From Big Data Technologies to Big Data Benefits

Many organizations view big data as critical assets and invest significantly in technologies to analyze these. Nevertheless, reaping the expected business benefits requires that big data analytics projects bridge the chasm between business demand and big data technology. To this end, we present an approach used in Vestas Wind Systems A/S for managing the realization of potential benefits from big data technologies. This approach involves dependency networks representing how different domains in a big data analytics project support business benefits. We explain how Vestas in a business-critical project: (1) distinguishes the contributions from different domains to big data benefits, (2) defines the dependencies across domains for realizing big data benefits, and (3) facilitates continuous rework of the benefits dependency network.