by Rich Benvin | Nov 20, 2015 | Business Optimization, Health Care
The switch to paperless offices has really driven the use of technology in many industries, including healthcare. Not just hospitals but different areas such as physical therapy, nursing homes, etc. are making the switch to digital note taking. There are a couple reasons why this is a a step forward for healthcare and all of its underlying sections. Just a few reasons include research advancement, time efficiency, and monetary savings.
Most healthcare professionals are swamped with patients everyday. The healthcare professional to patient ratio is terribly skewed, causing doctors, nurses, physical therapists and other professionals to see more patients per day than they used to. When attending to this many people everyday, it can be very easy to lose track of individual patient symptoms and begin to lose organization in necessary paperwork. Healthcare professionals are required to keep extremely detailed record of each patient, which can add up to a lot of paperwork. Why let all of these important files just sit in a cabinet? Why not use these real life cases as a resource for researchers? This is what Big Data is doing. The technology that harnesses big data and relays it into understandable connections is what is allowing researchers to tap into the vast amount of real life cases that could be the key to a new cure or better treatment plan.
In order for researchers to quickly access patient files, the records must be digitized. Instead of healthcare professionals taking patient notes and then having to type them into a computer program, why not start with the computer? More and more doctors offices and physical therapy clinics are using tables or laptops to type notes while talking with patients about their symptoms. This may seem a little less personal, but it helps healthcare professionals use their time wisely. Due to their packed case loads, they do not have time after each patient session to sit down and type up their notes. This multitasking is allowing doctors and physical therapists to be much more efficient with their time and potentially get to spend more time actually working with each patient.
By switching to digitized files and multitasking, healthcare fields are saving a ton of money. Offices are no longer wasting mass amounts of paper and dealing with where to store all of their records, they now simply need to ensure they have enough hardware space to store their patient records. Healthcare offices are also making more money by being able to see more patients in a day due to the healthcare professionals multitasking and using their time efficiently. Big Data is making great strides in the healthcare industry and continues to help the field find new solutions and better their practice.
by Stephanie Rabinowotz | Nov 13, 2015 | Business Optimization, Customer Satisfaction
Pinterest is most commonly known as an app for DIY, stay at home moms who have it all together. Although there is some validity to that assumption, Pinterest is a wonderful tool anyone can use to find answers to almost any question. I personally use Pinterest like I would use Google; anything I need to know I look to Pinterest to find, because I trust its resources and know that the remedies have been tried and tested in real world scenarios.
With more and more people turning to Pinterest for information, it is becoming a popular site for business marketing. Companies can hide adds in pins that look like they came from the trusted neighborly mom. Pinterest is enhancing the ability for companies to market their products by enhancing their search engine through Big Data analytics. Pinterest has always utilized Big Data to recommended pins based on personal preference and habit, but not they are taking it to a whole other level.
Pinterest is using machine learning techniques to turn pictures into quantifiable data that can aid in more customized searches. Now when a user looks at a picture of an outfit and they particularly like the boots in that picture, they can click solely on the boots. By clicking this one section of the picture they will be redirected to thousands of other pins that feature those boots- who they were designed by, where can you by them, and customer reviews. This is an amazing new invention in technology and is not only going to make online shopping ten times more efficient and accessible, but help businesses market their products in real world scenarios.
People are much more likely to buy a pillow they see on a trendy couch in a well designed living room rather than that same pillow by itself up against a blank backdrop. Consumers want to see what the product is going to look like when they bring it home. This is also a great way for companies to allow their customers to market for them. When a girl pins a picture of her outfit, she will now be marketing for each piece of clothing she is displaying. Anyone can click on her sweater or hat and instant access where to purchase it. This is going to save companies a lot of money and time on marketing if they learn how to use Pinterest to their benefit.
by Stephanie Rabinowotz | Nov 11, 2015 | Business Optimization
As almost every other industry has been touched by Big Data, some have been leery… taking their time to jump on the Big Data train. The U.S. Government has finally accepted that it needs a little Big Data magic. It was just announced that the Commerce Department has a new initiative to make their information more accessible.
The Government collect an alarming amount of data everyday, data that could be very beneficial to small and medium companies. As the Commerce Department carries out their accessibility plan they will be hiring a team of upwards of 20 software engineers to harness the incoming data and publish it on sites that companies can access for up to date information.
Small and medium companies will greatly benefit from this resource as many do not have the technical abilities to access the data needed to increase their trading tendencies. Big Data is becoming a necessary tool to know who to sell to and how much, making access to this valuable information essential. The Government will be supplying these companies with a resource to learn about international trade and even help shipping companies plan out the best route across seas.
