I’ve been following the panting exuberance of big data apostles for the past few years, rolling my eyes at most of it. Sure, it can be interesting, but maybe my age is showing when I say, “So what?” to most of it.

What finally pushed me over the edge enough to comment on it was a tweet I saw from none other than our friends at SAP, saying (I’m paraphrasing) “You have lots of data; let SAP analyze it.” But of course. There’s gold in them thar data… at least to SAP.

Just because we have lots of data, does it mean they have to be analyzed? What is the question, what is the problem, what is the opportunity being addressed? As Einstein said, “Not everything that can be counted, counts.”

It has become easier and easier to create, capture, and store data. Just ask the NSA. Or Target. Sure, data inventory doesn’t take up physical space, but it does take time, equipment, and people to manage it. And perhaps it is inventory... excess, over-produced inventory. What does lean tell us about inventory?

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