Headlines
Study: Who can best manage ‘voice of the customer’?
Over the next three years, global organizations will make understanding and interacting with the customer their top priority. So says a new study from The Economist Intelligence Unit titled, “Voice of the customer: Whose job is it, anyway?” Yet only 56 percent of respondents to the survey, sponsored by SAS, believe their companies clearly understand the customer today. Read more
‘Smart water’ analytics helps reduce water loss, cut costs
As water increasingly becomes one of the world’s most precious resources, IBM scientists are working with Arad Group, a world leader in reliable water meter systems, to help water companies and utilities around the globe provide more effective and efficient management of drinking water through the use of big data and advanced analytics technology. Read more
‘Cool Vendors’ transforming how businesses operate
The converging and mutually reinforcing social, cultural and technological factors in the Nexus of Forces (cloud, mobility, social and information) are driving a radical power shift away from the culture of the enterprise and toward that of the consumer. “Cool Vendors” are exploiting this nexus to challenge long-held assumptions and affect IT investment, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner’s 2013 Cool Vendors research series identifies the innovative companies, products and services that will shape business and consumer strategies in the future. Read more
Big Data helps city of Dublin improve public bus transportation and reduce congestion
IBM has announced it is helping the city of Dublin use Big Data to identify and solve the root causes of traffic congestion in its public transport network throughout the city, which means improved traffic flow and better mobility for commuters. Integrating data from a citywide network of sensors with geospatial data means that city officials are able to better monitor and manage traffic in real time. Read more
Texas.gov site upgrades with help of analytics
According to govtech.com, the state of Texas has announced an enhanced Texas.gov. “The website,” writes Colin Wood, “which receives more than 20,000 daily users and fields more than 72,000 daily searches, will continue its focus of being search-centric, while adapting to the needs of its users. Because the user is so important, said Erin Hutchins, director of portal operations, their team began by looking at analytics to see what they were doing right, what they were doing wrong, and how their website could better serve their constituents and internal users.” Read more
Predictive Policing: Using Data to Combat Crime
Forbes magazine contributor Gil Press recently heard Bill Bratton, the former head of the Boston, New York and Los Angeles police departments, speak at the CEB TowerGroup Financial Services Technology Conference on the topic of “data-driven policing” or “predictive policing.” Read more
Analytics Section of INFORMS News
Innovative Applications in Analytics Award
A team led by Cynthia Rudin of MIT won the 2013 Innovative Applications in Analytics Award from the Analytics Section of INFORMS for the entry, “Analytics for Power Grid Distribution Reliability in New York City,” conducted in conjunction with researchers from MIT, Columbia University and Con Edison (one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States). The award was presented at the INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics & Operations Research, held in San Antonio, Texas, April 7-9. Read more
Student Analytical Scholar winner announced
Oleksandr Akulov, a management grad student studying operations research at the University of British Columbia, was named the winner of the Student Analytical Scholar Competition sponsored by the Analytics Section of INFORMS and supported by SAS. Read more
Industry News
Smart grid analytics ROI to exceed $121.8 billion globally by 2020
Utilities worldwide must maximize efficiency for constrained energy resources. Many are realizing the smart grid vision by using SAS Analytics and SAS Data Management to discover powerful insights buried in volumes of new data. SAS enables utilities to harness data for pinpoint control and monitoring, usage and demand forecasting, rapid diagnosis and repair, as well as predicting output from renewable sources such as solar and wind. For those capabilities, business analytics leader SAS is ranked No. 1 for smart grid analytics and data management/movement in the recently released utility industry report, “The... Read more
FICO analytic cloud to enable real-time customer engagement
FICO will deliver its analytic-powered customer engagement services via the new FICO Analytic Cloud, for creating, customizing and deploying analytic-driven applications and services. Application developers, FICO clients and FICO partners will be able to take advantage of these services to rapidly create, execute and manage high-volume campaigns that engage customers in real-time with mass personalization across channels including brick-and-mortar, social and mobile. Read more
Analytics adds depth to NFL scouting reports
Chris Wesseling, the NFL’s “Around the League” writer, recently wrote about how the Jacksonville Jaguars used prospect analytics to pick potential star Luke Joeckel. Read more
Conference at Yale helps higher education and non-profits utilize data intelligence tools
Kate Nimety, production services manager at Yale University and Richard Horne, Yale’s assistant director of data analytics and prospecting, will be presenting their work with Rapid Insight products on the first day of the Rapid Insight User Conference. Read more












