This document discusses big data from a business perspective. It explains that big data can create value for organizations by making information more transparent and usable, enabling better performance monitoring, improving decision making, allowing more precise customer segmentation, and aiding product development. Big data creates opportunities for new business models and competitive advantages but also poses challenges such as measuring ROI, developing functional strategies, integrating diverse data sources, and ensuring security, governance, and privacy. The document then discusses how environmental big data from sources like satellite imagery can provide insights for businesses seeking sustainability.

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Environmental Big Data: Business Perspective
Anas Al Natsheh (Ph.D)
CEMIS Business Development (CBD)
R&D and innovation Principal Lecturer
Senior Business Adviser at the Centre for Measurement and Information Systems (CEMIS)

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BIG DATA the business perspective
 How can big data create value in organisations?
• Making information transparent and usable at much higher frequency
• More accurate and detailed performance information on everything from product inventories to sick days, and
therefore expose variability and boost performance.
• Better management decisions: from basic low-frequency forecasting to high-frequency nowcasting to adjust their
business levers just in time.
• Allows ever-narrower segmentation of customers and therefore much more precisely tailored products or services
• Sophisticated analytics can substantially improve decision-making.
• Used to improve the development of the next generation of products and services.
• According to a Mckinsey report from 2011 big data creates a value of 1000 $billion for companies

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BIG DATA the business perspective
Source: Wikibon

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BIG DATA the business perspective
Source: Wikibon

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The Big data 5V’s
http://www.patrickcheesman.com/how-big-data-can-transform-your-understanding-of-your-customers/

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Drivers
– A very rich source of information for companies and potentially very fast to access.
– Faster running processes.
– Opportunities for new business models and insights to gain competitive advantage.
– Exponential growth of data from multiple sources to match changing demands of world
business.
– Opportunities to gain cost advantage of commodity hardware and/or open source software.
– Potential to match growing online service and social media demands as well as faster
understanding of causalities of customer behavior.

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Challenges
– Difficult to measure Return of Investment (ROI) with potentially high starting and operating
costs of services.
– Difficult to develop of functional strategy for Big Data utilization.
– Difficult to integrate primary, secondary and other sources of data into same system.
– Difficult to find and develop IT and market competence for staff.
– Difficult to interact with high expertise vendor companies which can result in badly fitting
solution designs.
– Security, governance and privacy remain challenges in many solutions even though companies
expect them.

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Trends
– Big data as a service. Companies will look to utilize cloud computing vendors for help with big
data.
– Companies are looking for real time functionality. It should be immediately available for use.
– Increasing demand for data scientists because there is information flow from multiple sources.
– Data quality is an issue.
– Many companies find it hard to tie big data technology to concrete business processes and
cases.
– Liability issues must be solved for big data.

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Environmental Big Data and Business

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Sources
• Keeso, A. Big Data and Environmental Sustainability: A Conversation Starter. Smith School Working Paper Series. 2014
• http://www.globalforestwatch.org/
• http://www.btplc.com/Betterfuture/
• http://www.data.gov/impact/
• http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/
• http://wpi.teamnetwork.org/wpi/dashboard
• http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/energy_resources_materials/fred_krupp_on_the_benefits_of_monitoring_resource_use?cid=ResourceRev-
eml-alt-mkq-mck-oth-1404&utm_content=buffer83730&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer
• http://www.eweek.com/cloud/microsoft-is-using-big-data-to-tackle-environmental-issues.html
• https://datafloq.com/read/big-data-centers-impact-environment-infographic/282
• http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/apr/09/monsanto-big-data-agriculture-farming-environment-climate-corp

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Thank you!
Questions?