There are 3 item(s) tagged with the keyword "analytics".
Some of the most exciting and impactful changes coming out of tech right now are in B2B. Analytics, big data, and cloud computing - these are three of the areas that Gartner has identified as the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2012. As a SaaS company providing a solution in the data-heavy area of product planning and requirements management, this is great news. But Gartner has uncovered an extremely important trend in next-generation analytics that is right at the center of product planning.
The power of big data is not the data itself but the way companies use it to guide decision-making in all areas of their business. MIT Sloan Management Review put out a research report with some interesting insights about how top performing and lower performing companies use analytics.
It does not come as a surprise that top performers excel at leveraging their data for the best business results; they are 5 times as likely to use analytics as their lower performer peers.
Our team here regularly reads the ribbonfarm blog by Venkat and one of his latest posts created quite a stir interesting enough to bring the conversation here.
It’s a long read, but I encourage you take a look before reading on.
If you dig into the comments you'll find that Venkat had a set of experiences in his professional life that made him frustrated with people becoming overly-analytical. He feels surrounded by people using statistics to “avoid thinking” and ultimately deflect blame for failures to the analytical model.
When Venkat says some bring the data driven model to a “holy activity”, that’s no joke and for many his comments are like an assault on their religion. Data is a tool so powerful, it’s no wonder it’s prompted a level of near-religious following. I'll count myself amongst followers in that church.
Getting back to the root point of the post, here's my comments on the issues raised and I'd like to hear what our readers think as well.