Big Data, Analytics, Business Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence: What Does Your Best Partner Look Like?

“Without big data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the web like deer on a freeway.” These are the words of legendary consultant and author Geoffrey Moore, so they come with some kudos. 

But they pale next to the prediction made by IBM CEO Ginni Rometty that “Big Data will spell the death of customer segmentation and force the marketer to understand each customer as an individual within 18 months or risk being left in the dust.” Ouch.

And let’s be clear about the arm-in-arm relationships that exist between Analytics, AI/Machine Learning, Big Data, IOT and the other powerful technologies that are coming forward as essential components of the business systems you build for your users. They each play an essential and largely combined role, don’t they?

So, assuming you don’t want your organisation to be left in the dust, you need not only to get started with Analytics and AI, but ensure you can continue to engage with all of these technologies and evolve actionable outcomes from them well into the future. Read about the IBM approach to AI Automation for the whole business here

Why? Because the data that AI feeds off is growing at a phenomenal rate - from approximately 40 zettabytes of data in 2019 to 175 zettabytes in 2025, according to the IDC research I cited in an earlier post – and extracting business value from it in the future will mean choosing partners who can offer ever-increasing solution power, expertise and insight.

Partners and Solutions: here today, gone tomorrow?

Longevity, then, is a key consideration both in terms of the choice of Analytics and AI technologies that you deploy, and of the partner relationships and therefore domain knowledge you have access to. 

Of course, from the point of view of the technologies, the features and benefits that these advanced solutions can deliver are critical, and there’s a good explanation of these (and over 50 examples of solutions available) in this article in PredictiveAnalyticsToday.com. AI & Machine learning, data governance, increased workplace efficiency and security all rank highly in the requirements, amongst others.

But, as with any purchasing decision or commercial relationship, volatility is often the enemy of longevity, and the Analytics market is arguably now an extremely volatile environment, characterised by takeovers, mergers and acquisitions. 

Indeed, GlobalData’s Thematic Research has highlighted Big Data as one of over 50 key themes affecting the technology sector over the next two years, and it is, according to media reports like this one, “now driving a new wave of M&A activity” that targets vendors and partners “simply to get access to their data scientists and consultants.”

In short, to me it looks very much like Analytics & AI vendors and partners are being acquired as instant, asset-strippable sources of expertise, not with a long-term view to continuing the delivery of the products or services you have spent your budget on and perhaps more importantly staked your business future!

Tableau, Looker, Broadsoft, Brocade, Springpath, and others, have all gone this way in recent memory. On the other side of the coin, a solutions like IBM’s Cognos and Watson which – objectively - enjoy long-standing reputation and endorsement in their own right, haven’t. Go figure, eh?

Temporarily impressive or genuinely durable? Pick your partner.

The point I’m making here is that if you plotted the ideal Analytics & AI solutions on a three-dimensional requirements matrix of compute power against growth against longevity, it would simultaneously own the very highest points in each category.

For the class of tool-set (and partner) that can deliver against these criteria, businesses need to look past the temporarily impressive achievements of the here and now towards genuine durability for the future, if for no other reason than because of what we already know about the explosive growth of data yet to come. 

And a partner that’s undeniably brilliant, agile and original today isn’t a viable foundation for a long-term Data & AI strategy if they’re a plaything on somebody else’s balance sheet tomorrow.

Analytics & AI is all about making better-informed decisions. Take a good look at the potential partners out there before you decide on yours.

Again - Read about AI Automation for the whole business here