BIG DATA
How Are You Managing
Big Data For Your
Company?
By Janet Sudi
I
n your neck of the woods, you have
since restructured. Andy, the clients
most favored client service personnel
and his team have since left. They equally
did not part you with favorable terms
hence there is no collegiality to attempt
to call them.
No one has ownership of the previous
client’s files. You revisit data in your
shared, public information files, but
no client work has been saved up. You
probe further and all you find scattered
bits and pieces of the client’s work that
do not seamlessly add up to anything
worth presenting. Is this reflective of your
company? Then worth rethinking your
data management processes.
Growth of digital over the last decade has
not only wiped out the companies that
operate with manual systems, but it has
also brought to the fore the key element
of data management. As a company
grows, so does the data and this needs
to be reliable, accessible, and timely for
its users. It is increasingly becoming an
unavoidable expense.
Organizations are not only grappling with
the ever-increasing storage costs of their
proliferating data, but also data security
and education. Investing in data security
and education is equally as important as
having the data management software in
the first place.
If you are still working with manual
systems in your organization, it is time
you thought of digitizing your business
to manage big data. As you digitize,
you must take time to research on data
management tools. As you take this
journey, have the following in mind:
40 MAL31/19 ISSUE
Set clear data goals
It is imperative to have clear goals on
the intended usage of the data. This will
guide your company on the type of data
management system to use.
Invest in proper software
Invest in software that will save your IT
team the headache of having to review
data every 6-12 months. This will lessen
their time on the mundane renewal tasks
and have them focus on the company’s IT
responsibilities.
Invest in education
Conduct public awareness campaigns
aimed at educating the public on how
you want them to engage with your data.
Perhaps you prefer your website to be
the gateway for placing orders, but your
customers prefer to call instead? Offer
incentives to attract them to stick to your
preferred processes. In the long run, your
interest is to get as much data as you can,
to map your target market better. In this
day and age of fickle consumers with
overwhelming choices at their disposal,
failing to understand your target is a
wild goose chase. If it means offering
incentives to have them place their orders
through your website and not calling, do
it to fillip and out-turn your bottom-line.
Secure your data
On a panel discussion during the Social
Media Week in June, Emmanuel Mutuma,
the CEO of Brighter Monday who was
part of a panel discussing e-commerce,
said: ‘To manage scammers, Brighter
Monday embraces the government
systems in tightening security. For
example, we request the job advertisers to
upload PIN Certificates.’ This, he says, has
gone a long way in discouraging quacks
who swindle money from desperate
Kenyans looking for jobs in earnest and
desperation.
E-commerce
Currently, 2% of Kenyans transact on
e-commerce platforms. This is set to
change, the future is e-commerce and it
has begun on electronics. Most Kenyans
would review electronics online and once
they understand its main features they
order for it, thus saving valuable time,
scouting in malls.
Weak infrastructure that contributes to
traffic jam is seemingly a win to on-demand
businesses like Jumia. Most customers
prefer arriving home with their order at
their doorstep, as opposed to waiting for
an à la carte order in a restaurant. Most
customers are constrained with time.
They cannot afford sitting and waiting.
To survive and keep up with the hustle
of our cash strapped economy, they need
to order their food while driving their
evening hustles. E-commerce is the way,
thus find ways of using its data to better
your business.
Janet is a Communications
Consultant and Lead Brand
Strategist at LCC Africa, a boutique
PR firm that offers 360 degrees
Communications Services. You can
commune with her via mail on
[email protected].