Businesses are striving to make the best use of their Big Data. And unlocking the pearls within the analysis is of prime importance.

Kevin Eagan, general manager of IBM Digital, joined John Furrier and Dave Vellante, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, to talk about creating the customer journey on the path to digitization.

Data explosion

“The explosion of data has created the opportunity to create assets, but assets are only a piece of it. Until you unlock insight out of those assets to the outcome, establishing trust with the client solutions and helping to make decisions, you really haven’t created a platform,” explained Eagan.

According to Eagan, IBM has formed a digital unit across the company over the past year to help tie together this explosion of content that has happened. “So as we see the explosion of Big Data, one of the challenges our clients have is how do you make sense of it so you can construct thoughtful, friction-free customer journeys,” he explained.

Clients are different now

As he talked about what constitutes a client, Eagan remarked how IBM no longer thinks of the client as the organization. “We’ve made the full shift that the organizations we serve are made up of individuals, who are complex in their information needs,” he said, noting that the end users are used to a consumer-driven experience and that is what they expect from their organization.

He also said that IBM does not just provide solutions for big companies anymore. The tech giant wants to be accessible to a whole new range of businesses and clients.

The value proposition

“If you are not feeling the impact of digital disruption in your business, you should be worried,” he said. He further clarified his thoughts by saying that all industries — from the biggest to smallest companies — have to fundamentally change their definitions of who their customers are, how they reach them and how they create new business models and offerings to reach them.

Eagan said that all companies need to create a personalized customer journey to help the customer feel more in control and help companies build better relationships.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM InterConnect 2016. And join in on the conversation by CrowdChatting with theCUBE hosts.

Photo by SiliconANGLE