Get Your Arms Around The Data In Your Dealership, from NCM Institute.
Lately it seems I am unable to hide from the term, Big Data. I’m exposed to it in headlines, newspapers(a bit old school, but I still read them), magazines and yes, even blogs. But what does “big data” truly mean and why are we being doused with it? The term is so new I couldn’t locate it in the Merriam-Webster® dictionary, so I took the obvious next course of action and looked up the definition in the infamous Wikipedia. This is what I found:
“Big data is a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications.”
To dealerships, big data, or more importantly the management of big data, can mean the difference between increasing profitability and stagnation. Let’s take the aforementioned definition in a bit more industry-specific direction. To ensure we are maximizing day-to-day operations efficiently we use traditional DMS systems, inventory management systems, RO analysis software, manually-generated spreadsheets, etc. All of this is great and even necessary, but it seems as other technology is advancing and there is more information readily floating around in the cloud, our in-house systems should be able to progress at the same accelerated level.