The Impact of Big Data

Bangalore: Time is Money. Presumably so as organizations world over rely on Big Data to facilitate the growth of their business by conducting operations in real or near-real time. As such, CIOs should explore the hidden potential of Big Data and use it for competitive advantage for their organizations, reports Rachael King of CIO Journal.

For example, Sears, a chain of department stores, is contemplating on improving their customer loyalty program by offering customized coupons for shoppers based on their past spending. This generally involves gargantuan amount of information and it took Sears eight weeks to complete a same kind of operation in 2010. But, using Big Data, it can be done in less than a day. Fancy that!

Advocating the use of Big Data, Michael Schroeck, global information management leader at IBM Global Business Services states, “This is a perfect opportunity for CIOs to get out of the back office and really help out with front office transformation.”

Not only Sears, even the likes of General Electric and Chevron are using Big Data in one way or the other, either to generate revenue or cutting of costs. However, it should be borne in mind that it can also help in defining business objectives and choosing the right set of vendors.

But in order to utilize Big Data efficaciously, one needs to pan out a blueprint focusing on quantifiable and distinct business cases before spanning its reach all across the enterprise. “Define a scope that’s manageable and deliver business value early in the process,” said Schroeck.

In this regard, CIOs should be hawk-eyed in identifying the technologies that would be most viable in harnessing Big Data, according to the organizational needs. The related technologies are still in their adolescence stage and as such they should be alert to pounce upon the right technology as and when it crops up.

According to a Gartner report, Big Data will comprise of $28 billion of IT spending globally in 2012 and it is expected to escalate to $34 billion by the end of 2013.

The numbers say it all!