Historically data has been generated manually by people; for example, an interviewer filling a questionnaire with the respondent or an employee entering data into the computer system. When the internet started to evolve, the data generation shifted to the users resulting in a sudden increase in the amount of data being produced daily. An example of data generated by users is mobile and social media. Now devices generate data everywhere, from sensors that monitor traffic to beacons that track visitations in retail stores to satellites, cameras, and wearable devices. This massive and rapid growth in Big Data alongside technological advancement has a fundamental value of today’s digital knowledge. The power and decision-making are shifting from individuals to intelligent algorithms residing in large data centers and on the cloud.
Businesses have sought to make good use of Big Data to understand customers better and enhance business performance. Both governments and companies become increasingly better able to exploit new data flows. Moreover, the real-time, alongside predictive feature of decision-making facilitated by Big Data, are growing, permitting automation of processes and decision making. Consequently, Big Data is helping governments and businesses establish novel solutions and insights, thereby becoming responsive to opportunities and effectively able to act swiftly and preemptively to tackle emerging threats.
Using Big Data to enhance prediction and decision-making has been applied in many sectors such as law and order, healthcare, marketing, transportation, and aviation. For example, police are starting to use Big Data for predictive crime mapping; according to Dearden (2017) “Police in the UK are starting to use futuristic technology that allows them to predict where and when crime will happen and deploy officers to prevent it.” Another example where Big Data is used alongside IoT is in the healthcare industry; according to Carol McDonald (2017), “Healthcare facilities are looking to provide more proactive care to their patients by constantly monitoring patient vital signs. The data from these various monitors can be analyzed in real-time and send alerts to care providers, so they know instantly about changes in a patient’s condition.” Further, Big Data is innovatively having a significant impact on decision-making capabilities in risk management and fraud detection.
At Sapience Consultancy, we research customers’ journeys by understanding their interactions with brands. We use nodes with wireless technology that detect mobile devices based on radio frequencies, then we detect real-time data (which we store/compute on the cloud) about the devices’ uses, both when customers visit the physical store and when they visit online channels. The scalable architecture that we use analyses the profile of customers and allows data collected to be classified and integrated with other data sources such as CRM and social media. Through our web dashboard or integration with other platforms, we offer access to comprehensive reporting and discovery of new data and valuable insights.
References:
Dearden, Lizzie (2017) How technology is allowing police to predict where and when crime will happen.Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/police-big-data-technology-predict-crime-hotspot-mapping-rusi-report-research-minority-report-a7963706.html. (Accessed on 25 Feb 2018)
McDonald, Carol (2017) 5 Big Data Trends in Healthcare. Available at: https://mapr.com/blog/5-big-data-trends-healthcare-2017/ (Accessed on 25 Feb 2018)