The ability to derive business-relevant insights from data has emerged as a key differentiator in a hyper-competitive business environment. But given the huge amounts of data that a company generates, and that it can access from external sources, mining it for the right information has become something of a specialist skill.

“Raw data is basically useless – it’s only valuable if it is stored appropriately, cleaned or verified, and governed properly that it can change a company’s prospects, often quite radically,” says Hendrik Blignaut, Executive: Data, Altron Systems Integration. “Turning data into information is the trick, and the right approach is essential.