Guidance and results for the data rich, yet information poor.

Category: Articles

Research Report Reveals How Top Companies Use Big Data

Tuesday, 18 June, 2013 13:49 Written by Eric A. King
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BoardroomThe Silicone Angle blog recently covered some of the insights to be found in an SAS and International Institute for Analytics report called “Big Data in Big Companies.” The report is available as a free download on the SAS website.

Each of the companies that the report covered spoke of using data to make smarter business decisions. Big data, when it’s functioning properly, creates real value for the companies who choose to make use of it.

One case study came from UPS. It’s a good study, one that comes with impressive numbers.

“UPS has more experience with Big Data than most, given that it first began tracking the movements of its vehicles and the packages it delivers back in the early 1980s. The firm reckons it tracks in the region of 16.3 million packages a day, whilst dealing with 39.5 million tracking requests from its customers each day. To date, the company has now accumulated over 16 petabytes of Big Data.

UPS’s ORION (On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation) initiative is said to be one of the largest operations research projects in the world. The majority of its data comes from telematics sensors installed in its vehicles, together with mapping data and other real-time reports of drop offs and pick-ups from drivers.

According to UPS, the ORION initiative has helped it to shave around 85 million miles off its daily routes during 2011, something that saved it more than 8.4 million gallons of fuel. The company estimates that this has led to $30 million in savings.

GE provided another great example. They use data to prevent mechanical failure.

“Bill Ruh, Vice President and Corporate Officer for GE’s Global Software Center…highlights GE’s industrial business as a prime target for big data, referencing the health of blades on the jet engines the company manufactures. “Our sensors collect signals on the health of blades on a gas turbine engine to show things like ‘stress cracks.’ The blade monitor can generate 500 gigabytes per day–and that’s only one sensor on the turbine. There are 12000 gas turbines in our fleet.” The value in integrating all the sensor data onto a big data platform can reveal patterns on when blades break, allowing GE to time its manufacturing and repair process before a break occurs.

The big companies all use data in ways that are as unique as their businesses are. However, they each have something in common, as well. Each company has set sensible targets for their business which allows them to create real, actionable results.

This kind of effectiveness starts with the proper training about data analytics. If you’re ready to put data to work for your business, start with TMA’s free webinar. Then, take a look at any of The Modeling Agency’s predictive analytics training courses to get more insight about what big data can do to help your business.

Data Mining Reduces Fraud, Combats Waste

Thursday, 30 May, 2013 13:18 Written by Eric A. King
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FraudData mining typically provides some staggering returns on investment, especially when it comes to preventing theft, fraud, and other forms of waste. For hard numbers which back up this statement one has only to look to the ways that federal, state, and local governments plan to use data mining in the near future.

The numbers came up in this article which discusses new laws allowing Medicaid Fraud Control Units to use data mining in ways that will help them spot patterns of abuse. The article also helps to demonstrate how more people and institutions are starting to embrace the useful, helpful elements of this science.

Here’s what the Office of the Inspector General had to say about the new law. Note the expected ROI for government institutions:

“The OIG said that it expects that federal and state governments will spend a collective $12.3 million on data mining activities during the next decade, activities that it predicts will help recover $71.9 million during the same period, for a total savings of $58.9 million over 10 years.”

Data mining has long been used for loss prevention purposes in the private sector, particularly in the retail industry. Sophisticated programs can help spot employee theft as well as conditions which encourage shoplifting.

Almost every organization is vulnerable to some kind of fraud or abuse, so it pays to take these two examples to heart.

If your organization is ready to unleash the incredible power of data mining then it may be time to invest in data analysis training. Start with TMA’s free webinar, then move on to other data analytics training courses.

Solving Municipal Issues with Data Analytics

Tuesday, 28 May, 2013 13:00 Written by Eric A. King
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ChicagoEvery city faces problems and challenges. According to Information Week: Government, Chicago is beginning to turn to basic predictive analysis to solve some of those challenges.

They’re starting small, targeting the variables that lead to garbage cart thefts. The thefts create a surprisingly large drain on city finances.

Data analysis says that the thefts are more likely to occur in areas where alley lights are broken. City officials are responding by devoting resources to these repairs.

The new data analysis system is known as “Windy Grid,” and it’s still fairly simple. Mostly, it handles simple “cause-and-effect” tests on the results of Chicago’s data collection efforts.

