Whatever the size of your business, Big Data is having an impact on you, whether you want it to or not. It’s 2017 and data is flying out of every single digital device you can think of, it’s inevitable that it is swaying opinion, markets and industries. We’re already seeing the result with companies like GE embedding sensors in wind turbines that can produce up to 500GB of data a day. And that’s just a wind turbine. Imagine the scale of insight you can gleen from people actually interacting with things.

Big Data, when used right, can grow your business in a myriad of ways. That’s all well and good, you know that, I know that, but what about the big bosses that hold the purse strings? These guys and gals need something tangible to grasp in order to sign off on your latest Big Data project, so let’s give it to them…

Get Ahead Of The Competition

If you ever needed a reason to do something, it’s to beat your direct competitors. If you’re in a highly competitive industry that innovates all the time, pointing to a rival and going “they’re doing it” maybe enough. If it isn’t, then you need to find those delicious facts and figures that will make the C-suits get hungry.

Dropping a big name is often your best bet, like Amazon. Their web services division (AWS) purely deals with data storage, security and handling, basically, they’re propping up huge parts of the internet. The fact they’re so invested screams at your bosses they need to take it seriously, but if they need an extra push, just tell them that Amazon is looking to make $10billion from AWS this year alone.

Increase Efficiency

Never underestimate the power of selling the top dogs the same thing you’re currently doing – but better. You’ve already got a business you’re succeeding with, so convincing them to use Big Data should be easy. We all know they’ll ask how and why.

Firstly, the how – invest in technology. Computer upgrades and new software programmes often get overlooked because the budget here is never ending cycle or repair or replace. But the fact is, a touch more investment could improve data processing, data handling or cut out unnecessary steps in your processes.

For those with more specialised needs, for example R&D, tech investment gets a bit more complicated. In order to streamline the process you need to ensure everyone can access and share information from the lab to the boardroom. Investment in something like an electronic notebook would allow you to do this, and the investment would be evident in returns extremely quickly.

The why is obvious – cutting costs and increasing profit. But if you need a fact to solidify it, how about Merck & Co.? They used  Big Data to fix an issue with a vaccine, performing billions of calculations over 5.5 million batches and fixed the problem in 3 months. If these guys didn’t have data access throughout the process, they never could have done that.

Innovate

What do you do when you’ve already pitched beating the competition and streamlining internal processes? Innovation, of course!

This does tie in to beating the competition but actually has more to do with becoming the leaders in your industry. Thinking, and investing, outside the box is a terrifying prospect as it’s risky, and most big bosses don’t like risk. Big Data can take a lot of uncertainty out of this kind of investment. Analysing customer feedback, buying habits, market trends, product clicks and abandoned shopping carts can reveal trends that might just push you towards something new.

Need some numbers to back that up? Of course you do. 29% of business said Big Data has helped create new revenue. That new revenue, not making savings or taking market share, that’s money from Big Data helping them do something different.

If you need any more reasons to take Big Data seriously, take a look at this infographic.