InfoSol We're passionate about inspired business intelligence
Just before participating in the SAP TechEd on Tour event in Sydney, Australia, I visited Featherdale Widlife Park which takes care of over 2,000 native Aussie animals representing more than 260 different species.
While, for my colleagues, petting the koalas and kangaroos was the highlight, for me, it was coming face to face with the Powerful Owl.
I have never heard of a Powerful Owl before, let alone seen one, but apparently it is the largest owl in Australia and truly lives up to its name. It is big and has huge piercing yellow eyes that totally hypnotize and it lifts its wings while perching so it looks as though it is wearing a cape like a super hero. Check out my 30-second video here.
I was so mesmerized by it that I researched it later on the internet . I really felt it was trying to give me a message. Apparently, an owl message is often interpreted spiritually as a symbol of wisdom, intuition and transformation representing a call to look beyond the surface and trust your inner guidance.
A couple of days later, I was fully immersed in SAP TechEd where we gave over 100 demos of InfoBurst Squirrel to a very receptive and interested audience.
I also attended some of the sessions and, one that stood out, was a case study by a leading Australian beverage company.
They had undergone a major transformation in their core operational applications and were presenting their vision and plan for the next 5 years. Two of the key items in the plan were AI and Data and they had decided to combine them together with the rationale that you cannot have good AI without good data. I think most people would agree with that.
However, what immediately occurred to me was that you also can’t have good Business Intelligence (BI) without good data, so I asked the presenter the following question:
“I agree that you cannot have good AI without good data, but the same is true that you cannot have good BI without good data. Most organizations have been struggling with data governance and quality initiatives for as long as BI has been around, more than 25 years and still not solved the data issue. What makes you think you can solve it for AI in the next 5 years?”
While the presenter started answering about their great data team and all the tools at their disposal, her colleague gave a more realistic answer saying that they did have a major data governance initiative in process that included data stewards in all the departments and data catalog tools and that it was on-going.
This is when I remembered my Powerful Owl and realized that I needed to look beyond the surface so, after the session, I started speaking to the person who had been identified as the lead on the data initiative at the beverage company. She explained that they had not yet solved the data governance and quality issues for BI after many years of trying and that it was an on-going challenge to solve it for both BI and AI going forward.
Almost three decades of promises of what BI could bring you, what big data could bring you and, now, what AI can bring you and it all comes back to the data and my infamous equation of:
BIG DATA + BAD DATA = BIG BAD DATA
Before you start charging down the road too quickly with AI, make sure you have a solid data strategy that addresses data governance and quality first.
Special thanks to my wise Powerful Owl for this blog.
Very good point “Powerful Paul”. You can put a pretty face (BI or AI) on anything. However, the plain, old, nothing special in the looks department DATA is the most important thing. Thanks for the article.