The Q4/15 web-poll tried to catch a glimpse about the concurrence between
– corporate analytics strategy the
– implementation of the strategy and the
– practice and expectation of so called unstructured data?

Results of the poll showing

1.    Analytics is a strategic cornerstone. The analytics implementation roadmap raises some points, as the majority of participants don’t see a realistic and visible scope.

2.    The systematic and machine based analysis of unstructured data (a.k.a. NoSQL data) isn’t really practiced and usually has no decision-making role.

3.    A significant change in the role of unstructured data analysis in the near future is expected.

Why the linkage between analytics strategy and unstructured data?

Looking from a corporate perspective analytics is an investment and should deliver business values. Analytics are typically helpful to
– identify cost savings or/and increase revenues,
– gain understanding in the substantial re-design of business processes,
– find out or invent completely new/different business models…
… in other words to compete.

In the same way corporate applications mostly provide structured data and usually running in the range of the applications in a given situation. In addition the focus on data is rather processing than generating data-driven decisions or creating new business based on data. If companies want to move ahead in a qualified and reasonable pace it comes down to other data like web-based, legacy systems embedding, supplier data, customer centric data or data which are beyond the line right now. Each sort of data carries its own structure – and that’s the point. They don’t fitting into a given and well-balanced corporate data model, therefore they’re called unstructured.

If companies want to integrate the above type of data into
– research,
– sales,
– customer support or
– product development or
– other departments
the traditional way it would take years to put them into corporate processing framework.
NoSQL data technologies provide capabilities to integrate, query and process unstructured data very easy and sufficiently into corporate data life-cycle.
That’s why a serious analytics strategy should have a reasonable NoSQL element.