Contrary to what many might think, SMEs have one advantage over large corporations, which is their responsiveness. Due to the simplified, fast and flexible flow of information, it is actually easier for a small or medium-sized company to build up and use big data effectively, and it is not necessary to be able to fall back on huge financial resources to implement big data in a small or medium-sized company. Overrated servers and databases are a thing of the past. Big data is now much more accessible thanks to tools designed at SME level, you can use data that is already available in the operation of your company : its social networks, its website, its CRM, data from the HR departments, etc.
Third-party data can also be very valuable: various databases, Google and Facebook ads, recruitment pages, etc. All of this data, efficiently analyzed, forms a solid foundation from which to answer most of a company’s problems. The success of such an operation also and above all lies in the rigor with which it is carried out. The implementation of Big Data in an SME requires three fundamental points to be considered:
- Set a precise goal, otherwise a big data project may not bear fruit, so it is important to ask yourself what you are going to use it for before proceeding.
- Surround yourself with knowledgeable people to do it and manage it of the project. A data scientist can help you with your process. You can hire one or hire a company that specializes in big data.
- Allow enough time to configure data mining as relevant. In fact, big data projects are time consuming and teams need to have enough time to get them done.
Examples of the use of Big Data in business
1) The use of Big Data for recruitment.
In particular, big data has enabled the development of recruitment optimization methods; thanks to big data analytics, HR departments can more easily be targeted to the best candidates in order to optimize the selection, which significantly reduces costs and it is even possible to predict future recruiting needs.
2) An aid to predictive maintenance in the aeronautical sector.
As crazy as it may sound, big data can protect you even on air travel thanks to algorithms that can predict the break date of the parts, taking into account factors such as time, load or frequency of use, preventive maintenance is implemented. In this way, possible accidents are avoided and the aviation industry benefits from upstream investments in maintenance processes.
3) Data mining, a loyalty technique for banks and insurance companies
After a wave of customer dissatisfaction with the services offered by banks and insurance companies, the latter turned to big data to find the source. The main observation that has been made is that of the importance of mobile services and their level of personalization. It turned out that they took a very important role in customer appreciation for the quality of the service. In order to build a lasting and appropriate relationship with the customer, steps were taken to analyze data that most of these banks and insurance companies already had. This enabled them to develop their mobile offering in the appropriate channels and understand that innovation goes hand in hand with customer expectations.
4) Use Big Data to personalize your experience on e-commerce sites
Given the competitiveness of the e-commerce sector and the volatility of consumers (the average surfing time on an e-commerce site has been reduced to less than 5 minutes), one observation has been made: mass discourse and overly broad categorization no longer correspond to the current fast Customizing the navigation was chosen as the best way to attract the target’s attention. Thanks in particular to the personalized proposals of products made possible thanks to Big Data. Following this analysis, a number of e-commerce sites manage to offer your visitors a smooth and perfectly adapted navigation. Amazon, for example, customizes its website home page based on your tastes, interests, previous research and data mining. Netflix, on the other hand, manages to generate more than 33 million different homepages in order to offer its users the content that they like.
5) Thanks to Big Data, a Japanese cosmetics brand is discovering a new target
In an attempt to exploit user paths on the Web to “generate business”, a major cosmetics brand has encountered an inappropriate target. In fact, when looking at the results of their big data project, the brand found that, unlike other products, sunscreens were very popular with male customers. Digging a little deeper into the data of these customers, it turned out that most of them were golf fans and therefore naturally interested in the product has revised its marketing in line with this new objective.
6) Allow your business to be ultra-visible thanks to retargeting
Retargeting: Behind this barbaric word hides a technique you are familiar with, which consists in offering targeted advertising to a user on future visits to other websites. By relying on behavioral data from your browsing history, it is possible to “track” potential buyers even when they are no longer on your website. Thanks to advertising agencies, whose aim is to obtain the maximum amount of advertising space, this data is collected and they allow you to display advertising banners in a targeted manner, which, through their visibility, allow the Internet user to make a second purchase (or more often) to your site, up to a potential purchase.
7) Airlines and dynamic pricing
Airlines make extensive use of big data to adjust ticket prices based on trends, profiles and travel habits of customers. The principle is simple: the company first identifies the flight seeker and then varies the price of the ticket based on their data (thanks to their customer account and history, among other things) to vary the price of the ticket. Therefore, the conversion rate increases significantly by offering new customers cheaper tariffs and “business travelers” more expensive tickets that are less deterred by additional costs.
