5 Types of Companies as They Relate to Big Data

The five groups are ranked from least to most reliant 

upon proprietary software intellectual property for their business advantage.

• Traditional strategic business 
  consulting firms: 
  Their business model is that they are paid for advice. 
  They generally focus on ways to improve business processes, 
  increase revenues, maximize profitability, and reduce risk.

• Traditional businesses in all market sectors: 
  These are referred to as bricks-and-mortar companies. 
  Many sectors of the traditional economy, such as retail, 
  big box stores, banking and payment processing, financial advisors, 
  taxis, hotels, are facing dangerous competition from digital companies.

• A small number of strategic business consulting firms: They

   recommend business process changes, but they specialize in building or 

  installing custom software systems to implement their recommendations.

• Hardware and software companies: 

  These are the critical companies that together provide the products, and 

  services to gather, store, manage, 

  search, process, analyze, visualize and report the world's data. (This process is my daily work routine)

• Digital companies: 

  They compete primarily against established players in traditional markets. 

  Like providing taxi service, rooms to rent for the night, business and 

  consumer loans, retail shopping, movies, opportunities for communication and 

  social connection. 

  But without the fixed costs of their bricks-and-mortar competitors.