The field of data collection and analysis has gained massive strides over the last two decades, especially in the information technology community. Data have had extensive study in the field of probability and statistics, but data mining is a term that was crafted by the “IT” community to propagate areas that require scalability, usability and computational applications.
The essence and relevance of data is no fiddle as we live in a world where,—by mere human interaction vast amounts of data are produced. A typical example is the use of smartphones, which results in telecommunication companies creating details of call duration and destinations of calls made. Such data can be used to make decisions about network strength, traffic, promotions, pricing, and even customer targeting.
A recent trend is the development of low-cost wearable sensors and other smart devices that can communicate with one another. By an estimate, the number of such devices exceeds the number of people existing on the planet. The inference of such massive data is very useful for data analysis.
Why is this useful for the common man? With the advent of the world wide web and businesses (both local and international) that exist on that platform, there is a need to be able to mine and analyze data for various applications. For instance, one can extract data, to determine the association of different topics on the web as regards customer behavior and patterns.
Before now, the use of data analysis and projections, have strictly been reserved for the professionals, but thanks to online services like eCrawl, that has made it possible for the average person-persons (business owners, institutions and any type of establishment) to able to mine data for business or professional reasons.
If you are a business owner, and you want to grow your business online, but you are still skeptical as to whether or not you need a web analysis tool for your business—well here are some reason why —
E-commerce: with this kind of tool you can track the pricing of your competitors and other various data, that can give a competitive advantage over your rivals, not only that, you get to see what other successful companies within your industry are doing-thereby keeping you in-loop of current and emerging trends.
Travel: this tool gives you the ability to spy on your rivals and see how much fare they are paying for trips and other contingencies that allows you to stay afloat of current prices and listings, so you don’t have to pay above what the standard rate is.
Market prediction: with the evolutionary explosion of technology, the rate at which advancement and trends keep emerging, it’s really at a fast pace, plus keeping up with such trends is near impossible without a proper mining tool. Considering the busy lives we lead and the social responsibilities that come with it, it won’t be practical to ask a person to keep up with the present and new trends.
Research: It is evident that before anyone embarks on any form of project, a lot of market research needs to take place, to gain articulate and profound knowledge of the proposed task—this is where data mining tools come in—-the application does all the hard work of searching and gathering relevant information as regards any topic it was assigned.
Marketing and sales: every experienced marketer knows that data is one very crucial element of marketing. Data in marketing helps the marketer not only to come up with what to sell but also with how to sell. Every business needs to have a system of analyzing and most importantly tracking sales campaigns alongside consumer behavior. Also, when it comes to market testing, a salesperson should be able to test various rollout to see which one has the most potential—and what better way of doing this than with a data mining tool.
Pricing: any seasoned entrepreneur knows that pricing plays a very crucial role as to how end users react to certain goods and services, especially in an industry that a consumer can quickly get a replacement or alternative. It is therefore vital not to put a price that is either too high or too low so as not to drive one’s clientele to their competitors. Moreso, some setbacks that accrue as a result of lousy pricing may be challenging to recover from in due time.
Software as a service (SAAS): if you have an enterprise that requires the input of raw data to perform a series of tasks—then an online tool can be integrated into such a platform to give real-time solutions, depending on what the software or application is meant to do. An excellent example of this is online directories that need a frequent update of information, always to be made available for prospective users.
At this juncture, one can see the benefits of using online mining tools to promote and increase the prospect of any venture, be it an educational or monetary pursuit. Even more impressive is one of the benefits published by Forbes magazine in July 2018, in which a manufacturing company was able to not only avert future accidents but was able to protect the environment and avoid expensive litigations. Do you still think data mining isn’t worth it?—-a food for thought.