March 12, 2013 - International Data Corporation (IDC) recently published a Big Data and analytics (BDA) maturity model, providing a framework of stages, critical measures, outcomes, and actions required for organizations to effectively advance along the successive stages of BDA competency and maturity toward data-driven decision making for this $100 billion technology and services market.

"Big Data and analytics have become top agenda items for many executives, but with the opportunity to unlock the value of Big Data to accelerate innovation, drive optimization, and improve compliance comes the need to demonstrate value, navigate expanding technology alternatives, re-create business processes, and ensure the availability of appropriately skilled staff," said Dan Vesset, program vice president, Business Analytics research. "The ability to manage and analyze Big Data and derive value from these activities will increasingly define an organization's ability to compete or service its constituents."

IDC's Big Data and Analytics maturity model enables organizations to:

• Assess their BDA competency and maturity
• Use the baseline to define short- and long-term goals and plan for improvements
• Prioritize BDA technology, staffing, and other related investment decisions
• Uncover maturity gaps among business units and between business and IT groups

IDC research shows that many organizations do not yet have the competency or maturity to address the range of technology, staffing, and process requirements needed to capitalize on Big Data assets and to deploy analytics pervasively to optimize operational, tactical, and strategic decisions. To assist organizations in assessing their current capabilities and to evaluate gaps in reaching higher levels of BDA maturity and competence, this framework identifies the five stages and five critical measures as well as the outcomes and actions required for organizations to effectively move through the maturity model stages.

The report, IDC Maturity Model: Big Data and Analytics - A Guide to Unlocking Information Assets (IDC #239771) enables an organization to assess its BDA competency and maturity; use the baseline to define short- and long-term goals and plan for improvements; prioritize BDA technology, staffing, and other related investment decisions; uncover maturity gaps among business units and between business and IT groups — all in the quest to data-driven decision making and to derive desired outcomes based on organizational goals.