We’re surrounded by data. Because it’s so readily available and pretty straightforward to collect, most companies make use of it. The concept of Big Data is relatively broad. In fact, Big Data is so versatile; it can improve virtually any area of your business.
Whether you’re in healthcare, transportation, sports, research, manufacturing, security, or finance, Big Data comes in handy. These main areas can then be divided into smaller sectors, and within each of these, Big Data can be utilised for practically any task. It’s getting increasingly popular, too, with its growth constantly accelerating.
Source: https://www.statista.com/topics/1464/big-data/
Four V’s of Big Data
The concept of Big Data can be straightforwardly explained with its four V’s. These are the main characteristics:
Volume – the scale of the data you have.
Variety – types of data. The data you gathered may have come in different forms, such as text, video, images, spreadsheets, etc.
Velocity – the speed at which you can process and analyse the data.
Veracity – the quality and availability of the data.
Why is Big Data beneficial?
Big Data can be used for virtually any business. Its broad spectrum of application is pretty apparent as more and more companies choose to use it to their advantage. Here are some of the benefits it brings.
Better customer targeting
Gathering customer data and analysing it lets you make better judgements in terms of promoting your product to them. It becomes much easier to target the right audience, as the insights provided with Big Data analytics are entirely data-driven. Things like customer behaviour, their issues, dreams, demographics, and many more aspects become your primary marketing weapon with Big Data analytics.
All of the big corporations use this strategy – stores can predict which products will sell, enterprises can post content that corresponds with their audience better, and provide appropriate advertisements that are tailored exactly for a specific type of customer. These are just a few ways to utilise Big Data with customer strategies; there are many more.
Quick adaptation
By analysing large data sets, you can see the market changes for yourself and draw lots of conclusions. You can then use them to adapt to any new needs or requirements of the clients that can pop up. A good example would be the pandemic and the sudden need for quick changes in businesses. With Big Data, you get to be on top of any new trends almost instantly.
Optimised business operations
The gathered data can help you with streamlining your internal processes. Because you can analyse the productivity, actions, and routes you take when creating a solution, it’s possible to find the right workflow. It becomes clear what works and what doesn’t. The decision-making process is also sped up and more on-point.
How to use it to your advantage?
Undoubtedly, there are lots of benefits of using Big Data in your business. Harnessing its power is not an easy thing and requires specific knowledge of the topic. Setting up the architecture itself takes time and skill, and the data analysis calls for expert data scientists.
Know your way around the architecture
If you want to keep your analysis efficient, you or your employees need to have an excellent understanding of the particular system you’re using. The architecture has a lot of elements that need to be in sync with one another. Storing such enormous amounts of information require efficient servers. On top of that, the data needs to be analysed somehow—again, you need specific tools, as manual analysis of that much material is hopeless. Lastly, you need to know how to put the data to use. One needs a lot of expertise on a particular topic to be able to draw informed conclusions.
Using Agile methodology is also helpful, as lots of industries are very fluid and can prove to need frequent adjustments. You need to be flexible, and again, without knowing the architecture from cover to cover this becomes impossible or extremely difficult. For this reason, the usage of real-time data lets you be on top of things at all times if any adjustments need to be made.
The system you’re using should be compatible with all platforms, as the data you’ll be getting comes from a lot of different devices and systems.
Pinpoint the essential challenges
Every industry has its own set of fundamental challenges that need solutions. These are the ones that you should primarily focus on, so as not to waste any resources on trivial matters. As was said before, the benefits are countless, but you have to work on the right things. Make sure to only apply Big Data to the things that it can solve.
Focus on interpretation
The management process should be seamless, as it’s the interpretation and conclusions you’re after. These are the things that ultimately lead to growth and development of business. If your internal administration processes for storing, accessing, and moving the data aren’t streamlined, you’re going to waste a lot of precious resources. It’s much better to set up a working system and be done with it to focus on the more important issue of interpretation.
Finding a way of utilising the available tools as efficiently as possible is key here. That’s why you need a team of qualified professionals. The software is evolving as well, so your specialists need to be alert if any new features get introduced.
Wrap-up
Big Data is surely something that proves to be invaluable time and time again. A significant part of contemporary businesses uses it to their advantage. Because the whole process provides data-driven solutions for virtually any issue, it may seem like the perfect thing. Still, it requires a lot of resources and people to manage. There’s a shortage of skilled data scientists, and a lot of Big Data services are outsourced. It also poses its own challenges and problems such as privacy issues, integrating the data, and storing the ever-increasing amount of information. These are only some of the major Big Data challenges that 2021 brings.