Business Benefits
Now consider that every device we own or manage has some kind of data associated with it that could be used to better your business. For example, in healthcare related fields, data signals from monitoring patients vital signs offers new challenges for data management as well as data privacy. But even simple devices such as in-house telephony systems today require data monitoring. In a world where even household appliances have the ability to call their manufacturer when sensing a malfunction, data must be managed differently.
These kinds of data require different tools and expertise to manage and analyze. Big data, as its called requires thinking differently about the decisions that can be made from data sources. For example, your Web activity logs can be analyzed to understand customer viewing patterns; your customer service call logs can be analyzed for wait times, disconnects to correlate service levels and customer satisfaction. And then all of this data can today be related back to the numbers or more traditional data of your business.
In our next column, we explore two other areas of change in data that are creating challenges and opportunities for businesses: velocity and volume.
Other articles by Theresa and Maria:
The Price of Privacy
‘Big Data’
Hidden Gold
Theresa Kushner is a journalist-turned-marketer and director of customer intelligence within marketing at Cisco Systems. At Cisco, she directs a team of analytics strategists and specialists whose main job is to increase Ciscos market share by applying insights gathered from customer data. She and Maria Villar co-write a column for LatinBusinessToday.com. They are co-authors of Managing Your Business Data: From Chaos to Confidence, published by Racom Books in 2008.
Maria Villar is an information technology expert and a vice president at SAP, the global software company, with responsibility over the firms data governance. She and Theresa Kushner co-write a regular column to LatinBusinessToday.com. They are co-authors of Managing Your Business Data: From Chaos to Confidence, published by Racom Books in 2008. Villar was recognized in Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the Top 100 Influential Hispanics, and received the Distinguished Hispanic IT Executive award from Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference.
