In today’s global business world, it’s essential for small companies to be technologically savvy and up-to-date on the newest trends in order to remain relevant and stay competitive. Data analysis has become an increasingly powerful tool that helps CEOs and top executives make key decisions and offer more educated predictions about their company’s future. Data can allow these leaders to adjust marketing strategies, control inventories, establish target markets and boost sales.
Small businesses have a wealth of information in their hands including Google Analytics, Facebook Insights and sales receipts. The term “big data” is popular among businesses, used to describe the availability and exponential growth of data, both unstructured and structured.
According to the results of a new Harris Interactive study, big data was shown to have a wide range of definitions including:
- The requirements to archive and store data for the purposes of regulatory compliance
- The emergence of new and improved data sources, including mobile devices, social media and machine-generated devices
- Challenges associated with big data
- The significant growth and development of transaction data
The same survey suggests the top competitive advantages gained by using big data include:
- Increasing sales (54 percent)
- Retaining and attracting customers (46 percent)
- Reducing IT costs (50 percent)
- Improving efficiency of internal business operations (59 percent)
- Becoming more flexible and agile (48 percent)
Most importantly, 76 percent of small business owners say Big Data is an enormous opportunity for their executives and employees. Over 70 percent believe that a return on investment occurs within 12 months. Data brokers like DataLogix, Kaggle and Acxiom can offer businesses valuable data analysis that shares informative insight into a company’s current activities.
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