By Freya Purnell
Market messaging around big data this year has created the misleading impression that “if enough data is analysed by the right people, anything can be predicted”, according to analyst firm IDC.
A reality check is in store for organisations as they attempt big data and analytics initiatives, with IDC predicting trial and error and experimentation will be required to bring the promised benefits to fruition. However the need for heightened customer and citizen engagement will be strong enough to ensure organisations persist in the face of these challenges.
This is among the predictions in its forthcoming report, ‘IDC Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) Big Data 2014 Top 10 Predictions’.
The key trends for the coming year can be grouped into three categories, with the gathering and analysis of personal behaviour data forming the foundation for all three:
• Key industry opportunities for customer and citizen engagement
• Technologies gaining broadest adoption, if not media attention
• Market and regulatory impacts of enriching and monetizing data
Craig Stires, research director for big data, analytics and security software, IDC Asia/Pacific, says, “In the coming year, expect to see strong interest in the insights encoded in geolocation information, when tied to personal behaviour. Efforts to enrich and leverage these insights will push all legal boundaries and expectations of privacy.”
While this will be a discussion that spreads across all markets in APEJ, more mature markets like Australia and Singpapore will be most advanced in leveraging big data and analytics to improve customer engagement.
IDC anticipates big data spending in the APEJ region to reach US $1.02 billion in 2014, representing growth of 36.3 per cent over 2013. ISC expects growth to hold at these levels over the next four to five years, providing a compound growth rate of 34.1 per cent through 2017.
