Creating value from Information

Creating value from information is now the new rage. How do you create value from information? One of the ways is through analysing the current information that you have in a different way. Some call it business analytics. Google has been doing it all the time, and it's one of their main business models.

The fact however is that in order to do that, you will need people with the correct technology skills to advise the business or implement the technology to assist you in analysing the current information that you have.

However, the problem now is that not many people recognise the usefulness of such analytics and how it can help them. It doesn't help that many people think that IT should be cheap, and shun such technologists or software to help them derive more value from their business. Yes, business analytics is not easy (special skill sets are needed), so it is not cheap.

If you think it is easy, you can try formatting all your business information into excel, defining all the different worksheets according to the different work that you do, look through every single data inside, and use pivot tables to try to generate different views of your business and the trends. This is not business analytics but it is the very basic thing that you need to do in order to proceed further.

I think not many people know that technologist or people working in the technology line (may not be all) work to create value from information. They are misunderstood as people who talk in a language that is difficult to understand (like lawyers but they don't get paid as much as them), and therefore to be ignored, and thus don't seem to generate any value in an organisation.  Business analytics is just one example of a technology being used to create greater value.

It's also not all about making sure your software or application looks nice and cool, but its about deriving value from what you're using, and making sure that you get the most value from the software or application that you built or purchased. Yes, not many people know that making the user interface all nice and cool may mean that you can never upgrade your software again because you customised it too much.

Well, I think that's also the reason why not many people remain in the technology line. I've been in the line for almost 10 years. Wondering how much longer I can remain in it while remaining sane. Sometimes it gets super frustrating when you're doing your best for your customers or bosses, and yet unappreciated and receive nasty/sarcastic comments.

This is the life of someone in the technology line. :(