Everybody heard about such tool as Big Data, but relatively small number of people knows what it means and how we can actually use it. Those who know can build their business around Big Data to optimize the spendings and prognose the behavior of their clients.

The meaning behind Big Data

The amount of digital data is growing every year. According to IBS the total number of data stored in 2015 is more than 6,5 zetabytes and is constantly growing. These huge masses of data are called Big.

This term appeared firstly in 2008 in special edition of Nature magazine and related to the vast amount of data available. In Russia we can add the tools for its analysis to the term, but the main idea stays untouched.

Only 1,5% of this data is actually useful and we need to have great analytics to depict the information needed from the whole data pool.

Big Data over the world

Nowadays USA is the pioneer of Big Data practices with the majority of companies being at least interested in the subject. In 2014, according to IDC, more countries began to look into the data corner. Europe, Asia (excluding Japan) and Africa took 45% share of big data software and hardware.

Where Big Data is used

The usage of Big Data is wide. With clever usage of data analysis you can find out the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, calculate the risks or know more about your clients wishes.

Source: IBM Institute for Business Value

According to the Tech Pro research survey Big Data is mostly used in telecommunication, engineering, healthcare, IT, finance and public sectors.

Big Data in Russia in numbers

In global terms the Russian big data market is rather small. In 2014 the American company IDC evaluates it for $340 millions. Still, it grows faster than on global market, at least on 40% more.

Russian Big Data market is only shaping. Not every industry is using this tool in their work, but we can see lots of big data projects in banking, telecom, retail and e-commerce companies.

In digital companies big data is also a hot topic. In Heads and Hands, for example, we deal with data-driven services on everyday basis while developing our apps and web services.

Main drivers of big data market development are:

High interest towards big data from users who want to use it to increase the competitiveness of the company

Global development of media files methods processing

Transfer of personal data processing servers to Russia due to new laws about storing and working with data

Localisation

Using Russian cloud services providers due to currency exchange rate fluctuations

Creation of technoparks to develop the IT market, including Big Data

Main sentinels of big data market development in Russia are:

Data security and confidentiality maintenance

Lack of qualified human resources

Lack of big data IT resources in Russian companies

Complexity of new technologies implementation

High costs of big data technology

Political and economical fluctuations

Higher costs on import items and inflation

Industries working with Big Data

Big Data is widely spread across different industries. It is used in healthcare, telecommunications, retails, logistics, finance and public sectors.

For example, the most of Yandex products are based on big data analysis. This year company even announced the creation of Yandex Data Factory that works with data processing for enterprises.

According to CNews, in Russia only 10% of the companies began to work with big data technologies (the global number is 30%).

Cnews Analytics

Now it’s time to move on to the real examples of big data usage in Russia.

Telecommunications

Telecommunication companies have the most high-loaded databases which gives them opportunity to perform the detailed analysis of data stored. One of the places to use big data technology is managing the loyalty of customers.

The main goal of data analysis here is to save current customers and find new ones. Companies use client segmentation, analyze traffics, find out the social belonging of the client. Big data in telecommunication is used for marketing goals and prevention of finance fraud.

One of the most bright examples of the telecom operators using Big Data is Vimpelcom (Beeline). Company is using big data to increase the quality of corporate service for every client, to create reports, analyze data to develop the network, fight spam and personalize their services.

Finance and banking

Huge percentage of big data users are specialists from finance industry. One from great examples of working with data was done in one of the Ural Banks, where database was used to analyse clients’ behavior. Bank began to offer credit specials, deposits and other services based on this analysis. After a year of big data usage retail loan portfolio increased by 55%.

Alfa-bank analyses the information from social networks and monitor the customers behavior on their corporate website. Sberbank uses big data to segment its clients base. It also plans to analyse clients behavior in real time in the future.

Tinkoff bank works with risk management and analyses the needs of its clients with big data instruments. Data is also used in scoring, marketing and sales.

Retail

In Russia retail companies implemented big data in online and offline sales. Nowadays, according to CNews, big data is used by 20% of retailers. Moreover, 75% of retail Russian market is positive about using data to increase the competitiveness of brands. According to Hadoop statistics, after implementation of big data profit of retail organisation will raise up to 10%.

One of the first offline-retailers that used big data analysis is Lenta chain. With the help of big data retailer began to monitor the customers information from their register receipts. Company gathers information to create the behavior models to make the commercial decisions.

Oil and gas industry

With big data help this industry can perform better fossil fuels extraction. Companies analyse the process of extraction and find out the most effective ones, monitor the drilling process and analyse the quality of materials. In Russia there are two major companies that are using big data now, — it’s Transneft and Rosneft.

Public sector

In other countries such as Germany, Australia, Spain, Japan, Brazil and Pakistan big data technologies are used to find solution to the challenges of national scale. It helps public sector to provide its services more effectively and to give personalised social support.

In Russia we can see the huge potential of projects based on big data. Right now it’s used in Federal Tax Service, in Medical Care Insurance Fund, in Pension Fund. Using data to achieve the public goals is important to raise the bar of living in the country.

Transportation services and logistics

Big Data is also used by transportation services to analyse the fuel expenses and monitor clients enquires.

Russian railways implemented big data technologies in partnership with SAP. It helped to reduce the reports’ preparation time in 43,5 times.

Data-driven mobile applications

In mobile apps the big data technologies are also widely spread. In banking it’s common to use big data in inner applications to perform analysis of inner processes. In healthcare — to store the medical history of the patient and to analyse the quality of service. In apps for goods delivery big data used to analyse the customer behavior and plan the marketing campaigns.

Future prognosis

As for today big data market is still not so popular in Russia as it is in many different countries. Many Russian companies are interested in the technology but are not ready to use it.

Analytics have rather optimistic prognosis about Russian market. IDC thinks that Russian big data share will increase in the next 5 years opposite to German and Japanese reduce.

In 2020 big data market will reach the 2,2% of global data volume and the amount of information will also increase together with demand on this technology.