Big data: Living in a real time state

“Electric circuitry has overthrown the regime of ‘time’ and ‘space’ and pours upon us instantly and continuously the concerns of all other men.” Marshall McLuhan’s prediction of the future made in 1967.

And he was right. We’re living in a data deluge! But clever software is opening up new business implications and opportunities to improve decision-making, and as a result, the term ‘big data‘ is fast gaining currency in the tech industry. Let’s face it, data gets really exciting when contextualised with other pieces of data to make it even more valuable.

According to the latest figures from IDC, businesses are having to deal with 50 percent more data year-on-year. IBM say more than 1.8 zettabytes of information was created in 2011, (which would require 57.5 billion 32 GB iPads to store!) and 2.5 quintillions pieces of data are being churned out every day!

And in spite of this real time barrage, Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University believes that, “big data is a tagline for a process that has the potential to transform everything.”

He is also right. In other words its not purely about data handling or about volume anymore, it’s about new uses and insights.

Marketing has always been about distilling communication into effective messaging and nowadays we have the processes to apply artificial intelligence to observe, record and map human behaviour. Big data is therefore no longer the reserve of IT teams, so it is vital that it can now be easily accessed in real-time, in a way that is visually compelling and straightforward, and yet that can also drill down deep enough for the hard core analysts too. With smartphones and tablets, data can be now brought to life through applications instantly, increasing the speed of decision-making at the executive level.

Which is why we built the VeMerchant app! Offering realtime reporting on cart abandonment, cart recovery and conversion statistics. We’re proud to have brought this, the first app of its kind to market and are delighted to say that it’s available for free download too in the Apple Store.

According to The Economist Intelligence Unit report commissioned by Capgemini, nine out of ten business leaders believe that data is now the fourth factor of production, as fundamental to business as land, labour and capital. The study among over 600 C-level executives and senior management and IT leaders worldwide, indicates that the use of Big Data has improved businesses’ performance on average by 26 per cent, and that the impact will grow to 41 per cent over the next 3 years.

The majority of companies in the report claim they will make a bigger investment in Big Data over the next three years. Is this you?

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