“Big Data” has certainly made the most of its recent fame. It’s a vague buzzword for what amounts to a massive pile of data that we are told will take our companies to the next level if we can figure out how to use it.
So, here we are, standing around what might as well be a huge pile of manure. Where do we start? Do you just stick your hand in there and start feeling around for something? Well, for most of you reading this blog post I have good news. In most companies, Big Data isn’t really the issue. Yeah, we all get that every day, old flat desert landscapes are transforming into mountain ranges of data, but not a lot of companies are being forced to mine cavernous databases that run a billion rows deep.
In a recent webinar for the American Marketing Association (AMA), I discussed how big data for most of us should really be called “broad data.” By that I mean, instead of one or two massive piles of data to sift through, we typically consume a good number of smaller, disparate data sets spread here and there.
Think about 21st century marketers. Off the top of my head, they should have web analytics, PPC/banner, social/sentiment, CRM and marketing automation data, not to mention budget/spend stuff. What’s cool is that the today’s marketer has access to all of this information. What is not cool is that all of these data sources have distinct login/access and report delivery engines. And there’s nothing like logging in to six different platforms then, cut, paste, build pivot table in Excel, graph, format graph etc.—you get the picture.
For a while there, integrators were telling us to take all of that data and put it into one, massive data warehouse. Then, logically, we could query that massive stack to our hearts content and find all sorts of insights that would generate new opportunities for revenue growth.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds really complicated, expensive and time consuming to me.
At Domo, we feel like we have a much sexier solution than that, one that is centered on the executive and business user, not wizards. We believe that your business data solution shouldn’t require you to “start over”; it should make the experience better.
If you are interested in watching this webinar and hear more about why “big data” is really “broad data” for most of us, click here.
And for more on Dan Roden’s role as Boyd Ledoux, check out some of our “BIG News” videos, here.