Like it or not big data is here to stay. While some businesses may have been skeptical or intimidated at the prospect of incorporating big data into their operations, the reality is that without big data analytics, a company is likely to fall behind its competitors. Businesses have responded to this by trying to implement big data solutions and analytics in their companies. This can prove quite challenging, especially depending on the business, particularly their size, function, and structure. In an effort to use big data to improve revenue and cut down on costs, businesses are faced with a major decision–whether to engage in analytics for themselves or to hire a vendor. For those companies that choose a vendor, it becomes equally important to decide on one that uses machine learning in its analytics.
While big data vendors offer many unique advantages and benefits to businesses, machine learning in particular is an important feature all companies should look for. It’s also important to understand just what machine learning is before seeking out vendors who will also tout additional features like deep learning and prescriptive analytics. Machine learning is the process by which patterns are found within multiple sources of data from multivariate statistics, data mining, and advanced analytics in order to make predictions. The benefits that come from properly utilizing machine learning are clear, from understanding and predicting a customer’s future behavior, to predicting and preventing customer churn, to detecting fraud before it becomes a problem.
