The rapid development of technology and the deep penetration of the internet has led to rapid growth in the amount of data created. We are generating quintillion bytes of data every day and these humungous volumes of accumulated data need to be converted into something meaningful that businesses can use. Through big data analytics, businesses can unearth correlations, patterns and trends hidden in such large volumes of raw data, which are often scattered, unstructured and seemingly unrelated. Insights generated from big data are highly valuable for business growth and ignoring big data is fatal. This being said, leveraging big data has been a challenge owing to several factors including lack of skilled professionals and experts, lack of sufficient investment, etc. The situation is rapidly changing as more investment is pouring into the field, the salaries are rising, and more skilled professionals are becoming available. Accordingly, there is a high demand for data analytics certification among freshers and working professionals alike.
As the data continues to grow at an exponential rate, big data analytics is leveraging data analytics and data science tools and techniques such as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, etc. to turn challenges into opportunities. Let us have a look at how some sectors are doing this.
E-Commerce: This sector has been on top of the game as far as leveraging big data goes. There are numerous brands and companies with similar products/ services/ solutions, fiercely competing to get customer attention and increase their sales figures. The e-commerce sector is widely using big data analytics in various aspects of their functioning, and most importantly for their marketing campaigns. Through machine learning, AI and other analytics tools and algorithms, they have hyper-personalized and customized their ads as well as offers (and in some cases even products) based on the insights obtained about customer needs, preferences, journey, etc. to create AHA moments.
Logistics: Logistics forms a critical part of the supply chain and is of utmost importance to manufacturing industries and retailers alike. Its complex and dynamic nature makes it vulnerable to several bottlenecks at different points of the process. It is also a very costly process and bottlenecks lead to heavy losses of both money and reputation. It is very crucial, therefore, for logistics departments of businesses as well as third-party logistics companies to continuously monitor and streamline the process, finding the best solutions in an ongoing manner. To this end, the logistics sector has effectively leveraged big data with the help of predictive analysis and machine learning. The most important way is that each product that is delivered is entrenched with data. How? During the transport, it creates information in the form of routes taken, delays faced and its causes, wrong deliveries, last-leg losses, problems faced in last-leg of deliveries, etc. Through machine learning and predictive analysis, such data is made sense of to find trends and patterns as well as make incorporate these insights into future plans. Logistics is also using big data analytics to predict the best and shortest routes for delivery, streamlining factory functions and infusing transparency to the process.
Entertainment: The entertainment industry is almost digitized, and this has created both challenges and opportunities of the industry. Being digitized, the customer can decide how to entertain themselves, which channels to view, what content they most like and how much content to consume. Due to the greater autonomy that the consumers have, the industry must not just produce high-quality content but also take it to the consumers through personalized marketing campaigns. The industry has responded to this challenge by leveraging several millions of data created by the customers online. Through analytics, entertainment companies are able to gauge the popularity and acceptance of the content they are putting out. They are also able to hyper-personalized their marketing campaigns based on the preferences of the customers while also making suggestions to them.
Healthcare: Another sector that has effectively turned challenges into opportunities by leveraging big data in healthcare. It is using big data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence in both caregiving and business ends. In the caregiving end, it is leveraging big data analytics to better assess the situation before taking action, evidence-based practice, etc. and in the business end, it is being used to reduce wastes and costs, streamline processes, hospital management, etc.
More sectors and businesses are integrating their processes to big data analytics to improve their business success and growth. Evidence suggests that 53% of businesses in 2017 have integrated their systems to big data and leveraging it. With such a paradigm shift in the way businesses operate, there is a growing need for experts in the field of big data analytics. It would be in your best interest to enrol yourself in the best online course for data analytics and give yourself a competitive edge.