The amount of tools available these days to improve business optimization continues to increase, making it less acceptable to be a struggling company. Every company should implement information they receive from tools such as trading data to ensure efficiency and better target consumers. Hopefully with the Government making their mass amount of data accessible to the public, small to medium companies will have a better shot at competing with the big shot corporations. Having access to the same tools and resources levels the playing field allowing those with the best product quality and customer care to be successful.
To learn more about how Big Data is helping SMB’s in a big way check out this interesting article!
by Stephanie Rabinowotz | Nov 4, 2015 | Business Optimization
SMB’s or small to medium businesses are often reluctant to use data- let alone big data. To a small company big data can look very daunting; something that will complicate their operation, not simplify it. The stereotype is that big data is made for large corporations, those with so many customers they can’t keep track. This assumption is correct in that big data is an extremely helpful tool in understanding customers and adapting to meet their needs, but the assumption is that it is only for large companies.
Big data is simply a tool that helps businesses become more efficient. Many small companies believe they do not need data analytics because they have close relationships with their customers. The business understands its customers because they know one another, listen to the demand and ensure they can adequately supply. Having a computer in the mix would take away from this human relationship. To a certain extent I can see how this would be a legitimate concern- if you are known as the friendly business who keeps up with their customer relationships and you suddenly neglect your customers to study them on a computer all day, they may not be very happy. But this is not necessarily the case.
When businesses form good relationships with their customers they feel very successful, but what happens when that friendship gets in the way of your revenue? What if the customer uses your friendship to receive discounts or free items or services? What happens to your production rate when you get chatting with a customer and suddenly realize two hours have gone by?
These are all business stoppers that naturally happen when a business thinks they are simply maintaining their customer relationships. It is a human flaw that we cannot see these things happen because we are biased. But these are the types of issues that add up and eventually slow a small business down until they are in some serious trouble. Big data is objective. Data doesn’t care if you haven’t seen a customer in a month and you want to catch up, data will tell you straight up- you wasted an hour of work and these are the repercussions.
This is not to say that small businesses should shut their doors and become computer nerds, they should simply allow themselves to see the truth. Use big data as a tool not to understand your customers better, but to understand your business better. Let data give you the unbiased truth about your production rates and ROI so that your small business can not only be loved, but efficient.
by Tara Buck | Oct 18, 2015 | Big Data, Business Optimization, Measuring Results, Save With Data
There is data that can be found in every industry and profession out there- from healthcare to professional sports. If the legal profession is meant to be involved in all of these as well, one question comes to the front of my mind: how can big data help the legal profession?
Let’s start of by stating that there is so much data being collected around the world, and depending on how it is stored, catalogued and indexed, it can take a person days or weeks to sort through. Thankfully in today’s world, however, we have the luxury of programs and computers- computers that can go through this data instantly. Having these programs and applications accessible to us can instantly bring down the cost of analyzing the data, provided you get it into the right format.
Let’s take an example of a case involving product liability. There is a product that is defective. Where does big data come in?
Well now you have all of the records from the creation of that product: the memos, the mockups, and drawings. You have everything that had to do with the end product. You may even have the reviews and testimonials- good or bad. What would have taken months to go through by hand may now take an hour with some computer application. This is because the computer is going to search for certain words, and if the attorney picks the right words and the data is set up in the right format, the attorney now has everything they need at their fingertips. And all in a matter of minutes!
One may think it would be enough as an attorney to go out there and say ‘this product is defective and here are 500,000 complaints about it.’ The reality is that you can actually go one step further with the tools that are now given to us. The attorney can go back into all of the 500,000 complaints and determine what the common component is- and maybe that common component is user error. Then the tables suddenly turn and it is not the product- it is the user!
Big data can now help lead attorneys to answers that they may have never gotten a chance to come to with time and money constraints. Whatever side may be benefitting, information is power and big data is providing just that!
by Stephanie Rabinowotz | Oct 2, 2015 | Business Optimization
Big Data sounds great in theory, but do you have good or bad data? You may be wondering, ” you keep saying data is information and the more the better!”. Well that only applies if you are receiving good information. How do you find good information?
Data Analytics.
Think of it like a garage sale, usually a garage sale consists of large piles of junk that nobody wants anymore. If you bought the whole sale you would have a lot more stuff, but is any of it valuable? That is where the analytics comes it, if you know how to search through the junk to find that one antique that is going to make you a fortune, then it is all worth it! That antique is our good data!
But what if I don’t posses that unique skill of finding the antique in a pile of junk? That is where data analysts come in. You must make sure you hire a team that understand both data and analytics because one without the other is going to get you a lot of junk. Hire the treasure hunters, they are worth it.
Don’t be the company wasting all of your money on crappy garage sales, make sure you use your money to find the gold that is going to make you more money!
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