Analytics and big data are top strategic priorities for many CIOs, and rightfully so. Most organizations are sitting on a goldmine of data, but they have not begun to mine it to uncover the real transformative value. Unfortunately, many IT leaders remain on the sidelines because they think investing in analytics would be too costly. But analytics do not have to be expensive. Technology and service vendors tend to think that if you need best in class analytics, you have to pay millions of dollars and wait years for its value to materialize. That is not necessarily the case.