The Impact of Big Data in Business

The Impact of Big Data in Business, Big data analytics helps organizations harness their data and use it to identify new opportunities.

That, in turn, leads to smarter business moves, more efficient operations, higher profits and happier customers

The digital era has created an overwhelming amount of information, with the total amount of data projected to rise to 44 zettabytes by 2020.

This massive amount of data has proven to be immensely valuable to large enterprises as well as small companies.

For the first time, enterprises are able to integrate disparate data into meaningful sources for AI algorithms to manipulate and understand behaviors.

By the end of 2017, the adoption of big data in companies had reached 53% and it is estimated to reach more than 75% by the end of 2025.

Big data can be defined as: “high-volume and/or high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing that enable enhanced insight, decision making, and process automation.”

Why is Big Data Important?

Data plays a huge role in understanding valuable insights about target demographics and customer preferences.

From every interaction with technology, regardless of whether it’s active or passive, we are creating new data that can describe us.

With data being captured through products, video cameras, credit cards, cell phones, and other touchpoints, our data profile is growing exponentially.

If analyzed correctly, these data points can explain a lot about our behavior, personalities, and life events.

Companies can leverage these insights for product improvements, business strategy, and marketing campaigns to cater to the target customers.

The concept of big data and its importance has been around for years, but only recently has technology enabled the speed and efficiency at which large sets of data can be analyzed.

As data both structured and unstructured grow substantially in the coming years, it will be collected and examined to reveal unexpected insights and even help predict the future.

Big data will change how even the smallest companies do business as data collection and interpretation become more accessible and affordable.

New, innovative, and cost-effective technologies are constantly emerging and improving which makes it incredibly easy for any organization to seamlessly implement big data solutions.

Big Data Applications in Business

Using and understanding big data is a crucial competitive advantage for leading corporations.

To the extent companies can collect more data from existing infrastructure and clients will give them the opportunity to discover hidden insights that their competitors don’t have access to.

Big data can present an abundance of new growth opportunities, from internal insights to front-facing customer interactions.

Three major business opportunities include: automation, in-depth insights, and data-driven decision making.

Automation

Big data has the potential to improve internal efficiencies and operations through robotic process automation.

Huge amounts of real-time data can be immediately analyzed and built into business processes for automated decision making.

With scalable IT infrastructure and decreasing cloud computing costs, automating data collection and storage is within reach.

In-depth insights

Big data can also be used to discover hidden opportunities that were unknown to organizations before the ability to review large sets of data.

Complex data sets can even be used to develop new products or enhance existing ones. Proprietary data within the market can prove invaluable in the competitive landscape.

Faster, better decision making

With the speed of data analytics technology, paired with the ability to analyze new sources of data, businesses are now able to analyze information instantly and make smart, informed decisions.

How to Harness the Power of Big Data

The market for big data analytics is very huge, over 40% of large organizations have invested in big data strategies over the last several years.

However, with endless possible data points to manage, it can be overwhelming to know where to begin.

Before choosing and implementing a big data solution, organizations should consider the following points.

Experienced big data team

Create a team of experts in data collection, analytics, and strategy to help build an ideal big data approach that results in positive returns for the company.

This team should include individuals who understand modern analytic methods, able to manipulate big data sets, and experienced consultants who understand overarching business goals.

Identify end goals

Having the right objectives is crucial for successfully implementing a big data solution.

The data and analytics must be properly aligned with the organization’s end goals such as greater profit, brand recognition, market share domination.

Capture the right data

Once the underlying business goals have been defined, the next step is to have a full understanding of the data before its application.

Identifying, capturing, and tracking the right data will be the backbone of the entire big data process.

Utilizing the wrong data sets can result in catastrophic consequences that lead the entire company in the wrong direction.

Apply proper analytic methods

Professional data analysts are skilled in translating big data into valuable insights efficiently and accurately.

Visual summaries of the data that are easily digestible help supporting teams quickly process the data analysis and make quick business decisions.

Big Data Analytics Tools

The rise of big data has created a huge market for data analytics tools that help enterprises seamlessly implement big data solutions.

Startups like Ople and Cruz Informatics have experience working quickly with large corporations to make data ready for action.

Ople.ai

Ople was founded with a very specific vision that Artificial Intelligence should be easy, cheap, and ubiquitous.

Ople accelerates the data science process, enabling organizations to attach more challenges and get answers sooner.

With Ople, Data Scientists can focus on the business at hand, not the plumbing, creating 10X more production quality AI models and reducing time to deployment from months to just a few days.

