Phil Simon's Blog, page 76

The Case for Employee Data Self-Service, Part 3

This is the third post in a three-part series.

In my second post in this series, I examined two of the main benefits of employee self-service: greater speed and increased employee accountability. I argued that removing IT from the middle of data requests is not only more efficient, but it places the onus of data quality and ownership squarely where it should be: on the shoulders of those generating and inputting the data.

Today I’ll argue that empowering employees with data offers two additional benefits to organizations brave enough to trust them.

More Skilled Employees

I’ve said many times that every company is becoming a technology company. Ditto for data. To be sure, there will always be dataphobes and naysayers like Bruce Feiler of the New York Times, but in the business world the geeks have indeed inherited the earth. As Tom Davenport writes on HBR,

Today it’s not just information firms and online companies that can create products and services from analyses of data. It’s every firm in every industry. [Emphasis mine.] If your company makes things, moves things, consumes things, or works with customers, you have increasing amounts of data on those activities. Every device, shipment, and consumer leaves a trail. You have the ability to analyze those sets of data for the benefit of customers and markets. You also have the ability to embed analytics and optimization into every business decision made at the front lines of your operations.

True dat.

Billy Beane of Moneyball fame and Nate Silver are cases in point: there’s significant upside to using analytical approaches to previously “data-free” fields. Is it any coincidence that Big-Data behemoths like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix, and others are so valuable?

Empowering employees with data may be more of a marathon than a sprint.

Note that granting employees access to data does not mean that data will always rule the day. Contrary to popular belief about data and the death of creativity, progressive companies combine hard data with good old-fashioned intuition. For instance, Amazon Prime initially cost $79 per year based upon senior executive gut feeling, not any data or extensive analysis “proving” that that was the right number.

Better Decisions and Results

Equipped with more information and the skills with which to make sense of it, it stands to reason that, all else being equal, an organization will increase its odds of making better decisions and seeing better results. (Of course, there’s no guarantee here. As management guru Peter Drucker famously opined, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.)

Culture is very much at the heart of successful organizational change. Deploying a new tool often does not produce an immediate short-term benefit, especially if that tool requires embracing a new mind-set. Employees may find needles in haystacks, some of which may drive significant innovation, cost savings, and revenue opportunities. People who work with data on a regular basis tend to get more comfortable with it–and better at using it.

Simon Says: Don’t Underestimate the Human Element

In concluding this series, it’s important to remember that many people (from IT, the line, the C-suite) will resist change. Empowering employees with data and the tools to understand it will threaten many people accustomed to rigidly defined roles and responsibilities. Understand that going in.

It’s a marathon more than a sprint.

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While the words and opinions in this post are my own, Progress Software has compensated me to write it.

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Breadth vs. Depth

In my days spent implementing enterprise systems, I often came across scope creep. Simply stated, a client would sign a contract for A, B, and C and then expect X, Y, and Z to be thrown in as well. To be sure, I met more than my fair share of unreasonable people, but sometimes scope creep stemmed from poorly set expectations. The consulting firm or software vendor wouldn’t write a contract well or communicate particularly well during the project. As I wrote in Why New Systems Fail, this usually led to bad things.

And scope creep can rear its ugly head in at conferences. For instance, in prepping for a panel a few years ago, the conference organizer expressed her desire that the one-hour, five-person panel would cover all of the following topics: Big Data, open-source software, social media, cloud computing, and, if we have time, open standards. Sure, and why don’t we touch on global warming and world peace while we’re at it? Fortunately, I convinced the woman to select just one of those meaty topics. It was better for all concerned to go deep on one rather than superficially checking the box on all of them.

Most professional speakers strive to meet their clients’ expectations and, ideally, get asked back. We should never forget that we’re not full-time employees. Rather, we’re effectively auditioning for future gigs every time we approach the lectern. A key piece of customer satisfaction is managing expectations. Since I fancy himself a writer of–and speaker on–big ideas, I customize not only what I say, but (just as important) how I say it. (More on that below.) My talks usually run for 45 minutes and, as a result, I cannot explain everything about platforms, Big Data, or [insert name of other topic.]

Put differently, here’s a fundamental tradeoff between the breadth and depth of a talk:

Of course, seminars are totally different. If given eight hours, I can go both wide and deep.

