Getting the most out of business analytics
One of the most prevalent uses of Hadoop architecture by enterprises is to create business intelligence and analytics tools that can be leveraged to identify areas that could be improved to foster greater efficiency and productivity. According to a study jointly conducted by Gartner and the Financial Executives Research Foundation, business intelligence and analytics were top areas of focus among surveyed CFOs. Overall, 15 of the top 19 processes that were identified as needing improvement by the study's participants could be addressed through the use of these resources. In addition, 59 percent of the survey's respondents cited the ability to facilitate operational decision making processes as an area that required more technological advancement. Furthermore, half of all participants stated that the capacity to effectively monitor business performance was an investment need as well.
The report indicated that enterprises could improve their business analytics deployment by facilitating communication between data scientists and the C-suite executives who make operational decisions.…
Hadoop big data gets personal
One of the reasons Hadoop big data analysis is particularly valuable is that much of it is fundamentally about people – what they do, what they buy, what they think about or what they want, etc. Analysis gleaned from big data offers a clearer picture of human conditions and enables organizations to anticipate needs and respond to wants. Many big data projects offer a more objective view of the way humanity functions and can trigger insight into how to make improvements.
The newest trend in big data insight is analysis directly targeted at people, reported Bloomberg Businessweek. In particular, 'People Analytics' is an approach through which organizations turn the focus inward and use big data comprised of external research and intercompany observations to make operational improvements and interact better with employees.
"Because most communication and collaboration happens face to face, the data are critical for people analytics to take that next leap forward and become a transformative organizational tool," wrote Businessweek contributor Ben Waber.…
The importance of data accuracy for Hadoop banking analytics
Business analytics solutions, such as those built upon Hadoop architecture, can be a major resource for members of the financial industry. With these tools at their disposal, banks leadership could gain major insights into their operations and market places as well as improving their efforts to effectively engage potential clients.
However, these organizations need access to accurate customer data to gain the full benefits of business analytics solutions. According to a recent Experian QAS survey, many financial institutions have struggled to ensure the accuracy of the data they gather, Credit Union Journal reported. Ninety-one percent of the organizations that participated in the survey suspected that the information they collected was inaccurate in some fashion. While respondents reported that as much as 18 percent of their data could not be ensured for accuracy on average, 27 percent of the total number of participating enterprises could not say how much of their information was compromised.…
3 steps to making Hadoop data aerodynamic
Comparing Hadoop big data analytics to an aerodynamic vehicle produces a fairly apt parallel – both are modern concepts that harness lots of information and figure out how to concentrate it for optimal results. Big data can produce a lot of figurative weight and drag if insights aren't directed with the right focus, and the friction caused by retrieval lags can torpedo organizational growth. Here are three ways to make big data analytics soar.
1) Conquer the air
This step might sound silly, but it comes in the spirit of believing that the sheer amount of available information can be conquered. Big data arrives constantly and from various sources, continuously regenerating and offering new perspectives. According to DotNetNuke CEO Navin Nagiah, data streams will continue to get more crowded, but that doesn't have to mean analytics efforts must become cloudier. On the contrary, having the data and being able to use it will be paramount to success.
"In the business world, it is the company that has the data that has the power," wrote Nagiah.…
Bringing big data to the racing world
NASCAR may dominate the U.S. racing scene, but elsewhere in the world Formula One is king. From Italy to China, F1 is viewed as the pinnacle of competitive motor sports, drawing hundreds of millions of viewers and generating massive revenue streams. According to the latest figures provided by the organization's global broadcast report, worldwide viewership reached 515 million in 2011, Reuters reported. After factoring in race hosting and television airing rights fees, trackside advertising and sponsorship revenue and ticket sales, the annual revenue generated by F1 totals approximately $1.5 billion, according to Autoweek.
