Towards an Era of Big Data for the Little Guy

I was invited to a presentation by Intuit and Emergent Research last week.   Intuit presented an excellent view of how they were addressing the world of big data.   This is a followup of work we did earlier this year to address the changing views of and access to big data.   Brad Smith,  CEO of Intuit,  spoke of how they believe that the coming era will embody 'Big Data for the Little Guy', and that Intuit is particularly well positioned for this since they are already engaging with consumers and small business effectively with database and analytics technologies.

In particular this includes the ability to democratize data that is now available from many sources:  Government, industry groups, social entities, and even the output of analytical models that address focused needs.  Previously this ability was available only to the largest of sophisticated companies, like my former enterprise.    There we constructed models to drive specific understanding of the context of the world and interacting businesses. Every consumer and the smallest company should now have the same capability.

Today,  methods like data visualization, rule based process modeling, and embedded decision analytics are all available to connect the consumer, small business and their customers.  A mix of data science and analytic techniques provide new ways to solve difficult problems.   Problems whose solutions are often volatile over time.  There will be challenges to these approaches, but all the tools are here today.  The connection of decision architectures to tools and social networks will be one challenge.  The delivery of supported and understandable analytic expertise to the consumer will be another.

I plan to post more about this work as it emerges.   Look for that here.

The joint research study provides more detail about the approach.  The Brad Smith round table presentation is here.