By Angelica Mari, ZDNET
This is the year of adoption for Big Data in Brazil. A new report issued by the industry analyst Gartner that surveyed 720 global organizations has found that most companies they talked to are planning a Big Data implementation though few can say they have projects that have already been implemented.
Finance, services, media and communications are the industries where Big Data is being used first. The Gartner survey reveals that 39 percent of media and communications companies have already invested in Big Data followed by 34 percent in the banking sector then 32 percent of other service companies.
The industry segments showing the greatest planned spending on Big Data are transport with 50 percent of companies planning budget for projects in the next two years, followed by health at 41 percent and insurance at 40 percent.
Moving from hype to reality
Indeed, it is still hard to find many instances where Big Data systems have already been rolled out in Brazilian organizations. The Gartner survey found that just 8 percent of companies questioned had an implemented system even though 64 percent have plans already in place for future investment in this area.
It is clearly a business strategy that is moving from hype to reality as Donald Feinberg, Vice President of Research and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner explains: “The hype about Big Data continues to drive increased investment, but there is strength behind it. This research highlights companies in various industries and places seeing opportunities and real business value.”
As expected, North America leads the way with 38 percent of companies saying that they are already investing in Big Data technologies. A full 45 percent of companies in the Asia Pacific region detailed how they would be investing in Big Data within the next two years.
The Gartner study points to technology trends in general and how the cycle of hype usually moves to implementation in North America and Asia Pacific before Latin America and the EMEA regions. It looks exactly the same for the rollout of Big Data, meaning that with so much investment already planned in the leading markets, locations such as Brazil will be coming next.
"Regardless of the location, investments have different stages. Beginning with the acquisition of knowledge, to setting strategy, followed by an experiment or proof of concept. After the first stage is successful, the deployment proceeds and investment increases. In time, the business operation begins to rely on these implementations,” said Feinberg.
Exploring potential
It is clear that 2013 has been a year of experimentation and pilots for Big Data. with only 8 percent of companies in the Gartner survey reporting that they have already implemented a Big Data solution there is still a lot of room for growth. 20 percent of companies are already running pilots, 18 percent are developing their Big Data strategy, and 19 percent are gathering research.
Companies in different industries are all interested in Big Data and for various reasons. 55 percent told Gartner that they are able to use the information to improve customer experience and 49 percent aim to improve process efficiency with the additional insight the analytics can provide.
What Big Data really offers is insight so it’s natural to see companies exploring efficiency gains and an improvement to customer experience as the low hanging fruit Big Data can assist with first.
But with insight comes knowledge and with knowledge comes power. Big Data is not just an efficiency tool, it will eventually be a key driver of innovation and how new products are created. With this insight into the way your customers behave and what they need, your organization will be able to offer them what they need before they have even asked for it – creating new markets and opportunities for the future.