Crux Informatics

Using data to uncover actionable insights is the life-blood of an industry. Crux makes data ready for action by taking on the burdensome aspects of our customers’ information supply chains helping firms acquire, explore, and transform data with ease so they can focus on what really matters.

With its Informatics Platform, Crux offers a secure, scalable environment to store, explore and transform data through its integrated cloud service. Crux makes data delightful.

The Impact of Big Data in Business

Business organization structures

Business organization structures, An organizational structure is a system that outlines how certain activities are directed in order to achieve the goals of an organization.

These activities can include rules, roles, and responsibilities. The organizational structure also determines how information flows between levels within the company

Types of Business Organizational Structures

Large or small, every organization should operate with a defined organizational structure.

A well thought out and strategic business configuration clarifies reporting relationships and supports good communication resulting in efficient and effective work process flow.

The board and senior leadership should be the group that determines the type of organizational structure that would best support the internal operations, how work is carried out, and the chain-of-command.

Determining the best structure is done by answering the questions:

• What are the functional groupings of work processes?
• Are there natural groupings of teams, workgroups, or units?

Senior leadership looks at all functions and determines how they would like work activities to be organized and carried out.

This process also identifies natural reporting relationships and chain-of-command. Reporting relationships can be both vertical as well as horizontal.

6 Common Businesses Organizational Structures

1. Hierarchical Organizational Structure

Organizations that use a traditional hierarchical structure rely on a vertical chain of command as the prime method of organizing employees and their responsibilities.

Military, government, and other very large organizations use a hierarchy to determine the level of control employees have over their work as well as their rank relative to others.

Hierarchical structures typically feature multiple layers of management and are therefore prone to bureaucracy and the creation of silos that prevent cross-team collaboration.

An interactive example of a hierarchical organizational structure:

2. Matrix Organizational Structure

A matrix structure provides for reporting levels both horizontally as well as vertically.

Employees may be part of a functional group such as an engineer but may serve on a team that supports new product development.

This kind of structure may have members of different groups working together to develop a new product line.

For example, a recording engineer who works for a music publisher may have engineers who report to him but may also use his expertise and work with teams to develop new music albums.

The advantage of a matrix organizational structure is that employees have the responsibility not only for their department but for organizational projects.

A challenge with this type of structure presents itself when employees are given direction from two different managers and they need to prioritize their work responsibilities.

3. Functional Organizational Structure

Functional organizational structures are the most common. A structure of this type groups individuals by specific functions performed.

Common departments such as human resources, accounting, and purchasing are organized by separating each of these areas and managing them independently of the others.

For example, managers of different functional areas all report up to one director or vice president who has responsibility for all of the operational areas.

The advantage of this type of structure is that functions are separated by expertise but the challenges come in when different functional areas turn into silos that focus only on their area of responsibility and don’t support the function of other departments.

The Advantages of an Organizational Structure

The old adage “failing to plan is planning to fail” is most applicable to the organizational structure you implement at your business.

This structure creates a system by which you can delegate decisions, identify roles and responsibilities, and define the chain-of-command.

In other words, an organizational structure is a framework that helps your employees achieve their goals and do their jobs in the most efficient and productive way.

A sound company structure can benefit your organization in several ways, including making it easier to delegate responsibility and affecting change throughout the workplace. To benefit from a strong framework, it is important to understand the advantages of organizational structure.

Unify Your Marketing Message

Your company can present a unified front to customers, vendors, and investors when a common marketing message is used throughout your organization.

A unified marketing message can help the entire company better understand its marketing goals, and then work together to achieve them.

When multiple departments are involved in a single endeavor, a unified marketing message can be essential to project success.

For example, if your social media marketing department identifies an untapped customer base, your structure should make it easy for the head of that department to communicate this discovery to senior management and the sales team.

This can be true even if you have a top-down structure in which authority rests in the hands of your senior management team.

In that instance, you should create an “open-door policy” that allows your employees to make suggestions or deliver ideas in a timely manner so that senior management can act upon it.

Promote Upward Mobility

A strong organizational structure is better able to prepare qualified employees for management.

When the company operates under a strong structure, a comprehensive management training plan is easier to create and execute to help maintain a strong managerial core.

Departments can work together on a developmental plan to help encourage the training of managerial candidates within any department.

Organizational structure also allows employees to clearly understand the divisions between lower, middle and senior management.

With this operational framework in mind, your workers are empowered to meet and exceed performance standards that can help them climb the upward ladder in their career trajectory.

Ease Strategic Planning

Using a strong organizational structure allows a company to better focus on a single set of goals instead of each group working toward its own agenda.

