Big Data Services: Applicability and Benefits

In the past decade, big data has become a buzzword and a top choice for emerging technologies, business ventures and business leaders. Owing to huge popularity of big data, its market value is expected to reach an astounding figure of $103 billion by 2027.

A survey was conducted by Dresner Advisory services which revealed that around 36% businesses consider big data crucial for their business success while 29% considered it very important, 20% considered important and 12% considered it as somewhat important. Let’s briefly understand what is big data and what comes under its ambit.

In simplest terms, as its name implies, big data are huge chunks of structured or unstructured data that cannot be processed with legacy or conventional data processing softwares. According to IBM: Big Data has 4 dimensions (4V) i.e. Volume, Variety, Velocity and Veracity. Data is key for transforming any business and big data services help companies grow and maximize their potential, profits, and market value by providing meaningful data insights. Let’s have a closer look at big data services:

• Big Data Warehousing:

Big Data Warehousing is an industry neutral big data service. Big Data Warehouse helps companies to store data about business processes i.e. financial processes, resources and customers for analysis and fetching meaningful insights. For example, a Fintech company can store financial process related information while an Oil and Gas company can store equipment or logistics data. Big Data warehousing can play a key role in corporate performance analytics, cost and revenue analysis and most importantly in predicting and forecasting future business trends.

• Big Data Cloud Services:

Another very important big data service is a fully automated and managed cloud service. It provides companies an easy-on-pocket Hadoop-based big data services. Companies can conveniently create data lakes and process huge amounts of data in no time. Using a fully automated cloud-based service will not only cut down operational costs, but also save time and unnecessary hassle.

• Know Your Customer i.e. 360° view of Customer:

Customers are the most important asset of any business and in this data-driven world retaining customers is a tough nut to crack. As the world is advancing towards a digital revolution, customers are getting more and more exposed towards volumes of data, multiple options, and endless varieties. In such a situation, big data can power dashboards having complete 360° view of customers by gathering data from multiple internal and external channels and present a comprehensive report that can be instrumental for marketing, sales and business development teams.

• Price Monitoring and Optimization:

One thing that has been constant in business world from time immemorial is the issue of cutting down costs and maximizing profits. Luckily, big data can solve this issue for businesses by providing competitive tools for price monitoring and optimization. These products provide retailers with the freedom to implement pricing strategies by analyzing dynamic market conditions e.g. costs, business objectives or competitor analysis.

• Getting Value Out of Social Media Channels:

As of today, companies’ revenue and success depends largely on how they present their content or products on social media channels. Traditional sales and marketing strategies are no longer applicable in data driven digital world. Big data powered products can help companies to extract values from their social media presence. With the help of big data, companies can analyze what people are commenting about them on social media platforms and plan their strategies accordingly.

• Improved Security Intelligence:

Security is a core concern for any businesses. The threat for cyberattacks has increased manifold in a digitally driven world. Big data services enables businesses to beef up their security by providing them an aggregate analysis of data from external and internal sources. A simple example would be a big data powered security application that can suggest improvements for your existing IT infrastructure by analyzing in-house IT department operations and by analyzing external information provided by law enforcement agencies.

• Recommendation Engines:

We all have come across suggestions on Netflix, YouTube and other digital platforms that match our taste in music, movies, books, and so on. So, how do these websites know what might this one users out of billionth users intrigue? The magical force that lets these websites know is big data. With the help of big data powered applications, companies can analyze a customer’s preference and suggest or customize services accordingly. It doesn’t matter if the business is related to a song sharing platform, or a book reading digital application or a clothing store, using big data can help companies customize their services according to individual users.

Why Should Businesses Invest in Big Data Services?

The one liner answer would be: “A stitch in time saves nine”. A more detailed answered would be because it provides the necessary tools and platforms to help businesses embark on an upward profitable trajectory. Data creation, data storage and data maintenance are crucial for any business regardless of its scale or niche. When data is inevitable and its storage is not free, then isn’t it beneficial to invest in it and get something meaningful that can be fortuitous for success? According to IT Chronicles, companies create 2,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes of data and it will have a market value of $77bn by 2023 and it is just the beginning. So, it is the right time to invest time and resources at the right place.

Closing Thoughts:

In a nutshell, no one can deny the importance of big data in a digitally driven world. Big data is here to stay and businesses are now at the crossroads of a paradigm shift towards a data-driven culture. Despite the huge amount of data creation, only 26% of companies have achieved a data-driven or data-centric culture so far. The shift towards big data powered applications is inevitable and the companies or businesses will have to pay more cost for their blind eye towards big data now. Undoubtedly, moving towards something new is difficult but big data has enormous benefits in terms of sales, improved decision making, streamlined business processes, and maximized profits in longer run.

References:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/254266/global-big-data-market-forecast/

https://itchronicles.com/big-data/who-is-using-big-data-in-business

https://hdresner.gumroad.com/l/CkOEO