With that much at stake, it's no wonder that the companies responsible for building race cars would take every available advantage to improve their vehicles' performance. In the case of Britain's McLaren Group, that includes deploying big data analytics to get the most out of their automobiles, ZDNet reported. The company's researchers outfitted each of its race cars with approximately 160 sensors that typically create one gigabyte of raw data during each event.…
Improving movie scripts with data analytics
Over the past few decades, Hollywood producers have increasingly become dependent on blockbuster movies to generate the revenue streams they require to rationalize investing millions of dollars into a single film, with blockbuster movies like "The Avengers" and "The Dark Knight Rises" forming the backbone of the filmmaking industry for some time now. According to the Economist, successful releases aimed at a wide audience were in large part responsible for box-office revenues reaching a record $10.8 billion in 2012. Individual movies are raking in more money than ever before. The recently released "Iron Man 3" has already earned $175.3 million after the first three days of its North American release, CNN reported. Last year's top earner, "The Avengers," made $623.4 million in the United States alone.
The rising costs of film development
However, the cost of funding these projects has skyrocketed as well. For example, "Iron Man 3" cost Disney approximately $200 million, according to CNN.…
Hadoop adoption is key to understanding big data
The Hadoop explosion continues, with the number of organizations adopting the platform growing at a compound annual growth rate of about 60 percent, according to the International Data Corporation. However, ReadWrite's Matt Asay wrote that many of the companies adopting it are still acclimating to Hadoop and aren't using it at its optimal capacity. Currently, most organizations that use Hadoop take advantage of its storage and ETL (extract, transform, load) features, but aren't taking the crucial steps for optimizing big data analysis.
"The fact that most enterprises have yet to get to analytics in any meaningful way is simply a description of where we are in the Hadoop market's evolution," Asay suggested.
Part of the lag time, Asay asserted, is that its many components can make some users unwilling to spend time discovering what it has to offer. A recent report by CIO Insight illustrated the stratification of Hadoop users.…
Reduce travel stress with big data
Recent developments in big data applications use information about consumer habits and demographic trends to develop stress-reducing solutions for travelers. Travel management company CWT recently developed the Travel Stress Index, an algorithm-based tool that they hope will translate information into actionable recommendations, reported InformationWeek’s Ellis Booker.
“We had the transactional data and we had some traveler profile data, but it was scattered and we had to bring them together,” Catalin Ciobanu, CWT big data analyst, told InformationWeek.
Harnessing big data for pointed results involved a multi-faceted approach. They gave surveys to over 7,000 travelers from a variety of backgrounds, who were asked to rank 33 activities on a 1-10 scale, according to the stress they generated. Three categories of stress-inducers came to the forefront: lost time (like not being able to work in locations without wireless or planes without access), surprise (like lost luggage) and interruptions of daily routines (like altered sleeping schedules or a lack of healthy foods).…
The humanitarian power of big data
Big data can provide insightful solutions for businesses in many different industries. As a few recent projects show, big data might be able to benefit humanitarian life-saving strategies and bring peace to embattled parts of the world. As researchers and experts in many different fields are able to access and utilize big data from many different sources to inform their work, they are discovering ways in which analytics can create positive socio-cultural change.
International humanitarian advocate Patrick Meier recently wrote on Forbes about 'crisis maps,' tools for solving social problems with data. Innovations like crisis maps are fairly new, developed using open source big data insights. Real-time social communications converge with ethnographic and geographic research to provide insight during disastrous events.
"Crisis-mapping platforms display eyewitness reports submitted via e-mail, text message, and social media. The reports are then plotted on interactive maps, creating a geospatial record of events in real time," wrote Meier.…
Big data’s potential for higher education
One of the many arenas where officials could benefit from big data deployment is higher education. With their large volumes of student information, including enrollment, academic and disciplinary records, universities have the datasets needed to benefit from a targeted analytics project.
Recent reports have suggested that administrators across the United States have become to realize the potential of analytics and have invested more resource into big data projects. Gartner's "Big Data, Bigger Opportunities: Investing in Information and Analytics" survey found that 42 percent of IT professionals across all sectors reported investing in big data projects or planning to do so in the coming year, reported Campus Technology. The report also identified higher education as field with great promise for big data application, citing the availability of various sources of data.
