Data, in no time, has turned out to be one of the biggest assets for organizations. Thus, having the right data strategy in place holds the utmost importance. the humungous nature of the data and its endless capacity attract the need for systematic accessibility, analysis, presentation, security, and appropriate usage strategy. Every field that one can imagine cannot do without data. Data forms the foundation of any business objective to be achieved. Every step, no matter how small it is, requires data. Every organization does its part in collecting all the data that it feels would be important to meet the business goals.
Though Big data is a key element of digital transformation, it demands analytical thinking and computational skills. It also encompasses the essential ecosystem for the application and influence of the industrial internet of things, big data and analytics towards sustainable value creation, and robotic process automation, in a Post-COVID world. Big Data analysis will be helpful for start-ups from various nuances of entrepreneurship like techpreneurship, servicepreneurship, healthpreneurship, and more where big data plays a very important role.
Big data is an umbrella term that is used to signify all the processes, tools, and algorithms that help manage large data sets with primary characteristics of velocity, volume, and variability, which need a reliable structure for storage and analysis to draw insights. Analytics helps discover hidden patterns, risks, and correlations that help in strategizing innovations and improvements in customer services to amplify business engagements. Advanced software technologies that are efficient and swift are used to draw big data analytics.
Every organization does its part in collecting all the data that it feels would be important to meet the business goals. However, the whole purpose is lost when there isn’t a strategy that outlines how to access the collected data to achieve the goals. To build an effective data strategy, there are some aspects that when taken into account would ensure that the big data is made use of in the best possible manner.
Type of Data
It is important that the understanding the type of data that is required before data collection.
This is important because out of all the data available, not everything might turn out to be useful. What follows this is identifying ways in which one can source the required data.
It becomes very important to check the format of the data for selecting the right methodology of computation and analysis. Making use of the right techniques would help here. Lastly, steps must be taken to store the required data properly. Data is often described by five characteristics i.e., Volume, Value, Variety, velocity, and Veracity.
Technology
Technology plays a vital role in meeting business objectives. As far as data is concerned, having a good technological infrastructure in place to collect, store, process, and communicate the insights from the data is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. There are plenty of data analysis and visualization tools available that addresses various objectives and complexity levels. A simple tool like MS Excel aids many complex analysis needs.
Today, considering how humongous data is, the demand for professionals who would be able to work on it in the best possible manner is at an all-time high. The problem is – skilled professionals who would play a pivotal role in building an effective big data strategy are very less when compared to the demand. Thus, focusing on identifying the training needs and working on the same is the need of the hour. Though there are enormous data available, it is useless unless there is no effective big data strategy to transform it into a desirable form to be able to draw meaningful insights.
When it comes to getting a deeper understanding of the target audience, evaluating their preferences, and analyzing market changes, big data has become the one-stop solution to all these queries. Several large-scale and small-scale organizations in the world are using data analytics to make informed decisions about their business processes and to speed up their growth.
Data governance
Certain aspects of data governance shouldn’t go unnoticed when it comes to building an effective big data strategy. Everything right from the data quality, security, access, ownership, ethics, and data privacy within your organization should be well adhered to. The regulations such as US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) demand the right framework for data collection, analysis, usage, and publishing.
HIPAA privacy rights that are covered under consent and portability give patients the right to access, update and transfer healthcare information. Similarly, GDPR gives for data privacy and security and ensures the autonomy of the patient over personalized data. There is a possibility that India may adopt a similar data protection framework that of HIPAA and GDPR for the healthcare industry by 2027-28.
Following are the areas where big data a key role in business processes.
- Boost Patient Loyalty and Retention: Patient loyalty is the greatest achievement for healthcare service providers. Hospitals and healthcare providers are leveraging big data to observe different customer-related patterns and trends. Observing the patient’s behavior is crucial to inculcate brand loyalty in them. It also takes into account the behavioral patterns to observe them and create a preference pattern and referral tendency in the need. The basic step of patient retention is to deliver what they want, and data analytics is the perfect tool for it.
- Enhanced Risk Management: Behind the relentless service delivery and alertness while serving society seamlessly, there is a business side of healthcare too. Risk management is critical for any type of business and this applies to the healthcare industry too. Big data analytics helps hospitals to develop risk management solutions. By leveraging predictive analytics, hospitals now can detect risks beforehand and come up with improved solutions and better strategies.
- Increased Data Safety: Big data tools and analytics platforms provide security to vital business information. Big data tools for security like firewalls, monitor traffic that enters and leaves the servers. The firewall provides strong filters that prevent attacks from illegal activities and cyber criminals. The recent incidents of security breach and ransomware attacks on prominent healthcare organizations in the country highlights the need for the adoption of better data safety practices.
- Regulating the Supply Chain Management: Since the supply chain involves the flow of goods and services, including finished goods and raw materials, hospitals need accurate and clear insights from the market to facilitate the availability of raw materials, equipment, devices, and consumables. Analytics monitor the movement of goods and services and help businesses prevent huge financial losses that may be occurred due to pilferage, unnecessary inventory storage, movement of goods, wastage, and shortage.
Implementing big data tools and applications in healthcare processes will enable hospitals and healthcare players to gain a competitive edge, reduce operational costs and build strong patient, doctor, and vendor relationships. In the future, it will open unprecedented opportunities for stakeholders of the healthcare industry to enhance their productivity and become more efficient.
