Analytics - Foxy or Frank

After spending a lot of time in this new space, I felt that there is lot of myths flying around in the world. These myths are not only setting wrong expectations but also entangling the existence of the space.

Myth 1

If we hire an analyst and give them access to our database, they will start farming gold.

Noooooooooooooo...
People get out of this. Analyst are not GOD. They are simple human being who studied something other than engineering.
Giving them access to your database doesn't mean anything. If your data collection methods are false, if you are not collecting the right data, even the best of data analyst and data scientist wont be able to do anything.

Myth 2

Data is the new oil.

Yes Data is the new oil, but someone forgot to complete the sentence.
Just like oil cannot run everything in you life, similarly data cannot do wonders for everything. At places the traditional  methods are still superior than even the most advance form of analytics.

Myth 3

Analytics will "help" us take decisions.

Yes very true. But in most cases, people skip the "help" part. They follow the analyst's prediction and prescription blindly. But people you have to understand, that the analytical processes are simple PCs in the backend, they are our same old stupid computers. They do what some intelligent people (with all respect to them) have told them to do. But these programs may not suit your situations. So please stop following blindly..

Myth 4

Analytics means high investment and a technological shift

Noooooooo
Analytics is about making sense out of data, the only requirement is to have a proper data collection method (means capturing the right parameters and data points). Tools and softwares can be freewares like Google Spreadsheet, MySQL or even CSVs. For analytics, 60-70% of the job can be done in MS Excel itself (which is paid but assumed to be available) or 150% of the jobs can be done in R (which is free in all directions)

Myths 5

Big  Data is not Analytics. No Big Data is not Analytics

Yes, I accept the fact that the whole need of having a Big Data eco-system is because it gives more power to analytic teams and helps in bridging the gaps in our traditional analytic reports and get a more real-time analytics done. But these 2 are not the best of buddies.