Why big data is big business

The 21^st century will be known as the age of connectivity. It will also be recognised for the rise of big data solutions that keep people connected.

This is a world driven by data. It is a world in which businesses that have a defined data strategy will see a critical difference in their ability to match the product offering of their peers.

According to Oracle, big data is defined by the four Vs:

• Volume – the amount of data.
• Velocity – the rate at which it is received and acted upon.
• Variety – the types of data.
• Value – the intrinsic value of the data measured by such things as consumer sentiment, location, work practices etc...

It is this type of data that is driving businesses forward as they offer more personal products and services to their customers.

Invigor (ASX:IVO) is an ASX listed company, currently in the middle of a Share Purchase Plan that ends 31 March, that uses its complementary suite of big data products to source, aggregate, analyse and publish content for the benefit of businesses and consumers.

It helps retailers, brands, shopping centres, hotels, transport hubs and large venues to identify and better understand consumer sentiment, current markets, competitor make-up and demographics.

It is now hard to find a sector that isn’t entrenched in big data analytics.

The $17 billion logistics giant Brambles recently set up its own big data business, BXB Digital in California’s Silicon Valley.

Brambles will look at embedding sensors and other devices into its 500 million crates, containers and pallets to track movement and transmit data.

Invigor is barely out of start-up mode, however it has similar ambitions for its clients through its three big products: a retail analytics platform for brands and retailers, an alerts system for consumers and a WiFi mobile analytics platform that can automatically extract data from consumers.

IVO has been one of the fast movers in capturing the big data space through platforms such as Insights Retail and has been shoring up its assets.

Insights Retail has signed up a number of clients including Treasury Wines, one of the world’s largest wine companies with brands such as the iconic Penfolds and Wynns Invigor now has $4 million in revenue in its pipeline for its Insights Retail product and a growing pipeline for its Visitor (mobile analytics) product, proving that big data is big business.

Last year Invigor acquired Condat, a Berlin-based smart media specialist. Condat provides media solutions to public broadcasters in Germany and has won over $1.1 million of new contracts in the last 12 months.

Invigor saw the acquisition as a chance to add a complementary software solution to its existing product offering and aid its development in becoming and end-to-end big data and content distribution provider.

Condat has a projected revenue of at least $8.0m for 2016 with an operating EBITDA of approximately 15%. The acquisition of Condat also provides Invigor with a springboard to European markets, giving the company further opportunity for potential growth. Condat recently picked up a AU$350,000 contract with one of the world’s largest communications and technology companies in the UK, the first outside Germany and locked in an additional $700,000 in revenue from various other media projects.

Shopping Ninja is another of IVO’s products that is changing the way big data influences consumer decision making. It is Australia’s first price comparison browser extension, covering 100,000 offers from all major retailers and brands.

It is the retail sector where big data can have a big impact.

According to Forbes writer Bernard Marr, “Big Data analytics is now being applied at every stage of the retail process – working out what the popular products will be by predicting trends, forecasting where the demand will be for those products, optimizing pricing for a competitive edge, identifying the customers likely to be interested in them and working out the best way to approach them, taking their money and finally working out what to sell them next.”

Marr makes some interesting points including the fact that US giant retail chain Walmart is currently in the process of building the “world’s largest private cloud” to track, as they happen, millions of transactions every day.

It is almost big brother like, but for the fact that data analytics help everyone get what they want; analytics create bespoke, personal experiences that benefit all parties.

The onset of big data started a management revolution affecting nearly every business sector.

It has changed the way business is conducted as businesses now use it to create competitive advantage.

Who knows how far it can go and what will be measured next, but what we do know is that big data is here to stay.