What are the Benefits of Big Data Analytics for Businesses?

Have you noticed that the volume of information surrounding us daily is continuously growing? And we can say it is about our private and professional lives. The role of communication in making business decisions and creating business strategies can’t be underestimated. But with all these enormous portions of data, it is becoming more and more challenging (and even impossible) to process them manually and conduct accurate analysis. That’s when big data services and solutions enter the game. In this article, we are going to explain what Big Data analytics is and what benefits businesses can enjoy after implementing such tools and solutions.

What is Big Data analytics?

We generally use the term “big data” when talking about large volumes of data and massive data sets comprising different unstructured and structured information received from various sources. These data sets can also include files and data of other formats. Traditional software solutions can’t process them due to the complexity of the content and information that should be analyzed. However, thanks to modern technologies, it is possible to create tools for processing and analyzing vast volumes of data. If you want to learn more about such solutions, we recommend you read one of our blog posts that covers the benefits and pitfalls of big data app development.

For making well-informed decisions, businesses need to consider different kinds of data that can come from open sources (such as social media accounts and websites) and from corporate databases that can be accessed only by authorized employees. All this is needed to understand general market tendencies, customers’ preferences, needs, requirements, and expectations, as well as their feedback after using the company’s services or buying its products.

Having all this information, companies’ managers can adjust their working processes in such a way that will help to increase client satisfaction, find new opportunities for business expansion and ensure higher profits. Of course, it is not a complete list of Big Data analytics benefits, and we will focus on them later in our article.

Who uses Big Data & analytics?

It is interesting to note that almost all tech and business giants use Big Data and analytics tools. American Express analyzes huge volumes of data to understand customer behavior better. Amazon implements Big Data tools to set their ad algorithms and find new approaches to enhance customer loyalty. Starbucks and McDonald’s apply Big Data analytics to identify client behavior patterns. Netflix can save up to $1 billion annually on customer retention.

According to various sources, today, around 60% of companies worldwide use Big Data analytics to meet their business goals.

What industries can enjoy the advantages of Big Data analytics?

If we say that companies from practically all the existing industries can enjoy the Big Data analytics benefits, we won’t exaggerate. It is so. But we offer you to look at the top 5 industries that have already accepted Big Data as their standard and can benefit the most from these tools.

• Banking and finance. This industry applies Big Data tools to analyze risks, mitigate fraud, detect illegal activities, and implement anti-money laundering (AML) practices.
• Healthcare. Medical institutions and providers rely on such solutions to process health-related data for accurate diagnostics and find the most efficient treatment.
• Education. One of the essential tasks solved thanks to the use of Big Data analytics in the industry is the measurement of teachers’ effectiveness. Moreover, such tools allow users to estimate students’ progress, analyze their aspirations and find the best approaches to teaching different groups of students.
• Media and entertainment. In this industry, companies need to analyze vast volumes of information from different sources better to understand the interests and preferences of their target audience.
• Manufacturing. Analytics of Big Data helps to optimize manufacturing processes and gain competitive advantages by eliminating manufacturing challenges and avoiding financial losses that wrongly-made business decisions could cause.

Key benefits of Big Data analytics

But as we’ve noted above, the range of companies enjoying the advantages of Big Data analytics is not limited to some particular industries or spheres. There are also cross-industrial benefits of using Big Data that we mention below.

• Customer retention and acquisition. For companies, it is crucial to get a complete understanding of their customers’ expectations, needs, and demands. The more they know about purchase behavior and decision-making, the more they can influence them. Moreover, by knowing the exact requirements, businesses can offer their clients exactly what they want. As a result, it will positively impact customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Targeted promotions and advertising campaigns. Relying on Big Data analytics, companies can deliver customized offers to some specific target group of consumers. Thanks to Big Data solutions, companies can significantly increase the efficiency of their promotional campaigns and avoid unnecessary expenses in campaigns that do not bring any results. To reach such results, it is necessary to deeply analyze client trends which is possible thanks to tracking online and point-of-sale transactions.
• Efficient risk management. With accurate analysis of market trends, precise monitoring of the company’s positions, and predictive analytics, businesses can foresee possible risks and take necessary actions to mitigate risks.
• Innovations and new product releases. Big Data & analytics allow businesses to understand customer needs and track clients’ reactions to products being introduced to the market. In addition, such tools can analyze customer feedback on new services and products for evaluating the performance of products and innovations, which is extremely valuable for developing marketing strategies.
• Quicker decision-making. To make sound business decisions, managers must consider many factors and be highly attentive, as even the slightest mistake can lead to severe consequences for their business. To avoid losses, managers usually spend a lot of time making decisions. With Big Data and analytics, companies can save the time typically spent on this process by accessing the data already analyzed by powerful software.
• Enhanced customer experience. When companies can analyze the behavior of their customers, they can adjust their offerings to clients’ needs. By providing better-personalized experiences, you can reach higher customer satisfaction.
• Cost optimization. For companies that deliver their products directly to end users, product return costs can become a heavy burden as they are usually 1.5 times higher than shipping costs. However, thanks to Big Data solutions, it is possible to minimize these expenses by evaluating the chances of returns and taking measures to reduce their risk.
• Data flow automation. With this software, you can automate many time-consuming tasks, allowing your employees to focus on more complicated and creative processes that require their attention.

Types of Big Data Analytics

We'd like to enumerate their types to help you better understand what benefits you can get from big data analytics tools. There are four major categories.

1. Descriptive analytics. This type of analytics aims to detect behavior patterns within a particular group of clients. Such tools give companies access to what has happened in the past and what trends have been shaped. This information is valuable for creating different kinds of reports. Summary statistics and clustering are examples of this approach. The results of this data analysis are presented in a convenient and fully readable form.
2. Diagnostic analytics. These tools are intended for analyzing problems and factors that have caused them. They help to detect the reason behind each issue. Data mining, recovery, and drill-down techniques are of great use.
3. Predictive analytics. The third type of analytics is used to predict possible incidents in the future. In this case, we are discussing risks and likely trends in consumer behavior or market changes. For predicting future events, these tools rely on present and historical data. Here, data mining, AI, and ML algorithms are applied.
4. Prescriptive analytics. This category of techniques is used to explore a couple of possible steps and to offer actions based on the analysis of a data set. As a result, companies can find the most feasible solutions for each problem.

Final thoughts

As you can see, different types of big data analytics can benefit companies working in various spheres. If you are also interested in launching big data and analytics solutions and are looking for a reliable team to help you develop and seamlessly implement them into your business processes, please bear in mind that at Geomotiv, we are always open to cooperation.

Contact us via the online form available on our website, and our Big Data experts will reach you as soon as possible.