Big data, characterised by the tremendous variety of personal data that banks can now generate through a wide array of sources, has commanded significant attention this week. Banks are able to harness big data through transactions, customer service records or social media posts. Yet this innovative way of personalising a customer’s banking experience is throwing up some of its own challenges.
The greatest business asset Phil Greenwood, Director of information management company Iron Mountain, this week contributed his view to business blog bobsguide. He explained why he considers big data to be "the greatest business asset there is".
He says that although the full impact of big data is still unclear, “a flexible information management framework. . . that can adapt and grow with the business’ understanding of big data”, is the “key to getting it right”.
“Information is the oxygen of business,” he declares, concluding that big data is therefore an invaluable resource that can provide “business intelligence to drive customer engagement,” and a competitive advantage.
Ultimately, Greenwood believes that passing up the opportunities big data offers would be unwise and businesses simply cannot afford to take the risk.
bobsguide blog
Mining opportunities from challenges
Venkatesh Vaidyanathan, writing for Firstpost, agrees that big data can help banks drive an enormous contextual value across their customer’s entire lifecycle.
However, Vaidyanathan acknowledges that there are still challenges present. He says that “many banks are still in the ‘explore and experiment’ mode when it comes to big data and advanced analytics”. Additionally, Vaidyanathan realises that this may take some time. “Given the transformative potential of the technology, it is easy to understand that adoption will initially be driven by a series of incremental progressions,” he notes.
The article suggests that big data “can generate more targeted customer leads by looking beyond traditional structured datasets”; therefore outlining that personalisation can be achieved through uncovering big data and overcoming the potential challenges.
First Post piece
Disruption from technology-savvy playersWriting for Business Insider, Chris Pash reviews the World Economic Forum’s study on the ways in which innovation disrupts financial services.
“The nature and extent of the impact these innovations will have on the financial services industry remains unclear,” Pash says.
Sharing Vaidyanathan’s concern, Pash suggests that the desire for innovation will put continuous pressure on businesses, and will shape the long-term structure of the financial services industry.
Pash concludes that the biggest impact on the banking sector will be the changing focus and competition for data-intensive business models.
Business Insider article
Seen a blog, news story or discussion online that you think might interest CISI members? Email joanna.lewin@wardour.co.uk