Know Your Audience

Part and parcel of choosing the right content and level of detail is knowing your audience. Who’ll be in the crowd? I always ask that simple yet essential question during my prep calls for speaking gigs. For an upcoming talk, my audience breaks down as follows:

Click to embiggen.

I’m mostly interested in job titles, not specific names. If I’m speaking to primarily a group of developers, then I don’t need cover technical basics. For instance, many of them already know the difference between a relational database and a distributed file system. If I’m talking to mainly C-level execs of more mature organizations, though, it’s pretty safe to assume that I’ll have to focus on business issues more than technical ones.

Simon Says

Lamentably, some conference organizers don’t really know who’ll be in the audience until the day before the conference. In that case, I have to try and split the baby. Some people may find my content too complex; others too rudimentary. The bottom line is that the best talks almost always involve a great deal of communication before the speaker shows up.

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Life without Cable TV: One Month Later

About a month ago, I joined roughly five million Americans and cut the cord. Here are some thoughts on lessons learned so far:

Cutting the cord is empowering. Let me channel my inner Dee Snyder for a moment. There’s something fundamentally liberating about saying “We’re not gonna take it anymore.” Paying nearly $200 per year to rent a ISP-sanctioned DVR is just plain excessive these days when I can buy one for that amount. Beyond crazy hardware costs, it seemed silly for me to pay for quite a few channels that I would never watch. (Sorry Oprah.) At least when I buy an episode of Mad Men, Louie, or  Fargo , it’s because I enjoy watching those shows. Ditto for Page One , a great documentary about the New York Times. Amazon’s purchase e-mails serve as really useful reminders that a new episode is available, something that not every network or channel does.
Policies need to change. I like to watch live sports like basketball, golf, football, and tennis. Because of this, I submitted a request to my HOA to install an antenna on my roof. It was promptly–and illegally–denied. No, I can’t put large pink bunnies on my roof, but US citizens have a legal right consume on-air content. I didn’t call Saul Goodman, but I appealed the decision and pointed out an obscure FCC ruling. In 1996, the FCC affirmed the rights of homeowners to place antennas on property they own or control. I suspect many HOAs will have to revise their policies in the near future.
Bandwidth spikes. I still pay Cox for Internet access. There’s just no way around that for now. Because I stream more content than I did before, it should be no surprise that my bandwidth usage rose precipitously. This isn’t unlike using more cellphone minutes after eliminating a landline, something I did late last year. In mid-May, Cox sent me an system-generated e-mail indicating that my upload and download speeds may drop because I’m exceeding my allotment. I didn’t notice any decline, though. As usual, Reed Hastings is right: Net Neutrality is a really big deal.
It’s really hard to completely untether yourself. Want to watch NBA games on TNT? You’ll have to log in with your existing cable credentials. Ditto for HBO, Showtime, ESPN, and other premium networks. I for one think that it will only be a matter of time before these networks offer their content à la carte (read: without an existing cable subscription). I’d wager a great deal of money that many people borrow their friends’ credentials to watch content for which they are not paying.
I think differently about consuming content now. It was never critical that I watch Charlie Rose or The Colbert Report in real time. The next morning is typically sufficient. Rather than aimlessly jumping around channels, I’m much more disciplined now. I just block time in my schedule to watch a show.
Metadata is often lacking. I wish that every network provide a date and description of each of their shows. There’s really no way on some networks/apps to know if you’re watching the most current episode. Sure, on May 29th you can assume that the May 22nd episode of Colbert isn’t current, but what about for shows with like Modern Family?
Bring your smartphone or tablet. Think of these as digital TV Guides. Because of metadata limitations (see above), you typically need to look a few things up. The IMDB app is very helpful in this regard.
All apps are not created equal. TNT’s app doesn’t offer a full-screen stream to AppleTV. Nor does TBS’s. (No shock; they’re owned by the same company.) Hopefully, this gets fixed soon. It seems like a glaring omission.
Get used to ads. Even HuluPlus makes users watch 30-second commercials. With cable TV, I could forward delayed live TV or my DVR to ignore advertisements, but the same isn’t true now.
Fragmentation rules the day. There’s no one place to go to watch everything, not that there ever was. To this end, CanIStreamIt is remarkably useful. It’s a content aggregator of sorts. Check it out. On a different level, if you want to watch 60 Minutes, then you’ll have to purchase the app for $5. CBS seems particularly reluctant to make its content easily accessible. For instance, new episodes of Big Bang Theory are only available for free about two weeks after it airs. HBO shows like Veep and Silicon Valley, however, hit HBO very quickly.
Things will improve. I have very little doubt that devices Roku, AppleTV, and Chromecast will up their games. Universal search on Roku or AppleTV would be great.
I actually watch less “TV” now. Maybe I’m less likely to discover a great new show because I’m more deliberate in my viewing habits. Still, I don’t waste as much time trying to find a show to justify my monthly cable bill.

