This week, we are continuing our new Industry Perspectives series with a recent piece by Louis Columbus, a contributor for Forbes. In the article, 2014: The Year Big Data Adoption Goes Mainstream In The Enterprise, Louis highlights IDG’s recently conducted study on big data and enterprise predictions for 2014. The most notable of results are that on average, enterprises will spend $8 million on big data-related initiatives this year. The study also mentioned that 70 percent of enterprise organizations have either deployed or are planning to deploy big data-related projects and programs.
If this study is indicative of one thing, it’s that big data is becoming mainstream in the enterprise. However, if this mass data collection is an increasingly common practice, why haven’t contact centers caught on yet? We have loads of data: event logs from IVRs, agent and customer interaction logs from ACDs, agent performance and customer data in CRMs and Order Entry systems, web click streams and a variety of other data types and sources. This data meets the required big data attributes of variety, velocity and volume; surely we can derive some value from it all.
Customer rage and dissatisfaction are growing problems with a viable solution – big data. But it’s not just the collection of data that companies should be investing in, but also the ability to put that data into context in order to improve customer satisfaction and produce better business outcomes. When used correctly, big data equals big opportunities. By making sense of customer information in historical and real-time context, this information allows contact centers to make smart, business-focused decisions more than ever before.
What do you think? Is the mainstreaming of big data the solution that call centers have been waiting for? And what kinds of new business opportunities will this data collection present?
