BIG

D ATA
AND

BEYOND
How companies can find insight in Big Data

by TYLER DOUGLAS

visioncritical.com

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JACKKRIT ANANTAKUL

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE BIG DATA CRISIS

THE RISE OF BIG DATA:

HOW COLLECTING
DATA BECAME INTEGRAL
TO BUSINESS

THE ADVANTAGES
OF BIG DATA

BIG DATAS LIMITATIONS

BIG DATA AND

CONCERNS
OVER PRIVACY

11

GETTING TO THE WHY

11

HUMANIZING DATA

14

CONCLUDING
THOUGHTS

15

END NOTES

16

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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INTRODUCTION

We live in a world awash in data. Every credit card swiped, loyalty card presented, TV show watched
and movie downloaded, every Facebook post, Tweet, Pinterest pin, Candy Crush game, Etsy transaction, and Fitbit readingits all encoded in trillions and trillions of ones and zeroesready to be
mined, organized, aggregated, prioritized and translated into meaningful information. We live in an
era in which computing advances have ignited and propelled an explosion in terabytes, petabytes
and zettabytes (1 ZB = 1 trillion gigabytes) and more. For businesses, big data can mean big money
if professionals can gain insights from the vast and expanding sources of information out there.
But big data has become a serious problem for many companies: the amount of data theyre
collecting is overwhelming, and they cant decide what data is useful. Big data can give companies answers to some of their questionsespecially when it comes to marketing to their customers. Where are they? What are they looking at? What are they buying, and what are they passing
up? But big data cant tell companies why customers make the choices they do.
In this e-book well discuss the tremen-

that have figured out how to get what they

dous rise of big data, its great promise

need out of big data.

and real limitations, and why recognition

Todays successful companies have

of both is important for companies to

learned that big data doesnt provide all the

reach and understand customers. Well

answers. They recognize that big data is

provide powerful examples of top-tier

simply one tool among many that can help

companies, including Netflix and LinkedIn,

inform important business decisions.

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THE BIG DATA CRISIS

The amount of data companies
collect keeps growing.
They urgently need a strategy
to make sense of it all1

PHOTOS STORED
ON FACEBOOK

AMOUNT SPENT
ON BIG DATA
(estimated)

40 billion
(2010)

$31 billion
(2013)
$114 billion

250 billion
(2013)

AMOUNT OF
INFORMATION STORED
DIGITALLY

(2018)

only 0.5%

AMOUNT OF DATA
PRODUCED IN

of big data is being analyzed

(According to estimates by IDC)

2 days in 2015
25%

(2000)

98%

(2015)

21 billion

Number of Internet-connected
products expected by 2018

All of history2003

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THE RISE OF
BIG DATA: HOW
COLLECTING
DATA BECAME
INTEGRAL TO
BUSINESS

one-week analyses of the human genomes

three billion base pairs as illustrative of the
worlds unimaginably vast amount of digital
information.
The effect is being felt everywhere, from
business to science, from government to the
arts, the Economist continued. Scientists
and computer engineers have coined a new
term for the phenomenon: big data.

Big data refers to the massive amount of

Big data is not just about digitizing existing

information amassed digitallyevery time

we watch something on cable TV, buy airline
or concert tickets, purchase something in
a department store, do just about anything

information. Its about rendering more of

65%

of senior executives
embrace big data
to stay competitive

our lives into data in real-timewhere we

are, what we like, with whom we interact,
what and when we buy and more. Social

online and so on. Big data also refers loosely

media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn,

to the analytical tools employed to make

Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram are

sense of all this information. Big data is ubiq-

examples of the real-time datafication of

uitous, its growing and its getting tougher

customers lives.

and tougher for companies to understand.

