| | March 20178CIOReviewEmpowered by Cloud, Executed on Earth: 3 Steps to Maximize Return on Data Analytics InvestmentBy Jin Zhang, Senior Director, Analytics, CA Technologies [NASDAQ:CA]Data and analytics are buzzwords that hold such promise, it is no surprise that many organizations have increased their investment in this space. According to a joint study by Capgemini and EMC, 70 percent of IT executives consider their organization's ability to gain value from big data as critical to future growth. In fact, "56 percent believe their investment in big data over the next three years will outstrip past investment in information management." Challenges in Finding the ValueOrganizations have built data lakes, consolidated all data to one repository, and created mandates about where and how data from all different business units are to be stored. However, the outcome of these efforts has not consistently resulted in rapid business benefits.Instead, access to the data lake is often highly controlled, with query request taking a significant amount of time to be completed, and much extra effort required to rebuild the data to follow the format guidelines--all without the guarantee of visible and measurable business benefits. In their 2015 report of "Big Data and Analytics: Issues, Solutions, and ROI," Shim and his co-authors pointed out that the "Inexperience of early adopters results in informal project execution with primary goal being the implementation without considering metrics for success."Start Small to Win BigSo how should companies overcome these deployment challenges to make their data analytics investment count? Borrowing some popular, lean startup principles here, I believe it's critical for organizations to start small with data and analytics, by focusing on a real business problem. Whether it's the slow-down of customer adoption, or the increasing volume of merchandise returned from on-line purchases, these specific business problems allow organizations to stay focused and lean, while delivering results.Focusing on a real business problem brings many benefits for an organization, especially one that has high hopes for leveraging data analytics. First, it is easier to find a sponsor and stakeholder, expediting the resource availability as well as investment OPINIONIN MY
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