INNOVATION
Is Your Big Data Telling Your Brand Story ?
By Joe Nyutu
John Wanamaker ( the founder of the eponymous department store ) as early as 1919 was quoted , “ I know that half of my advertising doesn ’ t work . The problem is I don ’ t know which half .”
This quote suggests a basic truth about many businesses globally including Kenya that although these businesses collect terabytes of information about customers , employees , and their enterprise , it is a common complaint that leaders cannot access their information fast enough , and even when it is accessed it does not give leaders what they need to know . It is hoped that Big Data ( business analytics ) will allow companies to understand better what consumers are thinking .
Business Data Analytics is a discipline with both positive and negative potential . Data is defined not just by the amount of information involved but also its variety and complexity , as well as the speed with which it must be analyzed or delivered . Business analytics is an umbrella term for data analysis techniques that are predictive - that is , they can tell you what ’ s going to happen in the future - and prescriptive - that is , they can tell you what you should be doing to create better outcomes .
The amount of data being produced in organizations today is already incredibly great , and current developments suggest that this rate will only increase in the near future . Improved service should result as companies better understand their customers , but it is also possible that this data will create privacy problems .
The headline for a recent article in Forbes magazine reads , “ What ’ s the next big thing in big data ?” then answers by saying , “ Bigger data .” The author goes on to write that this is still the early days for Big Data . In 2013 only five percent of the potential digital data was analyzed , even though 22 % of digital information is a candidate for analysis . Several different consulting firms concur with some variation of the label that , “ Big Data : The Next Frontier for Innovation , Competition , and Productivity . “
“ Business analytics is an umbrella term for data analysis techniques that are predictive - that is , they can tell you what ’ s going to happen in the future - and prescriptive - that is , they can tell you what you should be doing to create better outcomes .“
Business analytics equally known as Big Data involves velocity and speed , to be willing and ready to fail first , learn fast , fix fast as the management guru Tom Peters says . Additionally , it means a revolution starts with language , spontaneous recklessness , ( Yes I said recklessness because you remember the dirt is good Omo ad - we learn by making the so called mistakes ), rebellion against tradition , and randomness which is a great way to run data in an organization and always remembering that emotions leads to action .
I now invite your considered indulgence as we explore some of the global reasons for business analytics because your business will gain .
Visualization is a commodity
Data visualization is everywhere and in everything , and a recent report projects that the market for visualization tools will expand from Ksh . 800.85 billion last year to Ksh . 1.92 trillion by 2027 on a global scale . Visualization is no longer reserved only for analysts . It is now used by the data-aware employee helping to drive their organizations forward .
Experts reported on this trend , noting a manufacturer that had been trying , to no avail , to improve operational performance through a metric-gathering application , until they chose to augment the app with an embedded analytics dashboard . Their advice to companies wanting to follow suit by offering more visualization capabilities was to focus on the problems they ’ re trying to solve and then start simple , choosing a relatively easy-to-achieve objective .
Business users drive the need for on-demand data availability
A popular saying among sales leaders and sales teams is : “ Time kills all deals .” With a slight variation , the saying is applicable to the business : “ Time kills all opportunities .” If it takes four months to get data to support a decision , then the opportunity is lost . For the business to drive critical outcomes and opportunities quickly , data needs to be available quickly . It means reconsidering long-standing norms of long jobs , complex data migrations and slow manual data preparation .
It also means that the wall between the business and the data needs to
10
MAL 45 / 21 ISSUE