Big data does not mean big insight, according to panellists at the MRS Conference today.

Examining the tactics for building a unified view of the customer, panellists were united in thinking that although the amount of data available is greater than it ever has been, the key to understanding was to drill down by asking the correct questions.

Google group product marketing manager Mark Riseley said that: “At the moment, the analytics explain less about the why. This will get better but at the moment this is a problem. “

Lucien Bowater, director of strategy and insight at BSkyB, agreed and said that although having this data was good, the conclusions made solely from big data were not “what they ask for”.

He continued: “You have to choose what business question you are trying to answer and choose how you answer it.”

RBS head of customer experience Steve Whitty commented: “How do we grapple with fragmented data? Can we plot strategy out of it? It is less about how to measure more, but what are we going to do about [data]?”

Bowater added: “I don’t need three decimal places [in the researchers’ report], I just need to be told where to dig.”