18 southern tech 100 roundtable ... continued from previous page
consumers within our daily lives when compared to the advances within the businessworld.
“Our family spend, at any supermarket, is often related to offers available, which are sent to our phones, laptops, email and our letterbox.“ He noted that his family expenditure at certain supermarkets had significantly reduced during a phase when the company stopped providing relevant Big Data-sourced offers. “ Clearly the supermarket in question spotted it, and quickly did something about their marketing.“
“So why is the B2B market so far behind B2C?“ asked Murray.
Walker: “Dunnhumby* was created because of the B2C opportunity to assess such a vast number of consumers through the single major channel of Tescos, whereas the B2B market is very fragmented.“ (*The UK-based customer science company that helped establish the Tesco loyalty card.)
else’s.“ Taylor suggested. “Can we identify what that trigger is that will make people purchase?“
At the last annual Gartner Symposium in Barcelona“ ... everyone was trying to leverage Big Data, which is now accepted as a business term.“
Last year focused on ’the digital moment’ – influencing that half-second in which consumers decide to buy one brand or another, he explained. Now, people were trying to tie Big Data into the Internet of Things (IoT) to make data gathering simpler and information more readily available.
Could there be a consumer backlash to the intrusion of Big Data technology, asked Murray.
Taylor: “It’s already happened. No- one likes unsolicited calls and emails, particularly text messages, but we have spam-filters, and even personal ’bio- filters’ in that we actively ignore pop-up advertising, for example.
“But, businesses do need to be very careful about the way they communicate with potential customers.
If it’s relevant it is
useful and good, if it’s irrelevant then people get upset and view it as spam.“
The value of establishing the true value of Big Data
Matt Hembrow
“There is a terrific opportunity for someone to get that right for B2B, probably by business sector and with different Big Data applications, but I don’t see enough evidence of that in our space at present.“
Taylor said his company had worked with Dunnhumby before Tescos acquired it. “At that time, most retailers did not believe data was important, so they outsourced it. Then they began to realise the power that it offered.
“We all have relevant structured data – customer lists, supply details, P&Ls – and it may be that unstructured Big Data, being so huge and disorganised, is not very relevant to an organisation – but time will tell.
“Now we have the technology, we can dig into Big Data, and may find information that gives our business a bit of an edge.“
Big Data usage might enable an organisation “to get a customer to head out of the tube station and turn right to its business, rather than left to a competitor. Or buy its online services rather than someone
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Patent and trademark specialist White highlighted the data protection and IP legal ramifications of Big Data exploitation, noting that all data and information held within a company had a value, but the importance of that valued data was radically changing.
“In the 1970s company value was 80% in physical assets and 20% within intangibles. Now it is the other way around with most company value held within brands, ideas, company data and goodwill.“
It is important to know who owns what data within a company – is it the company, the employees, or is it customer data? An inventory of data and details of ownership are important for assessing potential uses, inefficiencies and could help reveal additional information that would be valuable to gain. Many businesses did not know the true value of their data, he added.
One key management ’balancing act’ would be the desire to exploit Big Data opportunity, set against the risk of using of Big Data illegally. And, when it came to transactions, being able to demonstrate compliant data recordal and even being able to put a value on intangible assets like company data, were vital, said White.
Valuation of intangible assets would also become more important within M&A activity.
Tim Walker
Control and proven added-value use of data would obviously help to drive up the valuation of a business overall, said Sharman.
Henwood noted that with IoT on the horizon, in some cases, the data collected from Internet-connected devices might actually become more valuable to a company than the devices themselves; the value of data generated from smart meters to utility companies could be an example of this.
Bloxham reflected on how technology had changed the data-driven recruitment sector, with Internet job-boards and social media making CVs and career opportunities readily known to wider markets. “It means professional recruiters have to be more competitive, and the value of our data is ironically somewhat diminished, because we are now working more on the services we provide and our relationships with candidates.“
In the past, recruitment consultants were the ’data analysts’ of their own client- candidate information. In future, Big Data might be able to analyse and automate significant areas of that role, but Bloxham questioned whether it could replace the human aspects of recruitment – a people business, after all.
Personal privacy and legal risks
Lawyer Robert Wassall stressed that with much Big Data being personal, usage and processing were likely to be limited by the Data Protection Act. “I’m not sure if many organisations fully understand that or the potential legal consequences of misuse. There are undoubtedly business benefits from Big Data, but we are talking about personal privacy, and that’s a big growing issue.“
Legal problems were arising from data already gathered, being used for purposes other than that consented to by the individual, he exampled. And if various data sources were combined or shared within new Big Data processing activities, would this be fair and legal, he queried? “People can have a severe
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – DECEMBER 15/JANUARY 16
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