How can Big Data Boost the Revenue for Businesses?

Though big data started a little slow yet considering the unprecedented growth of data volumes compelled enterprises to take a step ahead and vest in the technology. According to Harvard Business Review, nearly 99% of the entrepreneurs in the survey were convinced about the need to embed Big data analytics in their business sooner.  

However, another survey revealed that of this only 30% actually succeeded while others were still struggling. But hold on, this did not stop any of the organizations from trying as there has been a huge shift in ROI of the organization’s that have implemented Big data analytics in their work culture. Meaning that companies that base their decisions on real-time analytics are proven to have better returns as compared to others.  

As a matter of fact, it is the small scale companies that benefit the most when integrating big data solution to their everyday business operations. It is seen that big data help firms grab significant insights on the users’ choice and preferences which further enables them to drive their business keeping in mind the end customer and likewise, boost revenue while enhancing the entire workforce.  

Whether you are a newbie or a fifty fortune company, you would still need the flavor of big data across your business to drive maximum revenue. So, instead of debating on what, let see how big data can help your business strike maximum profit.  

Big Data Rides Business 

  • CRM & Marketing 

One of the most important aspects of any business is marketing. Where an ideal one would fetch customers, a poorly planned campaign might invite critics. No wonder why all business organizations strive to have an authentic marketing team that would target their customers so as to promote their business.  

A recent trend in the domain of marketing has been personalization. Today, marketers prefer directing customized emails or messages to specific customers targeting their choices. This in a way leads to a better and sophisticated approach which no doubt ends up in increased traffic.  

That is where big data analytics come to picture.  

Having the ideology of analyzing and assessing customers’ data, big data can help organizations determine the preferences and choices of different customers. This data further enables personalizing marketing campaigns giving users the ease to connect to your brand and likewise boost revenue.  

  • Enhanced Security 

A major reason why most of the startup companies fail is lack of security. Meaning that the environment they run their business in is vulnerable to hacks and attacks which question their credibility. 

It is seen that the post-integration of big data in business operations, organizations now employ a much safer and secured environment. The technology includes a variety of tools that automate tasks while adhering to the security standards. Needless to state that data hacks tend to put a dent in your business reputation costing you both trust and customer engagement. Hence, the adoption of big data mechanism to streamline tasks would not only better the operation flow but also safeguard your business from intruders or hackers. 

  • Sharing Data  

Startups or SMEs have one thing in common. They lack data, one that can help shape their product in such a way that it meets the expectations of the end-users. Problem-solving requires plentiful of information so that the product can adhere to the market standards. What if I say that all of this can be done without actually having the final product in hand, what if you can accelerate the time to market of your product? Data sharing is what big data aims to do.  

The technology convinces users to share personal data while being paid incentives for the same. Such data can be used by the companies to design their product narrowing down the time required to do market research and likewise, cost. The better the product, the greater the customer engagement and the higher the revenue earned.  

  • Customer Retention 

It’s been long since we saw the emergence of chatbots to connect with customers and serve them with their requests and queries. But this is just half of what big data has to offer in terms of chatbots.  

A recent study revealed that big data bots can be used as a guide that would help you design and develop your product in terms that satisfy the needs and preferences of the end-users. 

Having a dataset of customers opinion help determine which users prefer which particular feature and so you can then decide, which one to keep and which to omit. Surveys, polls or technology tracking is few methods by which one can gather user data to drive business insights and then make a real-time decision.  

  • Manage Inventory 

Big data over the cloud keeps track of all your goods in inventory and keeps you updated on the same. Merging big data tools and technologies to take over your inventory helps you attain a summarized view of the unit, eliminate bottleneck and further enhance the overall efficiency. Having access to real-time information enables store managers to better track goods and prevent stock outflow. An integrated system is more likely to etch success and drive profits when compared to a poorly managed system. 

Conclusion – The Verdict 

Having said that, it is no surprise that most of the tech giants are actively investing in technology and making use of the same to streamline their business operations while enhancing the entire infrastructure. This is just the tip of the iceberg and the technology has a lot to offer. Enterprises no longer think about why to implement but what and how to do ERP implementation.  

According to Bloomberg Businessweek Research, 97% of the companies that have adopted big data in their business mechanism report the prime reason to be better management of risk, increased profits and reduced costs. While some might debate on the data accuracy, but the ones that are using it, know about it. It is your job to find the best way to implement the technology, once done, revenue would automatically follow. 

Application Performance Management for Enterprise – Why and How?

