Published on the 10/10/2013 | Written by Newsdesk

Companies expecting instant benefits from investment in big data initiatives are likely to be disappointed, but should not delay getting started…

It took Westpac New Zealand three years to make much headway with its big data initiative as it battled to develop the right culture and executive support for the programme.

Meanwhile those organisations hoping to use traditional return on investment models to justify investment in big data technologies could wait 20 years to see full ROI returned, according to Andy Lark, former chief marketing officer of Commonwealth Bank.

Lark , speaking at a Cebit big data conference in Sydney this week, however said that the incremental benefits from starting early could be “extreme” especially as organisations started to mine the “signals” that customers and prospects sent when using social media regarding their location or intent.

Other speakers however warned that it could take as long as 15 years for end-user friendly tools to emerge which would make big data insights widely accessible.

Lark said that he nevertheless believed that for most enterprises, “technology is the most compelling source of differentiation”.

Exploiting big data and investing in the necessary technology and skills will however demand something of a leap of faith from senior executives.

Torrance Mayberry, senior systems manager at Westpac NZ was enthusiastic about the potential of big data but said, “It took us more than three years to build the capability. It took time and a lot of sweat. Executives have to be committed to that.”

Senior executive support for big data programmes was identified by multiple speakers as crucial to their initiatives’ success. David Heaven, data scientist with eftpos Australia said that if senior executive support could be secured then the; “actual implementation is relatively trivial.” Without senior executive sponsorship the success of big data programmes was less assured he said.

He warned however that Australian organisations were a long way behind their peers in the US in terms of big data exploitation, and that it would be hard to make swift progress given the extent of the skills shortage in this area.

But he said it was important that organisations at least started to, “Capture whatever you can. Capture and start asking the questions.”

He said that organisations which began now could develop something of a head start over slower peers “and as long as you keep moving you can maintain the gap.”