What Can A Big Data Specialist Do For A Business?

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Big Data Specialist

Jay Baer, a renowned customer experience and marketing thought leader, once stated that, “We are surrounded by data, but starved for insights.” 

This quote is the perfect statement to make the case for Big Data Specialists.  We are living in an Information Economy and every business is generating and is inundated with ever increasing amounts of data and information.  To not leverage that data and mine it for insights and trends is to leave money on the table and have a golden opportunity wasted.  Large companies and the Fortune 1000 have been investing in data mining and big data analysis for at least a decade.  Larger companies can afford to pay the high salaries that Big Data Scientists and Big Data Specialists pull down.  They also can contract with the tier 1 consulting and outsourcing firms for services in this area.  Medium sized business and small business do not have that option.  Valenta is focused 100% on SMBs and can provide Big Data Consulting and Big Data Specialist on contract at affordable rates for flexible engagements.  Because of this a business of any size can tap into the potential of Big Data analysis.

In the remainder of this article, we will highlight the role of a Big Data Specialists, ways a Big Data Specialist can help an SMB, plus outsourced Big Data Specialists services.

Role of a Big Data Specialist

Big Data Specialists help organizations make better and more informed decisions.  They gather, clean, process, and analyze data to identify meaningful insights, trends, and patterns.  Big Data Specialists not only identify trends and patterns but understand them.  They identify ways to transform them into actionable business strategies.  Big Data Specialists uncover customer preferences, market trends and competitive and organizational threats.

Big Data refers to massive and complex data sets, especially from new data sources.  These data sets are so voluminous that traditional data processing software cannot manage them.  Big Data Analysis is all about unlocking meaningful information available in the massive amounts of data now collected by nearly all businesses.  The application of Big Data Analysis is using that data to address complex business problems.  Ascertaining trends and patterns as they are emerging allows for quick and real time decision making, … and this is something every business needs.

Common responsibilities of Big Data Specialists include:

  • Importing, collecting, cleaning, converting, and analyzing data for the purpose of gaining insights and making decisions.
  • Presenting data in dashboards, graphs, charts, tables, and designing and developing relational databases for collecting data.
  • Conducting research and making recommendations on data mining products, protocols, services, and standards in support of procurement and development efforts.
  • Monitoring the performance of data mining systems, determining if there are any issues, and responding to them.
  • Keeping track of trends, patterns, and their correlation in the case of complex data sets.
  • Preparing concise data reports and data visualizations for management and executive teams that will assist in decision making process.
  • Working closely with the IT teams and data scientists to determine and achieve organizational goals.
  • Assisting data scientists in the development of new analytical tools and methods.
  • Creating data definitions for new database files and table developments plus making changes to existing ones as needed for analysis.

How a Big Data Specialist can help an SMB

We came up with a shortlist of 6 ways a Big Data Specialist can help an SMB.  They are:

  1. Make better decisions
  2. Make faster decisions
  3. Stay ahead of the curve and stay ahead of the competition.
  4. Better serve customers and have better customer retention.
  5. Identify issues before they become problems.
  6. Identify opportunities before the competition does and be first to market.

With a list like that it is easy to see why a business would want a Big Data Specialist or team of them on staff.  However, costs can be prohibitive for an SMB.  The popular website Glassdoor found that the salaries of Big Data Specialist were 75.8K CAD annually in Calgary Canada.  The salaries are even higher in the US.  Glassdoor reports that Big Data Specialists earn 108.4K USD a year in Hartford CT, 107.5K USD annually in Phoenix AZ and 109.6K USD per year in Minneapolis MN.  Those salaries are only part of the cost though.  They do not account for taxes, benefits, infrastructure, and overhead.  Luckily, Valenta can provide well trained staff in these roles for 1/3 of these total costs.  This price point can make Big Data usage an option for any sized business.

Want to Learn More

At Valenta we are focused on serving SMB clients exclusively.  We provide new economy and information economy roles in addition to Big Data Specialists such as Python Developers, Cyber Security Engineers, Cloud Engineers, RPA Developers, DevOps Engineers, Data Security Analysts, and more.  Valenta provides traditional BPO services like accounting, bookkeeping, administration, billing staff, paralegals, paraplanners, medical scribes and assistants, digital marketers, IT staff, software administrators and more.  In addition to providing staff augmentation and outsourcing we also provide business process consulting plus digital transformation services that include automation, RPA, and conversational AI.

We have Managing Partners located in cities across the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, and Australia.  Our Managing Partners work with other onshore consultants, plus offshore consultants, developers, and managers of outsourced staff to deliver the best services to our clients.  Please find this link to our page about Big Data Specialists.  To contact us on this topic or any other, please reach out to us here.

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