5 Competitive Advantages of Big Data in Business

What is Big Data?

It is no doubt that modern businesses are operating in an informationally dense age. Countless electronic devices in constant communication around the globe are producing enormous quantities of consumer and economic data to be critically analyzed. Some companies exist for the sole purpose of gathering this data and developing analytic tools for understanding how this accumulated information is useful to businesses within the broader global economy. A consequence of all this data gathering is that Big Data repositories bring the whole idea of information overload to a whole new level. Yet, many large corporations have been leveraging Big Data methods and solutions to obtain and maintain an edge on their competition while grabbing more of the average consumer’s money out of the hands of smaller businesses. As a result, smaller companies are trying to grab hold of their own piece of this lucrative data-driven approach of doing business to boost sales and reform other critical business practices. What most business owners want to know, however, are what competitive advantages Big Data can bring to the table to help them gain a meaningful edge in their industry.

Improve Hiring with Big Data Technologies

The online marketplace is filled with job sites that seek to match employees with companies trying to fill positions. Using Big Data methods to tap into the pool of the vast majority of these applicant resources can be a huge competitive advantage when a business is trying to identify the right raw talent for its operational needs. Big Data solutions allow for sifting candidates for employment against a vast array of metrics and conditions for determining the best fit possible. Instead of taking weeks to perform these checks, Big Data methods can reduce this process to much shorter wait time as it identifies which candidates are most qualified and easily ranked for open positions.

Seeing the Trends with Big Data Analytics

In order to understand what trends, exist in a given region of a market, it is critical to have a growing data stream of information that gathers data in real time. Often these data streams are so large that they fall into the category of Big Data sets. By performing big data analytics on this large body of data, it becomes possible to formulate a picture of which trends are forming, which trends are in progress and which trends are reaching an end. This information can easily help a company position itself in the way of a huge money-making opportunity by catching the early stages of a trend that is targeted to a specific demand threshold for pushing a given product or service. Companies that lack these Big Data insights literally miss out on millions of dollars heading off to other data savvy companies taking advantage of high-definition trend analysis occurring right under their nose.

Boosting Customer Service with Big Data

As a company grows, so does its customer base. In order to develop highly loyal customers who are regularly spending money with that company, it is important to gather massive quantities of data on the people with which a company does business. This is one in-house Big Data set that the company gathering this data has exclusive access to and can leverage to improve its own sales volume. As with trends in the marketplace, informational trends also exist in the data being gathered on customers paying for a company’s products, services and also in customer service interactions. Using this data to improve and tweak the performance of their customer service department can go a long way towards helping the business build stronger relationships with its customers and significantly increase customer loyalty along the way.

Reaching New Customers with Big Data

As a growing company, it is always good to be able to increase demand for products and services by attracting customers from new and diverse demographics within the marketplace. Big Data analysis helps to outline and understand the spending and mobile online habits of an untapped segment of the market for which a company does not yet do much business. By studying the extensive Big Data information on these demographics, this can help identify which products, services and marketing approaches would be the best fit for reaching the target demographic being examined through the data.

Earning Money with Big Data

It is no mystery that information is a hot commodity in the global economy. For this reason, companies not only spend massive amounts of money to gain access to Big Data repositories, but many of these companies also sell the vast amount of data they actively accumulate to other companies as an additional revenue stream. This data can command a high dollar amount—especially if the company selling the data provides access to an expert analysis of the data to make it easier for smaller companies to utilize more easily. These are often companies which lack the processing power and analytical expertise to unlock the beneficial market insights inherent within the Big Data being sold on the open market; yet, they still have a budget to purchase quality information.

Achieving the Competitive Edge with Big Data

It is not difficult to see how Big Data can give large companies a competitive edge over smaller companies. However, with modern approaches to handling Big Data and the availability of third-party solutions for analyzing Big Data to answer important business questions, it turns out that even small businesses cannot afford to refuse to leverage Big Data solutions to improve their own competitive edge in today’s data-driven marketplace. Big Data touches on nearly every aspect of how a company does business: from improving business practices to understanding consumer behaviors and market trends. This can provide a business with essential insights and direction to drive that company’s performance and success towards commanding a truly competitive edge in local and global markets.