Johannesburg, 10 May 2016
Data. It's a word used so often that it risks losing all of its impact, especially the King Kong silverback of such jargon, 'big data'.
Yet, constant conversation about data is not the boy crying wolf. It's not a desperate attempt to grab attention. Data is very important and vital, and key to the change companies wrestle with today.
"How do you cope with change? Usually human beings are risk averse - it's part of our DNA. But every change is a new opportunity as well," says Waldemar Adams, SAP SVP of Analytics EMEA. "There is this Chinese saying: 'When the wind of change is blowing, some people shelter in their houses, and others build windmills.'"
Digitisation is one of those winds and many companies hide not because of cowardice, but uncertainty of where to start. Yet, Adams says there's a clear path forward. His career has overlapped with the effects of data for at least two decades, starting in the world of OLAP reporting back in the 90s. By witnessing and participating in the evolution of business reporting, Adams experienced the growing value of data analysis in business, as well as its acceleration.
"When I did analytical database projects in the late 90s, the standard was for monthly updates. Then we had a few visionary companies that went for daily updates. We called them real-time." Today, he concluded, "everyone has daily updates".
What are the companies at the top of the curve doing? They embrace the new real-time business. 'Real-time' is, of course, relative. In the early 20th century, James McKinsey founded his monolithic consultancy firm to help growing corporations develop new management structures, all towards keeping control over their elaborate domains. Compared to the average enterprise with 19th century DNA, McKinsey-aided companies became real-time juggernauts.
That was close on a century ago and today's companies - big and small - again face a dilemma of control versus growth. But the remedy is not more management. It's more insight, hence the critical importance of data to a 21st century business future.
Data, says Adams, is the means to understand the modern business: "If you are going to fail, at least do it quickly and learn from it. So you need to have data as your asset to better control your business. That is the promise of big data. It doesn't need to be lots of data, it's the smart use of data."
Adams points to SAP itself as an example. "Several years ago, our management reached the end of the rope with inconsistent data numbers between different meetings. The disparities wouldn't surprise anyone in a large organisation: manual input into a variety of databases and spreadsheets were creating numerous mistakes. So we banned that style of reporting.
"Yes, it was a bold decision and it became a transition period for us. It took maybe a few months and now we're a real-time business. If I or my manager or any user opens a report, everyone sees the same data for their spend of control. Up to SAP CEO Bill McDermott, who can monitor the business from his iPad at a granular level. We are consistent."
Data is what opens the doors of business digitisation. It's a common mantra that these changes need to be business led, which means the business needs more intel and better oversight. This is what data contributes.
Data doesn't even require a big bang approach. One of SAP's apps, Lumira, has an entry-level, pay-and-use cloud version that even appeals to individual users. Adams says some of his colleagues use it to track their personal finances. He adds: "Cloud analytics does not mean the data has to reside in the cloud. Data can be on-premises - that is one of our unique selling points."
So, there is really no reason not to dip a toe in data, even if it's to visualise your fitness tracker's observations. Then meld the insights of that to the known benefits of business intelligence. It will be clear that data is the gateway to the business transformation modern companies desire.
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