Cross-posted on HuffPo. Click here to read it there.

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On Data, Stories, and Persuasion

How do people make decisions?

That high-level question summed up much of my college studies. It’s also driven a great deal of my professional life. Related queries include:

How can we make better decisions?
Can we ensure that we are making the right decision? If so, how?
Why do different groups and individuals make different decisions?

Many excellent books have been written about questions like these. For my money, Daniel Kannehman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow (affiliate link) is the best of the lot.

As a student of big ideas, I often wonder how the explosion of information (aka, Big Data) is changing the way that we make decisions. Do we respond better to stories or to data? What’s more, does the answer depend on situational factors? Put differently, when trying to convince someone or a group of people about our ideas, where should we start?

Where to begin?

In this vein, consider a recent post on Harvard Business Review by Nick Morgan who writes:

Data is helpful as supporting material, of course. But, because it spurs thinking in the conscious mind, it must be used with care. Effective persuasion starts not with numbers, but with stories that have emotional power because that’s the best way to tap into unconscious decision making.

Different people respond differently to different approaches.

Morgan may very well be right in many–if not most–consumer settings and even a majority professional ones. You’ll get no argument from me on the power of storytelling, especially the visual kind. But should we always start with storytelling?

I have a hard time swallowing that one. As W. Edwards Deming famously said, “In God we trust; all others must bring data.” That maxim is increasingly becoming true, at least in the workplace. For instance, a friend of mine used to work at Google as a VP in HR. In speaking with him over the years, I was amazed at the extent to which most decisions start with data. Current HR head honcho Laszlo Bock writes about how data even informs the company’s approach to work-life balance.

At Google, there is no “escape” from data. Irrespective of function, if you’re not comfortable using quantitative methods to advance your argument, you’re not going to do very well. Your ideas will not gain traction. The culture is predicated on data, some would so excessively so.

Simon Says: Beware of Absolutes

Aim for a more holistic approach. In the Mad Men days, perhaps you could get away with a good story alone.

Today, though, I can think of no worse idea than only bringing one girl to the dance. When pitching an idea, it’s more dangerous than ever to leave the data at home. Big Data has changed many things, but don’t forget that different people still respond differently (read: better) to different approaches. Don’t try to put a square peg in a round hole.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies, or opinions.

The post On Data, Stories, and Persuasion appeared first on Phil Simon.

The Case for Employee Data Self-Service, Part 2

This is the second post in a three-part series.

In my first post in this series, I examined the forces driving the democratization of data. I discussed how, unlike 1998, it’s no longer imperative to involve IT in each data request.

In today’s post, I’ll look at two of the most significant advantages of adopting an employee-centered data mind-set. I’ll make the case that the pros of enabling employees to fish for themselves more than offset their cons.

Speed, Efficiency, and Cost

I wasn’t always a writer and speaker. In my consulting days, I interacted with no shortage of dissatisfied employees. (I used to conduct exit interviews in my HR days.) When it came to accessing enterprise information, though, I often met with a different kind of disgruntlement. These weren’t people leaving the organization in pursuit of greener pastures. Rather, they often complained about having IT in the middle of every data request. To this end, I’d often hear refrains like, “It takes so long to get the information.” Tales of double digit e-mail exchanges were not uncommon. In fact, it was often my ability to get non-technical employees the information they needed–in the desired format–that made me so valuable. I learned early in my consulting career that, to be successful, I would need to hone my ability to effectively speak both languages.

Less friction means that employees can react quicker.