Software management is one of the long-standing tasks in the digital world today. Considering the fact that present-day business is primarily laser-focused, organizations are now aware of the fact that  

  • Employee & customer experience is vital for business success, and 
  • Software performance determines the above-stated experience, at large.  

Now that the software performance owns the potential to either make or break a company, it becomes imperative for the leaders and the managers to pay immense focus on driving APM or to be precise, Application Performance Management. Using tools and embedding technologies that would tie up with your development phase leading to the creation of a feature-rich application.  

Given the time where food is delivered in 30 minutes and even in some cases, 20 minutes, customers have expectations of prompt delivery. Whether you use Google or Facebook, the response time has changed the way users connect to the outer world. If your page takes even a second more to open, it is deemed as broken or slow or irresponsive. Needless to state that such a user experience might seem fatal for your business and likewise, brand value.  

Added to the above, a slower website would influence the SEO ranking affecting the rate of conversion and the revenue on a whole. Hence, it becomes imperative for business managers to employ methodologies proven to manage and monitor the performance of an application.  

Having said that, let’s have a quick look at what exactly do we mean when we say the term Application Performance Management. 

Application Performance Management 

Application Performance Management is a much wider term than we seek it to be. While for some it might appear to be similar to application monitoring but in reality, APM consists of tools that help prevent problems, resolve issues, continuously improve alongside monitoring the application.  

Now just knowing about the practice isn’t enough and one needs to be adept in the processing and organizing of the entire tool so as to drive maxim benefits. Employing a holistic approach further narrows down the hurdles that might crossfire your application while being tested and monitored. Additionally, a better approach leads to better performance, maximum resources utilization and enhanced troubleshooting.  

An efficient APM system is capable of determining the core reason behind the occurrence of an issue along with providing solutions to deal with the same. Further, the APM tools also provide support to the organizational goal of helping managers to cut down on the cost and time of management. Needless to state that driving collaboration between the business operations and the application performance fuels organizational growth on a whole.  

Detecting Issues  

The process of APM starts with the detection of anomalies and localization. Now, these mandates using tools and technologies to aid the same.  

  • Application Monitoring: This includes tracking metrics of performances, components and application tier availability added with services, OS, database, etc.  
  • Business Transaction Monitoring: This tool deals with testifying the credibility of business transactions. Meaning that determining whether the transactions were complete, legit, noting their timings and further identifying the pain points in the request query.  
  • Synthetic Monitoring: Special scripts created by the developer to automate simulation of application actions.  
  • Real-time User Monitoring: Data analytics has proven to be a groundbreaking tool. Using customer interaction data helps identify the performance of the application gaining insights on the response time, traffic and additional information.  
  • Log Analysis: Where metrics identify the possibility of an error, logs highlight the exact place that might have caused an error. This, in a way, helps you get to the root of the problem and then provide a solution.  

How to Organize APM? 

Having mentioned all of the above, you might be wondering that APM tools drive much of the process and surely they do. However, it’s not the tools alone that account for better performance but the measures you take on getting hinted of the problems by the specified tools.  

An efficient application performance management runs as:  

  • Problem Detection 

The process of application development performance management starts with running tools and detecting all of the problems and issues as incurred within the entire application.  

  • Prioritization  

Post identification of the application performance problems, next step account’s for prioritizing all of them to keep the most important one at the top and the others descend.  

  • Alerting  

Here, the concerned stakeholders or the department are alerted on the presence of problems. Issues that are largely serious gets highlighted.  

  • Isolation 

Separating the important ones from the least important ones.  

  • Diagnosis 

Here, the encountered problems are passed through the appropriate tool to find out the exact description of the problem and further outlining ways by which the same can be resolved.  

  • Repairing 

Repairing entails applying and integrating the above-suggested measures to solve the issue.  

  • Prevention  

Integrating measures so as to prevent the occurrence of the same bug again.  

  • Testing  

Once the problem is identified, worked upon and resolved, the next step requires testifying the same to detect whether the problem still persists.  

  • Reporting   

This includes drafting a report or a summary of the entire management process. Meaning that the concerned person has to be notified about the problem, steps taken to solve, the effects it laid on the entire application development, etc. An efficient reporting helps the development team be aware of the scenario and stay updated.  

The above is the entire lifecycle of APM. Each of the said processes is as important as the other. Now, the question of who is responsible to make the above possible?  

It could either be the DevOps team or a technical team or a performance engineer who takes the task to run APM tools and build in a new environment of development and management. However, it might not be possible for a single person to take over the entire process as problems could elude from anywhere or everywhere. Hence the entire organizational team linked with the project has to step forward to test and ensure that the developed application is free from glitches and would function well across all platforms and in all conditions.