Big Data & Digital Marketing

My 3 takeaways from 2015 Gartner's research on Big Data:

1. Big Data solutions and technologies are becoming mainstream;

2. Big Data is mainly used for enhancing customer experience;

3. Business Leaders are as active as CIO/CTO in launching Big Data projects.

Organisations are overwhelmingly targeting enhanced customer experience as the primary goal of big data projects (64 percent). Process efficiency and more-targeted marketing are now tied at 47 percent. As data breaches continue to make headlines, enhanced security capabilities saw the largest increase, from 15 percent to 23 percent.

Last year, 37 percent of big data projects were initiated by the CIO, while 25 percent were initiated by business unit heads. In 2015, the roles are nearly tied, at 32 percent and 31 percent, respectively.

Lots of information about Big Data from New Jersey Institute of Technology.

The upper half of the infographics introduces Big Data with the usual buzz words. The remaining has a lot of interesting statistics.

My 6 takeaways from the infographics:

1. $300 billion, what US could save in Healthcare

2. +60% in operating margin (retail)

3. 73% of companies have already increased revenues thanks to big data

4. 56% of IT decision makers believe that finding the right staff is the biggest challenge

5. "Query and reporting" is the Top 1 capability currently available

6. "Transactions" and "Log Data" are the most common source of data currently collected and analysed (88% and 73% respectively).

"While a significant number of organizations may still be standing on the sidelines, Big Data users who start and complete projects see practical results and significant value," Accenture said.

Bigger companies seem to get the biggest benefits because they have a better understanding of the scope, value and importance of Big Data. Not because they have more money.

To benefit from Big Data, Accenture advised companies to:

1. Explore the entire Big Data ecosystem;

2. Start small then grow;

3. Be nimble;

4. Focus on building skills.

"Given the advancements in the online customer experience with sales and support, customers expect to be able to get right to what they need when they call"

According to this survey, call centres are indeed collecting data, but they are not harnessing them: more than 60 percent of call centres can't provide customer information proactively to an agent.

49 percent of agents report overall productivity and efficiency challenges when they have to ask customers for basic contact information.

Digital transformation is the use of new digital technologies (social media, mobile, analytics or embedded devices) to enable major business improvements.

Once companies start to invest in digital technologies and learn how to manage it effectively, there are great benefits. The report cites gains in one or more of three areas: better customer experiences and engagement, streamlined operations, and new lines of business or business models.

The 3 biggest traps on the way to digital are:

1. No sense of urgency

2. Not enough funding

3. IT system limitations

Top Performers consistently apply analytics in almost every activity across their organization. They prefer Analytics over Intuition 5 times more than Low Performers.

This Survey by MIT Sloan, in collaboration with IBM, draws a clear picture on how organizations can approach big data, what the major challenges are and how a successful analytics culture can be established.

Organizations are usually found in one of these 3 stages:

1. Aspirational: just started with analytics. The main target is to improve cost efficiency. Are not very rigorous.

2. Experienced: use analytics to guide actions, target at growing revenues, some use of rigorous approaches, applications are limited for future strategies.

3. Transformed: use analytics to prescribe actions, use analytics at all levels also in day-by-day activities, use rigorous approaches.

Sometimes organizations transition from state 1 to 2 to 3.

The Survey suggests a 5-step methodology for successfully implementing analytics-driven management:

1. Focus on the biggest and highest value opportunities

2. Within each opportunity, start with questions, not data

3. Embed insights to drive actions and deliver value

4. Keep existing capabilities while adding new ones

5. Use an information agenda to plan the future

According to research by Capgemini, banks investing in analytics to understand customer attrition have a 12% lead over their competitors!

Moreover:
1. with only 37% of customers satisfied with their bank’s understanding of their needs and preferences
2. and with 40% of customers not sure whether they will stay with their bank in the 6 months time

this research indicates how customer analytics could help banks increase their revenues and gain market share.

Infographic produced by McKinsey & Co.

Facts:

1. Better marketing analytics can improve returns by 10-20%

2. Big Data leaders are 5% more productive and make 6% higher profit

Do you really need to know more before making your company a data-driven one?

42% of UK companies are looking to recruit data scientists in big data analytics roles.

But 58% of the executives asked said they were struggling to find candidates with the right mix of skills.

Although technical experience remains of greatest importance, other essential attributes include

1. problem-solving skills (cited by 43%, rising to 55% in Germany),

2. analytical skills (42%)

3. and creativity (35%).