More and more companies are harnessing

As early as 1990, Peter J. Denning, then

the power of big data to help guide strategic

the director of the Research Institute for

business decisions and gain insights into cus-

Advanced Computer Science at NASAs

tomer behavior. Here are just a few examples:

Ames Research Center, was worrying about

1 The Australian Open The Open re-

how his fellow scientists could ever extract

meaning from the ever-growing sea of data

lies heavily on big data during its tournament,

they collect: The imperative to save all the

in response to the demands of tennis fans

bits, he wrote, forces us into an impossible

around the world. Australian Open market-

situation: the rate and volume of informa-

ers analyze information such as social media

tion flow overwhelm our networks, storage

conversations and player popularity to pre-

devices and retrieval systems, as well as the

dict viewing demands on the tournaments

human capacity for comprehension.

websitewhich helps organizers determine

By 2010, the term big data had entered

how much computing power they need at

the common lexicon. Data, data every-

any given time.5

where,3 a 2010 article in the Economist, cited

2 Ski resorts Some resorts rely on

Walmarts one million transactions every

hour, Facebooks 40 billion photos (by 2013

big data to increase customer engagement

that number had jumped to 250 billion, and

through gamificationthe application of

was increasing by 350 million each day ), and

game-design thinking to activities like ski-

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Collecting, correlating and

analyzing data from customer
interactions across channels
is the key to transforming the
customer experience from
nightmare to nirvana

4 Macys The department store,

working with IBM, has gained a more

comprehensive view of its customers by
integrating online forms, point-of-sale data,
and social media information. The exercise
has enabled Macys to offer its customers
a more personal shopping experience, and
offer tailored pricing and promotions.8

ingthat you might not think of as games.

Most senior executives know that big data

At some ski resorts, customers wear Radio

is here to stay, and that organizations which

Frequency Identification (RFID) systems, so

invest in gathering it and understanding it

skiers can be tracked. The resort compiles

are investing in their future. One recent poll

stats such as the number of runs skiers make,

found that 65 percent of senior executives

the number of feet they ski, and how often

say they risk becoming irrelevant if they

they get to the slopes. Customers can access

dont embrace big data.9

this data on the resorts website, and compete with their friends to earn better rankings and rewards. All this encourages customers to spend more time on the slopes.6
3 PASSUR Aerospace PASSUR,

a provider of decision-support technologies

(ETAs) normally provided by pilots. PASSUR

THE ADVANTAGES
OF BIG DATA

combines publicly available weather data,

Big data is huge in volume. Its high in veloc-

flight schedules and proprietary data the com-

itythat is, created in real or near-real time.

pany itself collects, including feeds from pas-

And, its diverse in variety.

for the aviation industry, uses big data to

improve upon estimated times of arrival

For marketers, researchers and executives,

sive radar stations installed near airports that

track every nearby plane. The huge stream of

these attributes of big data mean they have

digital data, archived for more than a decade,

access to much more information about

enables PASSUR to make sophisticated anal-

their customers than ever before. They know

yses of aircraft arrival times. Its service, called

where they are, what theyre watching, what

RightETA, has helped at least one major U.S.

theyre buying and when, what theyre saying

airline virtually eliminate gaps between esti-

to their friends, what views theyre spread-

mated and actual arrival times, according to

ing about a company and its products, and

the Harvard Business Review article, Big Data:

moreand all of this the moment it occurs.

Big data, if managed effectively, can

The Management Revolution.

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cient and deeply satisfying interactions that

benefit both customers and business.
While huge amounts of information are
collected on peoples daily activities, big data
increasingly is about the passive monitoring
of hand-held and wearable devices, home appliances, vehicles, and other things connected
to the Internet that provide companies with
insight into behaviors and everyday choices.
Big data will continue to grow in significance
as this Internet of Things matures. The number of connected products is expected to hit
21 billion by 2018, so companies that dont
prepare to manage this new data resource
will be at a competitive disadvantage.
Its vital that companies embrace big data,
recognize its growing significance, and learn
how to maximize its potential as a major tool
to drive strategic decisions. Those that fail to
do so will be left behind.

