We analyse information using big data. An increasing number of companies are using big data, such as connecting data analysis to better customer service and increasing sales. In today’s world, where information is commonplace, how to utilise the vast amount of information is the key to corporate development.
How can you capture customer needs? What are the business challenges of a company? Big data companies analyse such things. By making it possible to visualise information, it has become possible to utilise the analysed data for improving business efficiency and customer service. Big data analysis can also be used to make more accurate forecasts. By multiplying such big data with Artificial Intelligence (AI), further possibilities will expand. In the information society, big data analysis companies are attracting attention as they have various potentials.
What kind of big data are there?
Big data means not only a large amount of information but also information in various fields. Let’s see what kind of information is available.
Personal data: Information such as an individual’s name, date of birth, and behaviour history is also big data. What kind of person is going to what kind of place can also be effectively used as big data. In addition, loyalty point cards and electronic money are also managed as purchase history. However, personal data is, as the name implies, personal information. Therefore, it is required to manage and analyse data in a way that does not identify individuals.
Open data: Open data is public data such as the population of a municipality. Some information is published so that the country can freely browse it on the Internet. Open data can be used freely, and by analysing these data, it is useful for launching new businesses and improving the efficiency of existing businesses.
Industrial data: Industrial data can be divided into “digitalisation of knowledge” and “M2M”. The digitisation of knowledge is converting corporate know-how into digital format. It is used to guide solutions when something goes wrong or to predict in advance from data. And Machine to Machine (M2M) is one of the systems attracting attention in the present age when exploring the immense possibilities that the Internet of Things (IoT) can offer. It is a system in which various devices are connected via the Internet and information is exchanged, and it is also used for familiar items such as vending machines.
Big Data Jobs?
What kind of work does it have to deal with big data?
Data engineer: In order to analyse data, it is first necessary to collect and manage the data. Data engineers play that role. Some people may have an image that is not a prominent task because it processes and stores data. However, it can be an essential task to lay the foundation for the utilisation of big data.
Data analyst: A data analyst is a job of analysing the data you collect. They will examine a massive amount of big data and use it to identify subsequent business issues. Although there are some similarities to other jobs, data analysts focus on data analysis.
Data scientist: Data scientists’ job is to derive corporate issues, and problems from the analysed big data and provide solutions. Data scientists are also called data analysis consultants, and they also make proposals that lead to improvements and businesses. Therefore, data analysis and the ability to familiarise oneself with the client company and grasp and explain things logically are required.
Big data utilisation
Now let us have a look into big data utilisation.
Retail business: In the retail industry, big data can be used to capture customer needs and place lean orders. One home improvement store analysed big data such as sales status, customer and employee behaviour, and product display. As a result of finding business issues from there, sales increased by 15%. In this case, AI performed data analysis and placed employees in locations with high cost per customer. This is an example of analysing a huge amount of data by multiplying big data and AI, which led to increased sales.
Foodservice industry: Sushiro, a market-leading ‘Kaiten’ sushi restaurant chain operator in Japan, uses big data to improve their business. Attaching an Integrated Circuit (IC) chip to the plate that goes around the sushi belt makes it possible to comprehend which material is sold and how much at each store. As a result of accumulating and analysing a vast amount of data of more than 1 billion cases a year, the number of sushi discarded has decreased significantly. This is an example of visualising business issues and leading to problem-solving.
Disaster prevention: Big data is also used in the field of disaster prevention. There are many volcanoes in Japan, and many are at risk of eruption. It is possible to analyse from big data what kind of damage will occur when the volcano erupts. Conventional eruption data and simulations are used to predict what kind of damage can occur in the future. Previously unpredictable and even natural disasters are now expected to be prevented from the worst by utilising big data.