Dealing with big data

In today's business environment, the topic of big data is ubiquitous. In 2011, the global output of data was about 1.8 zetabytes. Amazingly, 90 percent of the data in the world was created within the last two years.

Yet, the times are such that dealing with big data in the most intelligent fashion has become de rigueur for many businesses.

The case of the airlines industry

Take the case of the airlines industry. The airlines business operates on thin profit margins, mainly due to fluctuating fuel costs and multiple taxes. Currently, to illustrate, China and the European Union are at war over paying emissions tax-all airlines have to pay this tax for flying in and out of Europe. China has said no to it.

"A typical engine in an airplane generates 1 terabyte of data while a transatlantic flight," Venkat Narayanan, head of strategic initiatives, Mahindra Satyam, and an expert on business intelligence told MIS Asia. He was speaking at Management World Asia Forum on 8 February in Singapore.

"Asian corporations can harness at once-generation analytical tools to grow and transform their businesses amidst a global economic slowdown, increased competition and the rapid emergence of social media," said Narayanan.

"Many corporations face challenges of unclear business requirements, inconsistent data, poor time to market and failure to harvest business benefits from analytical tools," he said. "These challenges come at a time when Big Data is emerging as a major trend and differentiator in view of slower economic growth, increased competition and the rise of social media."

For example, Narayanan said that his company helped Viva Telecom of Kuwait grow its business using iDecisions framework. The iDecisions framework is a BI tool which helps enterprises rapidly adopt the best practices of major corporations by customising data input which can help leaders make effective decisions cutting across various business functions.

"A good amount of data is outside the organisation's visibility," said Narayanan. A lot of that data can be found on social networking sites. He calls such data low hanging fruit. What is better to do is to look at the data about a brand on the networks and come out with a sentiment meter. "This whole thing can be done in a real time manner so that organisations can start responding in the same media," he said.

He gave an example. When the train between Paris and London got stuck, people started tweeting. British Railways did not even realise this was going on till it became too late. Organisations can't afford this kind of folly any more. It might affect their business. "Today, you need to engage the customer in real time and in the same media," he said.

"Businesses which are pursuant to this agreement a constraint or a threat will succeed then using BI tools," Narayanan said. "Take telcos, for instance. Previously, there was no pressure on them to use analytics. Today, they are in accordance with tremendous pressure. Their traditional voice earnings are vanishing. People are shifting to IM than voice. That's why today telcos are moving into media and other spaces. Their traditional business is getting yanked out. Right now, they are a provider of a dumb pipe. Companies like Apple are raking in the earnings. In this scenario, telcos are trying to make money by moving from dumb pipe to smart pipe."

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