A new report released by IBM and the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford reveals that most big data initiatives currently being deployed by organizations are aimed at improving the customer experience.
Yet, despite the strong focus on the customer, less than half of the organizations engaged in active big data initiatives are currently collecting and analyzing external sources of data, like social media.
One reason is that many organizations are struggling to address and manage for the uncertainty inherent within certain types of data, such as the weather, the economy, or the sentiment and truthfulness of people expressed on social networks.
In the survey, respondents questioned their ability to trust comments, reviews, tweets and other forms of freely offered opinions online, especially when the source is unidentified or unconfirmed. At the same time, uncertain, social media data still contains valuable information.
Organizations need to embrace and manage data uncertainty and determine how to use it to their advantage. Another reason that social media and other external data sources are being underutilized is due to the skills gap. Having the advanced capabilities required to analyze unstructured data – which includes geospatial data, voice, images and video – as well as streaming data remains a major challenge for most organizations. Less than 25 per cent of the survey respondents say they have the required capabilities to analyze highly unstructured data – a major inhibitor to getting the most value from big data.
“Most companies recognize the potential for big data to improve decision-making and business outcomes across the enterprise. What they struggle with, however, is how to get started on their big data journey,” said Michael Schroeck, Global Information Management Leader, IBM Global Business Services.
