Big Data? Yes! But hang on, what was the question again?

From its totally respectable roots in science, Big Data has transferred over to business in quite an astonishing way. And why not; in science, people threw resource at finding new breakthroughs in gigantic data sets, so why not apply the same methods and thinking to our large volumes of customer data and Twitter feeds?

Hence the current fascination with all things Big Data. The IT industry seems to have a one-note song at the moment: You need to be buying all this hardware to do Big Data; you need to be buying all this software to manage all the Big Data you’ve got in your organization; and you need to be buying our expertise and skills in order to manage all of these external sources of data you are introducing into your business.

Back to Basics
All well and good. However, let’s go back to first principles. Those scientists who started the ball rolling on Big Data had a focus, and they gathered the relevant data in order to prove, disprove or analyse a thesis.

In other words, they did exactly the opposite of what we are doing in business! It’s like a ‘build it and they will come’ scenario: if we get all this information together, something’s bound to come out to justify the effort!

Well, that seems a very flimsy base for commitment of budget and effort. No-one is spending time sitting back and thinking, what am I trying to achieve – what theorem about my customers am I seeking to prove or disprove here?

I am beginning to wonder if Big Data is actually driven by business at all, instead of the IT sector.

That’s not to say that there is not much value to be drawn from Big Data projects – far from it.

But surely rule number one in business has to be, If you don’t know why you’re doing something, stop and don’t restart until you do.

Don’t get on any bandwagons unless you’re convinced they are going somewhere useful for you and your customers and your contact centre.

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