This is the result of the flow of communication that an organizational structure offers, as well as the establishment of responsibility and respect for the company hierarchy that comes from strong structure.

It helps the company to use resources wisely in the pursuit of company goals as opposed to doubling efforts or experimenting with options perhaps not in the company’s best interests.

Improve Employee Training

A good organizational structure makes employee training easier to administer. And it allows training to remain flexible based on the changes within the organization.

When organizational structure regulates the flow of information, then changes in information are easier to monitor and update in a company-wide training program.

Refine the Decision Making Process

Regardless of the type of organizational structure you choose, there will always be a reporting channel that ends with a final decision-maker.

For example, in a flat structure in which employees are given wide latitude to make suggestions and take ownership of their work process, decisions are made based on the consensus of employees working in a team.

In a top-down structure, decision-making occurs at the senior management level and is then clearly communicated to the rank-and-file to implement.

When a defined hierarchy is in place, your company is better equipped to make important decisions and adjust practices to meet the demands of competition.

Business organization structures

Benefits of Business Security System in Kenya

Benefits of Business Security System in Kenya, With the advancing of technology and considering the risks that come with it, there is an increasing need for small businesses and enterprises to secure their properties and workforces.

This is normally from internal as well as external threats to the business. No matter what you do or how large you are, you need a business security system.

While you can secure a building with a basic security system, a business needs a lot more than just an alarm system to operate with complete peace of mind.

Consequently, business owners should understand the level of protection they require when it comes to purchasing a quality business security systems to enhance their security capabilities.

A solid business security system provides employees with complete peace of mind, protects your assets and data, minimizes insurance rates, and so much more.

Security is important for every commercial establishment because no one wants to risk losing their assets.

Nothing feels worse than being greeted with a report that your property has been intruded by burglars and you’ve lost valuable items and equipment.

It stops your business growth dead in its tracks and it takes away a large chunk of your resources to recoup the losses.

If you don’t have a security system installed in your establishment, you’re putting your entire business at a huge risk.

Securities systems help deter burglars from forcing entry into your property and it also safeguards your assets at all times.

The importance of security systems cannot be overstated and if you need a bit more convincing, here are the reasons why your business should have a security system installed.

1. It promotes a safe working environment

As a business owner, you are responsible for the health and safety of your employees. Having security systems installed promotes a safe working environment by ensuring that your employees are monitored at all times.

Should there be an unfortunate incident, local authorities can respond right away and address the issue.

It also gives your employees a sigh of relief when they’re working in odd hours or late shifts.

Your employees will feel safe knowing that your establishment comes installed with a modern security system and allow them to focus on the task at hand without fearing their health or safety.

2. It protects your cash flow

Employees are the driving force of a successful company. If the internal operations are running smoothly, you can expect your business to flourish.

But if you notice that your business is suffering despite reaching your sales numbers, there might be an internal issue that needs to be addressed.

Often times, unethical employees may be tempted to steal cash and/or other assets in your establishment, especially if there are no CCTV cameras installed in key areas like the cash register, warehouse, and stockroom.

To prevent these issues from happening, a security system should be installed inside your company premises.

This discourages employees from attempting any unethical behavior and also protects your cash flow and other valuable assets.

3. it’s a wise investment

Smart investments are what contribute to the success of a business, security systems are one example of a wise decision.

Definitely, modern security systems can be quite expensive, but you’re getting incredible value for money by protecting your other thousand-dollar investments.

If you want to keep your business assets safe by employing security systems you will greatly minimize your losses.

It is now agreed by most entrepreneurs that security systems are necessary when running a business.

You don’t want your assets to be exposed and let the thieves and burglars take it away, would you?

Before acquiring other assets, make sure that the ones you have now are safe and protected by investing in the latest security systems.

4. It gives you peace of mind

You already have a lot of things going on in your mind when running a business and the last thing you want is to add to those thoughts.

Security systems give business owners peace of mind knowing that their establishment is well-protected from both inside and out.

You can leave your business on auto-pilot and not have to worry about external or internal burglary when you’re outside its premises.

With a security system installed, you can go on long vacations and feel confident that none of your employees will try to steal your assets.

Thieves won’t dare to break-in as they fear getting caught by CCTV cameras and risk getting caught by local police authorities.

5. It allows you to focus on other important matters

You can’t afford to keep an eye on your business security all the time as this can affect other aspects of your business.

Quality Security systems will allow you to direct your efforts on important matters like maintaining profits, boosting sales, and reaching company objectives.

The security system will take care of the safety of your business while you focus on expanding your business even further.

A security system is an absolute must for every business, whether it is big or small.

