Big Data For Small Companies

In May 2011 consulting powerhouse McKinsey published a thought-provoking report entitled, Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. The report highlights a number of points related to big sets of data, and outlines the implications for large enterprises that are generating and using big data.

But I think big data has big implications for small and growing companies as well.

Small and mid-sized organizations can also benefit from big data insights. Small companies can generate their own big data. Most companies are generating some sort of industry niche data. Collecting it, and making the data available are the next steps.

Given the growing importance of sharing quality fresh content, I think it’s important for all of us to investigate what type of data we’re generating, what it means, and how we can appropriately share it with our prospects and clients.

• The McKinsey big data report cites retail as an industry sector that can realize substantial savings by leveraging big data. Retail is an industry where big data can be used both internally and is also something that can be shared and acted on internally.
• Any company that processes a high number of transactions, or monitors changes in niche data is capable of generating its own rich sets of big data. If the data reveals a window into a niche industry trend, or an insight that your company can offer, it’s potentially valuable and could be part of building lucrative business partnerships and attract new types of customers who see value in your insights.

In the past, we used to rely on market research companies to deliver data and insights. While companies may still need this type of third-party support, I think many of us are now in a position to leverage increasingly larger sets of data, and wrap our own qualitative insights around them.

Nerdy But Neat

More and more sources of data become available each day. And many data sources are available via an API (application programming interface). In turn, this data can be used in a separate program, manipulated automatically, and displayed on the web and smartphones.

For example, Google makes their charts API publicly available for free. This allows you to display a graphical representation of live data on your Web site. You store your data in one place (you could use a free Google Docs spread sheet), or you grab data from somewhere else, then point the Google Charts API at it. Voila, you’ve got a cool-looking chart that automatically gets drawn on your Web site.

The Google Charts API is quite easy-to-use, fun, and potentially very interesting to your clients and prospects. Along with a little wrapper of what it means, you’re starting to provide data-backed insights for your clients. Do it on a password-protected portion of your Web site for clients. Provide a scaled-down “free” version of it on the public-facing portion of your Web site.

Conclusion

Whether it’s information about their FedEx order, aggregated data about their industry segment, or just the most popular-selling items, you can use a combination of big data and readily-available APIs to create extra value for your clients. Big data is a big trend wave that small business can ride as well.

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