At all stages of the digital age, companies have been collecting data about their customers and users. It has always been. The analysis of user preferences allows not only to understand the logic of the buyer, but to predict possible needs in the future.
In the mid-2000s, trade and telecommunications companies collected information about calls, geographic location, and consumer movements using standard surveys. Modern corporations have much more opportunities. Using Internet technologies, a company can determine gender, age, geolocation, customer preferences in a real unit of time, that is, instantly. Most of the data is collected for consulting and solving business problems. Today big data consulting services are in great demand.
What does the term “big data” mean?
One of the largest data collection companies, SAS, describes the term as “the large amount of informational structured and arbitrary data that forms the information space.”
Public sources supplement the term with subjective characteristics: “The area of storage and generation of system data with arbitrary content, the volume of which is too large for processing and systematization by simple software.”
In the past decade, there have not been many well-known quality data processing applications. In most cases, the specialists used software products from Microsoft. The zero phase, from which the consolidated management of numerical data began, begins with the active use of Excel. The app brought the benefits of information analytics to midsize businesses and immediately gained popularity. Thanks to the simple interface and simple actions, it was possible to systematize prices, determine the repeatability of certain values, display general indicators and get a completely predictable information environment.
With the development of Internet commerce, the need for systematization and processing of information has increased significantly. The data structure has become much more complex, and the volume is an order of magnitude larger. Therefore, the application format simply could not conveniently arrange information with such a complex architecture. In addition, the new software allows you to collect visual data, audio recordings, multilevel digital values, which can only be qualitatively analyzed using modern platforms and software.
What are the benefits of big data?
Volumetric data allows you to better reveal the hidden opportunities of the business environment and coordinate the company’s resources in the right direction. Analysis and systematization of data helps to improve business efficiency in a competitive market.
Understanding the values of the target audience allows you to objectively build a system of product advantages and pricing policy. Online analysis of digital data provides a significant advantage: high speed and adjustment of quotations in huge product catalogs and the calculation of consumer preferences. As soon as you purchased a train ticket online and left data about yourself, the system records your capabilities, determines the relevance of financial data on the credit card and identifies you as a potential buyer of certain services and goods in the future.
Data analysis in the consulting segment
Many specialists of consulting agencies notice that it is not the volume of information that is important, but the content. To this truth, only the purpose of information can be added: it is important how the company uses the data and when. Volumetric and complex data is a very serious and significant tool for developing a strategy. Based on detailed information, it is possible to determine the peculiarities of the current situation and determine the main trends of the future.
High-quality data analytics is an ongoing process of monitoring and analysis using specific recommendations for successful business development. In most cases, even in the presence of big data, the client needs the advice of specialists in the analysis and systematization of information. Only in the right hands can voluminous data turn into a powerful tool for achieving business goals.
