Big Data is transforming the IT world, as the sheer quantity and variety of data overwhelms conventional systems for storing and processing information. But in spite of the promise of Big Data analytics and business intelligence (BI), a revolution in how businesses actually use all this data is harder to see. As one industry observer notes, "we need to instill more business intelligence into Business Intelligence."
As Doron Aspitz writes at Wired, data is growing exponentially, but the ability of businesses to make effective use of that data is not keeping pace. The problem is not with database management. In the database world, new tools and approaches suited to Big Data volume, velocity, and variety are now available. It is the fourth V – value – that remains elusive, and the problem here is that legacy BI tools have not kept pace.
As Aspitz notes, "more and more reports that slice and dice the data but don’t provide actionable business insights quickly to users, are not an acceptable solution." Far from helping managers and executives, a mass of non-insightful reports merely overwhelms and confuses them. As a result, reports Forrester Research, actual usage rates for BI solutions remain dismal, at nine percent.
One problem is that too many of the offered BI solutions are standardized, and don't take actual industry verticals into account. Different industries have different needs and concerns.
Aspitz also suggests some specific tools that could help make BI output more intelligent:
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IBA (intelligent business alerts): Trend break alerts generated by statistical analysis.
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Semantic analysis: Using business-oriented language logic to filter and classify alerts.
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Smart text: Use of templates to express alerts and other results in readable language.
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ETL (extract, transform, and load): Tools and techniques to handle data while avoiding the "silo" effect.
In short, for BI to be effective, real-world business intelligence needs to be applied to it. GRT Corporation brings 17 years of experience to the task of making technology fit business needs, instead of the other way around.
