Top Big Data Sectors and Their Unique Challenges

The Big Data industry was a $3.2 billion dollar industry in 2010, expected to reach $10 billion this year and double to over $20 billion by 2016.  That is enormous growth for the overall space but each industry faces unique challenges to utilize big data to sell more, spend less, gain market share and retain customers.  Here are the top sectors and their unique challenges in riding the data avalanche.

Medical and Healthcare – Patient Care & Education, Healthcare Systems and Payment & Billing. If the US healthcare industry were to use big data correctly, it could create over $300 billion in value annually.

Telecom – Customer Churn Management, Customer Service and Network Maintenance. The telecom industry is the most rapidly changing industry because of mobile.  75% of emails are opened and 1 in 8 webpages are viewed from a mobile device.

Retail – Customer Segmentation, Marketing to the Individual, Merchandise Management and Store Management.  McKinsey reports that retailers could increase their margins by 60% by utilizing Big Data already available.

Financial Services – Customer Insight, Client Relationship Management, Process Management and Risk & Fraud Management.  There are 10,000 credit card transactions every second according to the American Bankers’ Association and 60% of financial service companies state that big data and analytics is the key to gaining a competitive advantage.

Social Media is helping all of the above industries compile mounds of semi-structured and unstructured data on their customers that then allow them to identify trends, improve customer service, resolve problems and predict behavior. With 300 million tweets being sent out each day, companies are beginning to see the power of Social Data and learning how to fold it into their business strategies.

The #1 concern for all industries regarding the future of Big Data is the talent shortage that this hyper growth market is creating. By 2018, there will be a shortage in the US of 140,000 to 190,000 data science professionals and 1.5+ million managers and analysts with the knowledge and experience of making decisions based on big data analysis.  Without the people to solve the Big Data problems, they will only get bigger.

(image: big data / shutterstock)