Update: Analytics Section of INFORMS
The Analytics Section of INFORMS continues to boom, reports Section President Mike Gorman in the organization’s January newsletter, The Analytics Lens. Read more
Gartner: Nearly one-third of organizations to use cloud
Nearly one-third of organizations either already use or plan to use cloud or software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings to augment their core business intelligence (BI) functions, according to Gartner, Inc. Read more
IBM to help Rochester Police Department fight crime
The Rochester Police Department will use advanced analytics software from IBM to mine, share and extract intelligence from critical data in order to improve police investigative and prevention programs. By identifying incident patterns the police department can forecast crime “hot spots” and proactively allocate resources accordingly. Read more
Report: Interest in advanced analytics continues to rise
In its “2012 Business Intelligence, Analytics and Information Management Survey,” InformationWeek Reports found that interest in analytics in general, and advanced statistical and predictive analytics in particular, rose for the third year in a row. Read more
Cubs, Bloomberg Sports team up on analytic player evaluation system
The Chicago Cubs and Bloomberg Sports, one of the world's leaders in sports analytic technology, announced a new partnership to design a state-of-the-art player evaluation system for the Cubs Baseball Operations Department. Read more
FICO: Counterfeit card fraud falls in Europe
FICO, leading provider of analytics and decision management technology, released its analysis of data showing that major shifts have occurred in European card fraud patterns. Analysis done on 55 million active credit cards represented in the FICO Falcon Fraud Consortium for Europe showed that counterfeit fraud fell 60 percent between March 2009 and March 2011. Read more
INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and O.R.
Two Internet senior executives will headline the 2012 INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and O.R., April 15-17, in Huntington Beach, Calif. Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, will deliver the opening keynote talk. Bob Page, vice president of analytics platform at eBay, will present a plenary on the second day of the conference. Read more
2012 predictions: banner year for big data, healthcare analytics
The growth of “big data analytics” will outpace all other areas of analytics in 2012 according to the International Institute of Analytics’ (IIA) annual forecast for business analytics, and the healthcare industry will see the greatest increase in the use of analytics. Read more
SAS Analytics to help IRS identify tax evaders, reduce fraud
The Internal Revenue Service will use SAS Analytics to help detect, prevent and resolve criminal and civil noncompliance with tax law. Technology from SAS, a leader in business analytics software and services, will support the agency’s new electronic Return Review Program (RRP) system. Read more
In search of predictable legal budgets
Jeffrey Schuett, vice president and managing director for Corporate Counsel Solutions at LexisNexis, has a message for general counsels everywhere: “It’s no longer sufficient to be a great corporate lawyer; it’s now a job requirement to be an effective business manager who can also communicate the value of his/her legal department to the company. ..." Read more
Northwestern, IBM collaborate on business analytics courses
Northwestern University and IBM are collaborating on new business and technology curricula to help students gain the latest skills in business analytics. The new courses of study, Masters of Science degree programs with analytics concentrations in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Continuing Studies, will better prepare students and current professionals who are seeking new analytics skills for today’s competitive job market. Read more
Business users taking charge of BI
Traditional BI solutions delivered the same thing for years: static monitoring reports that addressed only a fixed set of predetermined questions. But suddenly there’s a radical shift shaking things up, and the force behind the transformation has caught many by surprise. Read more
Industry News
IBM brings the power of analytics to social business
IBM recently unveiled new software and services that deliver comprehensive networking capabilities to the increasingly social savvy workforce. Now, organizations can apply analytics to their social business initiatives, allowing them to gain actionable insight on social networking sentiment anytime, anywhere and put it to work in real-time. Read more
SAS achieves double-digit growth built on high demand for business analytics
SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services, achieved record global revenue of US$2.725 billion in 2011. SAS marked double-digit growth in its 36th profitable year as organizations sought to uncover business opportunity in their own burgeoning data stores through the use of advanced analytics. Read more
UPS uses @RISK for sustainability
With more than 400,000 employees and 1.1 million shipments per day, UPS is one of the world’s largest shipping companies. UPS regularly monitors its environmental impact by measuring its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Because there is significant uncertainty around GHG monitoring, UPS turned to @RISK to most accurately estimate these amounts. Read more
Sirius XM Radio turns up marketing volume with SAS Analytics
After 10 years providing new-car owners boundless choices of entertainment and information, Sirius XM Radio is discovering used-car customer needs. Applying predictive analytics from SAS, the company is modeling customer behavior patterns, helping its decision-makers better tailor offers to this new market. Read more
FICO analytic solution helps banks ensure compliance
FICO recently announced the general availability of FICO Model Central Solution – a comprehensive offering to help banks and other organizations, including insurance, retail and health care companies, maximize the power of their predictive models and meet stricter regulations for model management. Read more













“Accurate forecasting is at the heart of all business decisions but remains the Achilles heel of the supply chain. Despite the existence of abundant information about product movement, average forecast error remains 48 percent for consumer products companies.”
