Those of us who have spent years studying “data smart” companies believe we’ve already lived through two eras in the use of analytics. We might call them BBD and ABD—before big data and after big data. Or, to use a naming convention matched to the topic, we might say that Analytics 1.0 was followed by Analytics 2.0. Generally speaking, 2.0 releases don’t just add some bells and whistles or make minor performance tweaks. In contrast to, say, a 1.1 version, a 2.0 product is a more substantial overhaul based on new priorities and technical possibilities. When large numbers of companies began capitalizing on vast new sources of unstructured, fast-moving information—big data—that was surely the case.
A version of this article appeared in the December 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review.
