COVID19 and Big data | Big data helping businesses in 2021

Big data is the focus domain in the data science domain after covid19 and recent times. This can be simply explained by the example that recently to renew the license people used to visit the office before but now it's all done online. The amount of data collected starting from 2020 is enormous. It is same time true that big data analytics helped in tracking and preventing the spread of coronavirus. JHU released a dashboard for tracking and reporting real-time data on COVID-19 for most of the countries. (JHU, 2021)

COVID19 tracking dashboard by John Hopkins

Arogya Setu, the covid19 tracking app of India is downloaded 127.6 million till now on App Store and Play Store which makes it the world's most downloaded covid tracking app, the data collected from users including location, their test details helped in tracking and isolating the covid positive patients. Similiar applications developed are greatly supporting the segregation of population and location based on the amount of risk and also supports government and organizations to take up timely actions. (Yourstory, 2020)

Since the virus is novel, there require researchers to analyze a huge volume of information – out of scope for the human brain to comprehend on its own. The area called predictive analytics helps governments to manage patients who are more vulnerable most at risk from the virus.

Machine learning along with big data analytics aids in treatments like finding antibodies required for vaccine preparation.

Big Data in 2021 comes to action in similar scenarios as discussed where it helped in tracking spread to planning activities regarding the virus, the same time big data during this scenario came into wider discussion due to the fact that these applications collect a large amount of user data to fuel its functionalities. (TCD, 2021)

The future of business in 2021 can be improved like how Big Data supports covid19 tracking and prevention from 2019. Businesses can make smarter decisions using Big Data analytics where strategies are made using facts derived from data and not from assumptions or feelings.

Adoption of strategies: There is a wide range of tools available for data analysts where the centralized data is available to the different departments of the company not just the IT departments with controlled access s required. This enables departments to form strategies that aid in their varied operations. This avoids any miscalculation by the IT department since the data is available across all the departments to cross-check analysts and reports.

Serving the right customer: Likewise, how Facebook and Google know about us it is crucial for companies to know their customers well using the data they provided with content to better serve them and increase conversions by providing customized solutions.

Products and services: As discussed above knowing customer's likes and behavior also helps in customizing and offering unique products and services. Big Data Analytics will also assist in promoting and improving products and services that need attention leading to improved innovation. 

Boosting income: Using data it is possible it conduct competitor analysis to understand what works better for them in comparison. This helps in identifying the trends in their market, capture them at early stages, and adopting them. 

Big Data opens door to AI to automate decision making leading to increased revenue and happy customers. 

- Spoorthi Joshi S

References

YourStory 2020 | Arogya Setu remains among top 10 downloaded apps globally in May: NITI Aayog CEO Kant | https://yourstory.com/2020/06/arogya-setu-top-10-downloaded-apps-globally-niti-aayog  (accessed on 14th February 2021) 

JHU 2021 | The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center (CRC) | https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/about 

(accessed on 14th February 2021) 

TCD 2021 | COVID-19 and the Perils and Promise of Big Data | https://www.tcd.ie/business/news-events/covid-19-big-data.php (accessed on 15th February 2021) 

What Is Big Data and How It Affects the Way of Decision Making?

In the era of digital transformation and emerging technologies, one cannot deny the importance of Big Data analytics which directly affects and enhances the decision-making process of an organisation. Here comes the question. What is Big Data and why effective usage of Big Data is crucial for companies who wants to achieve their digital marketing goals in the long term?

Components of Big Data

Big Data can be defined as large amount of data which is also fast and complex that makes the analysing process unmanageable with conventional methods. According to Laney, the components of Big Data are the three Vs which forms the definition of the term as high volume, velocity and variety of data to be processed. Volume means the various different sources that organisations can benefit for data collection such as connected IoT devices and social media platforms. Velocity describes the high-speed streaming of data including near real-time actions. Variety expresses the different formats of data which can be occurred both structured or unstructured such as email, video or financial transactions (Big Data: What it is and why it matters, 2021). Two more Vs which are entitled value and veracity have been added to the three Vs by some sources to emphasise the importance of the value and truthfulness of the data (What Is Big Data? | Oracle Ireland, 2021).

Why Organisations Analysing Big Data?

A survey was conducted in 2017 indicated that the number of companies which have adapted Big Data analytics has been dramatically increasing in the recent years. Moreover, the survey reveals the most common purpose of using Big Data as data warehouse optimisation which requires an integration of Big Data platforms such as Hadoop and Spark into an existing data infrastructure of an organisation. The main reason of using Big Data is followed by the purpose of analysing social media and streaming data coming from IoT devices which considered as data lake sources to define the unprocessed data, and exposing fraud detection (Watson, 2019). Once the organisations know the sources of Big Data, they will be able to manage and store the data by the help of Big Data platforms or cloud spaces, and then analyse it in terms of relevancy for the business purposes to have better, evident-based and data driven decisions in the marketplace that they compete (Big Data, what it is and why it matters, no date). It could be said organisations that are aware of the significance of the Big Data and have ability to process and analyse it properly, are more likely to have meaningful insights from their customers and make successful decisions while applying their digital marketing strategy.

Big Data Applications

There have been many applications of Big Data that have emerged as Natural Language Processing including Digital Assistants such as Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri, chatbots which are used for customer support, and Visualisation Systems including Drones and Facial Actions Coding Systems (FACS). For example, the company P&G used a coding software to analyse facial expressions of people for testing the scents of its new product which ended up with more precise and successful predictions of the software rather than what participants said (Hugh J., 2019). Another example of using Big Data shows how Amazon has been collecting detailed purchase data from its customers since then and how it lets other companies to access its ad portal to make them reach to the specific target audience (17 Big Data Examples & Applications, 2021).

Finally, using of Big Data by many companies brings governance concerns and security issues as well. To protect the privacy of personal data, regular controls of service providers need to be reviewed and the compliance with laws and regulations should be considered.

Keywords: Analytics, Big Data, Decision Making, Digital Marketing, IoT, Social Media

Ilgin Damla Omay

References and Sources

Built In. 2021. 17 Big Data Examples & Applications. [online] Available at: https://builtin.com/big-data/big-data-examples-applications [Accessed 16 February 2021].

Hugh J., W., 2019. Update Tutorial: Big Data Analytics: Concepts, Technology, and Applications. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, pp.364-379.

Oracle.com. 2021. What Is Big Data? | Oracle Ireland. [online] Available at: https://www.oracle.com/ie/big-data/what-is-big-data/ [Accessed 16 February 2021].

Sas.com. 2021. Big Data: What it is and why it matters. [online] Available at: https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html [Accessed 16 February 2021].