In “The Underwear Bomber: Why They Didn’t “Connect the Dots,” Tom Davenport, analytics guru, uses the intelligence gaps to discuss the challenges of getting a single view of something from disparate data sources. His follow up piece, “How to ‘Connect the Dots’ in Your Business,” Davenport highlights the same challenges from the perspective of an enterprise business; the underlying theory is that analytics only truly work if there are appropriate technologies on the back end and processes on the front end. Davenport makes some keen observations about using analytics in the real world. In his first piece, he notes, “combining disparate pieces of information about people – whether they are customers or terrorists – is akin to solving a complex jigsaw puzzle.” Paraphrasing a conclusion in his second article, analytics are both “difficult and valuable.”
Many of Davenport’s recommendations are obvious and logical; unfortunately, many companies don’t take these steps prior to using analytics. Without the right technology and structure, analytics may find you answers, but perhaps not the ones to the questions you should be asking.
Kelley Kassa
Spotfire Blogging Team
Image Credit: Microsft Office Clip Art
