In "Big Data: A Guide to Where You Should Be, Even If You Don't Know Where You Are," Celent advises professionals in the insurance, banking and securities industries to not only understand their organization's current big data capability but also, and perhaps more importantly, where it should be.
The gist of Celent's advice is for financial services companies to: examine their current capabilities; evaluate where they should be; and then invest appropriately to close the gap. To facilitate accurate assessments, the research and consulting firm defines five tiers of data capability: spectator, experimenter, practitioner, innovator, and scientist.
"Celent does not advocate that all companies should aspire to be at the bleeding edge of big data," says Craig Beattie, senior analyst with Celent's insurance group and coauthor of the report. "The goal is to help financial institutions [determine] the level of investment strategically, and how to get there."
Among the findings of the report are:
There is no shortage of assertions around the power of big data to transform the enterprise. Similarly, there's no shortage of arguments for the obsolescence of many of today's technology infrastructures, as most lack the latest big data technologies. Beyond the hype, the compelling reality is that as consumers become increasingly digitally driven, the manner in which financial services are delivered will change inexorably.
Big Data, when sensibly integrated with core, channel, and decision support systems, and directed from an enterprise perspective, holds the promise for enabling the survival of financial service companies within this epic transformation.
There are at least four reasons for this transformation, according to Beattie: Online/mobile channel usage has driven explosive growth in the number and variety of customer interactions. The customer experience has become the number one priority for most firms, and excelling in this environment will increasingly require delivering timely and relevant personalized information in real time.
Other reasons include products and marketing campaigns are increasingly customer-centric; news is breaking in social media and spreading faster than ever before, having widespread impacts on everything from purchasing decisions to stock prices; the economy and competitive pressures are forcing firms to focus on lean and efficient operations. Many markets are not growing, so growth can only come from very intelligent (data-driven) decisions across the enterprise.
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