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In today's data-driven world, businesses are constantly looking for ways to extract meaningful insights from the vast amounts of data they collect. One powerful tool for doing so is text analytics, which allows organizations to analyze unstructured data from sources such as customer feedback, social media, and emails. However, despite the potential benefits of text analytics, some IT organizations may resist its implementation.

Here are our key takeaways from the article:

  • IT organizations often resist text analytics, even though it can bring great business value
  • IT tries to keep text analytics out of the organization by using excuses like budgets, schedules, busyness, and cost
  • Attempts to keep text analytics out of an organization are doomed to fail
  • Organizations should embrace text analytics instead of resisting it, as text analytics has a great deal of potential for businesses

In this article, we'll explore why this resistance occurs and why it's important for businesses to embrace text analytics. We'll also discuss how tools like Integrate.io can make text analytics more accessible and easier to process.

 



Introduction

This is a guest post by Bill Inmon, known as the father of the data warehouse. In this article, he will discuss how IT organizations often resist text analytics even though it can bring great business value.

This article will answer two important questions:

  • What is text analytics?

  • How does text analytics work?

The article will then go into Bill Inman's experience with IT organizations and text analytics, highlighting the importance of text analytics and how it can be used to gain valuable insights for businesses. Let's delve deeper into text analytics, its power, and how it can be utilized in a meaningful way.

 

What is text analytics?

Text analytics refers to any technology or method used to analyze text-based data. It can be used to discover trends, patterns, and relationships between text, as well as uncover hidden insights that would normally not be visible. Text analytics has been gaining popularity in many industries such as marketing, retail, healthcare, and finance.

 

How does text analytics work?

Text analytics is powered by sophisticated algorithms to process text-based data and extract valuable insights. It can be used to uncover trends, relationships, and correlations between text as well as identify topics in text documents or conversations. Furthermore, text analytics can be used to measure sentiment toward a company or product, making it a powerful tool to better understand customer sentiment.

 

Bill Inmon's Experience with IT Organizations

My Experience Educating AMS on Data Warehousing

A while back data warehouse was a new thing and I was introducing it to our industry. At the time, I was working at a company called AMS – American Management Systems.

I was educating AMS on the value of data warehousing. At the same time, I was writing books, and articles, and holding conferences on data warehouses.

One day I got an invitation to speak to a consortium of oil executives in Houston, Texas. I went down to Houston and spoke to the executives.

 

An Angry Phone Call

When I returned to my home, I got this extremely angry phone call from the AMS account representative in Houston. He was livid that I was talking to his customers. I didn’t realize that I was controlled by the account representative. I had been invited by the oil consortium, not the account representative. And the executives at the conference seemed to enjoy the presentation.

The AMS account representative wanted control of his account but he wanted no responsibility for understanding the sales opportunities in his account. Wanting control without taking responsibility is a deadly combination.

 

IT’s Resistance to Text Analytics

The same sort of circumstance is happening with IT organizations and text analytics today. Text analytics is a new and burgeoning endeavor, in its early infancy. There is great business value attached to text analytics. And IT runs to the hills every time text analytics is mentioned. IT wants nothing to do with text analytics. IT is doing everything it can to keep text analytics out of the organization.

Related Reading: The Importance of Business and IT Alignment to Build Successful Data Pipelines

 

Excuses Used by IT to Keep Text Analytics Out of the Organization

So what are some of the excuses It gives for not allowing text analytics into the corporation?

Here is a list of favorites:

  • We didn’t do it that way last year

  • It's not in the budget

  • It’s not on the schedule

  • We are really busy

  • It is too expensive

 And this week I heard the lamest excuse of all. IT proclaimed that a presentation on text analytics could not be done because an NDA had not been signed properly. The only problem was that there was nothing – NOTHING – in the meeting that was remotely proprietary. An NDA was totally inappropriate. It was like calling off a football game because a bird flew down from the sky and then sat in a tree. There is no connection whatsoever between a bird sitting in a tree and a football game.

IT wants control of the technology function in the organization but they do not want to open their eyes and ears to the opportunities that they should be managing. They want control without responsibility.

What Happened to AMS?

What happened to AMS? At the time of this conversation, AMS was the ONLY firm in the world that had developers and designers, and consultants that knew anything about data warehouses. Well, AMS doesn’t exist today. Although organizational ineptitude and a lack of foresight were involved, there are other factors that ultimately led to the demise of AMS.

Just imagine if there were one consulting firm that had monopoly control of the data warehouse marketplace today. Yet at one point that is exactly what the case was.

Will IT be able to keep textual analytics out of the organization?

Don’t bet your life savings on it.

IT holding back text analytics is about as effective as a pebble trying to hold back the tide.

 

IT Holding Back Text Analytics Is Ineffective

IT may be able to temporarily keep text analytics out of the organization, but eventually, text analytics will find its way in.

Organizations need to make sure they are on board with text analytics and have the right resources in place to make text analytics successful. IT needs to understand that text analytics is here to stay, so the best way forward is for IT to embrace text analytics, not resist it. Text analytics has a great deal of potential for businesses and organizations should take advantage of this opportunity before they get left behind.

Related Reading: IT Modernization: 4 Tips to Modernize Your Company's IT Systems

 

How Integrate.io Can Help

Integrate.io is a powerful platform that can help IT organizations better manage and integrate text analytics into their corporate strategies. It provides an automated connection between data sources, allowing for rapid integration from unstructured data. With its sophisticated API integrations, Integrate.io can make text analytics easier to access, process, and understand without the need for manual coding. This means that IT organizations can more effectively leverage text analytics to make better decisions and drive business growth.

In conclusion, text analytics is important for businesses to gain valuable insights from unstructured data. However, many IT organizations are wary of embracing this technology due to perceived complexity and cost. By leveraging the power of integrate.io, businesses can unlock the potential of text analytics and gain a competitive edge in their industry. With integrate.io, IT organizations can ensure that they are getting the most out of their text analytics investments and driving business growth.