Research Director Alys Woodward has three coverage areas at IDC: Worldwide Advanced and Predictive Analytics (APA), European Big Data and Business Analytics, and European Enterprise Collaboration and Social Solutions. Ms Woodward is also a co-lead of the Big Data and Social Practice, which reaches across IDC's European software, services, hardware, and devices research and involves facilitating collaboration between analysts in all these areas under the themes of Big Data, social business, and the intersection of the two.

Past consulting projects while at IDC include evaluation of business processes and monetization options for a provider of spatial data, survey research into the ROI and TCO of business intelligence platforms, competitive evaluation of business analytics services providers, and strategic advice for a provider of telco marketing and analytics solutions.

Ms Woodward is a dynamic and experienced public speaker and has hosted events and delivered keynotes across a wide range of topics including "Five Ways to Ensure BI Success," "The Business Value of Information," and "How to Get Started With Big Data," with engagements in cities such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen, London, Moscow, Oslo, and Tel Aviv. 

Ms Woodward has worked in the business analytics space since 1995, and became an industry analyst in 2003. She gained a BSc honors degree in physics from the University of Manchester, in the U.K., and holds the Chartered Institute of Marketing postgraduate diploma.