Applications of the trend
Though big data can be applied to most fields of work, we have identified six areas with huge potential for impact in the years ahead.
Real-time monitoring and transparency. Making data more accessible in a timely manner can create tremendous value for organizations, especially where it had been siloed and can now be used to expose variations in performance. The McKinsey Global Institute’s 2011 report on big data found cases in which access to big data had a direct impact on performance. A national tax agency, for example, was able to redeploy 20 percent of its employees by putting housing transfer records online rather than having workers request the data (which came on CD-ROMs) and manually searching.
Many governments are adopting “open data” policies to improve transparency of their programs and increase citizen engagement, often leading to unexpected discoveries. Two open data startups supported by the UK government analyzed the National Health Service’s spending on cholesterol medication in 2011–12 and found opportunities to save more than £200 million.13 The mayor’s office in New York uses a Citywide Performance Reporting tool that collates information from more than 40 city agencies and is used for public reporting and performance management.
A related real-time application is monitoring sentiment. By using big data feeds that include news reports, blog posts, tweets, and social media content, it is possible to detect subtle shifts in sentiment. It has been reported that the Arab Spring could have been predicted from the social media chatter in Cairo and other cities in the region in the months prior to the uprisings