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One of the most important lessons we are learning in the Big Data and Analytics Age is that simply having access to innovative technology isn’t enough to improve business outcomes. Technology needs the proper human input and interaction to elicit the types of results business leaders are expecting. Technology shouldn’t be counted on as a magic wand that will always deliver upon request.

IBM Watson has been getting a lot of publicity for helping organizations tackle real-world issues on a national and global scale.

We are entering an age in which corporate predictions and decisions can’t be made without sound analytical backing. Without data credibility, even the most promising ideas and initiatives will be shot down. In an interview with the Harvard Business Review, Tom Davenport (author of the book, Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results) expounded on this point:

Apache Spark is a game changer for big data analytics. In many ways, it will democratize analytics on big data. Spark will do this by making big data analytics accessible to a much larger group of data scientists (and analysts) via a simple programming API and familiar tools such as SQL, Python and R. Being open source, it will also allow many companies to embrace it with a smaller initial capital investment. Spark is also being embraced by IBM and other large analytic software providers as the engine that will drive their big data applications. The primary benefits of Spark are the ability to scale analytics to massive data sets and that Spark is a significantly easier to use platform (than Hadoop + Map Reduce + custom code) that will allow data scientists to be far more productive. Rapid development often results in a faster ROI.

The fear factor stems from the idea that data is being exposed to the public. Also, that providers are the ones in control of the primary source data. Entrusting a cloud vendor with the keys to the data castle is intimidating no matter how you look at it.

Imagine any milestone in your lifetime when fear potentially stood in the way of watershed success. Switching career paths, moving to different parts of the country, or even something as simple as buying a new car. If the fear of change or failure prevented you from making a move, could you imagine what would happen if you stayed stagnant? Chances, are you couldn’t have achieved a certain level of progress.

In the cloud universe, where seemingly every IT function is “as a service” compatible, there are three main cloud service delivery models that businesses leverage every day to run their operations:

One of the advantages of being a Business Analytics consultant, is that you rarely know what a feasible solution looks like until you have taken the time to truly understand your client’s business, strategy and culture. This applies to financial performance management (including financial reporting, planning and customer profitability modeling), just as it does to predictive and prescriptive analytics problems which may not always directly impinge on the Office of Finance.