data

I recently got an introduction to the Provenir Big Data Listening and Engagement platform. Provenir is a cloud-based platform that serves as an omni-channel engagement hub, allowing brands to proactively listen for real-time events and comments across Big Data and leverage these moments to orchestrate real-time customer journeys for individual customers. It accomplishes this by [...]

It’s been a while since I got an update from Cloudera (last time was in 2010, here). Since then, obviously, much has changed. Back in 2010 Cloudera was focused on storage and batch processing against this data with little focus on advanced analytics. Today, Cloudera has added support for real-time SQL queries through improvements in [...]

Most software products have multiple opportunities for using predictive analytics to enhance decision-making. Because the use of predictive analytics is new for many software companies, and because handling decisions explicitly is also new, care must be taken not to bite off too much at once. A land and expand strategy that begins with a localized [...]

To become predictive, to use predictive analytics to differentiate a software product, you need to identify the decisions that can be made more profitably, more accurately, more precisely or more reliably. Unless the predictive analytics embedded in your product improve some decision-making then they will offer no real value. At best such analytics will be [...]

I got an update from BigML recently – I first blogged about them back in December. BigML has continued to grow since then, opening the product to general use (you can sign up here). They now have over 4,600 users and more than 100 paying customers. The product still offers a simple interface underpinned by [...]

There’s a great article over on Computerworld – 12 predictive analytics screw-ups. They asked some of my favorite data miners (John Elder and Jeff Deal of Elder Research, Eric Siegel of Prediction Impact and Dean Abbott of Abbott Analytics) what they saw as the top ways to screw up predictive analytic projects. The list of 12 [...]

I last got briefed by Sparkling Logic back in August 2012 and I got an update on their new Kyoto release. The new release has a big focus on the user interface and on making the information in the system more accessible. First off SMARTS now immediately shows information about new features including links to [...]

I recently checked out The Evolution of Decision Making – How leading organizations are adopting a data-driven culture, a new white paper from the Harvard Business Review sponsored by SAS: People have long preached the benefits of relying on data and insights from business intelligence (BI) and analytics to help make better and timelier decisions. A reliance [...]

I am giving a 30 minute webinar at 10:30am Pacific/1:30pm Eastern on August 1 on the 4 Ways Decision Modeling Creates a Data-Driven Culture. Decision modeling plays a key role as organizations transition to a data-driven culture. A recent Harvard Business Review survey revealed that data-driven decision-making is taking root in leading organizations and showing a [...]

The folks at Tableau have a nice little white paper 10 Tips to Create Useful & Beautiful Visualizations (registration required). Many of these are pretty straightforward, if still valuable reminders of best practice. I particularly liked Tip #1 – “tell a story” – as this is obviously critical for a powerful visualization. But I have one more [...]

A solution-focused session next with Marcus Hearne talking about analytic marketing solutions. Marketing remains focused on its traditional imperatives – how to focus on customers to maximize the value of each interaction, how to measure effectiveness, what marketing mix to use etc. However the new empowered, social consumer is putting pressure on marketing as people [...]

Mychelle Mollot kicked off day 2 of the Analyst Insights event discussing the analytic skills gap. Only 1 in 10 organizations, she says, feel they have the tech skills they need while 3 in 4 students feel they lack the skills they need. Meanwhile 72% of academic institutions believe they generate employable graduates but only [...]

Earlier this week I posted on the value of decision requirements modeling in analytic projects when it comes to coping with some of the analytic skills shortages people face. But this is not the only reason to focus on decision requirements if you are focused on predictive analytics and data mining.  In fact decision requirements modeling [...]

There are lots of articles these days about the challenges of recruiting enough data scientists, predictive analytic specialists or data miner (whatever you call them). There’s not enough of them and it’s hard for most companies to compete with Google, Amazon, Facebook et al let alone political campaigns and startups. For most companies simply going [...]

In-memory databases and in-memory analytics are interesting technologies when it comes to Decision Management Systems. Memory is thousands of times faster than disk and the amount of memory on a node is increasing rapidly. Putting data is put in memory and executing analytics against it, especially if the analytics engine has plenty of memory too, can [...]

I am attending FICO World and blogging some sessions. First up is one presented by Doug Clare and Sally Taylor-Schoff talking about the impact of showrooming on financial services. Showrooming, of course, is the practice of examining a product in a physical location and then buying it online. Consumers have more and more apps to [...]

In the analyst track we got an update on WebSphere. Marie Wieck kicked off with a quick overview of the WebSphere business and on the persistent themes, largely the same as the ones highlighted in the opening keynote (open, mobile) but also emphasizing IBM’s increased outreach to and support of developers, its focus on improving [...]

I got an update from GDS Link on their Decision Intelligence product recently. This was developed initially as a consulting tool and is now available as a licensed product. The purpose of Decision Intelligence is to help customers anticipate business corrections before there is an impact on the business. Decision Intelligence provides scorecard monitoring or [...]

I am a faculty member for the International Institute for Analytics and recently published two new briefs on how to use decision requirements modeling in the successful application of analytics, especially (but not solely) more advanced analytics such as data mining or predictive analytics. Decision Discovery for a Major Business Function This outlines how an organization [...]