These days, the need for a technical translator isn’t nearly as pronounced. Open APIs, more user-friendly data-analysis tools, and more data-oriented employees mean that consultants need not always bring data to the non-technical masses. Less friction from IT means that employees can react quicker and, at least in theory, make better business decisions. This is a major emphasis in The Visual Organization.

Employee Accountability: Ending the IT Blame Game

I’d argue, though, giving employees direct access to data inheres an even greater benefit–one of personal responsibility. I can remember one particularly contentions project on which I was working. The client’s project manager (call her Barbara here) laid into us because of the quality of her organization’s data.

Barbara failed to grasp the obvious: Consultants hired in 2006 to implement a new ERP system did not enter erroneous, duplicate, or incomplete journal entries in her organization’s legacy system 1996. It was just easier for her to blame the consultants. After all, we were the ones extracting the information. It had to be our fault.

Simon Says

By removing IT from the equation, there’s not only less friction between line-of-business employees and IT. There’s greater accountability on the people actually generating the data. For instance, what if there’s a spate of incorrect checks to employees and vendors? What to do? Blaming IT here is completely irrational and misses the point. Most enterprise systems allow for metadata tracking. It’s easy to determine who generated the data, the time and date of the entry, and the like.

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In my final post in this series, I’ll explore a few of the other benefits of embracing employee self-service. 

While the words and opinions in this post are my own, Progress Software has compensated me to write it.

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The Case for Employee Data Self-Service, Part 1

This is the first post in a three-part series.

I’m old enough to remember when IT was largely seen as the gatekeeper of corporate information. When I first entered the corporate world in 1997, I had to request access to data from the IT department. Sure, IT provided limited access to certain datasets, but anything other than that required an often-arduous back-and-forth with techies charged with guarding corporate information. In other words, if employees in HR, marketing, sales, adn the like wanted data back then, there was simply no way to avoid dealing with IT. Fifteen years ago, the vast majority of all corporate data was stored on-premise. Cloud computing existed but it was nowhere near as prevalent as it is today.

Despite the proliferation of modern cloud computing, the “IT as gatekeeper of all information” mind-set pervades many hidebound organizations. More progressive ones, though, have evolved and enabled non-technical employees to effectively fish for themselves. No longer do everyday (read: non-technical) employees need to formally request access to internal datasets and wait days or weeks for approval.

Google, Big Data, and the Role of Traditional IT

Exhibit A: Gartner is regarded as the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. It has added self-service business intelligence to its IT glossary. Gartner defines SSBI as “end users designing and deploying their own reports and analyses within an approved and supported architecture and tools portfolio.”

Almost every employee is also a consumer.

The rise of employee self-service isn’t too difficult to understand. Almost every employee is also a consumer. For a long time now, we have been very comfortable trying to discover what we want and need on our own. Google processes an astonishing 40,000 searches per second.

Whether or not IT should control all corporate data remains a fundamental philosophical question in many organizations. I’d argue that it’s a moot one anyway. The arrival of Big Data means that IT cannot even begin to “manage” everything anyway. Think about the explosion of data sources: Open Data, Linked Data, data from social sources (read: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.), and others. Yes, data storage costs have dropped by orders of magnitude (see Kryder’s Law). However, let’s not confuse “cheaper” with “cheap.” It’s apocryphal to claim that data storage costs are always insignificant, not to mention that related employee salaries add up.

Simon Says

Fortunately, there’s relief. New data-discovery and -analysis applications have arrived. As a whole, they have dramatically simplified how employees access, mesh, and report on organizational data. Today, executives, non-technical “analysts”, and independent software vendors can largely meet their own data needs sans the involvement and imprimatur of the IT department.

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In my next post in this series, I’ll explore the benefits of embracing employee self-service. 

While the words and opinions in this post are my own, Progress Software has compensated me to write it.

The post The Case for Employee Data Self-Service, Part 1 appeared first on Phil Simon.

The CDO Is No Elixir

If Big Data is really a big deal, then don’t organizations need to formalize and legitimize it with a formal C-level position?

