The Big Deal About Big Data For Customer Engagement

As consumers use multiple touchpoints to obtain information, exchange reviews, and purchase products and services, organizations are struggling to better integrate systems and leverage social technologies to optimize the quality of customer interactions. Companies are directing investments toward applications and platforms to support nontraditional touchpoints like online communities, application marketplaces, and mobile devices. In turn, these investments are creating a new set of challenges in managing the growth in the volume, velocity, variety, and variability of data — widely referred to as "big data." This report highlights the importance and challenges of big data for organizations, the key role business decision-makers must play in leading big data initiatives, and best practices for organizations seeking to leverage big data for improved customer engagement. Vendor strategists can use this report to better understand big data demand drivers and likely adoption patterns.