Effect of Big Data on the Advisory Business - Essay Example

Effect of the big data on the advisory business Introduction The data can be regarded as a torrent flowing into all possible areas in context of global economy. The term big data can be considered as huge data sets whose size cannot be compared to that of tools of a typical database that is employed to store, analyze, capture and manage data. The businesses operating in whichever segment need to churn out huge volumes of transactional data encompassing trillion information bytes in context of their suppliers, customers as well as their operations. In today’s scenario there is creation of data flood as more number of people interact through mediums such as GPS devices, computers, cell phones, medical devices, etc. The concept of big data has been arising majorly due to the explosive growth of data flow that is caused by digitization taking place in the society. The digitization and automation of firms in the society has led to huge data storage (Feenberg, 2005).These large volumes of data that is being stored by businesses are very critical in terms of business operations. The concept of big data has provided the firms with the advantage to store large data volumes that were not possible in the early years. As the size of big data is incomparable it provides a very strong knowledge base for the firms operating in different industry. In context of businesses the big data trend allows a firm to transform huge sets of data in the form of advanced products, new services, and even improved marketing techniques so as to reach out to more number of customers. The trend of big data has caused an impact on all possible and similarly it has even effected the advisory firms both business and financial. The advisory firms acts as a consulting group that helps a firm to manage its functions and also at times it controls various managerial functions of a company. The major opportunities that are created by big data in context of managerial and financial advisory firms are creating of best practice portals and knowledge space (Davenport, 2014). These opportunities are majorly based on knowledge accumulation and professional experiences in context of portal for knowledge space for respective economic sectors, environmental changes in the businesses in relation to legal framework, competition, emerging markets, economy, new services and products, etc. The concept of knowledge space may provide opportunities to the advisory firms or may even result into major threats for these firms in respect to long term operations of these firms. Description about Big Data The term big data is normally defined to be larger data sets in comparison to the traditional data sets. It can be stated as with the advancement of technology the data set size also increases and which ultimately results into more number of data sets being considered as big data. However the concept of big data varies with industry as it particularly depends on the nature of software tools that are available in the industry and datasets size that are commonly used in a particular industry. In today’s scenario with respect to the various sectors the big data range would vary from terabytes to that of petabytes. In context of advisory firms the major implication of big data is that it provides the best portal where common interaction can take place between the clients and firms. The big data can be considered to be a testament in terms of significant growth with respect to the breadth and magnitude of data usage (Payton & Claypoole, 2014).A business such as that of advisory firms enters into the field of big data from that of typical dataset when the firm is looking forward into venture that comprises of involving data from various sources both from the perspective of client as well as the firm. The knowledge can efficiently be accumulated from the own system of the firm and a bit of investment into the advanced computing power may result into enhanced decision making. The aspect of big data is not separate from that of data driven model of businesses. The model that evaluates the concept of big data is given below- (Source: Ballard, Compert & Smith, 2014) The four major elements of this concept are technology and data; focus on new areas of business, digitization and accelerating competition. The most important of all the elements is the use of sophisticated data that requires high skill and knowledge level in regard to technology, data analysis and data interpretation. The businesses that are driven by data such as that of advisory firms requires the importance of data usage to be accepted at the management level so that more of strategic decisions are undertaken on the basis of data rather than any form of gut feeling. The concept of digitization cannot draw a clear distinction between the business developments that are data driven in comparison to that of big data. As the digitization level increases it facilitates storage and collection of data extensively this in turn results into integration, usage and movement of data at a faster pace. Whereas in context of small scale firms the low digitization levels in these firms poses a great challenge to their business operations in the present scenario (Liebowitz, 2013).The third element is that of competition, and in all industrial sectors the trends of big data are greatly driven through the concept of competitive scenario in the respective industry. The aspect of big data can be considered to be one of the innovative paths that can be undertaken by a firm while competing with other players in the industry as per the