Big data: Source, Use and Potential
In the age of technology, data has become an asset for the organisations irrespective of its size. Since the data is generated in huge amount from several sources in various activities hence it is crucial for the companies to maintain a system that could manage such a huge amount of data sets. This data can be used within the organisation for various purposes and it acts as a facilitator in the making of effective strategies (Russom, 2011). Since the small business enterprise is having limited resources hence it is crucial for the organisations to ensure that they have an effective system for ‘Big Data Management’. This helps in grabbing the opportunities available in the market. Several issues arise in the management of ‘Big data’ for any SME. This research paper highlights the use of ‘Big Data’ solutions for the small business. It also presents the overview regarding the challenges faced by the organisation in the management of ‘Big Data’.
‘Big data’ is understood to be as the collection of huge amount of data. The source of this data is the number of activities that is performed within the organisation (Katal, Wazid and Goudar, 2013). Since most of the organisations are dependent on the Information Technology for processing their operations hence the data is also generated at every stage. This data needs to store as it will help in making the process aligned. The most basic use of this data is in the decision making as well as in process improvement. With the increasing use of technological equipment in business process has led to increase in the bulk of data generated (Chen, Chiang and Storey, 2012). The data collected from these sources has the potential to empower search engine results for the company as well as helps in making the marketing process according to the target market. These data have the potential to increase the sale of the products by helping in making strategies according to the target market.
‘Big Data’ management can be a stress for the company if they do not have an effective system for its management. There are certain issues for the small business. These are:
- Bulk: The amount in which this data is generated is in huge amount. Collection, management and taking out information can be difficult for the organisation who has limited resources.
- Variety: Data is available in many formats hence it is difficult for the small firms to manage these data. Sometimes the data is multidimensional hence segregation of these data variety can be a difficult job (Kaisler, Armour, Espinosa and Money, 2013).
- Velocity: Frequency of data generation coming from different sources varies over the period of time. Due to this uncertainty of data the effective utilisation of resources cannot be possible (Jagadish, Gehrke, Labrinidis, Papakonstantinou, Patel, Ramakrishnan and Shahabi, 2014).
- Value: Since the system for management of Big Data is of higher cost hence the amount of value it generates for the small organisation needs to be evaluated.
- Veracity: Inherent unpredictability of some data needs analysis of ‘Big data’ to achieve desired results. This is crucial for making of reliable predictions. It is a challenge to gain the useful information from the bulk of data.
- Privacy and security: In the last few years there is huge increase in the hacking activities which make the data management process more difficult. There is also an increase in the number of security issues related to ‘Big data’ management (Chen, Mao and Liu, 2014). This has been a matter of concern for small business as the security infrastructure available with them is poor.
Modern day business has diverged towards innovation which is possible without the key facilitators like ‘Big Data’. It has become crucial for the small organisation to change itself as per the future demands of the market. This needs prediction which must be based on the factual analysis of data over a long period of time. Companies today have to think about the consumer behaviour before launching of products in the market. There must be increased flexibility in the business process in order to adapt themselves according to the trends in the market. Since the larger firms have huge resources to understand and capture the market hence small business needs to find the blind spots so that their long term growth can be achieved (Minelli, Chambers and Dhiraj, 2012). It is also essential for removing the risks that is posing to the business of the SME. Big Data is crucial for the innovation as the R & D work is conducted around the demands of the market.
Issues for the company
The open source systems such as Hadoop are considered to one of the cost effective solution for small business processes. This also gives solution related to the management of transactional records in an accurate manner. They also require business solution related to the targeting strategy. This can be done by narrowing the segmented column.
Big data helps in managing the supply chain, product sensor data analysis, design to value, crowd sourcing etc. It also gives the opportunity to gain the after-sales data which is effective in understanding the products that are highly profitable while the ones that are not (Hu, Wen, Chua and Li, 2014).
- It helps in providing business intelligence which plays a crucial role in the decision making irrespective of the size of the organisation. The analytics helps in understanding the situation that is prevalent in the market and hence taking decisions accordingly at the same time discoveries new opportunities.
- Big data analytics tools works for combining the internal and external data for making the business decisions highly effective. With the help of tools like Clear Story easy and interactive visuals can be created.
- The tools like Kissmetrics helps in understanding the consumer’s behaviour which is further essential for engaging customers. This helps in designing of the marketing campaign that would help in achieving the success of the business (Wamba, Akter, Edwards, Chopin and Gnanzou 2015).
- Answering the specific question is very difficult especially when the data is huge. Big Data management enables the company to get exact actionable information. This is also crucial for the company as it helps in measuring the benefits that is available in the market. Apart from this in order to have a long term learning process implementing ‘Big data’ solution is highly crucial. These tools also give the evaluated outcome in a structured format (Fan, Han and Liu, 2014). It may be in any desired format or in the form of statistical representation of data.
- It is also possible for the small organisations to reduce time constraints. Prioritising data analytics and finding the right solution to assist small firm to handle influx of data will help in finding the time constraints. Along with this, Big Data solution like Hadoop is very costly but analyst will take more time digging through the different applications in order to gain useful data.
- ‘Big data’ is very complex in itself and the IT infrastructure is expanding hence the problems related to the management of resources widen. Since today most of the small business is connected with Internet of things hence the data generation capacity and the sources through which data gets is increasing at much faster rate. Data those are unstructured, fragmented or incomplete can also be evaluated with the help of Big Data tools. According to the small business authorities, major part of the data stored in these organisations was not accumulated in a secure data centres. Only few of them have migrated to cloud computing.
If the company does not have plans to hire personal analyst then SME can take help from the third party service provider which gives Big Data solutions. Along with this, training is necessary for the employees as it will ensure that employees can adapt the implementation of ‘Big data’ solution within the organisation. This will also help the firm in having utilising the resources in an effective manner. It will also enable the firm to check its security base which remains on stake due to improper use of devices and accidently they give access to the hackers (Gantz and Reinsel, 2012).
It will also help the organisation in arranging sources which would assist in gathering some of the valuable data trends. It also helps in financially outperforming the competitors by making well-defined data management strategy. Small business owners could help in fine tuning of the operations. At the same time it improves the efficiency of the ventures as most of the operations could run as per the plans made by the companies. It also helps the people to find out the market trends and hence they can be ready with plans to find market opportunities (Van, 2014). It will also help them in staying relevant in the current market. This is because lack of information could potentially reduce the possibility of growth in the converging market. It also enables the owners to have more informed decisions based on the complete analysis of the internal and external situation present in the industry.
‘Big data’ solution provides the company with a platform that enables them to compete with larger firms. This will help them in covering the space that is left untouched. All this cannot be possible without thoroughly analysing the market. Big Data Solutions plays an essential role in the management of resources. This is because effective utilisation of resources enables the small firms to use it for the longer time period (Provost and Fawcett, 2013).
In the coming years competition is going to be on the higher side. Success of the company will largely depends on the way in which the companies are going to utilise their Big Data. It is also crucial that a firm ensures its future IT needs in terms of managing the bulk of data that is going to be generated. With the expanding network, security and privacy challenges are going to increase as both internal and external sources pose threat to stored data (Vercellis, 2011). Since mass attacks are very common in the recent years hence small companies need to have a long term plan for data security management.
Conclusion
From the above research report it can be concluded that small business enterprises needs to use Big Data solution. This will help them in coming at the platform where they could compete with the bigger firms. Since today the data gets generated in huge quantity hence it has become essential for the small firms to have big data solutions so as to manage the information. This helps them in making decisions and also helps in grabbing opportunities that are available in the market. Big data solution enables them to take strategic decisions which further help them in gaining competitive advantage over the rivals. Big data solutions assist the firms in developing their business as per the consumer’s demand.
References
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Wamba, Samuel Fosso, Shahriar Akter, Andrew Edwards, Geoffrey Chopin, and Denis Gnanzou. 2015. “How ‘big data’can make big impact: Findings from a systematic review and a longitudinal case study.” International Journal of Production Economics 165: 234-246.
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