How Do Companies Make Use of Unstructured Data for Business Decisions?
Data, in all its forms, plays a vital role in business decisions. Data is the new currency for any thriving business looking in the digital world. However, data itself has too many layers that are uncovered and not leveraged yet by businesses. Companies are losing out on so many opportunities only due to the usage of data. Data unwraps in two forms – Structured and Unstructured. Gone are the days when structured data could solve any business problem. This article delves into the details below to see how unstructured data impacts business decisions.
What is Unstructured Data?
Unstructured data can’t be stored in a conventional column-row database or a spreadsheet. It does not have any predefined format or schema and contains more text than numbers. It is therefore difficult to analyze and not easily searchable. Today there are various data analysis tools in the market curated to get insights from unstructured data; go here if you want to check out one.
Examples of Unstructured data:
Any data that does not have a recognizable structure can be counted as unstructured data. Below are the mentioned examples:
- Text files.
- Emails.
- Audio files.
- Photos.
- Video files.
- Social media posts.
- Open-ended surveys.
- Presentations.
- Images.
- Business documents.
- Chat.
- Website pages.
- Call center transcripts.
How Data is Affecting Business Decisions?
Businesses can use unstructured data to understand trends and streamline their work. Data comes in various formats and from various platforms. By taking advantage of the latest technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Business Intelligence, professionals can gain deeper insight into what’s working and what isn’t for their business.
Product Development
Product development uses filtered data in order to understand its customers better and serve them with products that will flourish in the near future. Businesses can develop a product based on unstructured data that they get from consumer forums, customer support calls, and social media.
Sales And Marketing
The best way to boost sales is to closely examine the client’s purchasing trends and brand perception. The upper hand in analyzing unstructured data is to do sentiment assessment.
The business intelligence tools give professionals the insights to foresee customer needs.
Customer Service And Sentiment
Automated chatbots have been a driving factor for businesses to understand what other pain points they have missed. However, most importantly, the discussions about the problem and the complaints give the research team more insights into what can be done and when.
Every business’s biggest asset is its customers; if you know what customers want and when and how you are already ahead in the race.
Innovation Opportunities
All forms of unstructured information, such as News reports, blogs, social media posts, comments, and online reviews of competitors, provide a ton of information about industry and market trends. Unraveling this information before your competitors put your business in a prime position to anticipate changes, adjust and bloom.
Why Should Businesses Use Business Intelligent Tools?
Doctors can use healthcare reports and prescriptions entrapped in PDFs and can create a solid view of patient history by just segregating data. Banks and financial service firms can extract data from the account opening section to understand customers better.
Conclusion
Utilizing a company’s data starts with adopting the right business intelligence tools and techniques. Business Intelligence tools make it easier to normalize, analyze, and visualize your business’s valuable data. If businesses examine only the structured data, there is a high chance that the business leaders may only see the part of the story their data could reveal. Ultimately, enterprises leverage various technologies and make more sound and informed decisions in every business unit.
