Big Data is a journey. Not every company is equipped to make that journey, even though the future belongs to those who do. This issue is one of experience; only those who have made the transition to a Big Data business know the needs and pitfalls of crossing over. There is a business opportunity in bridging this divide, and a number of companies have offered their services as partners in the Big Data journey.

To understand a little more about this side of Big Data, George Gilbert (@ggilbert41), cohost of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, visited the Hadoop Summit US 2016 conference in San Jose, California. There, he shared a table with Sri Raghavan, senior global product marketing manager at Teradata Corp.

Asking the right questions

The conversation started with a look at Taradata’s process when dealing with new customers. Raghavan mentioned how when they start these talks, the question is never about technology. They try to approach from the standpoint of figuring out the customer’s business problems.

“Our goal is to be the best advisors we can possibly be,” Raghavan said.

He described some of the questions they ask, like how do people interact with the business, and what does it look like when then interact? Once Teradata has some answers, only then does it bring in the technology.

Delivering human analytics

For businesses, the answers are seldom up front. Often, the first sign of trouble is when a customer closes their account and leaves. Raghavan explained that there are usually events creating a history before the customer leaves. By considering these events, there’s chance of discovering a number of paths people take in their interactions with the business that end in a lost customer.

Raghavan continued, stating this is where they bring value to a company. He used the term “human analytics” for their business. Further, Raghavan stressed that the entire company needs to be a part of the data-driven journey to realize the full value. The goal is to provide solutions the business has the capability to reasonably implement.

Watch the entire video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Hadoop Summit US.

Photo by SiliconANGLE