Big Data MBA. Schmarzo Bill

      Organizations tend to find themselves in one of five phases on the Big Data Business Model Maturity Index:

      • Phase 1: Business Monitoring. In the Business Monitoring phase, organizations are applying data warehousing and Business Intelligence techniques and tools to monitor the organization's business performance (also called Business Performance Management).

      • Phase 2: Business Insights. In the Business Insights phase, organizations aggressively expand their data assets by amassing all of their detailed transactional and operational data and coupling that transactional and operational data with new sources of internal data (e.g., consumer comments, e-mail conversations, technician notes) and external data (e.g., social media, weather, traffic, economic, data.gov) sources. Organizations in the Business Insights phase then use predictive analytics to uncover customer, product, and operational insights buried in and across these data sources.

      • Phase 3: Business Optimization. In the Business Optimization phase, organizations build on the customer, product, and operational insights uncovered in the Business Insights phase by applying prescriptive analytics to optimize key business processes. Organizations in the Business Optimization phase push the analytic results (e.g., recommendations, scores, rules) to frontline employees and business managers to help them optimize the targeted business process through improved decision making. The Business Optimization phase also provides opportunities for organizations to push analytic insights to their customers in order to influence customer behaviors. An example of the Business Optimization phase is a retailer that delivers analytic-based merchandising recommendations to the store managers to optimize merchandise markdowns based on purchase patterns, inventory, weather conditions, holidays, consumer comments, and social media postings.

      • Phase 4: Data Monetization. The Data Monetization phase is where organizations seek to create new sources of revenue. This could include selling data – or insights – into new markets (a cellular phone provider selling customer behavioral data to advertisers), integrating analytical insights into products and services to create “smart” products and services, and/or re-packaging customer, product, and operational insights to create entirely new products and services that help them enter new markets and target new customers or audiences.

      • Phase 5: Business Metamorphosis. The holy grail of the Big Data Business Model Maturity Index is when an organization leverages data, analytics, and insights to metamorphose its business. This metamorphosis necessitates a major shift in the organization's core business model (e.g., processes, people, products and services, partnerships, target markets, management, promotions, rewards and incentives) driven by the insights gathered as the organization traversed the Big Data Business Model Maturity Index. One example is organizations that metamorphose from selling products to selling “business-as-a-service.” Think GE selling “thrust” instead of selling jet engines. Think John Deere selling “farming optimization” instead of selling farming equipment. Think Boeing selling “air miles” instead of airplanes. Another example is an organization creating a data and analytics platform that enables the growing body of third-party developers to build and market value-added applications on the organization's business-as-a-service platform.