Today’s businesses, both small and large, operate in a digital ecosystem that generates a huge amount of data. Managing and analyzing this data can be overwhelming, but the companies that invest in the right technologies to do so can realize huge benefits.
In fact, according to this infographic from FinancesOnline, businesses that leverage big data can drive profitability by as much as 8 to 10 percent.
In this blog we’re going to take a look at what big data actually is, why it’s important to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), how small businesses can use big data to drive business growth and why having the right technology is crucial.
What is big data?
Big data is a term that refers to data that is too large in volume, too fast and too complex for traditional data processing methods to analyze. It’s defined by three “Vs”:
- Volume: Today’s organizations now collect a huge amount of data from a variety of sources, such as business transactions, social media, videos and much more.
- Velocity: As internet use grows, companies receive more data at once. This requires more processing capacity to analyze a large amount of fast-moving data in real-time.
- Variety: Data now comes in all types of formats. It could be numerical data, text documents, emails, videos, audio, financial transactions and many other mediums.
To analyze big data, companies must have modern IT infrastructures and innovative technologies that can store, manage and analyze a large amount of fast-moving data from various sources.
The benefits of doing so are great. Big data can be used by businesses to;
- improve the customer experience;
- develop new products and services;
- quickly resolve issues;
- improve operational efficiencies;
- drive innovations;
- learn about patterns and expectations that drive profit growth;
- and many other activities that promote business growth.
How to use big data to drive small business profits
It’s important to know that big data is not too big for small businesses. In fact, big data is a fantastic way for small and medium-sized businesses to learn patterns, market trends, customer preferences and other meaningful insights that drive their growth strategy.
Here are just a few ways in which small businesses can use big data to make smarter decisions and increase their profitability.
#1 - Identify new industry trends
No matter what product or service you are offering, eventually you are going to need to make changes to your strategy to ensure your customers keep buying from your brand rather than a competitor. Big data helps your organization monitor the behaviours and patterns of your customers, giving you the opportunity to take a stab at predicting where things are heading in the future and how you can keep up with those changing customer expectations.
#2 - Build a better customer experience
Did you know that in today’s marketplace 76 percent of customers expect companies to understand their needs? You can do just that through big data. By analyzing what your customers want - such as how they prefer to shop, what they want to buy, what they’ll buy next and why they choose your brand - you can build a customer experience that drives new sales and increases customer loyalty.
#3 - Improve internal operations
Big data can be used to optimize your company’s internal business processes and day-to-day operations. Any internal processes you use that generate data, you can use big data to make improvements to how you operate and generate new efficiencies. This will save your organization both time and money.
Is your SMEs IT infrastructure set up to handle big data?
While big data is highly-valuable, the amount of data that small and medium-sized companies deal with on a daily basis has exploded in recent years. To use big data effectively, these organizations must reevaluate their technologies and IT infrastructure.
According to a new study, as published by Small Business Trends, 67 percent of small businesses are spending more than $10k a year on analytics, with 100 percent of respondents claiming that they use some form of data analytics solution.
Without evaluating and improving how your business handles modern data, this huge increase in information will likely begin to put significant pressure on your IT infrastructure and current technology.
To ensure you manage your data effectively, as well as have the necessary tools to analyze big data and drive business growth and progress, it’s crucial that you assess how your current systems are working.
To help you do just that, OT Group is able to assess your current technologies and advise you on how you can better manage and analyze big data moving forward. Want to learn more? Contact our team of IT experts today.
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