If you’re not leveraging business big data, you are losing an average of 16 percent of your annual revenue. This is the belief of 98 percent of executives interviewed in a global survey by Wall Street Journal Custom Studios and Oracle.
Over 700 senior executives from a variety of sectors participated in this study that estimates how much companies are losing out by not tapping into big data. Past two years have seen a tsunami of information from different data sources in areas like customer information, operations data, and sales and marketing data.
And now, another exponential leap in data stores is on the cards, courtesy the era of connected devices also known as the Internet of Things. From large equipment like aircrafts to small household tools like thermostats, all are embedded with software and sensors. These sensors on cars, roads, planes and factory equipment are generating huge amounts of data for understanding all sorts of behaviors and processes.
Steve Jones, global vice president of big data at technology consulting firm Capgemini, says that a connected car could notify a driver if a part of the vehicle is failing, direct him to the nearest dealer with the part in stock, and predict how long he’ll have to wait. And IoT means the most loyal customers could be rewarded with a priority pass that could let them jump to the front of the line.
The survey also asked the executives where they think data will come from in the next two years. Social media topped the charts in external sources, while customer information is poised to become one of the biggest internal data sources. Across all industries, executives are demanding better and timely data.
98 percent of those surveyed are planning investments in technology infrastructure, business intelligence tools, and business and industry applications to manage their critical data. This presents a huge business opportunity for geospatial industry to offer technology solutions that improve the companies’ ability to use their data capital.
