It's safe to say there is a fair amount of excitement surrounding the Internet of things (IOT).
An article published last year on Wired.com, titled "The Internet of things is far bigger than anyone realises", summed it up as: "The Internet of things revolves around increased machine-to-machine communication; it's built on cloud computing and networks of data-gathering sensors; it's mobile, virtual, and instantaneous connection; and it's going to make everything in our lives from streetlights to seaports 'smart'."
A new McKinsey Global Institute report, The Internet of Things: Mapping the value beyond the hype, attempts to determine exactly how IOT technology can create real economic value. It states that the potential economic impact of IOT could be more than $11 trillion annually by 2025.
So what does this mean for the contact centre, in particular making the proliferation of customer data, 'big data', advantageous to business?
According to Rebecca Anderson of Aspect, an Ocular Technologies partner, organisations have not been able to make the data usable until recently because most of them still don't have the proper tools to take action based on the data they have.
She states in her blog, "Dusting off Customer Data", that Aberdeen's new study "Big Data in CEM (customer experience management): The Path to Productive Employees and Happy Customers" shows that "only 4% of companies are extremely satisfied with their ability to use customer data within CEM activities. That's a big data disappointment".
Anderson also points out the Aberdeen study demonstrates how big data is an opportunity that can only be leveraged through technology.
She highlights Aberdeen identified three activities that best-in-class companies use for capitalising on big data:
* Gather customer insights from employees across all parts of the organisation to find opportunities to better sell, market and serve customers.
* Leverage the knowledge in your IT department to streamline technology to a single view of customer data.
* Take action! The data is only useful if you are able to take action on it. For example, analytical tools such as business intelligence and predictive analytics can help convert data into insights.
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