Posts

Plug and Play Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Ok, I wrote a blog post in 2013 titled "Plug and Play Business Intelligence?" (Excerpt from that blog below, should you choose to read it) Four years have gone by, and I still  keep hearing things like, "What tool should we go with for AI/ML/Mind Mapping/AR?" Really? Is this still a thing? Get your data right. If you have it right , structured/unstructured or on the other end of the ever expanding Google universe, then please proceed. If not, please stop spending money, right now! Its like buying apples. If you are going to make apple cider with it, you might choose a different type, versus a milkshake or an apple pie. Ensure that your data is ready for consumption for a particular purpose!   If you don't know that, you are just throwing money down the drain. So, if you care, you can read this post from four years ago. You can call/email/LinkedIn, FaceBook me any time you want, if you have any questions. Plug and Play Business Intelligence? Really? Do I have...

Analytics or Information?

Recently,  as I was touring a leading analytics firm, one of the team leads asked me: "Where do you think the analytics industry is going?". My answer was simple. Analytics is not the industry. Information is. Well, there is a caveat to that, of course. Analytics is the industry if you are building robots. But if you are not, then the industry is "Information". Let me explain. If you look at the hardware industry, it is following Moore's law and has been for a while. For those of you don't know what that is, here is the Wikipedia first line: " Moore's law  is the observation that the number of  transistors  in a dense  integrated circuit  doubles approximately every two years." (  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law ).  Ok, so if you don't know what transistors and dense integrated circuits mean, don't worry about it. To me and you, that means, our devices are getting smaller and smaller, till it becomes a contact lens or a...

Fiefdoms and Data

So, I have noticed that in every company that I have worked with, there are a few fiefdoms of data. So here it goes. You have all heard about the Westeros of data (yes that is a reference to GoT), the Winterfell of data and the Dothraki of data(well, that might have been a little too much, but hey, when you are talking about data, nothing is off topic!) So here is a simple question. "What doesn't Google know?" Simple, right? Right? Right? Not so fast. Why do we analyze data, if you are a "mere mortal" company? Two reasons and two reasons only: 1> To make money 2> To save money. That is it. And yes, I am coming back to the "What doesn't Google know" question. Google knows everything that you put on a website( public domain). Well, Facebook, Instagram and sooooo many other social media networks know whatcha doing. Can you imagine if all of that information combined, what it could produce? There will be an ad playing on your ...

Channeling my inner Neo!

Why Data & Analytics? I have never met a businessman or business woman who has said that they need ETL/Data Warehouse/Thingama Visualizer. They all want one thing. Information ... So while the Immortals (you know, you might know them as Elon or Mark), duke it out on the Matrix (I mean the internet) about AI and the bots arguing about whether LeBron or Jordan is the greatest of all, us mere mortals are wondering what to do with data, how to make sense of it and why we should invest in it. Well, unless you are one of the Immortals, read on.   Why Data? Why should you invest in it? Your business is running well, you are making money and you are doing a great job at it. Your family is happy, you make a good living and you have a few toys to show off. So why is this consultant scaring you by saying that data is the future and that if you don’t invest in it, you are behind the times? Look, they have a powerpoint presentation that looks like a hologram that looks li...