The better the data available, the more informed the decisions which can be made will be. Nevertheless, on average, companies only use half of all internally available information to make decisions.
This is the conclusion of an international BARC study, for which 743 company representatives from all over the world were surveyed. At the same time, the amount of available data is greater than ever: In its latest study on the digital universe, IDC predicted that the total volume of digital information will amount to 44 zettabytes by 2020. But the opportunities that arise from this are primarily seized by companies which are already the leaders in their fields. According to a globally conducted study of 802 cloud decision makers and users, a third of them are three times more likely to use analysis tools from the cloud to draw business-relevant conclusions from Big Data.
In contrast, even medium-sized companies still rarely resort to specific data analyses – despite the fact that cloud-based analytics tools work regardless of the size of the company. A medium-sized management advice service, for example, automatically seeks out all relevant information on the Internet for their customers – even unstructured data from scientific articles and patents, entries from blogs and social networks. As a result, the consulting company can reduce the time needed for initial research, and can repeat further search requests at defined intervals.
For hardware manufacturers, real-time analyses, for example, are taken as soon as the search behaviour of the portal user has been documented and cookies have been set. If the user then visits a social network, he is immediately recognized and the advertisements automatically switch to the company’s latest products and special promotions. The advantage for the manufacturers: Advertising is aimed at a potential customer who has already shown an interest in the product. Thus, the likelihood that a decision will be made to make a purchase increases significantly.