A diagnosis and prescription (sort of) for (somewhat) successful analytics efforts in medium to large firms in Mexico.

1. Big Data, Big Disappointment
A diagnosis and prescription (sort of)
for (somewhat) successful analytics
efforts in medium to large firms in
Mexico
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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2. “Big Data has arrived, but big
insights have not”
- “Big data: are we making a big mistake? Tim Harford. Financial Times.
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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And with all the money Gartner says
we’re to fork over, the question is…

3. Why?
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4. In mature businesses, mostly
because…
• False positives are ignored
• Correlation implies causation
• We don’t care about sampling
• Machine Learning for all
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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From “8 Reasons why Big Data projects fail”. Matt Asay.
InformationWeek. 8/714

5. And in the rest of us, because…
We don’t understand what Big
Data is!
So…we need definitions:
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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6. BD is a 2-part deal
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Big Data
Technology for storing
and processing large
amounts of data
Analytics
The insights gained
from such large data
“Without ‘analytics’, Big
Data is a sleeping giant!”
- me

7. Don’t talk about ‘BD’ w/o the ‘A’
From this slide on, and for the rest of
your professional lives, I urge you to
please add the ‘Analytics’ suffix to the
buzzword ‘Big Data’.
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8. Why this distinction matters?
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Big Data
Quality Attributes to
watch out for:
Analytics
Quality attributes to
watch out for:
- Performance
- Fault-tolerance
- Replication
- High Availability
- Integration with
current ecosystem
- Read Performance
- Insert Performance
- Integration with
Analytical Tools
- In-DB Analytics

9. Why this distinction matters?
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We might end up buying/building
the wrong technology.

10. The purpose of BDA
1. Development of new products
2. Gain operational efficiencies
3. Support decision-making
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If our BDA initiative doesn’t touch
these goals, we’re doing it wrong!

11. CEO/COO
CFO
CTO
CDO
The right place for BDA within the
firm…
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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In a startup:
BDA
BDA BDA BDA
Analytics is part of the org’s DNA

12. The right place for BDA within the
firm…
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In an mature org:
CEO
CTO
CFO
COO
CDO
BDA
CEO sponsorhip needed to break cultural resistance!
BD

13. The WORST place for BDA within
the firm…
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CEO
CTO/CIO
COO
CFO
BDA
Why?

14. Reasons why BDA should not be
born in IT (unless core biz is tech)
1. Asking the wrong questions
2. Lacking the right skills
3. Culture change happens
elsewhere
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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15. Asking the right questions
Even though IT enables the value chain
through technology, burning operational
questions may be out of our reach,
grasp, or jurisdiction.
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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16. Lack of the right skills
Forget Drew Conway’s Venn Diagram. The
problem is deeper:
1. IT is a labor of engineering.
2. The fundamental question of engineering is
‘How’.
3. To answer questions we need statistics.
4. The fundamental question of Stats is
‘Why’.
5. When we answer ‘Why’ we gain insight.
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17. Lack of the right skills (2)
• Of course, our engineers could go through
training to become statisticians, and when
they do, they are sometimes better at it
than classically-trained statisticians.
• Only this training is long, and often requires
a change of mindset to become true Data
Scientists.
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18. Culture change happens elsewhere
If tech is not the core business nor is central to
strategy, IT will not have enough ‘gravitas’ to
pull the entire org from a hunch-based decision
management, to a data-driven one.
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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19. A case for for giving birth to
Analytics in IT
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Survey of +200 data
professionals. Those
closer to SW dev had a
negative correlation to
those closer to the
business. When the pale
red dot turns into a tight,
upward-facing, dark blue
oval, not only will be have
software built with a
purpose, but also SW
devs turned excellent data
analysts.
Source: Entry survey for @TheDataPub meetup

20. If you have no choice but give birth
to BDA in IT…
1. Set up a DWH (if not present).
2. Federate data.
3. Establish data ingestion frequency (must match my
decision-making frequency) & pipeline.
4. Hire the right people with the right skill (and keep
the BI people at bay lest they spread an illness called Reportitis
Operativitis).
5. Seize IT’s presence all across the value chain and
acquire political capital.
6. Address the low-hanging fruit of analytics.
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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21. 1. Set up a DWH (if not present).
2. Federate data.
3. Establish data ingestion frequency (must match my
decision-making frequency) & pipeline.
4. Hire the right people with the right skill (and keep
the BI people at bay lest they spread an illness called Reportitis
Operativitis).
5. Seize IT’s presence all across the value chain and
acquire political capital.
6. Address the low-hanging fruit of analytics.
If you have no choice but give birth
to BDA in IT…
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Big Data
Analytics

22. Where do I get the right people (in
Mexico) ?
1. MSc Data Science – ITAM.
2. MSc Analytic Intelligence – U. Anahuac.
3. BS Applied Maths + MSc Economics/
Econometrics.
4. BS Industrial Engineering + MSc Computer
Science.
5. BS Actuarial Sciences + MSc Computer
Science
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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23. Where do I get the right people (in
Mexico) ?
• Note that they’re all master degrees, so
don’t expect to pay average developer
salaries.
• Industrial Engineering and Economics
appear a lot because those guys know how
to measure processes.
• Note that when we mention Computing, it’s
Computer Science, not Engineering.
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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24. Take aways:
• BigData does nothing without Analytics.
• BDA must deliver 1) new products, 2)
operational efficiency, 3) decision support.
• The right place for BDA is a position of influence.
• BDA living in IT has many drawbacks related to
skill + political capital.
• But IT is in a priviledged position to deliver value
through BDA if it blends with the business.
(c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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25. Pending discussions:
• Big Data Ethics
• Beware Data Charlatanry!
• Analytics team-building
• Data Science + Software Engineering
• What mexican education system
needs to produce data professionals.
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26. (c) 2015 Jesus Ramos
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Thanks!
tw: @xuxoramos
linkedin: xuxoramos
ramos.cardona@gmail.com