global economy. The most important factor on basis of which advisory firms compete is that of price and service quality but the factor of big data can provide these firms with a competitive edge in the intense competitive industry. The business development that are data driven and the concept of big data are very closely knitted with the formation of new models of business (Krishnan, 2013).The factor that drives big data is the aspect of transition that takes place from the one model of business to another. The firms operating in different industries may distinguish itself from that of global competition on the basis of development of these new concepts where advice as well as service is directly linked with each other. In case of those firms that offers products to its customers such services and advices gets associated with that of products and in such a scenario it becomes essential to collect various data in context of the product that becomes a critical part of the service to be delivered to the customers (Berman, 2013). The businesses that are data driven or the concept of big data has certain major benefits for enterprises operating across the globe. An overall benefits generated by the usage of big data is given below- (Source: Schonberger & Cukier, 2013) The first major benefit that is caused by big data is that of gaining insights into the data that are internally possessed by the firm. These insights in turn facilitate better understanding of the firm’s operations and enhance the level of work progress in the firm. The external as well as internal data of the firm can be optimized as and when required through the framework of big data. This optimization benefit is enabled by firm to increase on its sales or in certain context it is even used by a firm to plan specific marketing campaigns and even business strategies so as to satisfy the needs and wants of the customers. This form of integration helps to compare the external data that is in real time context with that of internal data related to the progress or growth of the firm (Raj & Deka, 2014).The factor of data driven innovation facilitates better performance of a firm in regards of using computerized devices for dealing with clients. In case of advisory firms this major benefit of big data can be exploited through the development of knowledge space portal that would serve as a platform to accumulate knowledge from various sectors and even capture the changing trends of the economy so as to create new opportunities for business development. The new business areas that are provided by the framework of big data enables a firm to save costs as well as detect any form of errors in the system. There are various sets of tools and technologies that are provided by big data so as to overcome the minor challenges that are faced by firms in day to day activities (Catlett, Gentzsch & Grandinetti, 2013).The benefits that are resulted due to the concept of big data differ from one industry to another and it depends on the critical aspects of the business. Impact of the big data trend on advisory business How the businesses and financial Advisory firms are disrupted by the trends of big data? The usage and managing of data through the framework of big data is beneficial for the advisory firms in multiple ways. The major impacts that would be caused to these firms are saving of time that could be utilized in various other areas of the business operations, less of internal confusion and better prioritization of tasks, faster and efficient decision making, effective assessment of staff performance in the organization, and less of reduced profitability margins that was earlier caused due to inefficiencies in the operations. The technologies that are resulted due to the evolution of big data enable these firms to use a wide variety of tools for processing, storing, analyzing as well aggregating data sets (Franks, 2012).The firms that are inclined towards adopting this new technology in the significant industry also need to be cautious about the human resource and their skills that would be essential for using the framework of big data. The employee skills of these firms need to be enhanced so that they are able to meet the requirements of operating in such innovative system. This would require these advisory firms to reduce the skill gaps in their workforce so that they are able analyze the data captured through this huge data set. In such a situation most of the advisory firms recruits new candidates who possess the required expertise of data sets whereas there are still firms in this industry who invests hugely in training and developing existing employees so that they are able to increase on their work efficiency (Schmarzo, 2013).This in turn creates more of employment opportunities in this industry which forms one of the major impacts of big data. These new roles that are resulted from this initiative are focused towards data driven aspect of business models. The impact of the combination of new analytics and new data has been on the work process of the advisory firms. The effect of big data has changed the landscape of business and transformed the way in which the firm works. The advisory firms in the financial segments have resulted into giving importance to those values that were once considered to be essential for certain segments. These technological skills have become essential for all the professionals that are a part of these firms. The most essential impact of the trend of big data on the advisory firms is accelerated work performance that enables these firms to create a unique market space (Davenport, 