be crucial for omni-channel marketing

by strengthening a seamless meshing of
customer experiences across marketing

stores. Collecting, correlating and analyz-

BIG DATAS
LIMITATIONS

ing data from customer interactions across

For many businesses, big data emerged in

channels is the key to transforming the

recent years with great expectationsthat it

customer experience from nightmare to nir-

could answer all questions about customer

vana, IT analyst and consultant Kurt Marko

desires and behaviors. But like most new

of the technology blog MarkoInsights wrote

trends in technology, Gartners Hype Cycle

in Forbes recently. The nexus of big data

applied. The Hype Cycle, used by companies

and machine learning in all its formsare the

to become educated about the promise of

underpinnings of well informed, highly effi-

an emerging technology in their industry,

platforms, including TV, radio, the Internet,

iPads and tablets, smartphones and physical

10

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Companies have access to a

lot of customer information,
but they dont really know how
to leverage it to make good
strategic decisions. Without this
foundation, adding big data into
the mix often adds little value

offers a graphic representation of how new

technologies typically mature over time. The
initial enthusiasm for big data was marked
by inflated expectations followed by a
trough of disillusionment when early experiments with big data failed to deliver.
For many new technologies, users slowly
become more enlightened about what it can
offer, second and third generation products
are developed that make the technology more

Why do a lot of investments in big data

useful, and finally productivity takes off as the

fail to pay off? One reason is that companies

technology matures and people and organiza-

already have access to a lot of customer in-

tions recognize its potential. Its expected that

formation, but they dont really know how to

big data will follow this trajectory.

leverage it to make good strategic decisions.

Without this foundation, adding big data

Today, however, many people believe big

data alone cant deliver what they want:

into the mix often adds little value. Compa-

actionable information with which they

nies need to learn how to manage informa-

can make effective decisions that benefit

tion, analyze it in ways that advance their

their customers and their bottom line. Ev-

understanding of its customers, and then

eryone assumes you need big data, says Ray

act intelligently in response to new insights.

Poynter, a leading expert on market research.

Companies dont magically develop those

The question is, what do you add to make it

competencies just because theyve invest-

useful? Do you add to it being engaged with

ed in high-end analytics tools, information

your customers and having two-way conver-

science academics Jeanne W. Ross and Anne

sations with them? Do you engage in new

Quaadgras from MIT and Cynthia M. Beath

business models?There are lots of points of

from the University of Texas at Austin wrote

view about how you complement big data.

in the Harvard Business Review.11 They first

need to learn how to use the data already

Today, many companies are trying to

figure out what value big data can give

embedded in their core operating systems,

them, and how to gather, mine and make

much the way people must master arithme-

sense of it. Within a company, big data can

tic before they tackle algebra.

present several challenges. Data collected

According to Ross and Quaadgras, one

by an organization is often siloedfinance

reason that companies are unable to benefit

holds tight to point-of-sale data, marketing

fully from their investments in big data is

controls social media data, while customer

that management practices havent caught

service has complaint datawhich prevents

up with their technology platforms. For ex-

companies from building a comprehensive

ample, companies that have installed digital

picture of their customers.

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ning (ERP) systems and customer relation-

come from so-called enthusiasts, but only

ship management (CRM) systems havent yet

29 percent of a typical companys audience

taken full advantage of the information they

is enthusiasts. (Check out our recent report

make available. A cultural change is needed

to find out what else social media analytics

within companies so that all decision mak-

cant tell you about your customers) The

ers have performance data at their fingertips

vast majority of social media users are in fact

every day, Ross and Quaadgras write.

relatively quiet. Companies cant hear them,

As an example of a company that uses

although theyre listening to you. This means

data effectively, Ross, Quaadgras and Beath

that social media analytics can mislead com-

cite 7-11 Japan, which provided its employ-

panies about what matters to customers as

ees with daily sales reports and supplemen-

a whole, when in fact what theyre seeing is

tal information such as weather forecasts,

what sold on the last day the weather was
similar, what sold the previous day, what
sold on the last the same date a year prior,
and what was selling in other stores. Importantly, clerks were connected to suppliers

85%

of social media
updates come
from so-called
enthusiasts

29%

of a typical
companys audience
are enthusiasts

only a very thin slice of their audience.

