Examples of Big Data that your company needs to know

Every moment, individuals, devices, companies and the public sector generate a huge volume of data, all over the world. There is a lot of talk about data, but in practice, do you know examples of Big Data? And they are closer than you think!

The result of a Big Data process can be present in training salespeople in retail chains, in monitoring fleets of rented vehicles, in an investor portal or in dashboards for daily monitoring of sales, stock and deliveries in a multinational, or in many other examples.

In fact, on the Smart Blog there is an article about “What is Big Data, what is it for and how to apply it? you will find more detailed information on the topic.

In this article we will cover some relevant concepts and bring some examples of Big Data that your company needs to know!

The “Data Driven” world and the importance of Big Data

In the world we currently live in, data is of fundamental importance.

So much so, that the term “Data Driven” was even created, which is the equivalent of being “data-driven”, with applications in all areas.

In this scenario, Big Data plays a central role, as it consists of the methodology and technology necessary to deal with large volumes of data, to obtain insights.

“Big data are high-volume, high-velocity and/or high-variety information assets that require innovative and cost-effective ways of processing information and that enable enhanced insight, decision-making and process automation” Gartner Group.

This data, after storage, processing and analysis, provides valuable information to make assertive decisions and actions in the short, medium and long term.

The Value of Big Data

In general terms, we are basically talking about data, related to the 3 Vs:  Volume, Speed ​​and Variety. To these 3V’s we can add two more: Variability (over time) and Veracity. It is worth noting that there is also a 6th “V”, Value – which is what really matters!

The value that translates into precise insights for decision making, in order to prevent errors and optimize the chances of success in each choice.

And the value for each company is translated into a type of information, presented in a format. Next, we will present some examples.

Examples of Big Data in companies

The application of Big Data is very broad! Governments and companies from the most varied sectors already use it, in the most varied segments: food, clothing, logistics, among others.

We will mention some examples of Big Data here, so that you can have a practical idea of ​​its use in medium and small companies, as well as the value it can add to your business:

Vehicle Fleet – Monetization of data from IoT devices

How to take advantage of the information generated by a fleet of vehicles and offer solutions so that customers can manage their fleets more efficiently?

To make this possible, it was necessary to consolidate data from different sources, such as maintenance, consumption and data from sensors installed in vehicles.

The following drawing illustrates the data sources (Iot and Legacy Databases), which, once consolidated in SQL Datawarehouse, underwent treatment and analysis in Analysis Services. Subsequently, the data received visual treatment in Power BI and was directed to Dashboards embedded in the Customer Portal, via Power BI Embedded.

The result was the creation of a new service, monetized and marketed to customers, consisting of several management dashboards in Power BI, embedded in the Customer Portal.

Training Platform for Retail Companies

How to collect training data from teams at large retail companies and make this same data available on a training platform with dashboards, to improve service for these companies?

The data, collected during the training (which was initially unstructured), was obtained by Data Factory, which orchestrated and transformed the data, consolidating it in a Datawarehouse SQL Server, to be consumed and treated visually in Power BI and made available via Power BI Embedded in the Training Portal.

In the Dashboard format, the data was available to client employees and is used in the Training Platform, which provides development for each employee based on real data.

Consolidation of Sales, Stock and Delivery Information

How would a multinational be able to consolidate data on a daily basis, from Sales, Inventory and Deliveries?

By consolidating data from two systems into two SQL Databases and using Common Data Service Dynamics 365, with daily ETL (Extract / Transform / Load) execution in a single Datawarehouse, it was possible to gather all this data in an organized way for future visualizations.

With data updated daily, the company has the necessary vision to make more assertive decisions.

New Investor Portal with consolidated data

How to consolidate investment data into a new investor portal?

To load large volumes of data into the Datawarehouse, the most recent technologies from Microsoft were used at the time: Event Hub to alert about the presence of new data at the source and trigger a trigger, integrated with Data Factory, Databricks and Azure Synapse, with the output of processed and processed data visually to the Web, on the Investor Portal.

Using all these technologies together, it was possible to consolidate millions of data from daily transactions and process them, so that they were available to customers on the Investor Portal.

Data and Solutions Engineering – Big Data Examples

Due to the characteristics of Big Data, traditional databases and processing applications are unable to deal with all this load and complexity.

Many companies today work with huge amounts of data – millions/billions of rows, terabytes of data.

In this scenario with a large volume of data, it is necessary to consider the scalability of resources in data management, so that it is possible to reduce costs and gain efficiency when operating on a large scale, compared to a smaller scale.

Data Engineering is the area of ​​IT that creates a data architecture to unify this platform and Big Data resources, with scalability.

Solutions

To enable the designed Data Architecture, Microsoft Azure has several solutions, according to the process steps, which we describe below, such as Azure Data Factory, Azure Analysis Service, Azure HDInsights and Azure Synapses, among others.

We described above some of the solutions available in the cloud, but it is worth noting that there are also solutions to carry out this process in a physical environment (on-premises).

How can Smart Consulting help your company?

Smart Consulting uses technology to improve your business performance, in an easy and intuitive way.

We can help your company transform your data into insights that will change the way your company makes decisions.

How about creating a Data Driven, data-driven culture?

In this article we saw that Big Data is essential for companies to remain competitive in the modern world.

With risk reduction, cost savings, better choices, operational efficiency, better expense estimates and better identification of opportunities, companies have a basis for solid growth.

All this to provide you with the best insights, with information that is truly useful for your business.

Now that you know what Big Data is and what it can do for your company, how about taking the next step?

Talk to us and discover the ideal solution for you!