Everybody heard about Big Data, but a relatively small number of people knows what it means and how we can actually use it. Those who know can build their business around Big Data to optimize the spendings and forecast the behavior of their clients.
The meaning behind Big Data
The amount of digital data is growing every year. According to IBS the total number of data stored in 2015 is more than 6,5 zettabytes and is constantly growing. These huge masses of data are called Big Data. In Russia, we can add the tools for its analysis to the term, but the main idea stays untouched. Only 1,5% of this data is actually useful and we need to have great analytics to depict the information needed from the whole data pool.
Big Data over the world
Nowadays the USA is the pioneer of Big Data practices with the majority of companies being at least interested in the subject. In 2014, according to IDC, more countries began to look into the data corner. Europe, Asia (excluding Japan) and Africa took 45% share of big data software and hardware.
Where Big Data is used
The usage of Big Data is wide. With clever usage of data analytics, you can find out the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, calculate the risks or know more about your clients’ wishes.
According to the Tech Pro research survey, Big Data is mostly used in telecommunication, engineering, healthcare, IT, finance and public sectors.
Big Data in Russia in numbers
In global terms, the Russian big data market is rather small. In 2014 the American company IDC evaluated it for $340 million. Still, it grows faster than on global market, at least on 40% more.
The Russian Big Data market has only started. Not every industry is using big data analytics in their work, but we can see lots of big data projects in banking, telecom, retail and e-commerce companies.
In digital companies, big data is also a hot topic. In Heads and Hands, for example, we deal with data-driven services on an everyday basis while developing our apps and web services.
Main drivers of big data market development are
- High interest towards big data from users who want to use it to increase the competitiveness of the company
- Global development of media files methods processing
- Transfer of personal data processing servers to Russia due to new laws about storing and working with data
- Localisation
- Using Russian cloud services providers due to currency exchange rate fluctuations
- Creation of technoparks to develop the IT market, including Big Data
Main sentinels of big data market development in Russia are
- Data security and confidentiality maintenance
- Lack of qualified human resources
- Lack of big data IT resources in Russian companies
- Complexity of new technologies implementation
- High costs of big data technology
- Political and economical fluctuations
- Higher costs on import items and inflation
Russian Industries working with Big Data
Big Data is widely spread across different industries. It is used in healthcare, telecommunications, retail, logistics, finance and public sectors. For example, most of Yandex products are based on big data analytics. This year, the company even announced the creation of Yandex Data Factory that works with data processing for enterprises.
According to CNews, in Russia, only 10% of the companies began to work with big data technologies (the global number is 30%).
Now its time to move on to the real examples of big data usage in Russia.
Telecommunications
Telecommunication companies have the most high-loaded databases which give them the opportunity to perform detailed analysis of the data stored. One of the places to use big data technology is managing the loyalty of customers.
The main goal of data analytics is to save current customers and find new ones. Companies use client segmentation, analyze traffic data, or find out the social media data. Big data in telecommunication is used for marketing goals and prevention of finance fraud.
One of the most interesting examples of the telecom operators using Big Data is Vimpelcom (Beeline). The company is using big data to increase the quality of corporate service for every client, to create reports, analyze data to develop the network, fight spam and personalize their services.
Finance and banking
A large percentage of big data users are specialists in the finance industry. One example of working with data was done in one of the Ural Banks, where databases were used to analyse clients behavior. The bank began to offer credit specials, deposits and other services based on this analysis. After a year of big data usage, the retail loan portfolio increased by 55%.
Alfa-bank also analyses the information from social networks and monitors customer behavior on their corporate website. Sberbank uses big data to segment its clients base and it also plans to analyse clients behavior in real time in the future. Tinkoff bank, on the other hand, works with risk management and analyses the needs of its clients with big data instruments. Data is also used in scoring, marketing and sales.
Retail
In Russia, retail companies implemented big data in online and offline sales. Nowadays, according to CNews, big data is used by 20% of retailers. Moreover, 75% of the Russian retail market is positive about using data to increase the competitiveness of brands. Research showed that thanks to the implementation of big data projects, profit of retail organisation will increase up to 10%.
One of the first offline retailers that used big data analysis is Lenta chain. With the help of big data, the retailer began to monitor customer information from their register receipts. The company gathers information to create behavior models to make the commercial decisions.
Oil and gas industry
Thanks to big data, this industry can perform better fossil fuels extraction. Companies analyse the process of extraction and find out the most effective ones, monitor the drilling process and analyse the quality of materials. In Russia there are two major companies that are using big data already: Transneft and Rosneft.
Public sector
In other countries, big data technologies are used to find solutions to the challenges of national scale. It helps the public sector to provide its services more effectively and to give personalised social support.
In Russia, we can see the huge potential of projects based on big data. Right now its used in the Federal Tax Service, in Medical Care Insurance Fund and in the Pension Fund. Using data to achieve the public goals is important to raise the standard of living in the country.
Transportation services and logistics
Big Data is also used by transportation services to analyse fuel expenses and monitor clients inquires. The Russian railways implemented big data technologies in partnership with SAP and it helped to reduce the reports preparation time by 43,5 times.
Data-driven mobile applications
Finally, in mobile applications, big data technologies are also widely spread. In banking, its common to use big data in inner applications to perform analysis of inner processes. In healthcare to store the medical history of the patient and to analyse the quality of service. In apps for goods delivery, big data is used to analyse the customer behavior and plan marketing campaigns.
The Future
As for today, the big data market is still not so popular in Russia as it is in many different countries. Many Russian companies are interested in the technology but are not ready to use it. Analysts, however, have a rather optimistic prognosis of the Russian market. IDC thinks that the Russian share will increase in the next 5 years. In 2020, the big data market will reach the 2,2% of global data volume and the amount of information will also increase together with demand on this technology.