It’s a question that enterprises are asking themselves today; there’s never been a greater buzz about about the Chief Data Officer. Posts and thoughts advocating the creation of this new position aren’t exactly wanting. For instance, in a post called Is Visualizing Data Enough?, Brad Roberts writes:

So how can companies keep their BI priorities straight? A very good solution is one that we’ve discussed often recently: establish the office of Chief Data Officer and give that person ultimate control over the flow of all data inside the company. Because he or she has responsibility for making the most effective distribution and use of company data, the CDO alone is in a position to bring some rationality to those priorities. In the long run, just this decision – and the savings on misdirected or premature purchasing decisions—will pay for the creation of this new C-level job.

Let’s really examine the need for a proper CDO.

There’s little doubt that some if not most organizations don’t optimize the tremendous asset that is data. Tony Fisher delves deeply into this subject in his book The Data Asset (affiliate link). To this extent, perhaps some enterprises would benefit from the formal recognition of the importance of data that a CDO ostensibly confers.

A CDO is neither a sufficient nor necessary condition for success with Big Data.

The problem as I see is that a CDO is neither a sufficient nor necessary condition for success with Big Data. In other words, an organization can be successful without one and the presence of one guarantees absolutely nothing. Consider companies like Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. They all do amazing things with unstructured information.

A simple LinkedIn search reveals that neither company sports a formal CDO. Why is that? Perhaps it’s because the vast majority of employees at these organizations understand the import of data. As a case in point, when I spoke at Netflix as part of my book tour for The Visual Organization, I mistakenly said that Netflix was responsible for one-fifth of US weeknight Internet traffic when I knew the right number. The correct fraction is one-third, and at least 20 Netflix employees immediately called me out on it:

Netflix employees at more junior levels get it. Data matters. They don’t need a CDO reminding them of that. (For more on this, see The CDO Paradox.)

Simon Says

I’m not anti-CDO. For an organization with poor internal data-management practices, a simple hire or appointment will not turn things around by itself.

The solution? Change the culture. Buy, deploy, and develop new tools. Hold employees accountable for making decisions based upon facts, not merely intuition. Explore new datasets.

These things are likely to result in a greater impact than merely making a high-profile hire in a dataphobic enterprise.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies, or opinions.

The post The CDO Is No Elixir appeared first on Phil Simon.

Why I Cut the Cord

I finally did it.

Today, I cut the cord with my cable provider. Bon voyage Cox Communications. (This is part of a personal streamlining project of sorts. A few months ago, I killed my intermittent Nextiva landline and haven’t missed it one iota.)

Like millions of people, I have been less than satisfied with my cable experience over the years. Back in my New Jersey days, my Comcast cable service was hardly flawless, not that was alone in my disgruntlement. The cable industry has long earned the wrath of its customers and it consistently ranks among the most hated of all US industries. I suspect that a decent percentage of all cable-related tweets resembles this one:

@philsimon Hi Phil, we are here to help! What is the issue that you are experiencing? -Mike

— Cox Customer Care (@CoxHelp) May 10, 2014

Give Cox credit for at least responding to customer tweets.

Of course, dissatisfaction and action are two very different things. Five years ago, tablets hadn’t yet made major inroads. What’s more, legitimate cable alternatives were pretty lacking. (I suppose that piracy has always been an option, but I’ll focus on legal options here.) Sure, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and iTunes provided a decent amount of content, but collectively they weren’t enough to convince a critical mass of people to cut the cord. No access to HBO alone was a deal-breaker for many.

Today, though, that’s no longer the case. Case in point: Roughly 5 million people have said no to cable–and that number is only increasing. On a personal level, two of my best friends cut the cord over the past six months. Because of their experiences with cable companies, many if not most people are more than happy to share their own recommendations on services like Roku:

Aereo only makes things more interesting for consumers and more terrifying for cable companies.

Customers and Users Are Not Synonyms

Dissatisfaction and action are two very different things.

Color me crazy, but I didn’t mind paying Cox $140 every month for my package. After all, I used DVR on two TVs with HBO and a few other premium channels. Customers who fork over that kind of money, though, aren’t lacking for expectations. (Read: the service actually has to, you know, actually work.)

Lamentably, my Cox problems had intensified in the past year. The occasional credit aside, I’m not about to call any provider twice a month to discuss a new or recurring issue. Occasional outages happen, but if a company can’t provide reliable service, adios. As I’ve said many times, there’s a world of difference between customers and users.

