Successful Blog

Big Data Could Mean Big Savings

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abigdataaaaIs your business looking to save money?

Chances are the answer is a resounding yes. Look no further than big data.

The current darling of the business world offers many advantages to businesses of all shapes and sizes, including yours.

So just how can big data save you money? And what can you do to give your businesses the biggest chance of succeeding with big data?

Big Data and How to Use It

Businesses these days have access to huge amounts of data, from sources such as website metrics, customer histories and social media stats.

These sets of data are too big to handle using everyday office software, and so are known as big data. Analyzing big data can offer insights on many aspects of your business. When it comes to your budget, analyzing big data offers insights that make things easier on the purse strings.

Saving Money by Spotting Leaks

When UPS started using big data to make sure their drivers were following the most efficient routes, they saved an impressive 15 million gallons of fuel during the first year. You too can use big data to see where your business is leaking money.

For example, you might track your sales over the course of a year and notice that during November you are buying in more stock than you need, some of which is going to waste. Now you can adjust how much you buy during that month, and save money.

Or perhaps you’ll compare the amount spent on a specific marketing channel with the revenue that comes back as a result of it to find out if the outlay is worth the return.

By using big data to track in-comings and outgoings or, like UPS, to spot inefficiencies in the way your business is run, you can spot potential leaks and take action.

Save Money by Knowing What Works

One of big data’s strengths is its usefulness in tracking customer behavior, and this can certainly save your business money.

Take for example your social media stats.

By getting an overview of which updates are the most liked and shared, which topics are the most popular, you can see what matters to your customers. That means you can give them more of what they want and tailor your business to match their needs, which is a more efficient use of your resources.

By using big data to analyze what is most liked, what provides the best return on investment and what is most popular with your customers; you can save your business a considerable amount of money in the long term.

How to Succeed With Big Data

To make big data work with your business, start small.

As pointed out in “Big Data Meets the Little Drone“, it’s often best to integrate big data with your existing systems at first, rather than going all-out on new technologies.

By starting small and honing in on one specific area, you can reap the rewards of big data without emptying the coffers.

When planning your big data adoption, don’t forget person power.

Big data needs someone to harvest it and analyze it. By having a good idea of who will do that and making sure they have the skills, time and support necessary to carry out the task, you’ll be giving yourself a better chance of getting what you need from big data.

Plan carefully, figure out where it’s best for you to begin, and work in enough time and support for you and your employees to get the job done, and you will soon be using big data to make big savings in your business over the long term.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Tristan Anwyn writes on a wide variety of topics, including social media, SEO, big data and saving money in your business.

Plug in to Importance of Computer Knowledge for Your Business

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asuccess82714As a business owner, what are your greatest needs?

Safe to say, many running companies these days still lack all the resources necessary to run their office computers, business website and more.

Whether due to finances or not seeing the bigger picture of how important computer knowledge is to a company’s fortunes especially in 2014 and beyond, some business owners need to stop and rethink their approach to technology.

If you’re running a business where technology is on the back burner, consider the following:

  • Not being computer savvy and relevant likely means you are losing potential and even some current customers to competitors;
  • You are missing out on chances to promote your company website, interact with consumers on social media and more;
  • Your employees are not as useful to you as they could be if you had the latest in computers and approaches to using technology at your disposal. Many people applying for jobs today have computer experience either from school and/or prior jobs, so use that to your company’s benefit.

With those three among a number of reasons computer experience is important to your business, how do you go about finding the right people for the job?

Computer Science Backgrounds Pay Off

According to a salary survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), those who graduated college just in the last year with a degree in computer science can expect to make in the area of $60,000, an increase of more than four percent from 2012. Surveyed employers to the tune of a little more than 65 percent indicated they would hire graduates in this major. For those with expertise as senior software engineers, $98,000 is the average income.

As more and more businesses are discovering and addressing, being Internet savvy is not enough in today’s world. Taking a mobile approach to promoting your brand and meeting the needs of customers is critical too.

Whether those you hire are in the areas of computer programmers, software developers, computer technicians or even SEO strategists, there must be a sizable degree of computer knowledge involved.

As your business grows its computer operations, make sure those you hire are effective communicators, team members and leaders that bring not only a high degree of computer science knowledge to the table, but also the ability to look to the future. Remember, your business must always be thinking about tomorrow and not yesterday.

Computer science jobs are only likely to increase in the years to come, with more employers coming to the realization that this field is a necessity and not an option in order to compete.

The question then becomes, is your business plugged in to the importance of computer knowledge?

If the answer is no, act today and not tomorrow.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers a variety of topics for various websites, among which include small business and technology.

Overcoming Big Data Skills Concerns

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Big data analytics has been proven to be highly beneficial for businesses, allowing them to extract optimal value from their data and make better-informed decisions.

