Business from Big Data
Big data is information that we all participate in producing, constantly. We generate usable data, for example, when we use mobile phone applications or leave our mark in patient data systems. The masses of data offer companies and public organisations opportunities, the use or lack of use of which creates discussion. Big data involves everyone.
Professor of Information Systems Science Jukka Heikkilä notes that business analytics in and of itself is nothing new. Companies have always taken advantages of their databases. Now the data flows in increasingly from outside the company.
‒ Services becoming digital has caused the field to explode. Currently, there are so many sources available that networked activities can be controlled in a way that is completely different from before. At the same time, data processing has developed significantly in the last few years.
Making Big Data Profitable Needs Innovative Business Models
At the moment, the information systems scientists and network researchers of Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku are investigating what kind of business models make the analysis of big data profitable. The researchers are involved in the D2I project in the non-profit company DIGILE Oy of companies, universities and public bodies, which is one of Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation implementing the Finnish innovation policy.
There are two big questions in the project by researchers of Turku School of Economics. The first question asks what makes people provide information for the use of companies.
‒ Mining data leads often to the creation of a personal data register, which leads to issues with data protection. In addition, with crowdsourcing it is essential to gain rights of use for information collected from different sources. We think about how to get the rights to use the data collected by devices from people and communities: is it worth paying for or can the data be used in other ways, and how should the collected data be managed safely and reliably?
The other question in business modelling is related to what should be done with the data. Business scientists look for information on how people behave in the data.
‒ You can start to generate things such as cycles of behaviour that can be used for forecasting only after a large amount of diverse data has been collected. In online sales, for example, data collected on seasons make it possible to see how things should be done the next time.
Visions of Management Diverging from the Everyday of Businesses
Business modelling related to information resources means matching information systems with strategies.
‒ The need for understanding the enterprise architecture of a company grows continuously, because businesses are different from before. They are databases, processes and platforms, and less and less command structures. People are used to looking at things rationally and systemically, but the operative business models and the visions of the management on how businesses work are currently diverging from each other at a breakneck speed.
Text: Taru Suhonen
Picture: infocux Technologies
Illustration in the carousel (www.utu.fi/en): Erkki Tuomi