Pearls of Data Wisdom

Gordon Anderson, VP, Content, InsideView

Gordon Anderson

 ”The opportunities presented by the rise of Big Data are both vast and inexorable. But for all the chatter about zettabytes and petabytes, Hadoop and Hive, an obvious fact is often overlooked: Bad data doesn’t become good just by becoming Big. As processing information becomes easier and cheaper, data accuracy will become more difficult and more valuable.

In fact, the same factors that have led to the rise of Big Data are also accelerating the pace of data decay. As the capacity of systems to process data expands, the range of data that is processed will grow in lockstep. At every point in that cycle, errors in the underlying content sets will be magnified.

The challenge of Big Data, then, is not just to harness greater processing power, but also to address the limitations and deficiencies of content creation and maintenance. The challenge of Big Data, in other words, is a question of Right and Wrong.”

Steve Connolly

Steve Connolly, Lattice Engines

“Much is said about the proliferation of content and the incredible growth in the amount of the knowledge that is available to people and professionals. Advances in technologies in medicine allow physicians to understand cure rates and treatment plans. The legal industry has been benefiting from big data advances since allowing for pre-trial “eDiscovery” to occur. And finally, big data for sales is quickly gaining traction, but there’s still a long way to go. A recent CSO Insights survey revealed that 89 percent of reps miss opportunities because they still can’t keep up with information. That’s going to change and it’s going to happen in part by identifying the relationships that exist in content that reside within their CRM, marketing automation system, financial systems, in the social selling sphere, in press releases, and in public or proprietary collections. As the users become more accustomed to working with big data and achieve success, the questions will no longer be focused on which data sets need to be used, but instead on how to easily identify and understand the relationships between data sets that will allow reps to be successful. It’s this challenge and this value that generates excitement here at Lattice Engines.”

Jeff Cutler, EVP & GM, Vitals

Jeff Cutler

• professional, personal and social interactions, anything we want to buy, rent, lease or transact, and any decision we make including how to choose the best medical provider”

Jim Fowler, CEO, InfoArmy

 ”In the business information industry the value isn’t in the data. The value is in understanding the change in the data.”

Sharon Gillenwater

“Ten lessons I have learned since 2009:

Sharon Gillenwater, CEO, Boardroom Insiders

1. There are no silver bullets–for anything
2. Business model/pricing is the biggest challenge and needs constant tweaking.
3. Failure is not bad–it just means you can cross that tactic off your list and stop wondering “What If?”
4. SEO is the smartest marketing investment you can make.
5. Google AdWords is a waste of money for B2B publishers with limited budget.
6. The best editorial model is offshore researchers + onshore analysts/editors + automated tools.
7. Best business model is subscription plus custom…but keep the custom simple and for subscribers.
8. Keep your product and offer simple. Complexity = sales obstacles.
9. Own your customer relationships. Channel partners (content aggregators) are nice to haves–not must haves.
    
10. Scale doesn’t matter. Customers are discovering that quality trumps quantity.” 

Eric Jackson

Eric Jackson, CEO, CapLinked

“The age of firewalls, onsite servers, and implementation teams is coming to an end. Enterprise software is moving into the cloud, and with it we’re seeing a whole new way of doing business. As this transition occurs, it’s no longer sufficient for software merely to protect data. It must also enhance the sharing of it. As the world shrinks and collaboration becomes more important, businesses must utilize technology that lets them curate the distribution of information to their partners, customers, and stakeholders.

CapLinked is taking advantage of this shift by enabling complex business transactions to happen in the cloud. Whether it’s a negotiation between two companies (like an M&A deal or business development agreement) or a transaction involving many parties (like a capital raise), CapLinked’s centralized, dynamic environment helps manage what can otherwise be an unwieldy and data-intensive process. And unlike the legacy virtual data room services—which charge companies more every time they need to open a new room—CapLinked’s subscription model empowers companies to work on as many transactions as they need. The economics of software aren’t the same as the economics of sausage, so there’s no reason to sell it by the pound.”

Frank Russo, CEO, Fabricating.com

The recent flap over the outsourcing of US Olympic team uniforms to Chinese manufacturers was echoed in a survey by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which reported that the vast majority of respondents say that manufacturing is the key to America’s strength and bringing manufacturing back to the US should be a national priority.

At fabrciating.com we’re taking a positive step in that direction by making sure that OEM manufacturers have critical data necessary to not only identify US-based contract manufacturers but to assess their capability and capacity, quickly and easily, and to enable the complex communication necessary to specify custom manufactured parts and components so that more of the manufacturing needs of the US can be done by the US.”

Gretchen Teichgraeber

“Delivering more than just high-quality information – delivering high-functioning and useful software – is now a necessity for leading companies in our industry. Sophisticated users want data that can flow seamlessly to their other applications, or for their information product to include features and functionality that replace the need for an external application.”