Growing Pains: Why Big Data is Hard to Do

We devote a fair amount of space in these blog posts to the output of big data analysis. By output I mean the results, the business intelligence, and the actionable insights that derive from the analysis of different sets of data.

Today I’d like to talk about the input, that is, the raw data that we dive into in order to reach the results.

Just as every client and potential client has questions that are unique to them, so too does every data partner and potential data partner have unique circumstances around their information.

Without the raw data – without the input – Enolytics wouldn’t have a reason to exist.

So today I’d like to share a little bit about what we’ve learned from working with the suppliers of that raw data.

Every source of data has its own personality. Partly that’s a result of different missions and business objectives, which causes individual platforms to be built in a certain way. That, in turn, causes the nature of the data that the source is accumulating to possess its own personality or “DNA.”

Every source of data also has its own sensitivities. It could be a sensitivity to timing and deadlines because it’s a business heavily dependent on seasonal activity. It could be a sensitivity to protecting the raw data once it leaves their hands. It could be legal sensitivities around contracts and specifications. It could also be a sensitivity to working with a new team, so there’s a certain vetting process that needs to happen first, usually face-to-face.

It all takes time.

It also makes for incredibly dynamic and sometimes challenging communications – “growing pains,” in other words. But just as actual, physical growing pains with children, these growing pains also need to happen as the business matures.

We’re in for the duration of it, and we’re committed to seeing it through. Because the evolution of Enolytics, even though it’s just begun, is fascinating and rewarding, and because we see the beauty and the potential of what it will be when it grows up.

I welcome any thoughts or comments or questions you may have, and thank you, as always, for reading.