No matter what industry your business is in, there are challenges in the path of achieving business goals. The first priority in any business is obtaining the initial customers, and then growing the customer base though brand awareness and marketing. Understanding the competition, and where your business is differentiated is key. Data analytics is a valuable way to understand how customers view your product in the marketplace, and how customers view competitors. In today’s online world, obtaining this information is as easy as running analysis against public data sets, such as those found in Yelp, Amazon, Walmart, and social media channels.
In order to understand the importance of big data analytics, you will need to answer a few key questions first.
- Who uses big data analytics?
- What is big data analytics and its applications?
- What are the benefits of using big data analytics?
Who uses big data analytics?
More than 75 percent of companies are investing or planning to invest in big data in the next two years. Among companies that have invested in big data technology, 70 percent are analyzing or planning to analyze location data, and 64 percent are analyzing or planning to analyze free-form text. — Nick Heudecker, Research Director at Gartner .
Due to this statistic, we know that big data analytics is not a passing fad, but something that has changed the business landscape forever. With more than 3/4 businesses using big data analytics, the odds are your competitors are using this tool against you. If you do not use big data analytics, you are challenging your opponent to a dual with a blindfold on. The battle with your competitors is fierce. You cannot afford to let them take advantage of you.
Analytics is not only carried out by the study department or the IT department, but has a place at the heart of the organization.” Jo Coutuer, Partner at Deloitte
No greater truth about analytics has been said about analytics. Data can be found internally, externally, and in government reports. Data can be gathered to be used in customer experience, product management, social campaigns, and user analysis. Therefore, every manager can benefit from a data visualization tool.
What is Big Data Analytics?
Big data analytics is not asking the Google god questions with a stroke of a few keys. With an every-increasing amount of data, sometimes it is difficult to determine what is pertinent and relevant. Big data analytics is the means by which actionable insight is generated. Within the world of data analytics, you can do descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics.
Descriptive analytics the means by which the vast stores of data becomes comprehensible to the human mind. Through machine learning, this conversion takes place. This means that you do not have to literally read every input value to determine its meaning. Descriptive analytics has mostly been used for analyzing social media.
Predictive analytics is more fine tuned than descriptive analytics because it goes beyond describing what has happened. Unfortunately, predictive analytics is not a crystal ball that tells the future. It reveals what is probable. One example of predictive analytics is sentiment analysis.
Prescriptive analytics is a type of predictive analytics that requires actionable data and a feedback system. It goes beyond 1s because and 0s because its output allows the decision-maker to act upon its result.
With big data analytics, you can answer questions like “What do my customers value the most?, What do customers value the most about a competitor’s product offering? , How can I strengthen my unique selling position?” By using big data analytics, you will not longer sit in the dark. Big data analytics can used in the development of smart cities , hearing the voice of the customer , customer engagement , human resources , and many other things.
Benefits of Big Data Analytics
Tom Davenport, Visiting Professor of Harvard Business School interviewed more than 50 companies that were using big data analytics. His finding concluded that the benefits of big data analytics were:
1) cost reduction
Big data technologies can provide substantial cost advantages. In every company Davenport interviewed, big data technologies were implemented not to replace existing data architectures, but to augment them.
2) faster, better decision making
By utilizing big data in the decision-making process, analytics teams can make informed decisions in real time.
3) new products and services
By using big data, companies are better able to understand customer experience and their needs. By identifying unmet needs and solving issues in existing products and services, a company can gain market share , capitalize on the newest trends, diversify their streams of revenue.
Stratifyd Signals has capacity to do both analyze location data and analyze free-form text. Stratifyd Signals can also do interactive data visualization, sentiment analysis, social media analytics, and customer analytics. Are you ready to join the other 75 percent of companies investing in big data? Visit us on http://www.stratifyd.com/ for more information. If you would like request a demo, please email webcontact@stratifyd.com. We’d love to work with you.
Remember this:
More than 75 percent of companies are investing or planning to invest in big data in the next two years. Among companies that have invested in big data technology, 70 percent are analyzing or planning to analyze location data, and 64 percent are analyzing or planning to analyze free-form text. — Nick Heudecker, Research Director at Gartner
