By Nicholas Glanfield, General Manager at Stellar
Last week I spent some time at the inaugural Chief Data and Analytics Officer Conference in Auckland.
It was great to see more than 200 speakers and attendees, including a number of Stellar customers. I was impressed by the diversity of speakers, and the fact that the vast majority were still there when the two-day conference ended!
But most gratifying was the fact that almost all of the sessions revolved around the business impacts and returns from analytics, BI and Big Data projects – as opposed to purely technical achievements.
Haydn Read, Head of Infrastructure Programmes at Auckland Council, gave a fascinating presentation describing the significant benefits being realised from the consolidated multi-Council systems and projects recently delivered.
Haydn referred to planning benefits in a number of areas including storm water efficiency and roading – particularly as these relate to Auckland’s long term ability to cope with in-fill housing and broader urban sprawl.
One sobering thought: by 2050 the expectation is that Auckland will have to accommodate the equivalent of “two and a half Wellingtons” (in terms of population growth) – with the associated social services, infrastructure and facilities required. No mean feat in anybody’s book.
Haydn also referred to the various areas in which Council see Big Data making a real difference across a number of topic areas within Council’s environments.
Conference themes included:
- THE DATA DRIVEN C-SUITE – Evaluating data analytics investment, prominence and acceptance in the boardroom.
- DATA FRAMEWORK: MANAGED AND GOVERNED – Data governance, quality, privacy and ethics. Developing robust data strategies that support the current and future needs of the enterprise.
- DATA SCIENCE AND INTELLIGENCE – Adopting and evaluating data driven approaches and tools to support the move from data insight to execution. Practical experiences on the future of analytics: open source and advanced, predictive and experimental analytics.
- CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP – Defining, fostering and embedding a culture of data analytics and insight based decision making. Democratising analytics to foster insight and co-operation throughout the organisation.
- THE SMART ENTERPRISE – Driving innovation, agility and business value. Monetising data to deliver strategic worth to the business.
Related: Get the free Stellar white paper: Calculating the ROI of BI
