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ACCA Applied Skills · Performance Management · Big data and data analytics

A manufacturer stores large quantities of sensor data from its machines but has never analysed it to inform maintenance or costing decisions. A director says the data is costly to store and has delivered no benefit. Which of the five Vs is the director's concern principally about, and what is the appropriate response?

The concern is value, so the company should identify the decisions the data should support, such as maintenance planning, before spending more on storage or analysis. Data only has value if insights from it benefit the business by more than the cost. Adding storage or speed would not fix unused data.

  1. AVeracity; delete data that is older than one year
  2. BValue; define the decisions the data should support before investing further in storage and analysisCorrect
  3. CVolume; buy additional storage to hold all data in case it is needed
  4. DVelocity; process the sensor data faster using real-time systems

Explanation

The concern is that the data yields no benefit, which is value. The sensible response is to link data collection and analysis to specific decisions so that costs are justified by benefits. Buying more storage or faster processing adds cost without addressing the lack of benefit, and nothing suggests inaccuracy.

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