Before you can find the budget to start taming your extreme volume challenges, you will need to explain to your stakeholders what value they will derive from owning a Big Data system.
In the past, historical reporting and trending were sufficient to satisfy the budget gatekeepers. But now, two new analytical demands are typically placed on big data systems.
Access to information in real time
Modern users can’t wait until tomorrow to find out what happened today. In fact, many of your colleagues can’t even wait an hour. They may be standing in front of a customer right now, or making a decision about where to send an emergency vehicle. The more current their information, the better decisions they will be able to make. Making the right decision comes down to having the right Big Data systems in place to support those decisions.
Predictive modeling
Sometimes even knowing what is happening right now is too late. Imagine if your leaders could read tomorrow’s newspaper today. How many more customers could you satisfy? How much more efficiently would your organization operate, if decisions could be made with precise, reliable forecasting?
Your competitors are bringing systems with these capabilities online now. Their organizations are beginning to benefit from instant information at everyone’s fingertips, and accurate forecasts of critical operating metrics. When your stakeholders tell you that yesterday’s reports are already out-of-date, you have encountered Extreme Analytics.