The Revolution of the Big Data
Facing business competitiveness and rapid technological advancement, organizations can use business intelligence tools to convert the large amount of data collected into strategy and successful plans.
The term "Big Data" refers to all that data that is too big, fast or complex to be processed through traditional methods and therefore utilises specific and sophisticated softwares that have helped optimise this information. Even though the act of processing and store data has been around for a long time, the term "big data" became a big hit in the 2000s when Doug Laney introduced the definition of this, as the "3 V's" (Sas.com, n.d.)
- Volume: Organisations collect data from different sources from competitors to client transactions and social media, with the technological advances the collection and storage of this data has been facilitated.
- Velocity: With the IoT and businesses growing at a rapid rate the optimisation and processing of this data has to be handled in a timely manner.
- Variety: Data comes in all forms, sizes and structures, from videos, photos to numerical data.
Big data is highly important as the collected information will be used to make decisions and manage operations regarding the business competitive advantage.
As Andrew McAffey and Erik Brinjolfsson mentioned in their article
" Big Data: The Management Revolution" (McAffey and Brinjolfsson, 2012)
"You cannot manage what you don't measure", and here in lies the importance of big data collected via trust-worthy sources. Processed by the latest software operators, this information will change the way a company and the world look at the value of experiences, nature of expertise and the practices of management. It's about making better predictions and smarter decisions for businesses. To stay competitive businesses not only need to be predictive and innovative, they also need to be driven by evidence and operate on a full data-driven way.
We can conclude that "big data" is a collection of information that is too big, sourced from different sites or too complex to be analysed by traditional methods, the final goal of this "big data" is to transform this data into a visual element that can be understood and interpreted with ease in order to improve processes, productivity and efficiency.
Sas.com. (n.d.). Big Data: What it is and why it matters. [online] Available at: https://www.sas.com/en_ie/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html [Accessed 23 Jan. 2020].
McAffey, A. and Brinjolfsson, E. (2020). Big Data: The Management Revolution. Harvard Business Review. [online] Available at: https://wiki.uib.no/info310/images/4/4c/McAfeeBrynjolfsson2012-BigData-TheManagementRevolution-HBR.pdf [Accessed 23 Jan. 2020].
Often times when big data is discussed, we hear about data analytics but not about visualisation. But as you rightly pointed out Data Visualisation is crucial in making the results of data analytics more accessible so it can be used by executives for decision making.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment MJ, indeed it has helped a lot on the decision making process.
DeleteGreat information about the big data, very interesting to read.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your comment Mari.
DeleteGreat first blog with insightful and useful information aplenty.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, I really appreaciate your comment.
DeleteExactly, it is a big revolution, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your comment!
DeleteAgree !!! You cant manage what you cant measure. Data sets are getting bigger and bigger.
ReplyDeleteIndeed they are, but so the habiity to measure them. thank you so much for your comment.
DeleteVery well written and informative.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Colin
DeleteRelevant definition of big data, very clear and well explained
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your comment.
DeleteThank you so much for you comment
DeleteGreat work
ReplyDelete