5 Points on How Big Data Is Transforming Business
DocuSign, based in San Francisco, serves a growing market of individuals and businesses around the world that rely on its sophisticated e-signature and digital document management systems to sign approximately 1 million documents every day. The company, in operation since 2003, is one of the leaders in its field as well as in the global market for digital services in general.
DocuSign’s cloud-based systems and services offer clients a secure environment in which to create, share, review, and maintain all documents included in a transaction. Its security and authentication protocols meet or exceed all relevant national and international standards. Clients capturing e-signatures through DocuSign can feel confident that these signatures meet the criteria for legal enforceability and that their documents can be available at any time to all parties in a transaction, subject to the document owner’s specifications for access.
To assist companies worldwide as they adapt to the digital data revolution, DocuSign provides its corporate clients with emerging tools that streamline and upgrade the quality of their operations.
A number of experienced observers say they believe big data is poised to impact the way everyone does business in every market segment, from major international corporations to local family-owned companies.
Here are a few points to facilitate a basic understanding of the concept of big data and its applications in the business world:
1. Big data is exponentially different from simple collections of information that examine a single type of information.
Big data draws from a far larger pool of information. It even includes unstructured data (i.e., information shared across social media platforms and in online videos) among its sources. Other sources include data generated by customer relationship management platforms, broad industry intelligence, and individual buying records.
Powerful analytics can be used in combination with big data to assemble and sort the information, and businesses can learn from the wealth of insight gleaned.
2. Many corporate leaders who had previously assumed they would have little use for big data are now hastening to integrate it into their companies.
Even the smallest new start-up with the most basic website will be able to collect information about its customers and their preferences, as well as the entire user experience. In practice, this signifies that every company that hopes to stay competitive will need to establish a solid plan for the use, retention, and protection of big data. This is also why a number of larger companies are working to sell big data and analytics to smaller corporate customers.
3. Most companies already possess extensive information on their customers, and big data and analytics offer the ability to make better use of it in order to obtain improved market intelligence and to upgrade operations.
Experts further say that, as time goes on, companies will acquire more and more useful information that can assist them in better understanding and serving their customers. This data can range from simple purchase histories to detailed information about driving, working, and leisure preferences.
A number of devices and systems in common use today, such as airplane and automobile sensors as well as consumer items and packaging tagged with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, gather enormous amounts of raw data. Physicians already use data-driven health care apps to assist in diagnosis and treatment.
4. Companies will continually improve their operational performance by utilizing the insights big data has to offer.
The proliferation of massive amounts of fine-grained big data, used in conjunction with direct computer-to-computer communication, helps companies level up to access increasingly sophisticated analytics. This new information universe now drives what many experts call “the Fourth Industrial Revolution” (see, for example, World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab’s 2016 book of that name).
This new industrial shift focuses on innovations such as “smart” cities, factories, and buildings, working in an interconnected web to provide maximum efficiency and benefits. It also involves the use of the computing and problem-solving power of artificial intelligence.
5. The usefulness of big data is enhanced by mobile communications technologies.
The immediacy of mobile communications, combined with digital document management, means that companies like DocuSign can harness this capacity to deliver real-time, instantaneous access to shared documents, regardless of the parties’ time zones or distance from one another.
Mobility is set to accelerate the usefulness of big data for both consumers and companies by rendering any piece of intelligence actionable in the moment. In addition, the growing worldwide mobile network establishes a system in which new information input by users in the field continually augments the sum total of available data.
This capacity puts decision-making authority squarely in the hands of customers and challenges businesses to meet their growing expectations regarding speed of delivery, operational transparency, and overall customer experience. Immediate customer feedback becomes an essential component in shaping companies’ day-to-day practices and larger corporate visions.
