Top Five Questions to Answer Before Starting on Big Data

As businesses begin to explore the insights, efficiencies and competitive edge Big Data can bring to their organizations, it is imperative they answer the right questions before getting too far down the road into a Big Data project, according to experts at ICC, a leader in business technology solutions focusing on Big Data and application development. “Big Data is many things but what it is not is a technology initiative. Your IT department will be deeply involved in setting things up and making sure you've got the number crunching horsepower to ‘do’ Big Data, but it is an initiative driven by the business not the IT department,” says Jim Gallo, national director of business analytics for ICC.

Because Big Data is much more complex than simply managing and exploring large volumes of data, it is essential that organizations are reasonably assured their business needs and demands — improving customer loyalty, streamlining processes, improving top-line growth through predictive analytics, etc. — will be met before project spending begins.

 “As with any business decision about a new and emerging technology,” says Gallo, “if you answer a few basic questions beforehand, you will either set your Big Data initiative on a firm foundation, or conclude that it has no place at all in your organization.”