Today, companies see social networking and big data as an opportunity to develop their business.  But before embarking on a promising big data strategy, a company must educate itself on the value of social media and big data analytics. Companies need to integrate the power of big data and social media, and then use it to their benefit instead of fighting the ongoing resistance of retaining staff and improving customer experiences.

Teradata, the analytic data solutions company, and Mzinga, a leader in social intelligence solutions, services, and analytics for business, recently released a report exploring the use of social technologies and big data analytics, the importance of big data in driving sales growth, and how enterprises are adopting and using social business software and big data analytics in businesses. The survey was conducted in conjunction with Teradata Aster and the Center for Complexity in Business (CCB) at the University of Maryland.

Productivity gains due to social networks

According to the study, the use of social technologies is encompassing most areas of business including employee collaboration, customer service, marketing, support and sales.

Social and big data analytics education is an important technique to convert visitors into leads. Through social media, the company can develop its solutions within active communities and can impact areas of trust and influence. The survey states that social technologies are impacting productivity in areas such as service or support, marketing or brand experience, customer experience, knowledge sharing and sales.

Nearly 12 percent of respondents said that social technologies opportunities could result in greater ROI by developing customer and marketing strategies, while half of the respondents are yet to use social technologies to their full potential.

Lack of education

The report also suggests that professionals are not educated enough to understand analytics, big data technologies or how to measure ROI and the underlying value of their business.

The majority of respondents (75 percent) reported that they don’t measure ROI for their social business programs, while 31 percent don’t know if their vendor provides analytics. Another 44 percent reported they don’t work with vendor for analytics at all.

Most of the participants claimed that advanced training is required to improve their analytics’ capabilities.  The deep knowledge of big data solutions can enhance their skills to better handle top metrics business solutions such as customer feedback and preferences, user, behavioral and content trend analysis and ROI.

“The survey results indicate that a wide variety of industries are interested in analytics and the power that analytics can provide them in making business decisions,” said William Rand, assistant professor and director, Center for Complexity in Business. “However, there seems to be a lack of knowledge of how to best implement analytics, and a lack of consistent support for analytics across different platforms. This indicates a strong market need for education and consistent implementation of world-class analytic systems.”

Educational Programs for Professionals

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The impact of big data analytics on a business can be transformative. As big data management technologies evolve, the need for skilled personnel is critical.

Making use of education programs for professionals, companies can generate never-imagined businesses and opportunities that provide a significant, competitive advantage over competitors.

Center for Complexity in Business

Robert H. Smith’s Center for Complexity in Business (CCB) is among the world’s first research centers that use big data analytics techniques to study the adoption of new innovations spreads through networks, and how organizational performance depends on relationships that individuals in the organization maintain.

The Center for Complexity in Business at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is focused on applying top-level computational methods to today’s modern business problems.

Cloudera Training Partner Program

Cloudera, the leader for setting standard for Apache Hadoop in the enterprise, conducts training partner programs that enable companies to expand their global training footprint to help fulfill the growing need for IT professionals with big data skills.

The Authorized Cloudera Training Partner (ACTP) program offers comprehensive Apache Hadoop training curriculum to business professionals in both classroom and live online formats in 33 countries and more.

Aryng’s Analytics Consulting Offerings

Aryng, the network of analytics professionals, offers analytics training to private and corporate clients focusing on the technical aspect of data analysis and also on the human and business aspect of decision-making.

The training program focuses on four major focus areas – assessment and benchmarking, strategic consulting, analytics recruiting and asks the expert services.