Banking, telecommunications, media and retail lead Big Data adoption in the Wikibon Fall 2015 survey, writes Wikibon Analyst Ralph Finos in “Big Data Adoption Progress Across Industries.” Health care showed the biggest positive change in its overall adoption in the 18 months since the last Wikibon survey.

The rate of Big Data adoption is heavily influenced by overall conditions in the individual verticals, Finos notes. For example, government adoption is slowed in part by the lack of funds available for developing new technological approaches to serving citizens and lack of resources overall in smaller governmental entities such as states and cities. Adoption varies widely from vertical to vertical, with those that can most easily see how they can achieve competitive advantage or significant bottom-line savings with a Big Data application more likely to invest heavily.

Banking and finance, the most mature and forward-thinking of the verticals surveyed, is finding high value in fraud detection, customer segmentation, churn analysis and market analytics. Telco and media tends to focus first on customer churn and recommendation engines. Health care is focusing on patient analytics and risk management, but adoption may be slowed some because the large number of smaller organizations, compared to other industries, may not always have resources to adopt new technologies quickly.

Some of the laggards, including manufacturing, IT and business services and transportation, may be waiting for Internet of Things to mature to the point that they can realize measurable value from Big Data. Internet of Things (IoT) can give them clear business advantages, such as in improving customer service.

Finos suggests that users should use the report to gauge where they are compared to the averages in their vertical industries and invest accordingly. Vendors should use the survey findings to tailor their approach to specific verticals in Big Data adoption.

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