Big Data for Smaller Businesses

Big Data is a big deal, but it’s not just for big businesses anymore. Business intelligence provider and data management specialists DataMentors are focusing on bringing the power of Big Data to small and mid-sized businesses. The company has re-organized with the help of investors and merged data-based marketing company Attain Group to help achieve that goal.

The benefits of bringing Big Data to smaller businesses are clear, according to DataMentors ceo Bob Orf. While middle-market clients need these services to be able to compete with the larger players, it has become increasingly difficult for them to do so given the cost, complexity and manpower needs that data-driven marketing requires.

“Massive data collection across multiple touch points has become the standard. Marketers need to get a firm grip on the data because there is so much of it. We can ratchet it down to the middle market better than IBM and Oracle because we don’t have the overhead they have,” Orf says. This way of thinking attracted the attention of like-minded outside investors.

Earlier this year, Brook Venture Partners with co-investors Bay Capital of Providence, RI and Pride’s Crossing Capital of Wakefield, MA announced an investment in DataMentors as it aims to reach more marketers seeking access to Big Data capabilities. Attain Group merged into the firm, and its managing partner Anders Ekman has been named DataMentors president.

Orf says DataMentors wanted to take on an outside investor to help growth, and Brook Venture Partners brought a sales and marketing strategy to the table to help take it to the next level, while Attain Group brought strategic marketing consulting to the table to boost the company’s capabilities.

“Clients are still trying to catch up to Big Data, because data is proliferating faster than tools, people and expertise can. You’re seeing big enterprises get their arms around the data with strategies to drill into what the right data is, and they are able to deliver it. While it’s working for really big companies with lots of money to spend on tools and staff to implement them, it hasn’t really filtered down to the middle market, where we see the huge opportunity,” Ekman says.

DataMentors’ PinPoint solution allows marketers to derive insight from their data and target the right customers with the right offers and campaigns. DataMentors also has proprietary access to a third party data file, allowing clients to target new prospects and understand more about their existing customers.

Looking forward, Orf says marketers and data specialists are facing a huge amount of unstructured data generated from social media. The challenge is making the most of that unstructured data without impacting ROI.

“The scale has been tipping toward unstructured data for the past 10 years. It used to be that 80 percent of data was structured, now 80 percent of data in unstructured because of the Internet and social media. It’s the most difficult data to mine,” Orf says.