Big data comes to BI: can it cope?

Because of the way they are deployed, less than 10% of employees regularly use business intelligence (BI) tools. Forrester Research puts the fraction at between 5% and 9%. And of that user base, anecdotes abound of daily reports taking several days just to look...

Big data brings challenges, opportunities

“The business case for big data is virtually unlimited, presenting new challenges and opportunities for ICT players bold enough to take on the challenge of supporting big data use,” says Grant Vine, technical director at Cybervine. Big data, much like cloud computing,...

It’s about big answers, not big data

Analytics is the top technology priority for CIOs and CFOs, according to Gartner; Nucleus Research recently released a report showing that organisations get a 10 to one return on analytics investment; IDC has increased growth forecasts for the analytics market....

Big data, analytics key to business strategy

Big data and analytics are all the rage. But while these are important concepts for businesses of all sizes, they have no value if they are merely another addition to IT’s “to-do” list. Gerald Naidoo, CEO of specialist systems integrator Logikal Consulting, says that...

Big data and presidential campaigns

After President Obama was re-elected in 2012, it emerged that his campaign had successfully used big data analytics in ways no other political campaign had done before. The team of over 100 people started with the core data of the voters’ roll, modelled how they...

Prioritising big data key to future success

Within big data lies huge value, which organisations ignore at their peril, says Ayanda Dlamini, business development manager at LGR Telecommunications. Big data is raising a lot of questions within business, but it’s a phenomenon nobody can afford to ignore.  Within...