CIOS, IT Directors and CTOs

Are you ready to become the "Big Data Champion"

​As a CIO, IT Director or CTO you may already be leading the adoption of Big Data within your company, acting pro-actively as the source of expertise and support for each function within the business, and driving the strategic direction with the CEO and the Board.    If so, you are part of an elite minority!

However, for most CIOs and IT Directors:

• You already have your hands full with day-to-day tasks - meeting increased user demand (mobility and Bring Your Own Device) for example, or guarding against security breaches – and all the while reducing costs and improving governance.
• You may feel you are losing control as users sign up to SaaS applications, by-passing IT
• Your team may lack the skills and the budget to take on the role of champion for the adoption of Big Data,
• The possible appointment of a Chief Data Officer may diminish the role of IT

 
How Big Data projects differ from traditional IT projects

Core software costs are lower due to Open Source (but support is still costly)
Projects will have a greater involvement from business users and may be described in business terms
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Using data effectively

• Identify which data is relevant (CRM, ERP, supply chain management, social media, website logs, as well as external)​
• Bring it all together for analysis
• How easy is it to extract and merge the data?
• How frequently should it be updated?
• How do we handle the wider range of data types required?
• Tracking sources of data and ensuring consistent quality
• Ensuring compliance in a Big Data environment

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​The people challenge

• Challenge of dealing with a culture that makes decisions based on “gut feel”
• Problems finding people with the right skill set to tackle big data projects. Many leaders of IT departments are unfamiliar with how to hire and motivate Data Scientists
• Staff tasked with delivering insight from data often have another “day job” and cannot focus entirely on analytics – reducing their ability to deliver to deadlines
• Perception: technology is important but the right mind set is critical!  Big Data is not a “Technology Wave” – rather, it is a Business Transformation opportunity (see our article on this subject)

​How BigData4Analytics can help:

• Learn what other CIOs, IT Directors and CTOs in your industry are doing - from the articles on our website
• Consulting and Training - to help get you and your team up to speed on the business challenges your internal customers face
• Data "Coaches" for a few days a month - to help you get started
• Interim Data Science and CDO resource - to start implementing without waiting to complete key hires
• "Technology Ecosystem" - innovative products that help deliver earlier or reduce costs - by changing the "build vs. buy" tradeoff