Much has been said about what Big Data can do to improve organisations, especially in the last few years. From improved marketing and sales to better fraud detection, Big Data has paved the way for businesses to become better at what they do and prepare for the future.

However, Big Data has one advantage that is still sometimes overlooked: its ability to help businesses make the correct decisions. With the right data in hand and proper data analysis, we can go from relying on unreliable guesswork and intuition to making data-driven decisions that result in better, more effective strategies.

Big Data Has the Ability to Impact Every Decision

While you may think Big Data is only applicable to certain industries or strategies, the reality is that it offers value in just about every company decision. The rate at which new data is being created is astounding and is expected to reach 44 trillion gigabytes by 2020, and all that data comes from different sources. With that amount of information, you’ll be able to find the right data sets that will help you make the right decisions for different purposes.

It’s hard to ignore this treasure trove of insights. Since every part of your business is generating data, it’s time to do something with it, and you can start by using it for better decision-making. With data available to back up and inform your plans and strategies, your success rate is also bound to improve.

It’s All About Fact-based Decisions

This research project on making better decisions attempted to answer how organisations can make fact-based decisions with the help of Big Data. In one example of how Big Data delivers key results, it focused on the Internet of Things (IoT) and how the data it produces can be used to optimise manufacturing strategies. The project revealed that the insights gathered from the collected and analysed data can be used to improve productivity, detect errors, and identify maintenance needs properly.

Using data insights, key decision-makers can make better choices, ones that are more reliable and supported by relevant information. This, in turn, leads to a more proactive business environment that values data in enhancing operations.

How Your Data Can Lead to Better Decisions

For your data to matter and allow you to arrive at a better decision, you must analyse it first. It’s not enough to have data—you must also be able to derive from it key insights you can use. Start with a strategy and a goal. What do you want to do? Do you want to solve an existing problem or improve a specific process?

Once you know your aim, you can now determine the right type of data you must use. This is important because going with the wrong data will lead to inconsistencies and discrepancies. For example, if you want to prevent further loses from fraudulent activities happening on your online retail platform, real-time data can be gathered and analysed, with specific systems and algorithms being used to detect fraud when they happen, allowing you to take action even before any damages occur.

In retail and consumer-centric companies, data from customers allows you to improve the customer journey and experience. This data can take the form of answers to online and offline surveys, social media posts and interactions, and data on buying behaviour.

Once you have the right kind of data, you can now derive the insights you need to make the right decisions. It could be determining which protocols could best handle online fraudsters and limit damages; the optimal amount of stocks you must have available in your online or physical store at any one time to make sure you always meet demand without wasting additional funds on over-stocking; or the best scheduling strategy when it comes to maintenance and ordering new parts for your manufacturing/industrial needs.

You Have the Data, Make It Work for You

In the field of urban planning, Big Data can help urban planners arrive at the best possible decisions. How? There are lots of data sources that shed light on how to build better roads, structures, and even whole cities. Something as simple as historical traffic data and patterns can have a huge impact on the decision-making process.

The Australian government predicts that the cost of delays caused by road construction will grow from $13.7 billion in 2011 to $53.3 billion by 2031. However, they are also finding ways to mitigate this by looking at available data to better plan roads. Hopefully, this will result in lower figures in terms of delay costs without compromising urban planning quality. With Big Data, urban planners can develop data-based planning models, finding the best possible solutions so they can move forward with the best strategy.

Start with the Right Platform

Having data is well and good, but you need to be able to analyse and interpret it for it to become truly useful. As such, you need the right tools for the job. Here’s where Latize’s intelligent data management platform Ulysses enters the scene. By harmonising disparate internal and external data sets and building for you an intelligent and holistic web of data, it allows you to derive the insights you need for your business. Contact us today and we’ll show you how to make Big Data do wonders for your business.