3 Ways Data Science Helps Connect Business and Technology

The world is slowly but surely getting used to the idea that data science will become an essential part of the business world.

Hosting Tribunal reports that the global business community has already received over $20 billion in revenue from big data analytics in 2019.

There are plenty of benefits that big data can bring your business. For instance, according to Hosting Tribunal, moving to a cloud can improve your business’s agility by 29% and shorten payback times by 30%.

Besides, according to this source, businesses that plan to benefit from big data, could potentially increase their operating margins by up to 60%.

Yet, the global business market is still stumbling to fully appreciate the advantages that big data analytics can offer.

Reportedly, only 53% of businesses have successfully adopted big data analytics. And there are several reasons why business owners are reluctant to invest in it.

First of all, there is a significant shortage of professionals compared to the high demand for big data analytics.

Apart from that, a considerable percentage of businesses still underestimate the potential of data science and big data analytics, claiming it is only in the early stages of its development.

However, this is a poor reason not to start investing in data science right now, considering how many examples of successful big data analytics examples you can already see in the business world.

So, let’s take a look at how data science already helps connect business and technology on the examples of a few renowned companies.

1. Using Data Science to Optimize Sales Funnel

As a business owner, you know how important the customer journey is. Companies around the world are constantly looking for ways to improve sales funnel and customer experience to attract more and more leads.

To achieve that, businesses are mostly focusing on search engine optimization and different marketing strategies.

However, big data can cost you more than all these strategies combined. “According to our research, big data can save a big company up to $1 billion per year on customer retention,” says Melanie Sovann, a technical writer and editor at GetGoodGrade essay writing service.

Apart from that, with big data analytics, you can get more information about who your customers are.

Starbucks is already levering the sales funnel optimization potential of big data analytics with its app and rewards program, which have 17 and 13 million users respectively.

With over 30,000 stores worldwide, the company uses the point-of-sale system that identifies a customer when they log into the app and suggests the barista the customer’s preferred order.

Starbucks tries to personalize customer experience even more by giving food and drink suggestions to their customers according to the location they are in, the current weather in that area, and whether it’s a holiday or a weekday.

In the future, Starbucks plans to incorporate new features to its app, connected to big data, including personalized picks for the virtual barista feature.

So, as you can see, even though data science is still developing, it already can offer you enormous benefits that can help improve customer experience significantly.

2. Improving Cybersecurity with Big Data

Cybersecurity is one of the biggest concerns for businesses nowadays.

Reportedly, 15% of small businesses experienced cybersecurity threats in 2019, not to mention many big corporations Yahoo, Marriott, and even governmental institutions around the world.

Since the hacker attacks became so frequent over the past few years, companies around the world started looking for solutions that can improve cybersecurity and protect the privacy of their customers.

Among these solutions, big data analytics is among the most promising ones, and the earlier your business invests in data science solutions for cybersecurity, the better.

Amazon was among the first companies around the globe to realize big data’s potential for cybersecurity, having launched its Amazon Web Services (AWS) back in 2006.

The AWS platform uses machine learning to increase cybersecurity by:

●                storing and analyzing previous attacks or attempted attacks

●                detecting unusual behavior based on this analysis

●                creating regression models to predict possible threats in the future

Today the AWS platform offers services like clickstream analytics, data warehousing, and fraud detection using IoT.

As one of the trailblazers in using big data to improve cybersecurity, Amazon now works with different companies to facilitate cybersecurity with the help of data science. For instance, their recent contract with Upstream Security aims at helping automotive companies prevent hacker attacks and data breaches.

Indeed, a lot still needs to be done to research the ways how else data science can help improve cybersecurity. However, with the solutions available today, you can already see that big data can already help secure the privacy of your customers and protect their experience with your brand.

3. Leveraging Big Data to Build New Product Features

Data science can not only help businesses retain the high quality of their product and positive customer experience, but also expand product features by collecting user data.

Online writing and editing companies like Grammarly use this data to introduce new premium features to their customers, constantly expanding their editing and proofreading tools.

Some companies go further and create new product features for niche audiences.

For instance, Toyota, famous for successfully leveraging data science to improve their product, has recently introduced the new emergency safety system.

The new system uses big data to ignore the accelerator if it determines that the driver has stepped on the pedal unintentionally.

The new Toyota’s accelerator suppression function is the response to the statistics of the most common causes of traffic accidents in Japan, in particular, when elderly people mistake the accelerator for the brake.

To develop this feature, Toyota collected data from their cars that have a connection to the Internet. Doing it already helped Toyota develop car features that can identify pedestrians and bicycles on the road at night.

The company revealed that they will continue collecting this data in the future to determine new possible features for their cars that ensure the comfort and safety of the drivers.

As a result, data science helps Toyota create the next generation of smart cars, making the company one of the most competitive vehicle manufacturers in the world.

Get a Career as a Data Scientist

Even though the demand for data science in the business world keeps growing every year, the job market faces a significant shortage of qualified data scientists.

If you’re planning to join the squad of data scientists who bridge the gap between business and technology, you might be interested in working on a few essential skills, including:

●       programming and machine learning

●       big data statistics

●       data wrangling, visualization, and communication

●       software engineering

To be able to connect business and technology through big data, you also need to have a profound understanding of business processes and how to help businesses adopt big data to automate essential operations.

Over to You

As you can see, there is hardly any reason to claim that data science has not developed enough to invest in it. Many solutions that it uses, such as machine learning, are already more accessible than you think, and the benefits that they deliver are substantial.

There are many solutions data science can already offer your business. For instance, you can effectively improve customer experience and optimize your sales funnel with precise customer data.

Furthermore, data science allows better cybersecurity and privacy of your business and your customers, which is essential in this day and age.

Lastly, the ongoing data mining can help you learn about and develop new product features, and cater to niche audiences.

Of course, there is still the issue of the shortage of data scientists.

At 6fgr, we are trying to address this problem, offering data science professionals all the information about the job market in this industry today.

Our mission is to help data scientists find their way to make a change in this world by connecting businesses and technology with the help of big data analytics.