According to statistical figures, 1.7 megabytes of data will be available per second for every person on Earth by 2020. Also, $57 billion is expected to invest in big data technology this year. With this much data available it is impossible to process it using primitive methods. Thus, the field and importance of Big data and Big data analytics is gaining popularity. Information is power, and in today’s world, big data can give you everything you need to gain power in any field you want. 

Big data with its full potential can benefit a brand or business to gain valuable insights into their customers. Thus, refine their marketing efforts to enhance engagement and increase conversions. Let’s discuss major advantages that organizations and enterprises can gain from implementing big data to analyze their huge amount of stored information.

However, before we go into discussing the benefits that Big Data can bring to industries. It is important for us to first dissect the world of big data and understand its make-up.

What Is Big Data?

While it may seem like a really vague term. It basically means exactly what the word suggests. Big data refers to large data sets. This data is so complex and detailed that it is impossible to process it using traditional methods. Therefore, it requires analysis through modern methodologies.
 
However, this isn’t something recent because the storage and accessing of large amounts of information for analysis have been around for an extended period of time. This may have gained traction and speed in the early 2000s when industries began to realize the potential such data held and the various sources through which we can collect data. This is what led to the definition of big data explanation through the three V’s:
1) Volume: organizations will end up collecting data from several sources, which can include everyday business transactions, smart devices, social media, or even industrial equipment.
 
2) Velocity: when you’re in the process of collecting data from multiple sources. You find yourself in data at extremely fast speeds which require the most optimum handling methods. Whether it is through tags or specialized sensors. The emphasis is on creating a system that can deal with these rapid feeds of data.
 
3) Variety: with such a plethora of data, you’re not going to find any particular kind and will instead get data in a bunch of different formats. Whether it is structured data, such as databases and numerics or unstructured text documents, videos, consumer data through polls, etc.
Big data, therefore, refers to data that is not only huge in size but is available at a fast pace and consists of a variety of data forms and information.

Importance Of Big Data

It’s important for us to also witness the many ways that big data has been incorporated into an organization. Also, the manner they’ve gone on to derive insights through it. Since it has changed the way the entire world interacts with and uses information.
 
Therefore, we will now go over how big data works and the various steps that businesses have to undertake:

Setting A Big Data Strategy

The first step obviously is to create a plan that outlines what the end goal is. Also, it helps organizations to oversee and improve the ways they can acquire, store, manage, share and use the collected data. In the process of developing a strategy, one step is to consider current business goals and the future of technology i.e. the impact it might have on company goals and initiatives.

Identifying Sources Of Data

With a strategy in place, the next step is to understand the sources of data i.e. what are the mediums through which the organization can collect and transmit data from. Usually, there are 4 main streams through which we can collect data:
 
1) Streaming data – anything and everything that comes through the Internet of Things (IoT) and any connected devices such as wearables, medical devices, and industrial equipment amongst others.
 
2) Social media – probably one of the most important sources due to the number of individuals that have access to it. This is the kind of data you can gather from platforms such as Facebook and Youtube. Also, will include huge amounts of data in the form of images, videos, text, etc. All of this data is crucial for marketing, sales, and support functions even though it might be unstructured or semi-structured for the most part which also makes it an interesting case for analysis.
 
3) Public data – any form of data that comes from open sources such as Government sites or nationalized/localized portals.
 
4) Other data – any kind of data that comes from cloud sources, suppliers, or customers.

Managing Data

Once you’ve gained access to the data. The next step is to manage it through modern computing systems and then analyzing it regularly. This analysis will focus on mere integration of the data and ensuring its quality, validity, and prepping it for analytics. This also entails the need for creating an online storage warehouse or system i.e. the cloud to make sure that the data is not just stored but also protected.

Analyzing The Data

Probably the most important part of it all. Through the usage of high-performance technologies like grid computing, an organization can begin to analyze the data. An added step might be to first and foremost determine which data is relevant before moving on to the analysis phase. This is to ensure that only the required data is under observation. Either way, the collected data goes through a process of analysis which is imperative to derive insights.

Making The Decision

With data that is not just well-managed but comes from trusted analytical sources, the decision-making process is easier. By incorporating such data, businesses have an edge to make decisions backed by evidence and not just based on mere instinct.

Benefits Of Big Data

Now that we’ve gained a solid understanding of the world of big data. It’s time for us to dive into the benefits that it could offer to organizations.

Better Customer Service

The consumer of this age is wiser, more knowledgeable, demanding, and powerful than ever before. To draw attention and earn your audience’s trust in this day and age. You need to connect with them in a revolutionary, engaging, and personal way.

Big Data Analytics

Using big data analytics, a business can better understand its customers. In addition to better products, it can foresee what its customers want and provide them with better services and products. Businesses can also use big data analytics tools to minimize customer complaints. These tools can automatically detect negative comments on social media. Thus helping you act quickly by staying well informed.

Better Marketing Campaigns

The marketing and advertising industry are now able to embrace big data after years of cautious practices and processes. Big data can help your marketing and advertising team in rendering a more detailed review. It includes tracking online activity, monitoring the point of sale transactions. Also, ensuring that complex shifts in consumer patterns are observed on the go. This involves the processing and evaluation of customer data to gain insights into customer behavior. It results in the ability to achieve tailored and focused campaigns sure to strongly improve your marketing game.

Risk Management

A risk management strategy is a crucial investment for any business in any sector. It is crucial to be able to see and mitigate a potential risk before it occurs if the company is to remain competitive. Big data analytics has made a significant contribution to the advancement of risk management methods to date. The tools available allow businesses to measure the risks they face every day and to model them easily. Big data analytics has great potential to improve the reliability of risk management models, taking into account the growing accessibility and diversity of statistics. A company can therefore develop better plans for risk mitigation and make strategic decisions.

 

Conclusion

Big data analytics help companies take advantage of their data and use it to find new opportunities. In turn, this results in smarter market progress, more productive operations, higher income, and satisfied customers. In the current age, you are unquestionably an enterprise with a large amount of data, so your next step must be incorporating big data analytics to make use of that.

At the end of the day, big data is your one-stop shop to anything and everything that can make or break your business – it is through the incorporation of big data that you can create business strategies that will help you to compete in today’s fast-paced industrial world.
 
Moreover, big data allows you to study not just your customers but also your competition in an attempt to better understand their strategies and create a process/flow that leaves you better aligned to compete with everyone else in your industry.
 
Big data is essentially the one thing that will drive the business world, help make vital decisions and establish the foundation for anything and everything to follow.
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