The data flow that a company must manage grows more and more every day, fed by the multiple communication channels open with customers and suppliers. Thus, data comes from the web, from sales outlets, warehouses and couriers, from service centers, as well as from the various company departments: we talk about Big Data as a reference point to coordinate all activities within the company.
The optimal management of Big Data is a very complex process, which starts from the multi-channel collection of information and then stores it in a structured way (an example is the segmentation of customers into homogeneous groups according to certain characteristics).
The subsequent data analysis allows defining strategies to create added value, for example an engaging and personalized marketing campaign, tailor-made for a certain type of customer, in order to increase its loyalty to the company brand, or a new one organization of the warehouse that reduces the time and cost of shipping the products.
What are the steps to optimize Big Data management?
More and more often, the manager with the responsibility of technologies is "distracted" by technical problems, various requests and problems to be solved, because the company uses different software, the overall budget at its disposal is limited, the other business areas become they turn to him to understand how they must manage their data and so on.
So, the fundamental need for the Chief Technology Officer is to use a technological platform that can simplify and speed up his work and that of other managers, such as the marketing manager.
Summing up, Big Data must be treated on several levels, so essentially with a set of unified strategies in a dedicated software. Here are the basic steps:
- Multi-channel collection from various physical and digital media.
- Structured storage of information collected.
- Processing / analysis to create additional value.
- Security and protection against IT risks.
Security is a decisive factor, since the interactions mediated by digital technologies are expanding very rapidly, consequently the data are exposed to a greater vulnerability (cyber-attacks, data loss, counterfeits etc.).
Ensuring reliability and privacy of Big Data is therefore an essential part of the entire work of the Chief Technology Officer.
The new combination of Big Data and Blockchain
A particularly interesting and innovative development in this field is that of the blockchain or "chain of blocks" protocols that allow to validate very complex operations, such as payments / transactions, using cryptographic systems with a very high degree of protection from external threats.
With these systems it is also possible to optimize logistics activities, taking advantage of the blockchain to track the movements of resources and raw materials from / to the company: we think, for example, of the difficulties of certifying the origin of a specific product within the scope of a complex supply chain, difficulties that can be more easily overcome if a blockchain protocol is used to verify every single passage from one supplier to another.
Access to content, verification of digital identities, management of online contracts, are other "sensitive" operations that require increasingly advanced security tools.
But ultimately, if every data is collected, processed and managed in an intelligent and safe way, through a technological platform integrated in the various business functions, for the CTO and other managers it will become much easier to concentrate on the most valuable activities, without wasting time in the resolution of technical problems or lack of coordination between departments.
It is precisely the data that "tells" the actions of customers and suppliers, their choices and preferences, their usual behaviors, purchase intentions, the reasons that led them to abandon a transaction, so they are a potential treasure chest from which extract as much wealth as possible in terms of trends and forecasts, with which to implement effective marketing strategies.
