Sep/Oct 2013

We’re in the era of big data, but what do we mean by that? In our view, big data is a relative, not absolute, term. It means that the organization’s need to handle, store and analyze data (its volume, variety, velocity, variability and complexity) exceeds its current capacity and has moved beyond the IT comfort zone [1]. Big data is the classic dual-edged sword – both potential asset and possible curse. Most agree that there is significant, meaningful, proprietary value in that data. But few organizations relish the costs and challenges of simply collecting, storing and transferring that massive amount of data. And even fewer know how to tap into that value, to turn the data into information.

• Paul Kent
• Radhika Kulkarni
• Udo Sglavo

That information is integral to any economic transaction has always been generally accepted; however, the degree to which information influences the outcome of a transaction, especially when it is between human beings (as opposed to rational economic agents), is a relatively more recent discovery.

• Krishna Rupanagunta
• Ajay Parasuraman
• Sourav Banerjee

Eric Siegel, founder of Predictive Analytics World (PAW, a series of conferences held throughout the year in major U.S. and European cites) and the author of the new book, “Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict who will Click, Buy, Lie or Die,” is without question a key player in the ongoing global analytics movement that’s transforming the way organizations conduct business. The college-professor-turned-entrepreneur recently shared his perspective on the dynamic analytics world with Analytics magazine. During a 30-minute chat, we talked about several issues raised in the book including privacy concerns in the big data era, PAW and his prediction for the future of predictive analytics. Following are excerpts from the interview.

• Peter Horner

Who is working with perfect systems? That is like asking if your house or apartment is always clean and tidy to be presentable to guests. In your organization, who cleans up messes? Who fixes things?

• Gary Cokins

When the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the publishers of Analytics magazine, set out to establish the first-of-its-kind analytics certification program, the organization had two constituents in mind: analytics professionals and the organizations that hire them. Along with helping analytics professionals boost their careers and elevate themselves in the marketplace with the Certified Analytics Professional (CAP®) designation, the program was also designed to help hiring managers identify qualified analytical talent. Less than six months after its official launch, the CAP® program is apparently succeeding on both fronts.

• Peter Horner
• Gary Bennett

In the first part of this series [1], we examined how to retrieve multi-lingual text without prior knowledge of the language while keeping the native script intact in order to preserve meaning. Once inputs are acquired from social media, external Web pages and even internal file system documents (like e-mail, transaction scripts and archives), the objective is to understand what the text refers to and its associated significance to the analysis and business objective.

• Christopher Broxe
• Fiona McNeill