More data brings greater insights
Once universities begin investing more in Hadoop big data projects, they benefit from its many applications.…
Building better cars with big data
When car companies across the United States saw their funds quickly dwindle at the end of 2008, some predicted the end of the American auto industry. Several of the nation's largest automakers stood on the brink of bankruptcy and slashed jobs in order to avoid complete financial collapse. According to information presented by the White House, at the height of the automotive crisis, nearly 150,000 industry workers lost their jobs in a single quarter. When economic circumstances become dire and markets fluctuate, businesses need to pursue new methods of operation to weather the financial storm. In the face of economic turmoil, the Ford Motor Company turned to big data analytics to help it regain its footing in the global auto industry.
Integrating customer demands with the design process
Big data, along with the development of increasingly sophisticated sensor equipment, has allowed Ford engineers to more effectively analyze the performance of their automobiles and build vehicles based on a balance of quality and customer demands.…
Big data takes on the role of human resources
Since the recent recession hobbled the economy, Americans have struggled with unemployment. Bob Eisenbreis, a chief monetary economist with New York's Cumberland Advisers, said that although the unemployment rate is currently recognized as 7.7 percent, the true level is 14.3 percent when factoring in the underemployed, reported Forbes.
One of the hardest hit demographics in the recession has been young adults between 16 and 24. According to the Center for American Progress, the unemployment rate for that demographic stands at 16.2 percent. Furthermore, the organization found that experiencing an extended period of unemployment early in a career could have an adverse effect on an individual's earning power later in life. A prospective worker who has been unemployed for at least a period of six months stands to lose $22,000 over the course of the ensuing decade. The organization's analysis concluded that young Americans will lose approximately $20 billion in potential earnings in the next 10 years.…
Big data’s potential drives healthcare spending for epidemiology and genomes
Big data has shown enormous potential in the healthcare industry and enterprises are beginning to respond. According to the latest study released by TechNavio, the global big data market in the healthcare sector is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 32.96 percent through 2015.
Researchers found that one of the major drivers behind the market growth has been increased access to data. The advent of electronic health records and the federal government's push to standardize their usage has resulted in more organizations obtaining the information needed to launch a successful data analytics program. The study also discovered that more medical professionals were deploying analytics tools to enhance their epidemiology research efforts and uncover new insights into the patterns and causes of various ailments.
More sophisticated tools lead to greater insights
The potential for data analytics to improve patient care and save lives has fostered excitement from many within the medical community.…
Big data takes to the high seas
Piracy off the coast of Somalia has grabbed a lot of headlines in recent years. Stories of ships being boarded by pirates on the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden have captured the attention of people around the globe. While piracy may be a mere curiosity to some, it has very real ramifications. The Economist recently reported that the cost alone in ransom payments made to ensure the safety of captured sailors was estimated to be $53 million each year. The exact total cost of piracy to the world economy is still up for debate, but experts agree that it is significant. Oceans Beyond Piracy's analysis concluded that the annual cost of these crimes totaled $6 billion. That figure pales in comparison to the World Bank's estimates, however, which place the annual cost of piracy at $18 billion.
Somali government officials have grappled with the problem for years.…
Hadoop tools benefit medical IT
Hadoop big data tools can provide healthcare providers with numerous benefits both by enhancing patient care and driving down operational expenses. With the current state of healthcare costs in the United States, this should come as a welcome relief. According to analysis conducted by Aon Hewitt, the average healthcare premium increases are predicted to rise by 6.3 percent in 2013, bringing the average health plan premium cost for each employee to $11,188. With these rising costs showing no signs of abating, there has never been a more pressing need for the cost-saving applications of data analytics.
Charles Boicey, a member of the IT team at the University of California – Irvine Medical Center, recently spoke to eWeek about his organization's successful implementation of Hadoop architecture. Boicey was intrigued by the technology's ability to provide superior data analytics functions with little to no latency.…