Going big with small-business data

Big data can be a difficult concept for some small businesses to grasp. This may be because they don’t think of themselves in terms of having a lot of data, or because they don’t have the tools to process and analyse the data they collect. Organisations that capture all data streaming into their business, and apply analytics to it, can derive significant value from it.

While data analysis has been around for decades, applying big data analytics brings speed and efficiency that was never previously possible.

Irrespective of the size of the data being captured and stored, small businesses can use big data analytics to work faster, and stay agile, delivering a competitive edge they didn’t have before.

There are three key areas of opportunity for small businesses looking to embrace big data analytics:

  1. Extending analytic capabilities

There are many genres of analytics available that can help extend an organisation’s analytical ability. Three of the most common are graph analysis, path analysis and text analysis.

Graph analysis helps businesses to extend the breadth and coverage of existing product affinity analysis, by helping them quickly analyse all product combinations and see which products bridge different categories.

Path analysis involves analysing time-ordered sequences of actions and interactions leading to an “event of interest.”

Text analysis can be used complementary to graph and path analysis, to highlight customer sentiment and areas of on-site search for optimisation.

An event of interest can be anything, like a purchase, application or account closure. This analysis can show the common paths between channels, which in turn can show a business which avenues are best for connecting with potential customers.

  1. Exploiting new data sources

New data sources are previously untapped sources, like a businesses website or mobile application, that can be accessed to provide detailed data. The data can be analysed to identify changes to optimise the experience. This data already exists but many small businesses are not capturing it at a granular level to support analytics.

The key to using new data sources is to remove any technological or departmental silos. Data delivers the greatest insights when it is combined, i.e., combining point-of-sale (POS) data, with customer-specific information, social media entries and profiles, to develop a more holistic view of the customer and their expectations. Armed with this information, small businesses are more capable of delivering a differentiated, value-add experience.

  1. Enabling the right-time actions

The value of analytics is only achieved by actions being taken. The timeframe from insight to action can vary. The key is to ensure that the insight is available at the right time, like an individualised or company-specific offer when the customer next makes contact.

By using big data analytics to extend small-businesses analytic capabilities, find new data sources and take action on insights in the right time-frame, organisations can realise more areas of opportunity to develop their competitive edge.

Alec Gardner, General Manager – Advanced Analytics ANZ, Teradata