Data warehousing was most certainly an important stage and milestone for large amounts of data that needed to be stored over the years. But, in many ways, data warehousing is just like a locker where info is stored away – and companies are often unable to drill down into the huge amounts of incoming data in order to extract strategic value.
So says Johann Evans, chief technology officer (CTO) at unified data management company, Cherry Olive.
“At the end of the day, the basic definition of a data warehouse revolves around storage. A data warehouse is intended to serve like a locker where data is received, sorted up and placed securely so companies, and businesspeople, can run analytics. But analytics without action serves no purpose and too often businesses don’t put that analysis to work because it was simply too much of a difficult a task.
“To be honest, they actually just can’t – and this basic impasse brings us to the next stage of business and the evolution of data management, which is essentially big data. Big data is essentially what allows companies to act intelligently on their data.
“Because, let’s face it: having all that data stored away – without action and finely drilled interpretation – is almost useless. What you have, to a certain degree, is a large glob of stored information,” says Evans.
With the massive growth of the Internet over the last two decades and the vast opportunities offered by tools and technologies such as digital marketing, a massive need for personalising this data –and turning it into intelligent data – has been created.
“In the past data was created from a number of sources. However, since the early 1990s these sources of information have increased exponentially, into many layers of sources. With this occurrence companies have realised the importance of not only storing this data, but also the importance of acting intelligently on it.
“Now, seemingly overnight, business can interact with each customer on a one-to-one – and personalised basis- despite the huge amounts of data coming in. This is beyond the capabilities of a traditional database, which has taken a back seat in the gathering and use of data.. Now a company needs to – and wants to –interact across a host of interfaces, including e-mail, CRM, disparate databases, to direct mail.”
Suddenly business was parachuted into a world where every single interaction that a company can have with a client can be completely tailored to their needs and wants. Every single aspect of that experience, from the Web site, e-mail and CRM, to direct mail trails can be tailored to give companies a business insight that, in the past, just wasn’t possible.
Evans says that in the recent past good marketing strategies and stories could not be effectively implemented. This is because they need to be implemented, not only to catch the attention of clients, but to sway them to interface further with the company – including making more purchases.
“Because, let’s face it: good marketers, when successful, are really the best to create a compelling customer story. Besides this, they are also starting to go beyond being plain marketers and are looking increasingly at the technical aspects of the company – including understanding some of the nuances of big data.
“Marketers don’t need to be IT gurus, but they need to become more familiar with the role that technology can play in more specifically luring customers to react to their marketing drives. If they do react to these marketing campaigns, this could, indeed, translate into more revenue for the company they work for.
“In the past this data was seldom used because the majority of people in the company had no way to access the data – and the cost to do so was also punitive. Some companies did invest in analytics departments to try and make use of the data. But this was expensive and, at the end of the day, the return on investment was seen as parlous. And, at the end of the day, bright marketing plans crashed and burnt,” says Evans.
But the market has now progressed and big data and marketing are moving more deeply towards a symbiotic relationship. Acting on intelligent data goes beyond just running data warehouses. Big data is the biggest trend in marketing right now – and it can cascade down, or up, permeating into any important business decision that may, or may not, be made.
“Big data does not only assist with marketing, it can also be seen as the dashboard of business initiatives and decisions. It allows a company to gain a better understanding of all aspects of the business, including consumer behaviour, data aggregation and utilisation of that data for the purposes of increasing efficiency in a company’s marketing efforts – as well as business decisions, both big and small.
“Big data, if managed properly, can lead to the unlocking of customer data, creating classification schema and rich taxonomies for activating that data, and enabling company-wide sharing thereof – so it can produce more intelligent business plans.
“The data warehouse is not dead, it just plays a smaller role – a few layers down within the information hierarchy – to assist with the final goal of being able to turn big data into smart and personalized data,” he concludes.
