Unshackle Your Big Data

Without context, “big data,” a phrase that has entered into almost every boardroom and earnings call in the last few years, is nothing but an empty umbrella term. Today’s big data is diverse and can be generally categorized in two buckets: unstructured and structured. Unstructured data are things like photos, location, your LinkedIn page, and Twitter. Structured data are things like names and addresses. Understanding how to analyze unstructured and structured data, and identify patterns, is where the real value and opportunity to refine competitive advantage lies.

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In today’s world where cost of storage is cheap, more data than ever is being collected and more flexible open-source tools allow for deeper analysis and understanding. With the number of possible data collection points exploding daily, there is even more use for analytic tools. It is projected that there will be 400B connected devices in the world by 2020 – that is a lot of data. Everything today is now collected, and with the right understanding of its usefulness, data can be analyzed and leveraged for a company’s advantage.

According to a recent study done by Wikkbon, big data is projected to be a $28.5 billion market in 2014, and will grow to $50.1 billion in 2015. It is no secret that the financial community is sitting on a mountain of data. To truly provide excellent customer service, you must not only understand what your customers need from you today, but also what they will want from you tomorrow. To do this, financial organizations must have a complete understanding of their customer base. This is where big data and analytics come into play.

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