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The first installment of Data Rich and Insight Poor introduced the concepts and challenges facing utilities as they work to access the benefits of the latest In Memory solutions embodied in SAP HANA.  What we are told most frequently is that data is in abundance, yet the Insight and therefore the Benefit is Elusive.


I'd like to offer a primer to assist in capturing the Benefits available in Big Data -


Let's start with a few known concepts -


Platform Play - I've been told by many that one should "Spend Once - Cry Never Again".  As a young engineer in the '80's at first I didn't grasp the concept fully.  I went down the discrete solution pathway with specialized vendors offering point solutions that later confounded both myself and my trusty IT sidekick when we somewhat matured and desired tight integration. 


Business Benefits - Another time I recall being told that - Software Developers Need to Build Value - Not Shiny Objects - What useful purpose will the solution fulfill inside of the organization.  If it reduces costs and has a positive business value the journey from opening discussion to continued ongoing use will be much shorter.


Use cases are key to the organization being able to map to the technology - Often the line organization could care less about Speeds and Feeds.  They will understand the why best if the post doctoral math can help them to know the circuit to inspect next or how to prevent a truck from rolling towards a job that has little chance of being successfully completed.


Visualization is key to understanding the InsightI recently spoke with an engineer who told me that Duval brings to life the data contained in otherwise tabular presentations. Another high demand among users is to have spatial representation of the data. knowing where the asset is located in relationship to the network, public infrastructure or other features of interest brings the data to life !


So with those known concepts having been said - we can look at the challenge in a newer light.  Choose a solution that offers a broad appeal within the organization  ( PLATFORM ) that is capable of working with the legacy and specialized solutions ( USE CASE ) and will be providing the rich data that we are looking to for insight.


In the next installation of this series of "Data Rich and Insight Poor" we'll take a look into data sources and how they work collectively to represent the data universe inside our utilities.


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