BALI, PRINDONESIA.CO – PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk or better known as Telkom is a company that is active in utilizing big data. This data then becomes a consideration in determining a decision. Just like the Head of Research & Big Data Telkom Komang Budi Aryasa delivered at The 19^th PR INDONESIA Workshop Series with the theme “An Effective PR Campaign Using Big Data” said in Bali, Tuesday (8/5/2018).

At the start of his material delivery, Budi ask all of the workshop participants who are all PR practitioner to equate their mindset that data technology is different from information technology (IT). “Here’s the logic. The mindset with IT is that we always buy, but with big data, we all have data,” he said firmly.+-------++

The other thing that needed to be understood when dabbling in the era of technology like today is that the more data that is shared, the less privacy that people have. “Applications are really great that they can record our activities and whereabouts. The consequence is, our privacy is getting less private,” Budi said.

A survey showed, in 2017, 81 percent of technology in Indonesia was colored by advance analytic – the era where everything is related to data. Until 2022, Indonesia will enter the era of industrial revolution 4.0. “In this era, everything will be colored with automation,” he elaborated. Therefore, Budi continued, PR who has creative skill in managing strategy is needed to be able to make the best of the era.

Nowadays, the X generation who is active in this field is experiencing the data explosion stage. It means, there are many result of predicted data that found and then the big data is stored, but they don’t know how to process that many data. “This is the challenge of big data,” Budi said.

Answering Challenges

According to Budi, there are three data structures that need to be understood in processing big data. First is structured data. Structured data is the regular data format that consists of column and row and usually presented in the form of Excel. Second is semi-structured data or data that can be read by the eyes (small data and big data). Third, unstructured data, it means the data is unstructured and can only be seen by a machine. Shortly, Budi said, big data is a combination of two data with a big volume which has a structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.

Not only that, having big data doesn’t mean that it can be used instantly. In theory, Big Data Use Cases is needed to be able to appropriately use big data. “Everything uses data to operate a device, but not all data can be used to operate it,” he explained. In order to be able to use the data well, data filtering step is needed. That is also what Budi implemented in his company. “Of all the data, not all of them we stored and used,” added Budi.

In addition, there are three data characters in this era that we need to understand in processing big data. They are volume, variety and velocity. These characters are then adjusted with the four additional indicators that include veracity, visualization, variability, and value.

Of the many things that have been said earlier, that is why all businessmen and businesswomen, corporations, agencies to institutions face challenges that need to be defeated. Those challenges are, people challenge – looking for an individual who has special skill in processing complex data, and technology challenge – synchronizes the use of technology in handling big volume data.

To answer those challenges, Budi emphasized the importance to form a data scientist team. They are the reliable data processing team who has skill in the statistic field, communication business, and IT. “Other than being able to process big data, an individual with these background knowledge they can also choose which technology that is appropriate to use,” he concluded.(jnt/rtn)