People who spend a lot of time online are
typically younger, better educated and more
affluent than the overall populationagain,
offering many companies a limited view of
existing and potential customers.

to encourage the development of items that

would suit local customers tastes.
The 7-11 Japan story was not about big
data or investments in data, but about a lot
of little data. Its about betting your business success on the ability of good people

decisions on a daily basis. It can also lead to

BIG DATA AND

CONCERNS
OVER PRIVACY

a constant stream of innovation.

Despite these limitations, big data remains

to use good data to make good decisions,

the authors wrote. Empowering employees
in this way, and arming them with the data
they need, helps them make better operating

Big data, in other words, isnt the answer

an increasingly powerful tool for business

to all questionsand its no replacement for

intelligence. But as more companies seek

the on-the-ground decision-making of real

out big data, and especially as our personal

people interacting with real customers.

digital footprints expand and social media

platforms strive to monetize the personal

Once seen widely as a holy grail for companies seeking real-time insight on their cus-

data they collect, organize and archive, many

tomers, social media analytics has failed to

people view the prevalence of big data as

deliver on those lofty expectations. Consider

an intrusion on their privacy. Too often,

this: 85 percent of social media updates

customer data is collected passively, withvisioncritical.com

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Big data can reveal much

about whats going on, when it
happens and where it happens.
But we havent really arrived
at the day when big data can
reliably tell us why customers
behave in a certain way

Companies that rely on big data to track

their customers can go too far. Customers
can begin to feel uncomfortable about the
degree to which their digital lives are tracked
and probed. The result? Customers, unhappy
at the personal invasion, abandon brands.
One example is Facebooks controversial
Beacon feature, first introduced in late
2007. The feature, which at first was imple-

out permission. Opt-out options are rarely

mented by default, tracked users activities

explicit and often missed.

online, outside Facebook, and reported

back to Facebook on members activities on

For instance, cross-device tracking, a powerful tool for marketers, enables companies

third-party sites like Travelocity.com,

to track their customers digital lives, from

TheKnot.com and Overstock.com. A major

general web searches to social media posts

part of Facebooks Ads platform, Beacon

regardless of the device or platform used.

tracked the activity of Facebook users on

Such tracking especially troubles people who

dozens of participating websites. That activi-

are alarmed by the idea of their every digital

ty was then broadcast to the users Facebook

move being tracked.

friendsunless the user explicitly chose not

to do so. One consequence: holiday presents

In April 2015, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced that it plans to examine

purchased by users were being broadcast to

privacy issues related to advertising and

friends and family. It turned out, Facebook

marketing companies that track consumers

quickly learned, people dont want to auto-

across devices connected to the Internet.

matically let the world know what theyre

One question the FTC is exploring is how com-

buying online. More than 50,000 Facebook

panies can make their tracking more transpar-

users signed a petition protesting Beacon.

ent and give customers more control over it.

By late November of 2007 Facebook backed

12

The desire for privacy is already fueling

off, company founder Mark Zuckerberg

the development of new apps online. Wickr,

issued an online mea culpa, and the social

Whisper, Cyberdust, Snapchat and Rewind

media company made Beacon an opt-in pro-

are examples of apps built on making content

gram that sought explicit approval from users

more private and ephemeral. Research has

every time they purchased something at a

predicted this trend: a study by the Univer-

third party site before activating the Beacon

sity of Colorado at Boulder, published in late

feature. The program nevertheless sparked

2013, found that average smartphone users

several lawsuits, and by 2009 Facebook

are willing to pay up to $5 extra for a typical

discontinued Beacon altogether.

app that wont monitor their locations, contact lists and other personal information.