Friday night, I reached my tipping point. I sat down to watch the four episodes of the critically acclaimed show Fargo that I had taped while traveling during the week:

I had recorded those episodes on my Cox DVR, or so I thought. Trying to play each one resulted in an “Episode not available” error. There was no way that I was going to buy these episodes (again) on Amazon Prime. Paying for them once is plenty for me.

Simon Says: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Three industries are particularly ripe for massive disruption: education, healthcare, and telecomm. Think that it can’t happen? Think again. AOL, Yahoo!, Dell, Microsoft, Kodak, MySpace, and Polaroid at different points occupied dominant positions in our world. Today, they are struggling to different extents and the latter three are irrelevant.

To Cox and the rest of the cable companies: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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The Case for Visual Resumes

Like you, I know a thing or two about resumes.

Upon graduating college, I submitted “normal” resumes and cover letters to more jobs than I could count. Then, I sat on the other side of the desk. Back in my HR days, I did a decent amount of recruiting for both CapitalOne and at Merck.

It’s No Longer 1998

Today, though, I’m not a big fan of traditional resumes. The way that I see it, my body of work is much larger than a three-page, text-laden document that lists my work experience, qualifications, and skills. To me, they just show that I can follow rules.

Traditional resumes emphasize conformity, not creativity

It turns out that there are plenty of über-creative folks who share my thoughts about old-school CVs. As I mentioned in a recent story for Fortune, it behooves applicants to illustrate their experiences in a much more visual–and I’d argue more interesting–way.

To this end, check out this fascinating Pinterest board of visual resumes. Maybe it’s the Breaking Bad fan in me, but I love the chemistry-based theme of this one:

Simon Says

I can tell you that a resume like the one above stands out from the others, especially if recruiting for any type of position requiring design skills and creativity. Although a cool CV alone rarely gets a person a job or interview by itself, it would certainly warrant a second look from many recruiters. And, when you think about it, isn’t that exactly what a resume is supposed to do?

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How Casinos Use Big Data to Catch the Bad Guys

I’ve written before about how casinos employ data and cutting-edge technology to make better business decisions. The gambling industry has always fascinated me, and that certainly hasn’t abated since moving to Las Vegas. I’ve known for a while now that casinos are almost always early adopters. That is, they are by and large at the forefront of new tools to help them make more money and reduce what they consider to be fraud.

Popular Mechanics recently examined this topic in greater detail in How Las Vegas Anti-Cheating Security Tech Works. The article introduced me to something called non-obvious relationship awareness (NORA), software that:

allows casinos to determine quickly if a potentially colluding player and dealer have ever shared a phone number or a room at the casino hotel, or lived at the same address. “We created the software for the gaming industry,” says Jeff Jonas, founder of Systems Research & Development, which originally designed NORA. The technology proved so effective that Homeland Security adapted it to sniff out connections between suspected terrorists. “Now it’s used as business intelligence for banks, insurance companies and retailers,” Jonas says.

Here’s a few pictures of NORA in action:

Three types of cameras feed the video wall in the Mirage’s surveillance room (right). Fixed-field-of-view units focus on tables, motorized pan-tilt-zoom cameras survey the floor, and 360-degree cams take in an entire area.

NORA represents a fascinating use of technology and data, and it’s indicative of a much larger trend today. Philip Evans touches on the economic and strategy implications of applications like NORA in his excellent TED talk:

What does all of this mean?

Simon Says: Learn from NORA

Big Data is starting to transform businesses.

With respect to Big Data, there are still plenty of laggards. No technology or device reaches critical mass overnight, especially at the enterprise level. In five years, it’s not as if every organization will intelligently use all information available.

Hype aside, though, Big Data and attendant technologies are starting to transform businesses right before our very eyes. Old ways of doing things are beginning to fall by the wayside. When specific examples like NORA become public, Big Data suddenly becomes less abstract to those who make decisions–and the public at large. Progressive folks with the foresight to see enormous possibilities start to gain credibility inside of mature organizations that have been reluctant to act. They start to win arguments with naysayers or, failing that, move to enterprises that already get it or want to get it.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies, or opinions.

The post How Casinos Use Big Data to Catch the Bad Guys appeared first on Phil Simon.