WARC, 17 February 2014
SAN FRANCISCO: Many brands still rely on descriptive
analytics, and are thus missing out on the valuable insights that can be
extracted from its predictive and prescriptive counterparts.
Dr Michael Wu, chief scientist at social software company
Lithium Technologies, argued in Admap magazine that marketers must overcome
certain "myths" regarding big data.
The main misapprehensions at present involve the idea that
data and information are the same, and that all information can provide
insights. (For more, including the importance of data visualisation, read the
exclusive Admap article: Smarter data.)
"While big data technologies provide the infrastructure
for capturing, storing and processing unprecedented amounts of data, they are
only enablers," said Wu.
"What businesses really need is information that helps
them make better decisions, and insight that gives them the competitive
edge."
Today, most organisations are able to access
"descriptive" information, which summarises past data that has been
collected.
Such a fact extends to real-time data, too, as even this
up-to-the-minute material yields insights into events that have already
occurred.
"Currently, more than 80% of business analytics are
descriptive. When it comes to social analytics, the percentage is even higher -
approximately 90%," Wu said.
A second form of analytics is "predictive", and
relies on the available data to make inferences about data which cannot be
gathered, or has not been gathered to date.
The third primary type of analytics is
"prescriptive", and uses data and information to prescribe actions
that can help achieve a desired outcome.
"These analytics are all useful for the extraction of
information and insight from big data and no one is more important than
another," said Wu.
"However, it does take some analytics maturity and data
savviness to move from descriptive towards predictive and prescriptive
analytics."
Data sourced from Admap
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