From checking e-mails, to editing a business presentation, technology has changed how we go about our day.  Additionally, technology has changed market research.  Advancements are helping us become more efficient and agile. In terms of market research, technology has carved out new opportunities as well as pitfalls for obtaining useful business intelligence. 

During the past decade, the arrival of new technology has increased opportunities for small businesses to improve efficiency by developing targeted e-mail campaigns and other digital-based initiatives. Within the past few years, Big Data has also emerged as another tantalizing possibility for small business data strategies -- if also one that is rife with challenges:

• Can a 50-100 employee company with limited capital genuinely expect to develop a sustainable revenue growth strategy from Big Data?
• Can small businesses craft Big Data-based initiatives that are cost-effective? 
• How would such a strategy take shape?
• For brick-and-mortar small businesses offering consumer goods, especially, does it make sense to devote precious financial and employee resources toward wrestling down Big Data?
  
• What kind of market research exists to help guide small companies that are eager to utilize Big Data?
  

Can Big Data positively impact revenues for mid-sized and small business data strategies? Last week we asked when the market research community will develop strategies and tactics to define terms for Big Data's use across industries:

As market researchers confront the era of Big Data, it is time to ask key questions about its usability, its potential to affect how they do their work -- and how it impacts the customers who purchase their work. Google, of course, is a major player in the Big Data landscape, but smart business-owners know that accurate, reliable market research tailored to their specific needs requires far more specificity and targeting than the search engine giant can provide.

Last year "Big Data" emerged as a topic of awe in the popular press and became a savvy talking point. But beyond the conventional wisdom that is taking shape, market research experts who have long practiced data-collection and big data analytics -- if on a smaller scale -- are questioning if this will be the year that the ‘firehose of data’ directly impacts their field. Even big data healthcare companies are wrestling with the implications of utilizing the vast amounts of information available to them.