In another big data marketing innovation

gone awry, statisticians at Target noticed

13

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Companies had inflated

expectations of what big
data can offer. They now see
big data can be an important
toolalongside other tools
to achieve more effective
customer engagement

that women were buying lots of unscented

lotion around the beginning of their second
trimester. One analyst noticed that during
the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, pregnant
women bought vitamins like calcium, magnesium and zinc. Target began sending coupons
for baby items to customers based on their
pregnancy scores.14 An angry man outside
Minneapolis, Minn. complained to a Target
manager because his teenage daughter had

But for the foreseeable future, big data is

received coupons for baby items in the mail.

only one tool in the marketers toolbox.

Target knew about the pregnancy before

Customer intelligence that involves more

the girls father did. In the end, the father,

direct human-to-human interactions with

embarrassed by the episode, acknowledged

consumers remains vital. Big data will only

to a manager that he didnt know about his

take us so far, and at some point a human

daughters pregnancy and apologized.

perspective needs to join the effort.

For insight departments to derive val-

Very quickly, Target was forced to rethink

how it uses the data it collects about its

ue from big data, they must get better at

customers. Customers are happy to share

leveraging social science, data analytics and

their data, but only if companies dont ex-

consumer insight. Understanding the nuanc-

ploit it in ways that violates their privacy.

es of customer behaviorthe motivations,

or the why behind behaviorsgives us true
insight. And that cannot come from a centralized and isolated big data department.
Computer technology, the Internet, cable
entertainment and other technological advances have led to empowered customers

GETTING TO
THE WHY

who have more access to information, more

Big data can reveal much about whats

customers spend more of their lives and

going on, when it happens and where it

their shopping hours online. When it

happens. But we havent really arrived at

comes to buying, customers have unprece-

the day when big data can reliably tell us

dented access to information about com-

why customers behave in a certain way.

panies and the products they sell. Big data

choices, more demands on their time and,

in many cases, less allegiance to individual
brands and companies. At the same time,

As computing advances and analytical

surely has a role to play in gaining insight

tools progress, we may get to that point.

into the behavior of these empowered

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customers. But as weve discussed, big data

doesnt have all the answers. Companies
need to respond quickly to identify changes in customer behavior and take action to
address their concerns. Big data can offer
some answers, but continual human-to-human connections are required to fully understand the rapidly evolving marketplace.

HUMANIZING
DATA
In an important report on big data published in April 2015, Forrester Research
declared, Businesses are drowning in data
but starving for insights. Worse, they have
no systematic way to consistently turn data
into action. This cant continue. Demanding
customers and competitive pressures require

achieve more effective customer engagement

firms to treat insightsnot just dataas a

and ultimately higher levels of innovation and

business asset.

productivity. Lets look at a few examples:

15

The report cites Ford Motor, General Elec1 NetflixThis company is said to ac-

tric, USAA, Netflix and LinkedIn among those

companies that are effectively combining

count for an astonishing one-third of peak-

people, processes and technology to close

time internet traffic in the United States.16

the gap between insights and action.

In early 2015, it announced it had 62 million

subscribers around the globe. Netflix has ex-

Stories of how these and other companies

are moving toward real customer insight

panded its intelligence over customer tastes

that is, moving from big data to meaning-

in recent years, adding numerous data points

ful, actionable informationare becoming

to better understand customer preferences.

more common. They now see big data as an

All these data points feed into big data ana-

important toolalongside other toolsto

lytics at Netflix to progress toward the comvisioncritical.com

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The most effective

omni-channel marketing is
built on real human
interactions between
companies and customers.
No computer algorithm can
give you that

panys holy grail: predicting what customers

will want to watch next. But the company
has also moved from passively collecting data
to directly engaging customers to better understand what they want. Netflix asks some
customers to apply characteristic-identifying
tags to movies and TV shows. The company
then suggests that those customers watch
other films that were similarly tagged. This
direct engagement with customers through

of big data intelligence and direct customer

tagging has led to actionable insight: Netflix

engagement. Five years ago, USAA brought

50,000

has identified nearly 80,000 new microgenres of films, which helps the company to
better serve its customers.
2 LinkedIn If youre a LinkedIn user,

Facebook users
signed a petition
protesting a
program that
tracked their online
behavior

together its services and sales teams, its

digital and mobile commerce teams, and its
marketing team to become a single integrated unit.18 In this sense, USAA has embraced
an idea we already discussedthat big

you know all about the Whos Viewed Your

data assets should not operate in isolation.

