Companies have access to more information than ever before, often from a wide range of sources and generated nearly immediately. Determining how to put Big Data to work has become a major theme for many businesses. The term gets linked to large-scale information companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon, but all sorts of businesses are beginning to make Big Data a central focal point in their strategies.

“They’re gathering huge amounts of information, often meshing traditional measures like sales with things like comments on social-media sites and location information from mobile devices. And they’re scrutinizing it to figure out how to improve their products, cut costs and keep customers coming back,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

The article notes the ways in which different companies are starting to use data for their benefits, across realms like human resources, marketing, operations and product development. Healthcare is another area being transformed by big data. For example, “Caesars Entertainment Corp., for one, analyzes health-insurance claim data for its 65,000 employees and their covered family members. Managers can track thousands of variables about how employees use medical services, such as the number of emergency-room visits and whether they choose a generic or brand-name drug,” explains the article.

Since the company began its tracking in 2009, “10,000 emergencies companywide have been shifted to less-expensive alternatives, for a total savings of $4.5 million,” writes WSJ.

Big data is playing a role in helping to better understand customer preferences. Instead of a full-scale market-research test, which would have cost too much and taken up too much time, “Ford scoured auto-enthusiast websites and owner forums to see what drivers were saying about turn indicators. Using text-mining algorithms, researchers culled more than 10,000 mentions and summarized the most relevant comments,” according to the article.

“The use of text-mining algorithms was critical in this endeavor and helped secure a complete picture that would not have been available using traditional market research,” says Michael Cavaretta, Ford’s technical leader for predictive analytics and data mining.

For years, companies including UPS have been using digital data to make operations more efficient. “By combining GPS information and data from fuel-efficiency sensors installed on more than 46,000 vehicles, UPS in 2011 reduced fuel consumption by 8.4 million gallons and cut 85 million miles off its routes.”