2014).The data patterns that are observed by the firms and the professionals who forms a part of these firms if can analyze well the changing patterns of data would result into making more number of strategic choices. The vast sets of technologies that are available to the advisory firms are one of the impacts of big data trend. The major technology that can be enabled by these firms is the use of big table. The Google file system that forms the platform for the big table in which the distribution system of database is built would be beneficial for the firms in terms of accessing knowledge as well as storing huge amounts of data. The concept of business intelligence can also be exploited by firms through the foundation of big data. This application software has enabled these advisory firms to lessen the manual work and easily access the stored data in the data warehouse (Rodrigo, 2010).The advisory firms also needs to develop annual reports and if the information is more distributed it results into more of chaos in the system. The BI tools has facilitated the advisory firms to generate reports on specific time periods and also on the same time display real time information so as to make all the employees in the system be aware about the changing trends in the industry. The impact of the big data trend has also been the factor of ETL or Extract Transform Load that can be used by the advisory firms so as to analyze the big sets of data as per the economic trends and emerging markets. These ETL tools relates to all kinds of software tools that is incorporated so as to extract information from various external sources that is beneficial for the firm and then convert the data collected into operational needs (Reich, 2011). After the data has been collected by the computing devices the information is further stored into a database that would be beneficial for the advisory firms in the future context. How this disruption created the opportunities and threats to the Advisory industry? The concept of knowledge space was initially being focused on to be created in the advisory firms. The best practices through the concept of knowledge space were incorporated in most of the economic sectors. The best practices in these firms majorly related to go and go analysis, environmental analysis, and balance and check plan, implementation and calculation of resources, exit strategy and economic value milestones, and growth strategy of the firm. The clients of these firms have a direct access to the knowledge space and even can interact directly with the professional advisory team so that they provide them with appropriate information so as to make appropriate decisions. This tool of project planning enables the clients to be ready with the necessary requirements so as to be ready for the next level of advisory session (Feenberg, 2005). The cost and benefit analysis of this knowledge space states that this framework facilitates the client to optimize on their cost, it helps to involve the client in the process of project planning, work scope is also created with a more refined understanding, it facilitates creation of a road map for the entire process and enhances effectiveness in terms of balance and check process. There are many famous examples of advisory firms who have utilized the cost benefit analysis of knowledge space in the most effective way. The Arthur Anderson is a famous personality in this field who has created the first knowledge space model amongst the advisory firms. The strategy adopted by this model can be further illustrated with the help of the diagram below- (Source: Liebowitz, 2013) This model was developed in the year 1998 and it was considered to be a online gateway to all kinds of business resources, information and tools so as to make the Internet more productive and efficient for all the users. The “Global Best Practices” model of Arthur Anderson provided the scope to the online subscribers to access enhancement tools of business performance and also various diagnostic tools. This model has made the advisory firm of Arthur Anderson turn out to be the most effective online advisory firm. The other examples in this field have been of PWC and E&Y who developed on their knowledge space portal so that most effective interactions can be achieved between the client and firm (Liebowitz, 2013). In the scenario of advisory firms that provides services in both financial as well as managerial context it becomes very essential for the firm to handle large volumes of data and combine data from more than two sources. The application of Mashup is one of the positive impacts that have been caused with the trend of big data on the advisory firms. This application enables the firms to combine as well as use functionality or data that is derived from more than one source so as to create an advanced service level. Through this technique the advisory firms can make the required information for the clients available on the Web so as to access easily as an open source data. This reduces the time on the client perspective but on the other hand making such huge volumes on data available on the web would pose a challenge to the firm in the form of piracy or data being hacked with any other players in the industry. The idea of big data has made firms to invest huge sums of money in such new technology and tools that makes work process easier and simpler (Information Resources Management Association, 2005).The negative impacts of this trend though limited creates a diverse impact on the business operations of these advisory firms. The data that is stored by these firms on the huge data sets