However, the city is working to upgrade the system in order to make it a much more useful tool, one that could potentially help Chicago solve bigger problems.

“Developing a full-blown predictive analysis capability is much more ambitious. As envisioned, the system will flag for city leaders…indicators of coming problems including those that, unlike the out-of-commission street lights, they hadn’t considered.

The goal is to apply historical analysis to predict and prevent future problems. ‘We have the bones of this,’ Goldstein says, referring to Windy Grid. The next step is ‘taking it and saying if we’re seeing this in a given neighborhood, what’s likely to happen next?’

Goldstein’s team talks of ways to prevent graffiti, rodents, and garbage cart thefts. But what about Chicago’s more serious scourges, like its alarming homicide rate…or struggling schools?

Graffiti and rodents are mere starting points, says Brenna Berman, an ex-IBMer who’s now first deputy CIO. ‘This is the approach for how this department will be part of the answer for tackling the murder rate or addressing complex emergencies like snowstorms or improving the water infrastructure,’ she says. The harder-to-solve problems will take more data and analysis of more variables, but ‘it’s the exact same story for how you figure out which water mains are going to explode this year, so that we use our limited budget to improve the water infrastructure the right way over the next 10 years.’

Every organization faces challenges, even if few organizations find themselves tackling city-sized problems. The first step in making sense of data collection efforts is to receive the appropriate training. That’s why TMA offers data analytics training courses and a free webinar to help organizations make the most of these powerful capabilities.

In a World Where Data Analysis Predicts Blockbusters

Thursday, 23 May, 2013 13:33 Written by Eric A. King
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ClapperThe New York Times recently ran an article on the ways data mining is being used in Hollywood to predict sales at the box office. It turns out that there are some tangible factors that pop up in movies that do well vs. those that receive two-thumbs-down from moviegoers.

The industry leader in this enterprise is former statistics professor Vinny Bruzzese.

“Demons in horror movies can target people or be summoned,” Mr. Bruzzese said in a gravelly voice, by way of example. “If it’s a targeting demon, you are likely to have higher opening-weekend sales than if it’s summoned, so get rid of that Ouija Board scene.”

“Bowling scenes tend to pop up in films that fizzle…Therefore it’s statistically unwise to include one in your script. A cursed superhero never sells as well as a guardian superhero, one like Superman who acts as a protector.”

The average Hollywood film costs over $60 million to produce. It stands to reason that execs would want to have some guidance about what works and what doesn’t before investing any money into a film.

Bruzzese’s example only helps to demonstrate how data mining can help isolate what customers really like and want. That means that they have a better experience because companies can then deliver without messy guesswork.

Of course, there are some people who fear that this means that we’ll all be stuck in a world of bland products (and movies). But these fears are unfounded. Data mining is only a tool.

There are a lot of different ways to write movies with targeting demons and guardian superheroes, after all.

The Modeling Agency offers companies the training they need to make the most of advances in data mining no matter what their industry is. Start with TMA’s free webinar, and then move on to other data analysis training courses here.

Data Analysis Helps Gem Miners

Tuesday, 21 May, 2013 13:22 Written by Eric A. King
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OpalAccording to The University of Sydney in Australia, data analysis is taking the opal mining industry into the 21st century. Data analysts are helping miners find promising unexplored areas by targeting the conditions that are optimal for opal mining formations.

“Opal is Australia’s national gemstone, but no new significant opal discoveries have been made since the early 1900s. Most opal exploration is carved out by individual miners digging in desolate areas around old opal fields in the Great Artesian Basin.”

The University of Sydney’s data mining strategy has turned this around. It has already successfully identified lucrative new opportunities, one of which has already been confirmed as a successful mining location.

This information and technique could prove invaluable to companies like Gemfields who are interested in bringing more order to the gem mining industry. Gemfields has expressed a desire to create a more predictable supply of precious gemstones, especially colored varieties like emeralds.

After all, Gemfields would simply need to apply the same technique to the geologic data that is the most conducive to locating emeralds instead of opals.

In fact, this data mining process seems like it would be absolutely instrumental to any attempts to modernize mining, since it reduces the chances that labor costs and other resources would be wasted on places that aren’t going to be productive.

Having the proper training is crucial to making the most of data mining advances, in this or any other industry. That’s why The Modeling Agency offers a free data analysis webinar and other data analysis training courses. Make the most of these exciting new developments!

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