Information Paradox

It is the time that data-based analytics should flip to the new page of reality and reach the next level of maturity. 

Due to the mountain of information that companies are producing and spreading through social interactions, businesses are now facing the challenge of processing all the data in a short time. Information led analysis is becoming a significant tool in decision making and insightful problem-solving. Analytics is making an evolutionary journey from capturing hindsight to insight and foresight.

Little and big: It is the age of Big Data, data can be refined as information and knowledge, and it's power for better decision making both strategically and tactically. However, there are still many big puzzles in Big Data. Data is there, growing daily at alarming rates, but how to handle them effectively? The significant failure is that many ask for lots of data, in the hope that something will yield insight. In many organizations, if they didn't know what they were looking for they never found anything, and the volume of data probably only made it harder. So little gain, for a great cost. So Big Data might bring very little value if you couldn’t process it smoothly.

That means big data, but little value. Any data management program of work should be very much focused on business drivers, ROI based on solid cost/benefits analysis. Analysis of big data, little data, combined with a deep and wide knowledge of the "business" being analyzed, and the ability to do something with the results is where we need to go. Big or little data is only good if it provides meaningful insights from which business management can take or make actions on business improvement decisions with confidence.

Narrow and wide: The variety aspect of Big Data is "the ability to acquire a wide variety of data.” Instead of using a single source for a particular type of measurement, businesses use data from many different and unrelated data sources to produce the measurement and allow them to cross-corroborate with each other. And business needs to use the ability of Big Data technology with the "domain expertise"/ business insights" together to carve value out of such an implementation.

Strong information based insight takes a broad view and deep analysis. Narrow/closed- mindedness blocks vision, one's mind needs to be open to new concepts. because the team perhaps has different intentions, different participants and different philosophies (openness vs narrow-mindedness). Instead of trusting a single source for ground truth, you let several different systems "vote" on the ground truth. Big Data promises to be transformative, not just transactional; the greatest rewards go to those with clear vision for how it can transform their organization, capabilities and industry.

Easy and Difficult: Information-based decisions are not mere discrete moments within some form of static personal domain, but rather a flow of patterns, think floating to spur the fountain of creativity. If an organization becomes data-driven but simultaneously simplified their business processes and infrastructure, there would be no "hangover." To improve problem-solving effectiveness, the technologies and methodologies are multiple and they all seem to work, but it's more of an understanding of your business, your industry, your objectives, your strategic plan, and then using the technology to get the results (KPIs) to make better, more accurate and timely decisions.

The easy part is to generate lots of data, but it is difficult to create value from them. It is increasingly more challenging for information technology to deliver to business what it wants when it wants. The real paradox is that IT depends on the business to define their technology requirements but the business does not understand the capabilities of technology and it is difficult for them to provide functional requirements for applications. Not to mention, from the business management perspective, the easy part is the technology, and the more difficult part is about how to manage people who are capable of working cross disciplinarily to make effective decisions and solve problems smoothly.

Uncovering a nugget of information only has value if you can do something with it by dealing with such paradoxes smoothly. In reality, most forward-thinking businesses work hard to benefit from the amount of data, very few achieve expected results. It is the time that data-based analytics should flip to the new page of reality and reach the next level of maturity. Organizations use Big Data not only for profit & revenue generation, but also for improving customer satisfaction and building a strong brand name reputation.

Posted in: Big Data,Information/Data Management,Profundity