Karin Kruger, associate director, data and analytics, KPMG South Africa discusses the role and impact of big data and analytics on how we do business.
What is the role of big data in today’s business age and how it this transforming companies?
It is widely anticipated that big data will impact every industry and sector going forward. In fact, big data is likely to become the cornerstone of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity; growth; innovation; and consumer surplus for businesses. However, the first and most important step in determining the real value of the data that a company holds, is to gain a fundamental understanding between data and analytics (the “and” being the key here).
Data comes from many sources, in many formats from within a business as well as from external sources. In addition, this requires various methods and techniques to be applied to the data in order to produce an abundance of actionable insights which can be applied for a variety of uses or decisions. There is a perception that exists that the more data you have, the better the insights you will get. However, the reality is that having the right data is more important than having the most data. Once the right data has been identified, analytics in the big data process can then be applied successfully.
Unfortunately though, many businesses are under the impression that analytics is all about the software and tools used. Rather, this is the process whereby better decisions can be made by asking better questions to ultimately unlock the value in the data. Without analysing the right data however, this process becomes difficult.
The value of big data to an organisation is measured by the insights that management can draw from the data. To gain this insight, we need to be asking the right questions and ensuring the integrity of the data being used. Data and analytics isn’t the newest business trend – rather it’s a permanent change in the business landscape – one that must be understood.
How does big data drive companies and their CIOs to take business intelligence to the next level?
Business intelligence (BI) consultants are responsible for surfacing an organisation’s data for decision making, bringing best practice thinking, innovation and technical knowledge to create solutions for business improvement. For businesses and their finance functions today, data represents the ultimate challenge and the ultimate opportunity – which the CIO should be capitalising on. The ability to collect, manage and analyse data effectively, and use big data to enable BI processes – to the advantage of the business – can lead to better business decisions and lasting competitive advantages. And the CIO should capitalise on this.
While big data creates new challenges for companies, it can also offer great opportunities across functional areas – from sales forecasting to gaining customer insights, through to the vendor evaluation and selection processes, the possibilities are expanding.
What are two main advantages of using big data in companies?
As big data continues to become bigger, it poses new challenges (for instance around data privacy) – however, opportunities can be created – opportunities that experienced data analysts can turn into business benefits. From a KPMG perspective, I see these benefits directly impacting the financial and productivity aspects of a company – as it has the opportunity to turn an organisation from being process-driven to becoming data-driven – which will undoubtedly help in unlocking the organisation’s value in its data.
Furthermore, as data-driven decision-making increases, companies will now have sight of actionable insights that will allow for even larger benefits to be realised.
What considerations should be taken when implementing analytics with big data?
Organisations wishing to create sustainable value need to understand the way in which their information is produced, collected and used – and then utilise IT to rapidly respond to the changing market, and this often requires the effective implementation of big data and analytics. In fact, the organisations ability to align its IT with its broader business strategy will play a pivotal role in the long-term growth of the company and will allow it to reap the advantages that technologies, like Big Data, has to offer.
CIOs also need to realise that value is not simply created by technology, but rather by people exploiting the full potential of the technology. In the current economic climate, information has become the fourth production factor, which is testament to how increasingly relevant it is, when compared to the traditional production factors, like: labour, equity and raw materials.
What are the security aspects around data and how will this influence the big data space in the next couple of years?
KPMG has developed an approach that identifies specific focus areas that companies should take into account while building a big data privacy and security programme. Our approach relies on the standard information governance life cycle to assist organisations to minimise their risks and maximise control over big data.
Privacy is not just a “nice to have” – big data privacy and security risks are real and companies must understand these risks. Companies can no longer collect unimaginable volumes of data without consequence. Discriminatory analysis and data breaches are tangible and organisations must be aware of this, when looking to mobile their big data programmes.
Data security and privacy will become increasingly important as automated data-driven decision-making increases and KPMG is at the forefront of this regulatory change and is actively working with clients to responsibly unlock the value of big data.
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