5 Big Data Sources for Improving Data Quality and Business Analytics
Information is power – especially in the world of e-commerce. You can make a much larger impact and save money by gathering data from different data sources on your market. But where can you find reliable, actionable information without spending a fortune?
Big data doesn’t get bigger than Amazon. Amazon Web Services provides cloud-based infrastructure for most of the world’s largest companies, as well as a huge percentage of smaller firms and startups.
In an effort to give back to the community that they serve, Amazon has stored, organized and published a gargantuan collection of public data. For me, the most useful data has been in their economic data collection.The information includes the Federal Reserve’s Economic Data, as well as a database of federal contracts.
We all turn to Google for quick answers to common questions. But did you know that you can navigate a treasure trove of free big data resources by navigating to their public data directory? The first set of data you’ll see is intriguing, but probably not the most useful for companies trying to gain an edge on the competition.
I enjoy diving into the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) when considering new markets to expand into. Areas with heavy entrepreneurial activity can be low-hanging fruit for B2B firms.
Big data isn’t just for digital technology companies. Flower Telecom and other companies are using it for inbound call management. They have found that big data can make it easier to track the performance of telemarketing strategies. Telephones can be integrated with digital technology to monitor them better.
You’ll find that the Chambers of Commerce in many cities are beginning to make their data available to the public. They do this in order to attract new vendors, startups, and large corporations into their cities. Bringing in a new business can create jobs and improve the tax base.
Keeping their motivations in mind, you can take their data sets with a grain of salt. They are definitely motivated to juice the numbers where they can.
