Harpal Singh

We live in a world where we have more of everything. Our lives are entangled with superabundant data growing with every breath at an inexorable rate leading to a choked feeling of information overload. No matter how hard we try, it’s nearly impossible to manage all the data around us. However, the recent big data revolution to extract patterns, meaning and wisdom out of this data is a strong promise to get the control back of our lives.

We are already witnessing some great advancements in big data space. Microsoft patented a travel prediction technology for their search engine, Bing, which analyses 225 billion flight and price records to advise customers weather to buy or wait for the airline ticket. Gmail prioritises emails for you, Klout tracks influential people, Smmry summarises articles, Foodspotting recommends food you like and the countless applications built on top of Twitter.

Data mining, trend analysis and pattern matching are bringing us closer to understanding human behaviour. While there are billions worth of potential residing within organisations, it can have some negative effects too. For example, retail industry that competes solely on price recently became the poster child when Amazon’s location based price comparison app drove customers to view items in the store and buy them online via mobile. This amalgamation of multi-channel experience coupled with real-time information is forcing businesses to innovate their business models.

The fact is that the same big data technologies that are causing the disruption will save these businesses. McKinsey research suggests that big data can potentially increase operating margins up to 60% for retailers. It’s a science that can give retailers a view into their customer behaviour and motivation, decision making factors, demand in the stores and communicate the insights back to departments in a timely and relevant manner that’s actionable.

Finally, it comes down to cutting the choice for making optimal decisions, finding the stuff faster and giving the short story of the long story. Listen to your data, it’s time.

What are you doing in big data space? Would love to hear your thoughts. Cheers to the new year and another chance to make it perfect if last one wasn’t.