Profile feature. The highly successful profes-

True customer insight is gained through an

sional networking website has had the profile

integration of data experts and marketing

views feature for a while, but in the spring of

professionals. USAA is a powerful example

2014 it began to show its users the viewers

of how companies directly engage their

profession, company, and industry; what re-

customers on a regular basis. Wayne Pea-

gion the viewer lives in; the keyword searches

cock, USAAs head of member experience,

they used to reach them, and other insights.

has described it this way in an interview

All users have the ability to limit what in-

with Information Week: Were serving our

formation another user sees. Beyond this,

members from the time theyre teenagers

LinkedIn offers its users tips on how to gain

and young adults all the way through the

more profile views. In these ways, LinkedIn is

adult years and leaving a financial legacy, so

not only learning more about its own custom-

we thought it would make a lot of sense to

ers through big data, its also directly engaging

have them talk to us about whats going on

customers in ways that empower them to

in their financial lives. Peacock talks about

manage the connections they make. And that

technology as a great enabler; 90 percent

gives LinkedIn insight about how to make a

of USAAs interactions with its customers are

better product and keep its customers happy.

through digital means. However, technology

17

alone doesnt drive the beginning and the

3 USAA This Texan financial services

end of customer interactions. USAA engages

company is well-known for its customer

with customers directly through its online

servicewhich comes from an effective mix

platform and contact centers.

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continuous, picking up on one platform where

another left off. The most effective omni-channel marketing is built on real human
interactions between companies and customers. Real and natural conversations build
brand loyalty and create happy customers.
No computer algorithm can give you that.
Big data, in short, should be used hand-inhand with your customer insights team. As
weve seen, its the melding of data scientists, who know how to gather, organize and
analyze data, and insight professionals, who
can interact with real-live customers and add
a human perspective to big data, that will
create true insight.

These are but a few examples of how

companies are leveraging big data with

CONCLUDING
THOUGHTS

direct customer engagement to achieve

actionable insight.
Big data offers much promise, we
shouldnt rely on it to the extent that human

The big data revolution is upon us. With it

engagement is taken out of the equation. Big

comes tremendous insight into customers

data presents us with correlations; one set of

daily lives, their needs and desires, their per-

facts is correlated with another set of facts

sonalities, and their rapidly evolving tastes

and conclusions are made about the relation-

and loyalties.

ship between the two. But we dont know if

The digital world we live in has sped up

one set of facts actually causes another. In a

everything, and its hard to keep up. Were

world in which data governs so much of our

only human, after all. While big data and smart

lives and drives decisions, engaging directly

analytics can help us understand our custom-

with customers becomes ever more vital.

ers, it cant yet provide a complete picture. And

This is especially true for omni-channel

thats where human intelligence comes inhu-

marketing, where the best customer relation-

man-to-human connections that provide a

ships are fostered by conversations that are

company with insight it can get nowhere else.

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END NOTES
1 The Rise of Big Data: How Its Changing the Way
We Think About the World, by Kenneth Neil Cukier
and Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger, Foreign Affairs,
May/June 2013 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2013-04-03/rise-big-data
Humanizing Big Data, by Colin Strong, published
by Kogan Page, 2015
5 things you need to know about big data, by
Jamie Hinks, techradar, April 9, 2015 http://www.
techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/future-tech/5things-you-need-to-know-about-big-data-1290575

enterprises-will-increase-their-investment-in-big-dataover-the-next-three-years/
10 Using Big Data And Machine Learning To Enrich Customer Experiences, by Kurt Marko, Forbes, April 8, 2015
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtmarko/2015/04/08/
big-data-machine-learning_customer-experience/
11 You May Not Need Big Data After All, by
Jeanne W. Ross, Cynthia M. Beath and Anne
Quaadgras, Harvard Business Review, December
2013. https://hbr.org/2013/12/you-may-not-needbig-data-after-all

