Big Data: understand what it is, its concept and key characteristics

Those who follow the technological developments of the market, certainly have heard of Big Data. This concept has already been present in many organizations, of diverse segments, boosting their results.

One of the main questions of entrepreneurs is “how to predict consumer behavior, so that it influences business decisions?”. It is precisely this solution that makes this possible.

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What is Big Data?

To make you understand what Big Data is and what it’s for, let’s explain your concept. The term represents the huge volume of information circulating within a company every day. 

From this, it is possible to analyze this data in search of ideas that lead to more efficient decisions and more accurate strategic movements. 

However, in practice, what really matters in this amount of data is not its volume, but what the company does with this information.

In this respect, the biggest challenge is how corporations will process the growing number of content produced by consumers in order to map behaviors, opportunities and trends. Therefore, the solution involves Big Data analytics.

It is a tool capable of unifying this volume of data with analytical intelligence, which can manipulate a huge amount of information, generating increasingly valuable insights for companies.

How did Big Data come about?

Now that you’ve understood what Big Data is and its concept, it’s time to get to know your story. 

Although the term is relatively new, its origins date back to the 1960s and 1970s —a period in which the first databases were built, especially in the U.S. Its definition as it is currently known, was created by Gartner in 2001. 

However, this terminology became more feasible in 2005, when many managers of large technology projects — Facebook, Youtube, etc. — realized the volume and specificity of the information generated.

The Importance of Big Data

As you saw right above, Big Data and analytics go hand in hand so that companies can handle the amount of information efficiently. 

Thus, these organizations can identify new business opportunities more accurately. 

The impact of Big Data is such that, in 2020 alone, it concentrated much of the investments dedicated to digital transformation. With this, the enterprises became able to:

  • make a “social listening” of the brand;
  • segment the audience and market more easily;
  • comparatively analyse for smart pricing;
  • conduct marketing analysis;
  • measure consumer satisfaction.

Big Data’s 5V’s

In so that Big Data can be implemented in companies easily, its concept has been subdivided into 5V’s. Check out what they are below.

1. Volume

You have already understood that BD represents a huge volume of data. So this gigantic amount of information generated uninterruptedly, is directly related to it. This V also encompasses the variety of fonts used.

2. Speed

This V relates to how quickly information is currently generated. After all, we have social networks and the numerous business operations carried out daily. 

Some examples of this phenomenon are credit card purchases, stock sales and acquisitions, exchange analysis of international currencies and other activities, which require information for approval.

With a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool, for example, you can incorporate information about consumers. 

Then, each of these tasks can be analyzed automatically by BD solutions, without having to store all the information.

3. Variety

BD also encompasses a huge variety of data. When we talk about data, this is not limited to traditional texts, stored in databases and organized by tables. It involves:

4. Truthfulness

This V is related to data quality. Because they arise from diverse sources, it is difficult to clean, link, combine, and transform this information between systems. With this, organizations need to link and relate multiple data hierarchies.

In this process, it is indispensable the presence of big data tools, to validate and verify the information, in order to deliver reliable and truthful data. 

5. Value

All information generated must be relevant to the enterprise. In fact, this is one of the greatest objectives of BD; generate information that has added value. It will be from them that managers will make more assertive decisions.

Top Big Data Applications

big data applications

Something that makes big data solutions so successful is your application in many contexts. It is remarkable how companies from different sectors of the market already perform a data analysis in order to improve their results. 

Manufacturing

In the industrial industry, BD solutions help improve production quality while reducing waste. In addition, this practice is one of the foundations of the emergence of Industry 4.0 — total industrial automation.

Logistics

In the field of logistics, the use of BD serves to increase efficiency in the definition of routes, an hour to transport a particular product. In practice, the company is able to manage risks in advance, in addition to predicting demands and preparing inventories.

Retail

Big Data plays a key role in building customer relationships in the retail sector. Solutions can access information from market research, reporting after interactions with consumers and others.

From this, it becomes possible to understand the user’s behavior, their needs and what the company can do to improve its services.

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Conclusion

As you saw in this article, Big Data aims to transform all the information that companies generate and collect on a day-to-day, into business opportunities. 

With so much data available, customers and organizations can take advantage of this strategy, which increases the quality of services in the most diverse segments of the market.