The end of day one of the Teradata Partners conference had one resounding message - data and analytics can unleash the potential of great companies. The four-day conference that kicked off in Atlanta on September 11, 2016 put a sharp spotlight on how companies are using data to achieve business solutions.
To ride the wave, Teradata itself has donned a new positioning. "We have driven primarily as a tech forward company that has been immersed in data. We have now evolved to be a business focussed brand. Tech will always be key but we have to find technology led solutions to achieve business objectives at scale," remarked Victor Lund, President & CEO, Teradata.
Marrying technology, data and analytics with business goals, performance-led targets and on creating larger impact on businesses was the common thread across most discussions at the forum.
The change has to begin from within. This was amply reiterated in the examples shared by P&G's IT Manager, Marta Mielniczuk. P&G created a solution that was able to look at the vast number of queries it got and created a roadmap on prioritising and addressing the queries. However, one of the biggest challenges that comes in solutions such as these was training people on data models and self service reporting.
Some changes need passion to be driven. Coca-Cola created a tool called Scan-D that could work with its partners such as bottling plants and the likes on increasing market value. One of markets that has shown some great results for this is the Middle East and North Africa. Coca-Cola's Roy Beckelhymer observed that one of the reasons for this is because the team driving the tool in the market encourages partners to only utilize the tool in market share and revenue conversations.
In all, data changes everything it touches. The conference looked at newer opportunities that can be created by marrying sensor data with other kinds of data or combining operation technology with information technology to unleash untapped growth opportunities.