Over the years, security systems have become even better at providing the level of protection business establishments need so they can protect their assets from the hands of criminals and ensure the safety of both the owners and the employees.

Importance of Business System in Organizations

Business Systems and business processes are the essential building blocks of every business organization. Every facet of your business organization is greatly impacted by the business system.

A one shop business, a big warehouse, or even an office are the kind of organizations that can be managed, and their performance improved by applying the correct business management system.

Business systems are designed with the capability to connect all the intricate components of an organization.

The entire components are designed to work together for the achievement of the business strategy and eventual profitability.

When a business applies defined principles and practices to the systems and processes that deliver value to their customers, it is creating what is often referred to as a “business system.”

Creating effective business systems often unifies the problem solving and decision making of the organization.

Many common tools and methodologies are universally taught and expected to be utilized by all types of businesses that aim at mainstreaming efficiency.

The business system also encompasses how we lead our people and connect them to the operational strategy.

Why Implement a Business System?

There are several reasons to implement a business system.

Improving Top-Line Performance:

Part of the business system is the development and implementation of strategy creation, business processes and strategic planning throughout your organization.

Those foundational elements lead to a much more insightful way to investigate and grow top-line revenue.

In short, a business system takes care of your future. It ensures you meet your customers’ expectations and improve your brand, which is key to growing a healthy business.

If you use a systematic approach, your organization will have constant information on areas that need to be improved and you will begin to understand the unmet needs of customers.

Meeting Customer’s Expectations:

If you use a systematic approach, your organization will analyze measure, compare, and test all the possibilities of what your customers want and don’t want.

You will have constant information on areas that need to be improved and, even more importantly, you will begin to understand the unmet needs of customers.

A business system is key to improving the brand that the organization projects to your community, including customers, employees, and suppliers.

Consistent Results:

Whether we are considering safety, quality, or getting the job done in a timely manner, a business system is designed to give you effective, efficient, and repeatable results. In short, the business system gives you a “process to fix your processes.”

Employee Engagement:

The goal of the system is to enable proper education and opportunities for all employees so they can complete their work more efficiently and effectively.

We also seek to harness their ideas and creativity and, in the process, increase their personal engagement.

Additionally, having the system in place allows you to quickly integrate new-hires, and makes it easy for them to see their role within the organization and bring forth new ideas.

Reduce Cost and Increase Profits:

It has been proven time and again that the implementation of a sound business system helps reduce costs, but so will many things.

A business system is intended to reduce costs without taking the shortcuts that often lead to an erosion of profitability due to the necessity to lower quality expectations or service levels.

Most companies in Kenya that have achieved huge success have set in place System of Performance Excellence that consists of four main areas:

Strategy—the way the organization thinks and plans
Processes—the way the organization operates
People—the way the organization leads
Technology—the way the organization connects and innovates

A business system focuses on the alignment of all activities to the customer perspective, from the strategy to employees’ day-to-day work, and installs value-chain-based thinking.

The Power of a Business System

When implementing a business system to enhance Performance and Excellence, there are several major changes that the leadership of an organization must appreciate to make progress.

Value-Stream Based

Instead of assigning resources to projects based on financial priority, which means they can be spread all over, we assign resources to a specific site or value stream to work a series of projects.

This creates focus, achieving significant transformation in that value stream and allowing the local leadership team to become comfortable using new tools to solve problems. With this approach, we build up sections of excellence much faster.

Project Selection

Such a value stream approach also allows for a more systematic project selection process. We don’t want to be haphazardly selecting projects but rather working on initiatives designed to drive toward the achievement of the strategic goals and objectives of the business.

Replication

By installing a replication process, organizations can take an improvement implemented in one location and duplicate that to all of the other affected locations. This allows the whole organization to see results much faster.

Deployment Dashboard

A deployment dashboard summarizes all results to date and informs the leadership team of expected progress. This dashboard should be communicated on a regular basis. Results have to be measured and shared to sustain success.

Daily Management

Through a thorough Daily Management system in each value stream, we put in place depending on needs a tiered meeting structure, visual management boards, and leadership standard work.

Daily Management is the backbone of sustainability and is often where the most significant improvement opportunities are surfaced.

In addition to these quick-hitting changes listed above, we also expect to see, over a longer period, these other changes to occur.

Systematic Innovation

Another part of the business system framework is creating a scalable and sustainable innovation ecosystem in order to create a competitive advantage.

The organization learns to address innovation challenges quickly, build a pipeline of innovation opportunities, prioritize ideas, and apply methods and tools for both front-end innovation and back-end design.

Culture Change

Along the way, the organization starts to see a shift in culture. While some change will happen naturally, other changes must be guiding and steered.

