The growth of big data has been astounding in the past few years and it is expected to continue to increase.
In fact, Microsoft did a survey that showed many U.S. companies expect the data to double in the next three years.
Since the average person has more than one connected device, the potential to gain new information about customers increases every day. However, it is still difficult to market big data to some companies.
Promoting Ease of Use
The sheer volume of data available is often overwhelming to businesses.
As the article ”Combating Big Data Skills Concerns,” states, many organizations are struggling to figure out how to handle the information they are obtaining from programs and sites such as Hadoop.
Many small businesses don't understand what to do with the information they collect. All of this data is at their fingertips, but they need to figure out which information is important to their goals.
For example, Desk.com makes it easy for businesses to review customer comments whether they are in emails or Twitter comments and Facebook posts. It even includes reviews from Yelp so that a business knows what is being said about it.
Companies will see several benefits to using this kind of technology. They immediately know of any negative feedback and can create a faster response to customers.
Swipely is another tool that appeals to many small and offline businesses, especially retail stores.
Every time a customer pays for a purchase with a credit card, Swipely gets new information and presents it to the companies. It is promoted as an affordable way to get started in big data, which will appeal to smaller or new businesses.
Valuable Information
Those who see the value in big data, including companies creating tools and resources to mine the information, are focusing on explaining the benefits to companies. This is especially true for small businesses that may not see the value in accumulating large amounts of data for their small customer database.
Amazon Web Services is another player in big data and it offers a variety of products and services that make it easier for companies to accumulate big data and then utilize it.
It's convenient in that it offers storage options for businesses and then organizes the information collected from files, documents and other stored data. Companies have the option of keeping private data on-site while using the cloud for other less-sensitive information.
What many of the big proponents of big data are doing to win businesses over is offering solutions to multiple issues.
They take care of storing and organizing the data and presenting it to the business. This saves the organization time and expense of hiring people to do the same thing.
By making data easy to use and showcasing its benefits, these tools and programs are gaining more business customers that see the benefits of big data.
It becomes a win-win situation for both groups and in the end, the customer as well.