2 A Very Short History of Big Data, by Gil Press,

Forbes, 5-9-13. http://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2013/05/09/a-very-short-history-of-big-data/
Press cites the article by Denning, which can be
found at: http://denninginstitute.com/pjd/PUBS/AmSci-1990-5-savingbits.pdf

12 FTC to examine privacy issues with cross-device tracking, by Mark Pribish, The Arizona Republic,
April 10, 2015
13 Smartphone users value their privacy and are
willing to pay for it, CU-Boulder, Dec. 10, 2013
http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2013/12/10/
smartphone-users-value-their-privacy-and-are-willingpay-it-cu-boulder

3 Data, data everywhere, Interview with Keith

Cukier, The Economist, Feb. 25, 2010 http://www.
economist.com/node/15557443
4 Facebook Users are Uploading 350 million new
photos each day, Cooper Smith, Business Insider,
Sept. 18, 2013 http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-350-million-photos-each-day-2013-9

14 How Target figured out a teen girl was pregnant before her father did, by Kashmir Hill, Forbes,
Feb. 16, 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teengirl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

5 Five unusual ways businesses are using Big Data,

SmartDataCollective, April 17, 2015 http://smartdatacollective.com/mike20/312471/5-unusual-waysbusinesses-are-using-big-data

15 Digital Insights Are the New Currency Of Business, Forrester Research, April 2015 https://www.
forrester.com/Digital+Insights+Are+The+New+Currency+Of+Business/fulltext/-/E-RES119109

6 Five unusual ways businesses are using Big Data,

SmartDataCollective, April 17, 2015 http://smartdatacollective.com/mike20/312471/5-unusual-waysbusinesses-are-using-big-data

16 The Amazing Ways Netflix Uses Big Data To

Drive Success, by Bernard Marr, LinkedIn, March 26,
2015 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/amazing-waysnetflix-uses-big-data-drive-success-bernard-marr

7 Big Data: The Management Revolution, by

Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, Harvard Business Review, October 2012. https://hbr.org/2012/10/
big-data-the-management-revolution/ar

17 How LinkedIn uses big data to increase visibility

and enhance your brand, by Caitlin Zucal, InvestmentNews, March 5, 2014 http://www.investmentnews.com/
article/20140305/BLOG09/140309965/how-linkedinuses-big-data-to-increase-visibility-and-enhance-your

8 How Big Data Is for Marketers, by Larisa

Bedgood, SmartDataCollective, April 16, 2015
http://smartdatacollective.com/lbedgood/312151/
how-big-data-marketers

18 USAA Develops Cross-Channel Capabilities to

Improve Customer Experience, by Bryan Yurcan, InformationWeek, Dec. 13, 2012 http://www.
banktech.com/channels/usaa-develops-cross-channel-capabilities-to-improve-customer-experience/d/d-id/1296017?

9 56% of Enterprises Will Increase Their Investment In Big Data Over The Next Three Years, by
Louis Columbus, Forbes, March 22, 2015 http://www.
forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2015/03/22/56-of-

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tyler Douglas, chief marketing officer of Vision Critical, is a

seasoned leader and entrepreneur with a proven track record.
Tyler co-founded and led IronPoint Technology, a market leader
in web content and collaboration software, through to its acquisition by the Active Network. Staying on at the Active Network,
Tyler helped drive the company from a $30 million to a $300
million organization, including a successful IPO on the New York
Stock Exchange in 2011. Tylers success is rooted in an enduring
commitment to deep customer insight and the competitive
advantage that quality customer intelligence delivers.

visioncritical.com
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LEARN MORE AT
visioncritical.com

Vision Criticals Cloud-based Customer Intelligence

Platform enables companies to build customer
communities that provide ongoing, rapid feedback
and insight to enable smarter decision-making.

DEVELOP
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IMPROVE
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