Big Data– An industry transformation

By 2020, information will be used to reinvent, digitalize or eliminate 80% of business processes and products from a decade earlier. Gartners research published in Forbs

By 2017, more than 30% of enterprise access to broadly based big data will be via intermediary data broker services, serving context to business decisions. Gartners research published in Forbs 

47% of manufacturers expect big data analytics to have a major impact on company performance making it core to the future of digital factories. Based on SCM World research report 

49% expect advanced analytics to reduce operational costs and utilize assets efficiently. Based on SCM World research report 

1400,000 to 190,000 Analytical talent positions and 1.5 Million data-Savvy needed to take full advantage of big data in USA alone. Research by MGI and McKinsey

Over the last decade world has seen tremendous growth in the field of technology and an exponential growth in Internet users. It changed how businesses operate; organizations function and people live today across the world. It has been an era of technology revolution. A lot more information is floating around these days than ever before. Data have made its dependency into every industry and business functions and is now an important part of production, workforce and capital. All organizations, be it technology, outsourcing, service, manufacturing, NGO, social media, are sitting on a huge pile of information. This voluminous availability of data has given this world a new buzzword Big Data. It is a term used to describe the amount of structured, non-structured or semi structured data available for analysis and data mining. The data that has potential to transform the world we know today.

4 Vs that characterize Big Data:

Volume – The vast amounts of data generated every second

Velocity – The speed at which new data is generated and moves around (credit card fraud detection is a good example where millions of transactions are checked for unusual patterns in almost real time)

Variety – The increasingly different types of data (from financial data to social media feeds, from photos to sensor data, from video capture to voice recordings)

Veracity – The messiness of the data (facebook, twitter posts with hash tags, abbreviations, typos and colloquial speech)

According to the leading analyst in the Big Data market Jeff Kelly from open source research firm Wikibon, Big Data is currently a $5 billion business. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. By 2017, Wikibon predicts the Big Data market will top $50 billion. Research also shows that services industry will have larger share of Big Data revenue.

McKinsey Global Institute study shows how big data can generate significant financial value across sectors.

The concept of big data and driving results through data analytics is not something new to the sports. Many of us have enjoyed watching MoneyBall. A movie based on a book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game  Michael Lewis, published in 2003, about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane. In the movie Billy uses data analytics to transform financially distressed franchise that outsmarts most of the teams in the league with record breaking 20 consecutive wins. The strategy changed how baseball game is played today.

Several studies explain how big data will be the key driver for innovation, competition and productivity in future. Many organizations have already started maximizing its results using various data sources and analytics. For example:

• Security agencies are using various data sources such as phone calls, CCTV footage, and social media other citizen databases to track down criminals 

• Facebook or other social media uses web presence (IoT) to help search friends or connect you to the groups, jobs based on your search trends or activities 

• Politicians are using analytics and social media presence and interests to launch an effective campaign that can win elections 

• Driver less cars uses massive amount of data collected by its censors to drive safely in fact safer than a car with drivers 

• Healthcare providers are using analytics to monitor healthy habits of patients. It helps in identifying potential health risks of patient and treat them efficiently in very early stages of any decease 

• Health insurance companies are using extensive data analytics to launch targeted campaigns to educate its members and improve preventive care 

• Invest firms are using more and more data analytics to drive investment strategies and make financial decisions

There are several examples that show how big data is used not only to transform the way organizations operate but also affecting people’s live. Organizations around the globe are finding new ways and areas to use analytics as a core to drive its decisions. To compete and outsmart it rivals in the age of big data organizations will have to focus on developing three major areas Vision, Technology and Talent.

Vision: Organization must invest in developing strategies and road map to compete with big data projects. A targeted approach to establish what organization wants to achieve in coming future, how it will outsmart competitors and provide world class analytical services will be a key for success. Today when demand for services that can clean and provide structured data to meet the business needs is increasing, it will service industry to invest aggressively into analytics with a proper Vision

Technology: Any successful project needs right technology in place. Companies will need to invest in technology that can store massive amount of data. If 90% of the data has been created in last two years then imagine what the future will look like. What will be required to store the data and when we talk about data, it is not just storing but also compliance, security, accessibility, structure and cleaning becomes essential part. Effective data mining tools, applications and analytical platforms will be required to meet analyze and produce results as we keep growing with data.

Talent: More data simply does not necessarily mean more information. Someone has to analyze and make meaning out of this massive data pool. Many researches suggest that “One of the most lucrative jobs in next 10 years will be Statistician”. To survive and grow effectively in an increasingly data driven world companies’ demand will grow for the workforce that understands not only the technologies and applications but also has data mining and mathematical expertise. Per MGI research demand for deep analytical talent in the United States could be 50 to 60 percent greater than its projected supply by 2018. Universities and current education establishment might not be sufficient to meet the demand. Organizations will have to invest in developing targeted training programs to create and nurture in-house skill set.

With all the research, articles, success stories it is certain that the future is not going to be just getting answers from data but the results. The question is not how big data will change the business, but how business can drive maximum results using big data. With the right strategy and roadmap companies can improve their big data capabilities and take their organization to the next level.

-