4 ways to help users acclimate to big data through training Posted on : Nov 08 - 2018

Navigating geospatial data offers promising returns, but first, you need to know how to work with it. See examples below on how companies can engage employees.

Big data and more specifically large volumes of geospatial data shows no signs of slowing down. Finding ways to quickly navigate such data so that it can create real business value has become a challenge for many companies.

In the past, the use of geospatial (or map-related data) has enabled logistics companies to track trucks in transit; mining and construction companies to target sites for operations; hospitals and clinics to identify areas of high epidemic for contagious diseases; and municipal planners to observe, which streets and intersections carry the heaviest traffic and experience the most traffic jams.

The need for geospatial data

Now the ante for using geospatial mapping data has been upped. Users want these maps to deliver more content, which puts pressure on non-IT professionals to learn how to augment geospatial data. It also imposes additional training so that they properly use the data integration tools to improve mapping content.

For example, surveyors are accustomed to taking their instruments into the field and charting significant points for a survey of a physical area. They then bring this point data back to the office, where a mapping specialist uses the collected data to compile drawings and maps. Now, new software enables the surveyor to do the surveying and map development work himself—but in order to do it, he has to be trained.

In government agencies, geospatial experts historically performed only map development. Now they are being asked to integrate additional information with the maps—such as how many crimes or how many traffic accidents occurred on the streets throughout a city. These experts know mapping but are unfamiliar with how to append other types of data to the maps to make the content more meaningful. They need to be trained.

It is small wonder that many big data and analytics experts cite company resistance as a major inhibitor of analytics and big data advancement.

Training Employees

Below are four ways that companies can lessen the resistance to additional big data training

1. Check the temperature

User acclimation to big data and analytics involves getting comfortable manipulating big data in new ways and generating results from that data—but it's also about users feeling comfortable with their changing job responsibilites.

In the government GIS (geographical information systems) world, Adam Carnow, an account executive for ESRI, which provides commercial GIS systems, believes that this change begins with GIS managers. Vie More