How to Make the Most of Big Data Analytics in Your Business

Big data is no longer a term that business owners are unaware of. In fact, most business leaders now know that insights derived from big data analytics are critical to the growth of an organization. 

A fairly recent NewVantage Partners study reported that 85% of companies are investing or planning to invest in big data. This isn’t surprising at all. Big data is the need of the hour. 

From retail and healthcare to banking and manufacturing to eCommerce – big data has swept major industries by storm. With an increase in the number of competitors and ever-demanding customers, it has become important for businesses to fasten the demand-supply cycle using data from various sources. 

Analyzing data is important for business growth 

The primary goal that most organizations aim to achieve through big data analytics is to enhance the customer experience. Besides this, they also seek to reduce costs, smooth inventory management, boost sales and marketing initiatives, and improve cash flow. Basically – all elements key to business success. 

Techniques employed to analyze data include machine learning, predictive analytics, text analytics, data mining, statistics and more. These methods help businesses study untapped data sources to gain insights for faster decision-making processes. 

Impact of big data on the business landscape 

In India, the big data analytics sector is expected to near USD 16 billion by 2025. The volume of data in a market like India provides enormous opportunity to businesses for growth. No wonder traditional business models are now rapidly switching to digitally enabled ones. 

Here’s how big data is impacting the business landscape in general: 

1) Optimizes operations processes 

Did you know 2.7 Zetabytes of data exist in the digital universe as of today? This means most organizations are sitting on heaps of transactional data. By analyzing this material, they can run controlled analyses to identify the loopholes in processes. Once the faults are fixed, the operations side of the business become smoother and this helps the business to grow at a faster rate. 

2) Ensures faster decision-making 

A recent Forbes article mentioned that the business decision-making process is slowing down. That’s because 43% of organizations find it difficult to identify appropriate data required to make decisions. This issue can be resolved with big data analytics. 

The tools used for conducting analysis allow users to work with data without indulging much in complicated technical steps. This not only saves time but also enables organizations to make better and faster decisions. 

3) Enables personalization 

With big data analytics, organizations can ensure a higher degree of personalized engagement with an influential target audience. Big data offers a roadmap on the kinds of marketing messages that can be conveyed to prospective consumers to nurture them.  And targeted big data analytics promotes strong customer acquisition in any company. 

4) Improves the quality of services 

Did you know that poor data can cost businesses 20-30% of their operational revenue? That hampers the ability of businesses to provide quality services. Through analytics, they can study all of the data instead of just sample subsets, apply more sophisticated intelligence to improve services, and generally perform better on the whole. 

Over to you – use big data efficiently 

The question isn’t whether or not your business has employed big data analytics. It is: How well are you leveraging big data technology for growth?  

In order to make sure big data is working for you, you need to:

• Outline the goals you wish to achieve through data analytics.
• Choose a software that is not only economical but also gets the work done.
• Protect your data and analyses from cyberthreats and malware.
• Perform regular audit regulations. Be clear about the data source you want to capture most of your information from.
• And don’t forget to keep up with the latest big data management trends. 

At the current moment, less than 0.5% of all data is ever analyzed and used. Just imagine the potential...