enables a firm to be less dependent on the manual work but without creating any form of backup it would not be beneficial for the firm for long run. The short term implications is that big data helps to smoothen the work process by making it faster and also by drawing relationships between various data sets that would be essential for providing appropriate advisory services. The long term implications majorly being that incorporation of such a new concept in the system require huge investment which becomes an additional cost for the firm. Along with the cost the major challenge that the firm needs to encounter is the issue of security as well as privacy. The best practice tools and technology and the knowledge space portal that is created by the big data trend is subjected to various cyber security issues. The firm needs to invest into security measures so as to protect their data sets and this in turn leads to more of fierce competition in the market (Cabrera & Malanowski, 2009).The data that the firm displays or access from the web can also be easily accessed by other firms that take away the uniqueness of services of a particular advisory firm. However the negative impact would largely remain in the areas of professionals becoming dependent on technologies and even large number of employment opportunities is lost due to the existing skill gaps in the workforce. This trend has enabled the individuals who possess the IT skills to excel in this field but the key professionals of these firms who have the knowledge about the business operations cannot succeed much due to limitations in the technological field. Business opportunities and threats created by big data The business opportunities and threats that are created in this particular industry are greatly dependent on the usage of big data. The companies who operate in the world of big data often do not want to be a part of it simply because it does possess certain threats that would not be beneficial for the firm. In the context of advisory firms the value of data is of major importance as this data forms the basis of delivering appropriate advices to business enterprises in context of financial as well as managerial needs. In such a scenario the relevancy of data matters as the data that is collected by the advisory firms on the basis of the concept of big data is dependent on various source of information (Feenberg, 2005). In order to draw a relation between the collected data it becomes very essential to have relevant information that is aligned with the changing trends of the economy. The emerging markets can only be captured by these advisory firms when they use the proper data alignment tools and techniques so as to provide the desirable outcomes. The big data concept can thus be related to the aspect of data hygiene. It is a framework that is usually incorporated by an organization so as to filter data values and seek the required data for executing business operations. The business opportunities that the big data trend provides to the advisory firms are majorly in the form of greater visibility of data. This faster access to information, analysis and integration of data would provide these firms to expand their business operations across the globe and would even facilitate the individuals working in these advisory firms to get more of information related to a particular scenario and provide its clients with better set of advices that would be beneficial for the clients for long term. The idea of information democratization provides these advisory firms with the opportunity to make their services transparent to the clients situated across the globe. This in turn creates huge opportunities for the firm in terms of capturing information as well as dealing with more number of clients (Hooff & Lidwien, 2005).The profitability margins for the firm increase with the trend of big data simply because large volumes of data can be stored at a particular time and can also be accessed simultaneously by different units of the firm. The other opportunity that is caused by the disruption of big data is in the form of dimensionalize of various data mix (Lee & Cassell, 2011).The curve of data learning provides the businesses in this particular sector to explore data combinations and new data usage. This phenomenon enables the firm to acquire new data sets and at the same time combine the new data sets with that of existing ones so as to create new value for the organization (Fountain, 2006).The advisory firms can save time in such innovative infrastructure as it can draw direct relationship between the existing data sources with the newly accessed information so as to provide better services to its entire client base. The service quality level of these firms is also largely dependent on the framework of big data. The opportunities that are provided by the big data can be explored by majority of the advisory firms but the threats also need to be considered by these firms. The impacts of big data are two-fold that is they have both positive as well as negative impacts. The major threats that the advisory firms faces in the internet economy is that of privacy. The information that is stored by the firms in the form of huge data sets can be easily accessed by any other data analytic experts that ultimately lead to piracy of information. On the other hand the major threats that is posed to these firms is that since the tools and technologies that are supported by big data can be easily incorporated by any enterprise it leads to less of demand for advisory firms. The advisory firm’s work process totally depends on its client