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How Big Data can streamline your business 

Big Data
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What Is Big Data?

Over the past decade, Big Data changed the way organizations gather, process, and analyze different types of information. The latter has become more customer-centric. It means that every single insight that was received with the help of data analytics can be most usefully used to build business strategy and streamline processes within organizations.

There are lots of Big Data definitions over the web. However, the main thing about this technology is that it is a powerful tool which is characteristic of volume, variety, and velocity, – 3Vs, as defined in TechTarget. It is a large volume of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data that can be used in different ways to improve business processes.

How Big Data Transforms Business Operations

Big Data can be characterized by a certain number of features. Below are the most important of these features:

  • Handling different types of data
  • Frequently changing and updating data
  • The ability to get the practical value of the data and monetize it into revenue
  • A clear picture of reports and strong analytics
  • The ability to improve productivity and to increase compatibility

The sources of Big Data include not only corporate databases and web, but also information from various devices, sensors, IoT devices, as well as data that is publicly available. For processing huge volumes of information, companies use various modern tools and technologies that are enabled by artificial intelligence, mathematical and statistical analyses, crowdsourcing, predictive analytics, simulation modeling, and others. Often, Big Data technology is used to extract information that is still unknown, but necessary for the company. Let’s take a closer look at how it can transform your business:

  1. Establishing a data-centric model of business

If your company generates a great volume of data, you should be constantly looking into new ways to take advantage of this data. The data-centric model of business implies that data is the main asset. Data is put into the center of any organizations and is used to produce valuable insights.

A lot of companies think that if they produce many reports, they are data-centric. However, if your reports are even well-structured and convey important data, they are mainly retrospective. Most reports inform us about the events that have already passed. A good report will tell you that over the past week your company observed a significant decrease in sales. However, it won’t tell you why that happened.

Rarely you can read a report giving clear guidance on what can be done to improve the current situation. Thus, you should remember, that a data-centric organization must be focused on predictive analytics answering these three questions: why? who? and what to do? The reports in data-centric companies must provide recommendations on what steps to take further to solve the problems faced by the company today.

  1. Transforming business operations

Organizations that use Big Data analytics obtain many capabilities to streamline their revenue, improve customer satisfaction, provide better services, and produce high-quality products. To change business operations effectively, you should take the following steps:

  • Prepare a strategy that will identify the key opportunities Big Data can provide
  • Facilitate innovation
  • Understand how to use new knowledge and skills
  • Learn how to manage Big Data
  • Explore the ways to obtain valuable insights
  1. Managing enterprise data effectively

To transform the way enterprise data is stored and processed, companies start using special platforms like ERP (enterprise resource planning) or EIM (enterprise information management). Such systems can help you transform your business operations, increase efficiency, collaboration efforts, etc. Before implementing enterprise-grade systems, consider your initial requirements, challenges your employees face.

One more thing to take into consideration before implementing EIM or ERP is the choice between an out-of-the-box solution and a custom-built system. The latter is more preferable if you have specific requirements and unique processes across the organization.

With a good information system in place, you’ll be able to leverage AI-fueled technology and automate manual work. You will also get the capability to monitor data from multiple sources and use that data more effectively.

  1. Making data-driven decisions

The main objective of a data-driven approach to operational processes is to organize the information in such a way that it could better serve your customers. To reinvent your decision-making processes, you should consider the following questions:

  • How to use analytics in business processes more effectively?
  • Which processes can be streamlined by real-time data analytics?
  • Can your back-end system get benefits from using Big Data?

Analytics allows incorporating analysis into important decisions across the company, including marketing, sales, supply chain, customer service, customer experience, and other functions.

  1. Using strategic analytics

Big Data analytics allows determining customer behavior and marketing trends, for instance. It will help you also identify your weaknesses and strengths and use this data to change the way you run business. Simply put, strategic analytics is a research that is aimed at identifying the data that is relevant to the business strategy.

As you can see, Big Data offers a bunch of opportunities to the business. By implementing new technologies into your operational processes, you can easily get a competitive advantage over similar companies in the market.

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Contributors

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