There is so much data these days; some say it's just too much. In the field of healthcare, big data promises to reduce expenses and improve quality care. Financial services companies want to increase customer touch points, increase the value of their client portfolios, and reduce risk. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies want to (for one) explore how their supply chain can be streamlined and shifted to decrease manufacturing costs and ultimately increase revenue.

Most companies think that creating a huge repository of data for historical analysis is a measure of Big Data success. The reality, however, couldn't be further from this. Instead of growing such a repository, Big Data should focus on how to utilize the data collected in order to find out prescriptive solutions for problems they face.

There are three elements to Big Data - Volume, Variability and Velocity. The volume of data that gets captured in data warehouses is only part of the whole picture. Companies have increasingly complex business processes in a highly dynamic business environment. In this article, we'll explore how prescriptive analytics can help companies manage variability of business processes and high velocity of change to achieve financial gains. The focus of companies is essentially to make money - Big Data's ROI can be increased significantly by focusing on the right business problems and adopting prescriptive analytics.

Gain ROI from Big Data Initiatives

There has been tremendous increase in adoption of IoT sensors, smart devices, cloud computing devices etc. This has resulted in increased knowledge of the behaviors and habits of consumers, customers, employees, patients etc. The promise of Big Data is better informed, insightful and reasoned decision making - the more data we collect and analyze, the greater the potential positive impact of the decisions we make.