Performance measurement to evaluate the implementation of big data analytics to SMEs using benchmarking and the balanced scorecard approach

Big Data Analytics is widely adopted by large companies whilst only 10% of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have adopted the technology, despite the benefits reported such as increased efficiency and profitability. SMEs are the backbone of the global economy, consisting of 90% of all businesses worldwide. In the UK, SMEs (0–250 employees) comprise 99% of all businesses and employ 61% of the country’s workforce. The barriers to SMEs adoption of Big Data Analytics reported in the literature include financial barriers, lack of top management support and the lack of business cases. There appear to be a lack of performance measures of the benefits that can be achieved from Big Data Analytics for SMEs to evaluate and ascertain its commercial value to them in relation to the IT investment. This paper suggests two techniques the Balanced Scorecard and Benchmarking to assist in determining quantifiable measures for SME in adopting Big Data Analytics. These measures are widely adopted by large companies (UK >250 employees), however this paper highlights how smaller companies (<250 employees and the majority are micro companies (1–10 employees)) can utilise them. These measures have been applied to two real world SMEs in the UK to illustrate how the Balanced Scorecard and benchmarking could be adopted for the purpose of setting targets and measuring performance of Big Data Analytics in conjunction with a software scoring tool. Use of these performance measures may also help to identify ‘hidden benefits’ which were not initially expected by adopting Big Data Analytics. Additionally, the performance measures outlined could be utilised to assess the adoption of other technologies by SMEs.