寻找负担得起的方式使用大数据
克里斯理查兹/纽约时报
今年27岁的布瑞恩待在在他亚利桑那州图森汽车清洗设备房，通过他的清洁用品设备和自动售货机提示确定下一步做什么。
“我们有机器自动测大小和洗汽车，混合化学品，启动泵，打开灯，我这里还是采用手工计数的库存，”他说。
通过在线搜索他介了解到FileMaker Pro，这是一个为小企业定制的软件产品并可以用iPads操作，Janezic就想为他自己和他的三个远程员工配置这么一套，更不用说他父母在亚利桑那州六个洗车行的员工了 。（更多全球资讯请点击浏览）
“现在我们在自己的手上就可以看到我们的任何网站，”他说，文档创建的人还为我们建了PDF购买订单，我们可以向当地任何一个供应商或在线供应商下单。”
这只是一部分的方便处。在 Janezic对洗车化学品安装传感器前，监测使用意味着要去操心每一个滚筒，注意液体水平线，一周要测一次。加仑消耗除以洗的车量告诉他每洗一辆用了多少。
“现在我们能够持续不断监控这些水平线，”他说。“所以在一周内不再只有有两个数据点，我们将会会有500个数据点。相信在我们整个公司是可以做到这些的。”
Finding affordable ways to use big data
Chris Richards/The New York Times
Brian Janezic uses software and sensors to continuously monitor the use of liquid chemicals at his two self-service carwashes in Tucson, Ariz. A wealth of useful information that some call big data, once available only to big corporations, is becoming increasingly affordable and available to a variety of small businesses.
Brian Janezic, 27, was in the equipment room of one of the two Auto Wash Express self-service locations he owns in Tucson, Ariz., going through his cleaning supplies and vending machine items to determine what to reorder, when it hit him.
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“We have machines that automatically size and wash a car, mix chemicals, activate pumps, turn on lights — and here I am still counting inventory by hand,” he said.
An online search introduced him to FileMaker Pro, a software product well suited to small businesses and tailored to the iPads that Janezic envisioned for himself and his three remote employees — not to mention the employees serving the six Arizona Auto Wash Express locations owned by his parents.
“Now we can pull up any of our sites and see what’s on hand,” he said. And FileMaker “creates a PDF of a purchase order for us to send to one of our local suppliers or an online supplier.”
That was only part of the savings. Before Janezic installed sensors on the carwash chemicals, monitoring use meant taking a yardstick to each drum, noting liquid levels and measuring again a week later. Gallons consumed divided by the number of cars washed told him how much of each solution was used per wash.
“Now we’re able to monitor those levels continuously,” he said. “So instead of having two data points in the span of a week, we’ll have 500 data points. And we can do that across our entire company.” （更多全球资讯请点击浏览）
