormous quantity and exponential growth of the data the world is generating. Data is flooding ever more powerful servers and storage devices from websites, search engines, social networks, photo sites, Youtube, smartphone apps, voice, documents, loyalty cards, cloud based software services, internet-aware devices (refrigerators and cars for example) and more sophisticated enterprise business systems. We are told that this year stored data in the world will reach 1.2 zettabytes (that's quite a lot apparently!). It will be 8 zettabytes by 2015. For an infographic that illustrates the sheer rate of growth take a look here . . .  Executives are telling researchers and survey firms that big data and business analytics are the most important technology innovations they need to grasp. So, yes, it is pretty important!

Challenges in Big Data

Big Data and the CFO - Part deux

In Part I of this post I talked about the growth rate of the Big Data wave and analysed the challenges and struggles that practitioners are experiencing in the big data world. You can read Part I here . . .

The CFO and Big Data

Whilst it is important to consider the data analytics opportunities for consumer buying behaviour, the CFO on the road to World Class Finance should consider that it is not the size of your data that matters, rather it is what you do with it and even more importantly, your focus on the 'odd-shaped' data. By ‘odd-shaped data’ I refer to data that describes unusual and unexpected events that occur within what we believe to be standard processes. 'Odd-Shaped' data is the unusual stuff, the knotty realities described in a data trail that paints the picture of where processes and activities don't go according to plan. This is the data that helps us understand what is really going on and how to simplify an standardise; to reduce cost and improve effectiveness and quality. I develop this theme below.