Anything from professional sports to ads and investment management and nearly everything in between. Every day, big data drives thousands of decisions that affect us both in big and small ways. So what exactly is big data, but also how or why does it affect initiatives in the area of health & welfare?
Let's begin with a description of big data. Big data is a concept used to characterize vast volumes of data that have emerged in the last decade or so. I know it's dull. It was originally used to characterize data sets that were so massive that they exceeded the reach and capability of conventional database and analytics tools. When Moore's law progressed, science caught up, but the data was still stored.
Big data is now more clearly characterized by a series of properties, than merely being a large amount of data. The four Vs – Volume, Velocity, Variety, and Veracity – are widely used to describe these characteristics.
Well, what specifically are these Vs, and how do they affect the universe of EHS? Let's take a better look!
Volume
Data can be seen as a significant contribution to the EHS scale today! When researching the size of datasets available to the public today, the Internet is a reasonable place to begin your search!
The number of Internet users in the 21st century has become outstandingly large. Therefore consumer interaction has also become a massive generator for large volumes of data in the interwebs. But, it is not just about people who are contributing to the massive amount of data, according to several statistics found online in the U.S, most businesses generate almost 100 terabytes of business data annually.
What exactly is the information being processed? It is mainly about CRM, financial data, and ERP data. Data on the atmosphere of a workplace, employees’ wellbeing, regulatory enforcement are all important sets of organization data collected in large volumes.
Velocity
The rate at which new data is generated is referred to as velocity. Certain usage cases, once again, seem to be massive sources of new data production. Take, for example, the everyday events that take place in financial exchanges all around the world. Any exchange and activity generate a steady flow of updates.
So it's not just about stocks and shares when it comes to data velocity. Data is produced at a rapid rate for EHS professionals as well. Not only are safety violations being reported these days. Analyses of accidents and near-misses, disciplinary measures, preparation tasks, and reports are all operations that lead to the rich pool of EHS data you already have.
Variety
There is no longer a centralized source of data. In reality, data isn't entirely generated by computers in the way we think of them. Smartphones, wearable gadgets, and even internet-connected machines are all part of the internet of things. Many of these endpoints add to the mountains of data we already have. There isn't just a lot of choice in terms of devices. Heavy-duty data used to be the domain of the military and banking, but now it's the domain of everybody.
Also, seemingly straightforward business processes from the past, such as event monitoring and reporting, are now monitored in new, purpose-built EHS databases and platforms. The EHS system is no longer limited to event info. Platforms will also capture, compile, and interpret data from accidents, quality control, preparation, and risk matrices, among other aspects.
Veracity
Perhaps the one dark truth of all the evidence we now rely on is its veracity. In either case, how reliable is all of this information? Data accuracy is also a major concern. According to a study, the cost of bad data and the mistakes it can cause, cost the US economy more than $3 trillion dollars last year.
What steps will you take to ensure that your EHS data is of good quality? Use software and technology to ensure that all of the data is entered correctly and on schedule, whether it's event forms, investigations, or imports from foreign suppliers. Some software will also assist in ensuring the accuracy of your data by including external sources such as images and videos. Moving away from paper forms and manual processes in favor of a web-based framework is, of course, the most important step in ensuring the accuracy of your EHS results.
With this whole info, the biggest challenge is finding out how to derive the kinds of insights that will help you make real improvements, not only to your EHS systems but to your whole enterprise. That is, no matter how large your haystack is, you'll need assistance to locate the needles of wisdom that might be hidden within.
Valuing Time
EHS monitoring and research software can provide easy-to-use data exploration resources to you, the consumer. You can save time and money by using apps that allow intuitive reporting and move dashboards. You should be able to spend more time finding and visualizing insights and patterns in your EHS documents by using tools that help you to spend less time studying how to use them.
EHS Data Communication
Strictly speaking, EHS data exploration tools can make it possible for you to communicate in that language. Any EHS administrator or manager should be able to convey data, patterns, and problems to management and colleagues in other departments in a simple and succinct manner using a variety of charts and modern graphing software.
Decentralization of Analytics
Nothing is more frustrating than seeing a department becoming a barrier in your workflow. The big data techniques of the past is developed with data scientists in mind. Most of the use of those early techniques has been refined and updated to make them more available to the rest of us.
Search for EHS applications that have monitoring and light market analytics capability, allowing EHS administrators and program owners to easily analyze their EHS data in real time without the need for a corporate business analyst to serve as a middleman. This helps you to take care of your EHS data and access the knowledge you need when you need it.
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