Monday, January 30, 2017

AI and Big Data will Enrich Corporate Strategy

The power of data analytics has become a major element of corporate strategy. Many companies are struggling with the issue of how to convert the vast quantities of available data to competitive advantage. This has been the impact of big data, accelerated and complicated by the outpouring of IoT data that is permeating the cloud. The challenges of identifying relevant data, and lining it up with corporate strategies requires an unprecedented scale of intelligent computing power.

While companies grapple with these issues, the field of Artificial Intelligence is powering up and is about to pass the big data parade and combine forces with it.

AI is coming into its own as the vehicle for handling big data analytics in a way that will enrich corporate strategies. Such phenomena as the impact of weather on supply chains can be grappled with using AI to implement data analytics. For more on this idea, check this link.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

The Open Data Exchange is Active

The Canadian Open Data Exchange is an active organization that is devoted to the idea of making public a variety of data on an open basis. That means making data available in an electronic form that can be used easily by the public for analytical purposes. It's a global movement and Canada is in the forefront of it. Check on their progress through this link.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

A concept getting lots of attention at Davos is that of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a concept formulated by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. Here is how it was described there:

"The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres."

The concept is borne out by the current burst in technological innovation, including artificial intelligence, access to huge amounts of data, widespread use of mobile communications devices, and the emerging and converging areas of bio and nano-technology, which ultimately may have the biggest impact of all.

The fourth industrial revolution will challenge many of our precepts about economic behaviour. It will perpetuate and perhaps intensify the digital divide, and place even more importance on the demand for highly skilled talent and less demand for unskilled labour. This of course will create more social tensions. It will create new challenges for education, government and business, all requiring a culture of constant innovation to survive.

All of this means challenges ahead. May you live in interesting times!

For a good summary of the discussion at Davos on this topic, please click this link.

Monday, January 09, 2017

iXBRL - How it Really looks and feels

XBRL International has added a new page to its website providing examples of statements coded in iXBRL. They show clearly how it is human readable - in fact looks exactly the same as any other financial statement - and also, how the embedded XBRL component can be shown and used. A few moments on this page will add tremendously to most people's understanding of iXBRL.

iXBRL is the big thing in terms of smart data for financials. ESMA recently mandated it and it is being used in the UK along with numerous other countries, and is being considered in the US. We can expect that iXBRL will be the main vehicle for presenting financial statements over the next few years. It demonstrates a new level of maturity in the use of XBRL.


For the new page, click here.

What is the role of IT in Analytics Governance

Some effort these days is being put into the question of what is the role of the IT department in handling analytics in the organization. There is an acute awareness of the importance of analytics to successful modern business. However, the question around IT is classic. Should IT lead analytics or simply support it.

There are really two major elements to analytics. One is the availability of technologies that might be useful to the business. The other is a hard-nosed definition of what analytics would be useful and needed.  

At the risk of over-simplification, IT should support the identification of the technologies that will meet the needs of the organization and the business functional leaders should identify what analytics are needed. This calls for strong coordination and that is where a Chief Analytics Officer comes in. A prime role of the CAO is to liaise between functional departments and IT to ensure an effective match between needs and technology.

For more on this issue, check out this link.