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Big Data. It’s a buzz word. It’s on everyone’s lips. But, what exactly is it? Well, as the name suggests it’s a larger volume of data; it’s the abundance of data that is now readily available to everyone, including businesses. According to Startup Nation, it’s “now available to businesses in an abundance that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago, and the scope of its potential usefulness continues to expand.” Big Data isn’t just big; it’s huge, and it’s hugely important to a modern businesses’ success. And leveraging its power can help your business save money.
Big Data And Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is essential for modern businesses; especially those businesses that have remote employees, traveling salespeople, or who rely on large collaboration projects. According to a study conducted by Microsoft in 2010, more than 66 percent of small-and-medium-sized businesses agree that cloud computing is critical to their success.
Cloud computing is a component of Big Data. It’s capable of storing more data on larger networks, and anyone who has permission can access it. It’s amazing because it improves collaboration efforts, helps manage your businesses’ growth, and allows for a secure back-up of all your businesses’ data. Just keep in mind, cloud computing isn’t perfect on its own. In order to effectively improve your business, you’ll need to pair it with a trustworthy data network, which can prevent any lost ROI from security gaps.
Big Data And The Bigger Picture
When it comes to your bottom line, there’s always going to be some degree of gains and losses. This is true of both customer-driven businesses, supply chain management businesses and investment businesses. When implemented, Big Data can be used to better understand your business by crunching information, and interpreting it, and then creating an actionable plan. The result is less losses because your business was better prepared and more informed.
According to the Wired article, Big Data Can Mean Big Money Big Losses, it can be used to “gain a more precise understanding of complex systems like stock markets and supply chains.” The article goes on to explain that investment banks were among the first businesses to adopt Big Data, and they used the technology to make informed investment decisions and get rich in the process.
Big Data And Customers
If your business is dependent on building new customer relationships or retaining the ones you have, you need Big Data. It can collect customer data, and be programmed to collect this information ethically and with the permissions of your customer base.
Once customer data is collected, Big Data can organize it beyond the old Excel spreadsheet used by sports analysts. It can be organized into customer management software too. And, it can be organized to highlight very specific information about your customers, their buying habits, and their personal information.
The benefit of having this knowledge is you’ll be better able to provide your customers with high-quality service, and it allows you to better understand their needs. Communication will be improved, and mistakes are less likely to occur. By knowing your customers’ wants and needs, you’ll be able to meet those needs sooner and with more expertise. The end result is more money for your business, which is gained through new relationships and the nurturing of existing customer relationships.
Big Data is essential to a modern businesses’ success, which is why business analytics is such a buzz word today. It’s something that isn’t going away, and will continue to grow in helpful, new ways. In truth, Big Data will go so big that next year we may be calling it Enormous Data!
Big Data And Elections
Big data analytics is a field that is growing to encompass all areas of business and society at large. Politics is no exception. Some countries, like the United States and many nations in Europe, have begun using big data analysis strategies for polling citizens. Text Mining techniques bridge the gap from unstructured data to organized clusters of data. Now, this tactic is being used to examine the general public’s sentiment to analyze trends and asses the impact of a political party’s position on public sentiment. Clearly, big data analytics has an incredible enormity of potential applications beyond ecommerce business.
Big Data Analysis Trends
One new trend in the big data analysis field is called big data lakes. What are big data lakes? Well, in order to understand, you need to have knowledge of what came prior. Originally, data sets were created before any data was entered however, the big data lake model turns that old fashioned method on its head. With this new big data trend, all the data is dumped into one location and users create the sets as they comb through. Unfortunately, that means that in order to access this information, you are going to need a lot of specialized skill. However, it has the benefit of being an incremental change that happens naturally as time progresses. If you want to stay on top of current big data trends, data lakes are a hot topic to keep an eye on.
Image from http://thesocialmba.com/2014/10/02/data-poverty-how-the-rise-of-big-data-risks-marginalizing-the-worlds-poorest/