As more and more businesses are adopting big data analytics, it is becoming increasingly necessary to make big data a part of your business strategy.

However, it is not easy to implement a big data solution, because there is a significant shortage of big data skills.

Then again, if you use the right hiring strategies, you may be able to recruit some of the best big data experts available in the market.

How to Hire the Right Big Data Talent

Define Responsibilities

Before you start the hiring process, it is essential that you clearly define the role and responsibilities that you want the big data expert to assume.

This will help you determine what kind of big data talent you should look for, so that you can attract the most suitable candidates. It also gives the candidates a clearer idea of your expectations.

Set Job Requirements

First of all, you need to set the minimum academic and experience qualifications to ensure that the candidate has the necessary knowledge, skills and training to handle the tasks that come with the job. Then, list down the specific skills and qualities that he or she must possess.

For instance, the candidate should be familiar with the specific type of big data solution that you are planning to implement.

According to a blog post entitled “Combating Big Data Skills Concerns“, business organizations are not only trying to recruit and retain experts to handle long-existing data management technologies, but also new big data technologies such as Hadoop.

It is important that you hire a big data expert who makes an effort to stay up-to-date with the latest big data technologies.

Attract the Best Candidates

Big data experts are highly sought after these days, and they can afford to be selective.

As such, you need to make a very competitive offer in order to attract the best big data talent. Big data experts enjoy solving challenging problems, and they thrive in an environment that allows them to exercise their creativity.

You can bait them by giving them interesting data to manage and fascinating problems to solve, so that they can satisfy their intellectual curiosity endlessly.

While money may not be the main factor affecting a big data expert’s choice of job, it is still an important consideration. Therefore, you have to make sure that you offer your big data expert a highly competitive salary.

Evaluate the Candidates

There are many tools from reliable sources that can help you perform a thorough and accurate evaluation of candidates.

You can use these tools to do resume screening and reference checks, conduct competency-based and background interviews, and create real-life scenarios to assess the responses of the candidates.

It is also a good idea to use psychometric assessments such as cognitive testing, emotional intelligence testing and motivational assessment.

A competent big data expert can do wonders for your business by helping you get the most out of your data.

By following the tips above, you can significantly increase your chances of landing the best big data talent.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of subjects, from social media marketing to Cloud computing.

Are You Seeing the Things that Make a Difference to Your Business and Your Life?

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1200x1200--GeniusShared ReadWhere Do You Focus Your Vision?


Take a 60-second look at this lights in this photo then try not to look back again as you answer the questions that follow it.

Now look at this while space for a while as you scroll down to a few questions about what you saw.

Where do you focus your vision? What’s important in your business and your life?

Are You Seeing the Things that Make a Difference to Your Business and Your Life?

Everyday we interact with a world of information that has potential for adding something to our our business, our brand, and our life. But the ways our brains work, the way we jealously guard our time time, we as easily overlook what we’re seeing as finding the fuel and the data that might …

  • to make our work and our lives easier … It’s not that we’re not thoughtful enough to find easier ways. It’s that we’ve forgotten to take time to reflect and think while we keep up our breakneck pace, racing through time to beat a clock that would work for us if took the time to look.
  • make our work and our lives simpler … It’s not that we’re in love with the complicate and difficult. It’s that we’ve come to believe that balance is adding more and more things to juggle without stopping to sort which really deserve our time.
  • make our work and our lives more meaningful and inspired … It’s not that we’re without mission or purpose. It’s that we’ve let our heads get disconnected from our hearts, setting that inspiration at a lower priority, not letting our aspirations fuel our businesses and our lives.

And those those thoughts, those beliefs change our world by changing what we see and how we respond it.

So answer me this, when you saw photo above, did you see …

  • the three lights up front that look like stars and the fourth that did not?
  • the light in the window of the building next door?
  • the trees along the harbor?
  • the reflections in the water?
  • the way the water changes color?
  • the yellow in the sky?
  • the red light under the clouds on the horizon?

Think for a minute about what you saw and what you missed. Were looking with your heart or with your head? Or did you hardly even look?

I started taking photos of the harbor so that I would remember to look. After months of pictures what I’ve found is that the harbor never looks exactly the same twice. The light and color from the sky add mood and flavor. They communicate about the weather that is and the weather is coming. They communicate about my connection to it. And that communication has unlimited power to open my eyes, open my mind, open my heart to what inspires me to what’s important in my business and my life.

Did you believe that you didn’t have time to really look? It’s not just the beautiful harbor. It’s the clouds and colors in the sky that change one day to the next.

It’s not just the “what” of the bar graph. It’s the people behind it that tell you the “why.”
It’s in the looking that we find the nuance, the detail, and the color that inform a business, a brand, and a life. Understand those and your work and your life will become easier, simpler, and more meaningful.

Are you seeing the things that make a difference to your business and your life?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss