Putting the power of big data into the hands of small businesses can help them to achieve improved results in sales and marketing and in providing the products their customers want most. A number of factors have come together to allow the democratization of big data analytics and to provide a practical option for small business owners and administrators in managing their enterprises more effectively.
One of the most important elements in the new big data paradigm is the increasing availability of cloud storage and applications for smaller business operations. Cloud computing systems allow remote storage of and access to corporate data through secure login technologies. In general practice, the cloud allows staff members to perform work and access data at any time and from anywhere with a secured Internet connection. This can boost productivity and increase profits in companies of all sizes. In the context of big data, however, cloud systems can allow truly scalable data storage for large projects and everyday needs. This can make big data analytics an affordable possibility for many smaller firms without the resources to maintain on-site server space for these analysis tasks.
Advanced Services by Hosting Providers
As big data becomes a greater factor in business planning and operational decision-making, hosting Service Providers are offering a greater range of services to the small business community. These newer services include the following:
The increased availability of these cloud services has made it possible for small businesses to derive their own analytics from big data and has provided added accessibility for companies of all sizes.
Implementing Big Data in Small Business
In the business arena, big data comprises a wide range of different data sets. For example, a small business that does both online and in-store sales may have large sets of data for foot traffic and sales in their brick-and-mortar locations and equally large data sets regarding virtual traffic and sales online. Finding points of commonality between these data sets through the use of big data analytics can provide insights into customer buying patterns and can offer added targeting power for marketing and promotional strategies. Because of the inductive nature of big data calculations, companies can often create predictive models that allow even more fine-tuning of advertising messages and media choices in the competitive marketplace.
The Three Vs of Big Data
According to analyst Doug Laney of Gartner, big data analytics implementations are defined by three elements:
These three Vs are critical to understanding big data and making it more widely available for small to medium-sized businesses in today’s competitive marketplace.
Cloud computing services play a critical role in modern big data analytics. Companies that specialize in big data analytics consulting can be valuable allies in the effort to make more productive use of data sets and to optimize business processes.
By Jim McCann
Jim is the Information Insights Practice Lead for Paragon Solutions. Paragon Solutions is an advisory consulting and systems integration firm specializing in various industries. For more information on Paragon’s business intelligence systems and solutions, contact [email protected].