Data is the new currency that is now helping organizations achieve their business goals with efficiency. Big data is thus fast emerging as the ultimate enabler of the digital enterprise as the focus of companies shifts to digital transformation to change how consumers and businesses interact with each other for greater profitability. Most high performing companies have identified that data is their greatest asset and are initiating a shift towards a data-driven culture. A study conducted International Data Corporation (IDC) showed an upward growth trend for the big data technology and services market and expects this market to grow to $48.6 Billion by 2019. A study conducted by Accenture shows approximately two-thirds of companies globally have completed big data implementations and nine out of ten leaders from those surveyed believe that big data is an important contributor to improving business outcomes and enabling digital transformation.
This leads us to the question, why and how big data is fuelling the digital transformation strategies? Big Data is only good as long as it is used well. And when it is used well, it opens up a whole world of insights into the smaller nuances of business functions and dynamics that helps organizations design strategies that are backed by information instead of just gut. With Big Data, organizations can solve any given problem with a calibrated, well-researched solution.
Enabling digital transformation within the enterprise is a slightly time-consuming process. There are meaningful and strategic adjustments that need to be made, the needs of consumers and employees have to be identified, business functions that need change have to be ascertained etc. and then a digital transformation strategy is designed…all in all, it is a lot of work that is made a great deal easier with the help of data. Here’s a look at how adopting big data helps
Greater Customer Insights
Whatever an organization does, it does it for the customer. Unless an organization has insights into what a customer ‘exactly’ wants in this age of personalization, it is almost impossible to maintain a competitive advantage. With big data, organizations can gain detailed insights into what the major catalyst for digital transformation, i.e. the customer, wants. According to Accenture, over 53% of companies apply big data to improve personalization by drawing insights from data gleaned from mobile and location-based services to offer recommendations tailored to the customers wants.
Goal Identification
Yes, digitization is essential and yes, Big Data is important. But the crucial questions to answer here are ‘why is the organization implementing digital transformation?” “Where do you need to implement change the most?” “How should you prioritize the transformation process?” “What are the greatest challenges that you face?”. Big data provides quantified, data-backed insights to all of these questions and more. When the company has the list of challenges and goals, it can break down the big data insights into smaller consumable pieces of data that can help them implement change in a strategic manner that is customized to their needs. The more specific the goal is, the better can
data be leveraged. So if you want to improve customer experience, with big data you can identify which area of customer experience needs to be improved, understand why it needs to be improved and identify how it can be improved and then create a digital strategy customized to your requirements. With Big Data, organizations can quickly identify and tackle their most complex business issues by turning the insights gained from big data analytics into action.
Data, data everywhere…which one is right for you?
There is a deluge of data out there, which data-set is right for you? When enabling digital transformation strategies with the help of big data, a few organizations feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data out there. While it is important to capture data, hoarding it and not knowing which data set to use can cause more confusion than benefit. Leveraging big data tools, or employing experts to identify which data-sets are of value and how this data can be structured into a consumable structure forms a big part of big data implementation success. To fuel digital transformation strategies, big data use has to be dynamic…organizations have to continuously look for new data-sets to optimize strategies, address problems and deliver positive business results.
To efficiently fuel digital transformation using big data, organizations should start small to prove the value of big data in that area and only then expand it to the other parts of the enterprise. Taking a calculated and strategic approach, staying flexible to adapt projects and employing the necessary skills contribute greatly to the success of digital transformation strategies.