According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2018 is the year of the Earth Dog and it’s characteristic word is ACTION!
We are told that it will be a good year in all respects, but we must resist the urge to postpone our activities and accelerate the initiation of all things on our to-do lists.

As year end nears, we thought we would consolidate a list of the top business analytics plans and projects on our client’s wish lists for 2018. Our predictions for the 3 top wishes are…

Wish #1 – Big Data

Our clients say they are over organising data

Yes the average sized New Zealand organisation differs in scale from a global fortune 500 leader – but as the last few years have shown, the need for big data management is now becoming more essential for a much wider range of businesses as data volumes explode. We believe big data got a ‘big expensive’ reputation, and many of the top solution vendors out priced and overscaled for the New Zealand market. Responding to this, CDP created a new product team who have developed a complete, open data lake architecture with zero cost of software technology. The solution is based on the latest open source technologies and will be released to the market before the end of the year.
Achievable and accessible? Absolutely, 2018 can be the year of analyzing, not organising.

Wish #2 – Dashboards

Departmental dashboarding is key

We are constantly hearing that visibility is needed deeper into the operational areas of complex organisations. Everyone seems to have plenty of technology to throw at the problem, but many have discovered it is not a software issue. In 2018 we are going to see greater determination to deliver meaningful, engaging visualisations displaying key data, swiftly.

Wish #3 – Planning in the cloud

Next gen financial planning goes to space

Planning has for so long been a slow, manual and exhausting process prone to inaccuracies and error. New technologies are enabling early adopters to take their planning processes to the cloud and make them a truly collaborative real-time process. We are predicting a major uptake in 2018.

2018 brings so many options for progressing in these 3 areas. Open source technologies have changed the landscape, everyone can find solutions that fit within their budget and requirements. Whatever you decide are top priorities for your organisation, make like that little Earth Dog and stick with it.