The semantic gap between the business and the technology teams has reduced significantly over the past few years but more so in the recent year. There was earlier disconnect over the fact that the technology supported the business; the tension between the two was high. Today, we see a more symbiotic relationship, where technology is accelerant in businesses and business is providing insights to fine tune technology stacks. We are seeing this as businesses are looking to monetize their data and see the technology maturity over the years is at a point where it is consumable by the business.

There was an “OMG moment” where business looked at the data that they had gathered over the years and saw the value of it. The technology was an important element, as this data could be diced, sliced and visualized in ways that had not been done before. Data that just confined in archives could now be mined with technologies that could analyze it, not just the structured data but unstructured data. The flood of big data tools that came into the market clearly showed there was a solution at every level, and also at every price point – free open source solutions to paid enterprise grade solutions.

The dashboards are evolving from just being static to being more part of a conversation to make a business better. An article in Huffington Post, Why a Chart Should Start, Not End, a Conversation, highlights that charts help answer many questions but really are not meant to answer all questions. Business in this digital economy will change and the insights you seek will have to be tweaked and revised.

Another area that has accelerated this year in the maturity is the Self Service Business Intelligence. This has become the new normal where the business is adapting to technology that has become simpler. The semantic layer that has been built around makes the business to works with data abstractions and get to insights they seek. This is one of the areas that the semantic gap between the business and technology has reduced with appreciations from both sides. I already see, “I see what you mean” in conversations.

This year also saw that consumers are more analytical with the proliferation of “apps” that take data from the various wearables and omnipresent devices like the smartphone. The amount of data that is generated on these devices and consumed by consumers to improve their quality of life is growing multiple folds. The behavior is crossing channels where retailers are adapting to the needs of the business. In a recent blog post by Mark Lister, UX in ecommerce and inside the enterprise, he highlights how retailers are adapting needs of consumers, not just any consumers, but YOU!

The coming year, 2015, holds more opportunities for data and business intelligence with the rise of Internet of Things. The pace of evolution in this space and the manner in which it is integrating with businesses and consumers, where the “Smart” factor is maturing in data analytics holds the key to amazing new possibilities and ventures.

Ness believes in the power of data and have witnessed considerable strategic gains through harnessing this unique opportunity. To this end we have strengthened our Data Intelligence services to further support our clients who want to realise the business intelligence and create actionable insights from the mass of data that can be acquired from the ever increasing touch points which exist in today’s digital economy.