To effect positive culture change, the Cycle of Accountability and Trust guide us in forming a virtuous cycle.

With all of those changes taken together, you can see how a business system provides a framework for a constant pursuit of improvement and innovation, and a deep understanding of change and motivation.

At the end of the day, when you have all of these things in place, a sound business system gives the organizational leaders confidence in their ability to create the future.

Business System In Kenya

This is one of the most comprehensive business systems articles you will find online.

You will gain an in-depth understanding of how businesses have appropriated systems in Kenya. We will focus on the following.

1. What is the Meaning of Business System
2. Objectives and benefits of Business System
3. Types of business systems

Meaning of Business System

Majorly, business systems are meant to help the business organizations to efficiently achieve their goals.
A business system can be said to be a combination of policies, principles, personnel, equipment, and computer facilities that help in coordinating the many activities of a business organization.

It will establish the rules as well as the procedures of that organization, which are to be governed.

The business system will establish how data needs ought to be handled and it ensures that it is methodically processed.
The other fundamental contribution of the business system is that it also controls the procedures of the processed data and the results to be displayed.

For example, a system may have the capability to automatically order parts for an inventory, it can also monitor future corporate profits credit documentation and also help monitor customer accounts.

Ultimately, the nature of a business system will totally demonstrate how efficient the designer of the system wanted to process to be run.

The following are the main objectives of the Business System.

1. They are established with the goal of meeting the needs of the user as well as those of the customer.
2. Business systems majorly cut down operating costs thereby increasing savings and eventual profitability.
3. They will ensure a smooth flow data via the various levels in a business organization.
4. Business systems normally will speed up the execution and attainment of results appropriating all the reliable data that is available in the system.
5. They are important in handling data more efficiently as well as provide timely information to the management.
6. Business systems enable the establishment of a desirable distribution of data, services, and equipment are throughout the organization.
7. To define a proper method of handling business activities.

8. To eliminate duplicated, conflicting, and unnecessary services.

The Major Categories of Business Systems in Kenya are as follows.
Generally, there are five kinds of business systems
1. There are Payroll business systems
2. Personnel business system
3. Accounts receivable system
4. Accounts payable system
5. Inventory system.

1. Payroll Business System.

A payroll business system comprises of all the forms, procedures, files, equipment, personnel, and computer support necessary to completely process the payment of employees.

A complete payroll system comes with an inbuilt capability that enables it to fully handle all tax deductions, personal deductions, and the update of payroll data related to each employee.

It is designed such that it provides for the actual payment of employees; it will also be able to record that particular payment.
These business systems have the capability to allow for the modification of all payroll records and finally the preparation of payroll reports.

The payroll system needs to have the capability to generate all tax documents reports and a wide range of other employment tax filing requirements.

Another vital payroll responsibility is the ability to produce accurate reporting of all personal deductions in the organization where it is being used.

This may include but not limited to medical and life insurance, profit-sharing plans, stock options, credit union deductions, and an employee’s salary by a creditor.

The above-accumulated totals need to be reported accurately to the individuals from whose salaries these amounts were deducted.

A comprehensive I.T support in the organization makes it possible to accurately and promptly process the entire payroll. All the input data are properly handled on a timely basis.

2. Personnel Business System.

Personnel system describes varied aspects of an organization’s workforce. The outputs generated by personnel systems are frequently used in compiling central & state labor power reports.

Retail organizations are major users of accounts receivable systems, since these systems detail monies that are owed to an organization.

Conversely, accounts payable systems focus on the monies that are owed to an organization.

These two systems parallel to each other, requiring the continued maintenance of files, their update reporting on movies due and owed, providing customer statements and invoices, and recording payments made.

3. Accounts Receivable System

An account receivable system monitors the flow of money. An accounts receivable system monitors the people who owe money to a business organization. It provides the means to process all data for credit and other kinds of charge accounts.
The files contain the individual customer data, including names, addresses, financial charges like, payments received, and current charges.

The information is issued as monthly statements of each customer and also provides useful information for management’s use.

4. Accounts Payable System.

Accounts payable system monitors the organization to which money is owed. The file structures and input/output (I/O) formats are similar to the accounts receivable system.

It contains the accounts of vendors to whom money is owed. Input will have goods and services received by the company while outputs include the issue of payments and management reports.

5. Inventory System.

Inventory system monitors the status of items held in an inventory. These systems report on the quantities of goods on hand, as well as when items should be purchased to replenish stock and what critical items are needed.

Inventory systems are crucial to organizations that maintain large and costly inventories.

Business System In Kenya

Business System In Kenya