base. The easy availability of information provides the scope to the client to take better decisions in any particular scenario (Hughes, Rouncefield & Tolmie, 2005).The decision making approach of many firms or enterprises are enhanced due to the factor of data mining of big data. The data mining factor enables to access relevant data and draw significant patters of that data so as to derive at appropriate conclusions. The tool of BI or business intelligence that are adopted by the firms helps to make strategic decisions which somewhere limits the business operations of the advisory firms. In certain scenario the enterprises can even hire data analytics so as to capture information that is relevant in context of economy and establish a strong position in the emerging markets. This in turn would be a major threat to the advisory firms as that would restrict their business operations. The concept of big data as is advantageous for the advisory firm similarly it is beneficial for the other industries (Schwalbe, 2009).The trend of big data has resulted into issues of data privacy that causes erroneous conclusion due to irrelevant data that is been accessed by the firms. The advisory firms are greatly dependent on the framework of big data and in certain scenario services that are offered by such firms are on the basis irrelevant data. These services can result into disruption in business operations of other enterprises which would ultimately affect the survival of these advisory firms in the industry. The other threat that is posed on the advisory firms is the aspect of confidentiality (Oz, 2008).Often due to the trend of big data firms are not sure on which of the data sets it should be sharing and which of the information it needs to keep confidential. The storage of large volumes of data often results into loss of data that cannot be easily tracked by such firms. The data loss is one of the major threats of such trend which the advisory firms need to be cautious about so that any valuable data is not accessed without permission by any other individual. . The threats and opportunities that are identified are totally based on the evidence of advisory firms. These firms were amongst the first to develop knowledge space portal and the threats have been greatly affecting these firms. The near term implications of the big data are that of exploring the opportunities that helps these firms to effectively communicate with all their clients. The long term implications of big data is that of increasing cost for the firms so as to maintain their IT infrastructure and develop skills amongst their workforce and to protect their systems from various cyber threats. The issue of cyber security forms the biggest long term implication of big data which needs to be monitored continuously and requires an ongoing investment (Fountain, 2006). Conclusion From above detailed analysis of impact of big data on business and mainly advisory firm it can be concluded that the advisory firms have been witnessing a change in their business operations with the evolution of the trend of big data. The big data has enabled firm to store data, analyze data sets as well as monitor the changes in the external environment. The economic patterns can greatly be identified by firms through the approach of big data. This new trend enables a firm to capture the required information that would facilitate the work process. The decision making factor is very critical for any business organizations. The most important tools of the big data such BI or business intelligence technology enables a firm to analyze big sets of data that cannot be easily integrated by typical data sets. This form of data analysis and drawing effective patterns of data enables a firm to make strategic choices with respect to emerging markets as well as competition (Feenberg, 2005). The trend of big data has enabled many firms to share large volumes of data on a global scale. The relevant information related to the global economy can be easily accessed by the firm which gives a pool of data to the firm so as take effective decisions. The advancement in the trend of big data has also resulted into the skill gap in the workforce. The workers in the firm who may possess knowledge about the particular field may lack the required technical skills needed to support the approach of big data. The major threats that are posed to the advisory firms due to the trend of big data are in the form of data security and loss of uniqueness of such firms as data would be available to all enterprises operating in any industrial sector. The advisory firms in this context need to invest huge sum of money so as to impart the required skills to the employees or hire individuals externally who possess the required technical expertise. The cost that is associated with setting up of the IT infrastructure is relatively high which the firm needs to bear so that it can explore the long term benefits of various software applications. The advisory firms are also provided with a wide range of opportunities such as that of expanded business operations and easier accessibility and visibility of data (Schwalbe, 2009). References Ballard, C., Compert, C., & Smith, H. (2014). Information Governance Principles and Practices for a Big Data Landscape. USA: IBM Redbooks. Berman, J. J. (2013). Principles of Big Data: Preparing, Sharing, and Analyzing Complex Information. USA: Newnes. Cabrera, M., & Malanowski, N. (2009). Information and Communication Technologies. Netherlands: IOS Press. Catlett, C., Gentzsch, W., & Grandinetti, L. 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