The Big Deal about Big Data
It has become increasingly apparent that the hot new commodity in business is big data. As technology continues to affect every aspect of our lives, from buying trends to travel habits, companies who are able to collect, organize, and analyze this data are rising to the top.
Some consumers may not like it, but there’s a humongous pile of data collected from every click of a mouse or tap of a touchscreen. It seems impossible to end a web session without some sort of digital footprint.
And like Sherlock Holmes with a magnifying glass, companies are using business intelligence tools to examine every curve of that footprint. They can identify the character, profile their habits, and predict where they’re headed in terms of buying habits.
It is both amazing and slightly unnerving.
Yet, companies not making use of these tools are being left behind.
According to a report by Capgemini, 36 percent of senior executives from organizations across the globe have said that, “due to the strategic importance of big data, they have had to circumvent IT teams to carry out the necessary data analytics required to gain business insights,” while 64 percent indicated that “big data is changing traditional business boundaries and enabling new providers to move into their industry.”
Therefore, it isn’t a question of should you invest in data, but how do you manage it once you’ve got it.
While some companies prefer to hire firms to analyze their information for them, others prefer to take matters into their own hands by using easily accessible business intelligence platforms.
For example, as part of their new Office 2016 suite, Microsoft now offers a self-service, interactive, and cloud-based business analytics tool called Power BI.
Using Excel, companies can import, transform, and analyze their data, then share it all easily through an online dashboard.
To make data analyzation even more efficient, coworkers and business partners can create and co-author reports, and visualize statistics through a display of data tiles.
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