Big Data … there I said it. As annoying as it is to hear that term, it is a very real problem that has plagued companies for years now. At the core of the problem is a legacy approach to collecting, correlating and acting on customer data.
Big Data systems typically collect ALL of the data from numerous disparate sources and then try to stitch it all together. Weeks later, someone is looking at a report – too late! So how do we solve the Big Data conundrum? By modernizing the data supply chain of course!
Modernizing the data supply chain relies on true real-time data. By removing batch processes and post-collection data correlation, we are exposed to a customer data set that flows smoothly through all facets of a company’s data supply chain. Think of all of your marketing and sales systems as the consumers of this data, now they have exactly what they need when they need it, a single source of actionable truth!
Vendors desire the freshest and most accurate data in order to optimize their customer interactions. In the modern data supply chain, they can now tap into that real-time flow of data at any moment within the customer journey. The industry will need to adapt to this level of data agility; many vendors are already built for nimbleness, while others will struggle to evolve past the batch process ways of the past.
Companies who modernize their data supply chain will experience a brand new era that focuses solely on the entire customer journey with unlimited possibilities.
So what is possible with a modernized real-time supply chain?
I was reading a fascinating article in Forbes that says marketing’s next big opportunity is the Internet of Things (IoT). That got me thinking – the IoT will only be as good as the data it has available to act upon. A modernized data supply chain will fuel the entire IoT, thus effectively making the impossible easily achievable!
It’s a very bright future indeed.
