Big Data is not just a fad, but a real underlying trend that is shaking up our economy and affecting all businesses; large accounts, but also freelancers, VSEs and SMEs. The real question is not so much whether to do Big Data or not, but rather
How to do Big Data in your company, for what purpose and with what technology. After having defined the concept of Big Data, the manager’s blog summarizes its usefulness for the company and gives you its prerequisites for implementing one or more Big Data technologies in your organization.
Reminder of the facts: What is Big Data?
Big Data has gained momentum as the web has entered our lives. Indeed, the term defines all the new technologies that make it possible to collect, store and analyze data that are a priori independent of each other, in order to come up with correlations or decision-making aid conclusions for companies. By “data”, we mean all the personal information that we sow on the Internet (social networks, connected objects, Web browsing, etc.), which serve the commercial and marketing departments of a company, but it is also its financial information and reporting data. specific to each service… In short, Big Data makes it possible to gather a set of data, analyze them and correlate them. Big Data is also possible thanks to new technologies, which optimize the collection and storage of an increasingly large volume of information. Finally, the new artificial intelligence algorithms have the ability to analyze in real time and in a refined way all the data they are asked to process.
Big Data in my Company: What for?
The challenge for companies is to use Big Data to improve the profitability of their services:
- Improve knowledge of customer behavior for the marketing department
- Anticipate purchasing behavior
- Personalize and automate communication campaigns for the sales department
- Anticipate recruitment and training needs, better manage the age pyramid of your company for the human resources department
- Optimize costs and deadlines
- Make strategic decisions based on trends and statistics from a large volume of data (which improves the possibility of results)
Also Read: 5 Keys That Make Big Data The Perfect Ally For The Retail Sector
How to do Big Data in my Company: Prerequisites
1. Identify the Objective
The real challenge is to identify for what purpose you want to integrate Big Data technology into your business. To do this, ask yourself:
- Which position or service should be optimised/profitable
- How should the position be optimized (saving time, automating a time-consuming task with low added value, lowering costs, better understanding of a problem, etc.)
- What variables influence the optimization of your position/department
- What data should be collected and correlated to obtain a relevant result / analysis
Note that Big Data is generally only effective if it takes into account variables from multiple sources. You will need to take into account data that is outside the scope of the position or department you are looking to optimize. For example, a better understanding of customer behavior (optimization of the marketing department) requires data from social networks, web browsing, data collected in store (use of the loyalty card by your customers, for example – sales department), their interactions with the call center (sales department), the amount and dates of their purchases (invoicing department), etc. An effective Big Data system will have to include a cross-functional organization of your company; your identified data sources must leave their usual base to match towards the same analysis system.
2. Identify the appropriate Computer System
Some software and Saas offer Big Data technologies , particularly in the field of marketing where many tools are available. The analysis platforms set up by Google are Big Data tools, for example. You can visit the Google-Trends website to view the most popular keywords and web queries in France and around the world. Google Analytics is also a Big Data tool used by anyone who manages a website and wants to track their popularity on the Web. For specific purposes, you will need to deploy your own computer system and approach an expert.
3. Found a Big Data Service or Position
Ideally, a Big Data manager will be able to manage the procedures to be put in place for the proper management of company data: establishing data platforms, simplifying the tools for collecting and transmitting information to the main system. This position is called the “Chief Data Officer (CDO)” ; essential for good fluidity in the transmission of data from services that are a priori independent of each other. Finally, a draconian IT security policy is essential and a user charter must be established for your entire team. Found a Big Data department or position. Thus, setting up efficient Big Data requires extensive upstream thinking, or even a reorganization of your services. According to a study by Capgemini Consulting, 74% of the companies surveyed that have implemented Big Data have not clearly defined the criteria allowing them to identify, qualify and choose their use case in terms of Big Data (study carried out out of 250 executives and business leaders). To get out of the game and not invest at a loss in Big Data technology, we can only advise you to be accompanied by experts in the field!
Also Read: Big Data Analytics: What Is It, And Why Is It So Important?