Month: May 2013

To make an educated assessment about a particular component of society, you need a large sample size. If one individual behaves a particular way while shopping, that doesn’t necessarily indicate a trend. But if 1,000 people display this same behavior, especially if they are condensed in a certain area, that might be something of note. Organizing a marketing strategy to target this type of person is valuable if data indicates that there are a lot of them, but the information gleaned from this aggregation of individuals can take business strategies to a whole other level.

Let’s start with your group of a few thousand customers. Suppose these people shop online at night. That’s great information that can be used to adjust operations to ensure that group is targeted properly. But while that large collection of consumers behaves in a similar fashion, they each have their own distinguishing features, idiosyncrasies and preferences that should be accounted for.

Suppose that, of that group of people who buy online during the night time, 60 percent are female and 40 percent are male. Then, perhaps 40 percent of the women are over 50, 30 percent are aged 30-49 and the other 30 percent are under 30. This is where things can get interesting. Not only does each sub-demographic have its own traits, the individuals inside them will behave independently of one another. Groups can be broken down to the individual. Each person represents a segment of a larger collection, but everyone is unique. Businesses that understand this can get a firm reading on each consumer and address their actions accordingly.

Patrick Wolfe, a statistician who studies social networks at University College in London, understands this. Wolfe spoke with the MIT Technology Review about the power of data and how it can be used to find out certain characteristics of each individual consumer.

“There is so much more data out there that you can afford to tailor it to the individual,” Wolfe said. “Statistically, strength comes from pooling people together, but then the icing on the cake is when you individualize the findings.”

Data can do so much, but it must be properly organized for those tasked with analyzing it to obtain the greatest possible value. Developing a custom database software system will allow businesses to use their information in a way that identifies groups and then pinpoints individuals. For instance, if businesses know that males shop a certain way and people over the age of 50 buy in a manner that’s different than younger individuals, a 52-year-old man will be treated based on that information. A significant amount of cross-referencing will have to be done and it will likely take a robust software system that helps keep that information organized.

FileMaker development can help companies build an application that can manage all of this data. It might be easy to get confused when businesses are using their information to build targets for each customer, but a FileMaker-based system will keep everything organized and allow organizations to extract the most value from their data.

The effects of big data are being felt by individuals throughout their respective organizations, from the highest executives to entry-level end users. The former, however, are experiencing the biggest impact because their pertinent business decisions are being fueled by the information their company processes on a daily basis.

This is the subject of the upcoming MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, taking place on the Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus later this month. Recently, Erik Brynjolfsson, an MIT professor and moderator of the upcoming event, spoke with the online publication Tech Target and shared his thoughts on big data and how it's affecting business executives in 2013. 

"In particular, the availability of data is making it possible for managers to make much more data-driven decisions, instead of relying on instinct and gut feel," Brynjolfsson said. "Now we are finally beginning to have really good measures of what's going on with our customers, with our employees, with our suppliers, with our business processes, with the products and services we sell. With really good data comes the opportunity to make more data-driven decision making – and it is already delivering results."

He went on to say that according to their research, companies that use data to drive their processes are 5 percent more productive than their competitors and 6 percent more profitable. In short, decisions backed by data tend to be smarter and lead to better results.

Of course, obtaining data is only the start. It has to be processed and viewed in a way that allows for smart decisions to be made in a timely manner. FileMaker helps with this process because it allows organizations to build effective custom database software systems, which will give them a clear view of their information and help them understand how to use it. 

The advantages of building mobile business solutions have been discussed at great length in this blog, but much of the benefits of implementing a mobile strategy have been geared toward those who conduct business on the go. The ability to process information and build reports during the course of a business road trip, for example, is a strong driver of mobile adoption. However, while this benefit will always attract companies to go this route, there are many advantages that can be felt in-house.

FileMaker recently published a study that found that 59 percent of respondents connect their mobile devices to their company’s wireless networks and servers. These individuals are using their gadgets – whether they are deployed by the organization or brought from home as part of a BYOD strategy – inside the walls of the facility as a way to automate internal processes.

Ryan Rosenberg, vice president of marketing and services for FileMaker, Inc., released a statement in which he referred to those who use mobility inside the office as productivity warriors and indicated that they are fueling the rise in these devices in the business market.

“The next wave of business mobility, fuelled by iPad and iPhone-equipped ‘productivity warriors,’ is delivering real ROI by automating processes in the building and on the company campus,” Rosenberg said. “Of course we see many traditional road warriors using FileMaker, but we were surprised to find how much use was actually occurring inside the building. We were also impressed at how frequently businesses are replacing paper-based processes with iPads and iPhones, thus automating areas of their business not practical before.”

FileMaker can help with custom application development so those who use their devices in the office can improve the way they manage data and improve their own processes.

Since the advent of big data as a common business issue and cloud computing as a data management solution, there has been much chatter about both. Some of the more traditionally-minded professionals have suggested that the cloud is an inadequate information management solution because it lacks the level of security businesses need. Those fears can be put aside.

An article in Smart Businesses titled "How holding to cloud hosting and data management myths could cost you" addresses this very issue and emphatically states that many of the fears about cloud computing are unfounded. 

"Cloud infrastructure is at least as secure and possibly more secure than the dedicated servers many companies are currently using," writes Ryan Niddel, the article's author. "The hardware virtualization architecture used in cloud hosting keeps systems working through redundancy, which means utilizing multiple servers to back up clients' data. And the transition from one environment to another happens with no perceived interruption in service."

Essentially, the nature of hosting data in the cloud is what will inevitably protect it from a security breach. This means that when organizations are finding ways to manage information, perhaps by creating a custom database software system, hosting that solution in the cloud will go a long way toward keeping information safe. 

FileMaker is a perfect development solution for businesses looking for smart ways to store and manage their data. Not only will they be able to build an effective application that can help view and report on information in real-time, the ability to host this system in the cloud will provide extra layers of efficiency. And, despite traditional thought, users managing this system in the cloud can rest assured knowing their data is safe and secure.