What is Big Data? Who needs Big Data ? Where does it fit into the maturity curve of an enterprise using BI or Analytics ? How do you partner with business who is still swamped by reports or dashboards at best? Actionable insights? When does a data warehouse become inadequate and Big Data become necessary? Are CIOs getting tangled by this elephant?  

IT has a big role to play in the healthcare system to improve the quality and efficiency of operations and delivery. These, along with patient safety, are the key drivers for IT investment in the healthcare setup. A number of IT initiatives, such as the automation of over 1,000 processes, at Manipal Hospitals have helped us make information available online for stakeholders and reduce turnaround time for patients. 

By 2014, organizations that refuse to communicate with customers by social media will face the same level of wrath from customers as those that ignore today's basic expectation that they will respond to emails and phone calls. For organizations that use social media to promote their products, responding to inquiries via social media channels will be the new minimum level of response expected, says Gartner. 

If one looks at the old set up that still exists in many government hospitals today, there is a huge amount of paper strewn all over the place. Even in some corporate hospitals, doctors are still using paper to write prescriptions. As the records get spread all over the place, it becomes almost impossible to analyze data which exists in the physical form. The road to a paperless hospital is dotted with challenges.  

As Shriram Group is a large business conglomerate with diversified interests, it was quite a challenge for IT to manage separate servers for every company in the group. To consolidate and manage things better, we decided to implement private cloud in our data center six months back. The benefits include rapid deployment of applications and better resource utilization.  

The application of social media in retail trading is only going to increase as it enhances the efficiency in retail trading. Fundamentally social media caters to information dissemination through viral propagation, which is of great value in the world of retail trading. 

Our effort at Yes Bank is to give our users meaningful information or insights based on the data that is generated. So we have divided our strategy into four phases. We have conceptualized a Business Intelligence (BI) platform called Kaleidoscope as democratic BI application. It is a role-based BI. This means that based on my role as the CIO or the branch head or the regional head, I will see different kinds of reports and dashboards and I can drill down further. 

IT plays a critical role in market expansion, especially in businesses that operate in the online space. There are some organizations that do a great job of leveraging the online space as well as the traditional channels. In Vodafone India, we have increased our percentage share of online revenue by four times in last two years. We have been working a lot to leverage the online channel.  

Information Technology for any organization today is not just the backbone. It is like the blood flowing in the body. It's everywhere. You name a function and IT is there. With its all-pervasive role, it is important that IT and business align to a great extent, and so do CIOs. 

We are clearly at a new frontier of information overload and explosion of data, which is both challenging and exciting. Analytics is at the forefront of where marketing and technology are coming together, and the partnership represents an emerging opportunity for CIOs to truly push the needle on analytics and how the company goes to market.