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Big Data and Analytics as a Service
A lot of organizations simply don't have the time, computing resources or expertise to handle big data processing in-house. They may have tried to take on some internal big data projects only to find that the expense of the project outweighs the benefits, or that they end up failing to meet important deadlines. Their lack of resources and expertise leaves them with the impression that analytics is a waste of time for their company.
In many cases, those companies would be better off if they outsourced their big data to a third party or even crowdsourced some of their information needs. Crowdsourcing puts the expertise of, quite literally, hundreds of thousands of people at your disposal, and outsourcing the computational needs of your analytics projects to a specialist will free you from the overheads of running your own servers and managing complex software.
#The Cloud Is for Everyone Cloud technology is a great leveller, and it enables every company, large or small, to take advantage of powerful servers and huge data stores. You can process massive datasets online in real time and get access to the results from anywhere. Collecting that data is easier than ever before too - instead of having to survey individuals one by one, you can collect usage data and information about shopper habits passively (assuming you have the consent of those users, of course). The information is there, and the tools are there to work with that information.
Mithun Sridharan of Blue Ocean Solutions makes the case for using big data as a service, and advocates that companies move away from the Design to Build paradigm and move towards Design to Use. This paradigm puts the users of the information first, and makes it easier for anyone - even those who are not analytics experts - to get value from the information that they are collecting.
#What Analytics Can Do for Your Business If you have dismissed analytics as being of limited value for your business, it’s time to revisit the subject. Analytics can tell you not just what your existing customers are doing - it can also highlight potential weaknesses in your conversion chain. It can help you to retain customers who would otherwise silently fade away without taking the time to inform you of the reason they are considering leaving your business. The information is there, and it makes sense to make use of it.
Tim
