Information Research Weblog

Thanks to Charles Knight for drawing my attention to an article in InfoWorld on 'analytics'. It refers to a survey by the Gartner Group which has resulted in what they think of as a standardised defintion of this woolly term:

Gartner has created its own definition: "Analytics leverage data in a particular functional process (or application) to enable context-specific insight that is actionable". It can be used in many industries in real-time data processing situations to allow for faster business decisions, he said.

What on earth this consultancy-speak jargon actually means is anyone's guess. I suppose it is a ploy from Gartner to get clients to pay them to explain it! Something is said to be 'actionable' when it is open to judicidal process - perhaps Gartner should be taken to court for this one!