From Big Data to Smart Data

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What is Smart Data?

2.1. How can we define it?

Smart Data is the way in which different data sources (including Big Data) are brought together, correlated, analyzed, etc., to be able to feed decision-making and action processes. Lots of data are “Big” (in terms of volume, velocity, etc.) but how much is “Smart”, that is, has value for the business?

Smart Data should be seen as a set of technologies and processes, as well as the structures associated with it (Business Intelligence Competency Centers (BICCs)) that enable all value to the taken from the data. It arises from BI.

Smart Data is one of the foundations of BI (either analytic or operational) that has evolved through BI “2.0” toward a certain number of new characteristics as follows.

2.1.1. More formal integration into business processes

Integrated into the heart of business processes (necessary information is distributed to all levels of the business), decision-making must be as close as possible to its implementation (action). The monitoring and optimization indicators of the activity are aligned to the operational decision-making and action processes. Operational departments have been fast to adopt this new generation of tools whose approach is more operational than analytical. It is thus simpler to align business monitoring through common and measurable indicators and objectives (see Key Performance Indicators (KPI)). Structures around BI aligned themselves with this approach by becoming more cross-functional, and BICCs ...