Big data will mean big business. Target for one has been studying their client for years and have adapted to make sure that they don’t appear to be stalkers. Now once the other firms figure out how to harvest it, their marketing campaigns and they will know more about their customers than they do themselves.
As technology spits out reams of information about purchases and customers; who, what, when, where, how and why; this analysis along with other outside sources of data, census, area demographics, etc. This gives the companies near complete picture of your lifestyle, family and financial situation of their clients. The data stored by the companies is greater than that the Library of Congress.
Properly analyzed, it will be their key to ever increasing profits. Services that can analyze the digital info in new ways are open to explosive growth.
By some estimates, the market to manage this technology will grow by 40% a year till 2015. Also likely to increase is the need for people with the skills and ability required for the analytical analysis and business acumen. The same data projects that by 2018, the demand for data managers in the U.S. to outstrip supply by 1.5 million jobs, with major shortages of analytical talent. Those with Liberal Arts degrees may need to learn a new skill set.