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What Makes A Great Analytics Professional?
THE BIG IDEASAnalytics professionals have different titles but a similar goal: use data to make better business decisions.There are misconceptions about what makes a great analytics professional. The most common misconception is emphasizing a person’s technical skills as opposed to “softer” skills.Big data may lead to new tools and tactics,
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To Sample Or Not To Sample... Does It Even Matter?
So the question is…when do you sample and when do you not? And does it even matter anymore in the world of big data? As I’ll lay out here, in most cases today there is no point in wasting energy worrying about it. As long as a few basic criteria
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What's Up With In-Memory Analytics?
There’s been a lot of noise lately about the concept of in-memory analytics. As a recent example, if you followed the press around some major conferences in late April, you’ll notice that a lot of messaging was present around in-memory analytics products. Many people have been asking questions about how
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What's The Definition Of Big Data? Who Cares?
It has been entertaining to see how so many people are arguing over how to define big data. There is always another nuance that can be suggested. There is always another potential exception to any rule that is offered. In the end, I don’t think the energy being put into
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The Secret Sauce For Developing Written Content
Many people hate the thought of having to write a white paper or article. Most cringe even more at the thought of writing a book. The task seems so daunting and time consuming that many never get around to it. That’s a shame since I know a lot of people
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A Strategic Mistake With Big Data
Companies are scrambling today to understand what big data is and what they should do with it. Many have also come to believe that they’ll need to develop a strategy for big data, which is absolutely true. However, there is one major mistake that I am seeing a number of
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New Technology Is Not An Easy Button For Big Data
It is good to remember in today’s hype-filled big data world that there is no “easy” button for big data. In fact, in many ways, big data is quite difficult to deal with. Many organizations seem to be falling for the fallacy that simply implementing new tools or platforms will
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You Don't Have To 'Go Big' To Get Started With Big Data
I wrote a blog for Harvard Business Review recently titled To Succeed With Big Data, Start Small. I argued for the need to take small steps with big data rather than going big (pun intended) from the start. I want to expand upon those thoughts here.At first glance, the idea
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Taming Big Data Is Not A Technical Issue
One thing that has struck me recently is that most of the focus when discussing big data is upon the technologies involved. The consensus seems to be that the biggest challenge with big data is a technological one, yet I don’t believe this to be the case. Sure, there are
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Driving Analytic Value From New Data
One of the best ways to improve the power of your analytics is to include some totally new information. The use of new information can enable huge leaps in the effectiveness, predictive power, and accuracy of your analytics. Most of the time, effort is spent trying to incrementally improve results