Big Data Analytics Maturity Model for SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the global economy, constituting 90% of all businesses. Despite being widely adopted by large businesses who have reported numerous benefits including increased profitability and increased efficiency and a survey in 2017 of 50 Fortune 1000 and leading firms’ executives indicated that 48.4% of respondents confirmed they are achieving measurable results from their Big Data investments, with 80.7% confirming that they have generated business. Big Data Analytics is adopted by only 10% of SMEs. The paper outlines a review of Big Data Maturity Models and discusses their positive features and limitations. Previous research has analysed the barriers to adoption of Big Data Analytics in SMEs and a scoring tool has been developed to help SMEs adopt Big Data Analytics. The paper demonstrates that the scoring tool could be translated and compared to a Maturity Model to provide a visual representation of Big Data Analytics maturity and help SMEs to understand where they are on the journey. The paper outlines a case study to show a comparison to provide intuitive visual model to assist top management to improve their competitive advantage.