Lyndon Henry, technical consultant, Light Rail Now Project, writes about the general applications of Analytics and Big data in modern rail passenger and rail transit systems. 

For Further Reference :- 

According to an article by Michael Passingham, a V3 reporter, DHL, a Global logistics firm, has been able to cut the cost of running its worldwide distribution network with the help of big data analytics.

External References:-

Voice of customer is the most important source of information for any organization. Verint, a global leader in actionable intelligence solutions, has developed a software, Impact 360 Speech Analytics Solution, to modify customers’ voice in order to optimize and provide proper action.

For more information, please go through:

http://www.verint.com/solutions/enterprise-workforce-optimization/products/speech-analytics/index

Working at a stretch of 8 hours is tiresome and that too sitting at the same desk. So, TIBCO Software Inc., a US based company, developed TIBCO Spotfire Mobile Metrics, a highly accessible and user-friendly Business Intelligence tool. With the help of this tool, employees can monitor the pulse of the business instantly and business leaders can act on business opportunities and problems using personalized key performance indicators.

Mark Smith, CEO and chief research officer of Ventana Research, talks about how Location Analytics market is emerging to provide better business insights. With the help of this technology, companies can save time and money, decrease business risks and increase competitive advantage.

For more information follow

 http://www.directionsmag.com/articles/new-generation-of-location-analytics/311467

An article by Omar Zaibak, Head of Marketing at VoiceTrust specializing in B2B demand generation, talks about the latest trends of the call center industry which will help to improve customer experience. Some of them are – Social Media, Voice of the Customer, Cloud Migration, Voice Biometrics.

For more Information please follow

http://www.voicetrust.com/blog/top-10-call-center-trends-2014/

Even this may seem to be heard as unbelievable, but police departments are increasingly using Analytics to prevent crime by predicting them.

The Predictive Model makes use of algorithms, time/space analysis and social network analysis from where the police departments and other crime prevention authorities can get to know where burglary will take place or even what will be the probability that a car will be stolen.

Amazed on reading this? Go over to the link http://hub.jhu.edu/2013/10/24/predictive-policing for more interesting information on it.

Nowadays army and navy are using analytics to identify energy saving opportunities. Boston based Retroefficiency has developed an automated energy audit which automates the entire process of an auditor. It also helps in depicting the amount of energy used by each specific building.

For more information, please go through: http://fcw.com/articles/2013/12/11/army-navy-energy-audits.aspx

With the advancement of technology, business analytics helps to analyze huge number of data and create predictive models. It also helps in the areas like data mining, statistical sampling and forecasting. The main objective of business analytics is to cluster data from different systems into a common storehouse. Using Business Analytics, smart enterprise set up can be built that benefit businesses to combat the volatile demand.

For more information please follow 

http://dreamfireinteractive.com/industry_insights/accelerating-business-analytics

Health Catalyst, provider of data warehouse platform and analytics applications, has developed Healthcare Analytics Adoption Model. This model helps any healthcare organization by providing: 

• A framework for evaluating the industry’s adoption of analytics

• A roadmap for organizations to measure their own progress toward analytic adoption

• A framework for evaluating vendor products

For more information, please go through: http://www.healthcatalyst.com/healthcare-analytics-adoption-model/

How can analytics help in hospitality and travel management? Though it is sounding bit unrealistic yet it can be actually done. Through data analysis companies can identify what customers are looking for in their site. Based on that companies can easily prioritize the customers’ needs through tokenisation. Moreover, companies can enrich their investment decisions, revenue limits. This can also help in integrated marketing.

 For more information, please go through: http://www.amadeus.com/hotels/newsrepository/articles/major-global-study-reveals-how-big-data-will-transform-hospitality-industry/

Social media is a platform where people can create, share or exchange information and ideas through interaction. The rise of Big Data has prompted many organizations to utilize data analysis for making marketing decisions .Social media is an important way to track  vast amount of data. Organizations are now developing tools intended for this purpose.

 Some of the trending social media analytics tools are:

1. Social Report.

2. Social Mention.

3. Simply Measured.

4. Cyfe.

5. Sprout Social.

6. SumAll.

To read more, visit the following link:

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/65195-6-Social-Media-Analytics-Tools-for-Merchants

Enterprise Performance Management or commonly known EPM is a management field of Business Performance Management which considers the visibility of operations in a closed-loop model across all facets of the enterprise. 

Nowadays, big data analytics is helping EPM in factoring a lot more unstructured data than what was possible earlier, along with duly capturing customer sentiments and feedback. A second key impact of Big Data on EPM is that analytics will be a function not restricted to the IT team, but the wider organization will be able to deconstruct data with the use of easy-to-use analytics tools.

To read more, Visit the following link:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/perspective/287755/impact-analytics-enterprise-performance-management

Data Analytics is very significant for the insurance industry helping to reconstruct the processes. Around 74% of the insurance sector is creating aggressive dominance for their companies by using analytical tools. To challenge and succeed in this charismatic environment, insurers must amend the value of big data. While the industry has upgraded in evaluating the structured data linked with their products but the unstructured and semi-structured information is yet untried. By focusing on the appropriate expertise, the insurance companies will be on the correct path to contend and bloom globally.

For more Information please follow

http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/thoughtleadership/big-data-insurance/

Big data and analytics play a major role in any business. According to John Hagerty, program director of IBM, big data and analytics together can improve all the processes from management work to application in any business. Research revealed that with the proper use of these, any business can reach a limit where it can outperform its competitors by 75 percent.

For more information, please go through: http://www.zdnet.com/converting-big-data-and-analytics-into-real-results-7000026720/

Dashboards offer a unique and powerful solution to an organization's need for information. Nowadays it has become a very powerful tool to gather inner facts for decision making.  One can find various ways to create effective dashboards from a visualization and interactive perspective, but there is a need to understand the psychological aspect also. By taking into consideration the various psychological factors, we can develop more effective and informative dashboards. The three most important psychological factors are:

1) The curious nature of humans.

2) An eye for style.

3) The need for autonomy.

 To take a closer look at each point, Please follow this link: http://www.dundas.com/discover/article/the-psychology-of-dashboards/

 Long term care industry is facing its biggest challenge at present. It has mainly two problems, buyers are often dropping polices more than the industry predicted and on the other hand LTC companies are struggling to survive in nearly zero interest rate. Incorrect forecast of lapse rate had squeezed the profit of the companies and forced them to increase premiums which have lost its attraction to new potential buyer. Hence LTC companies are in the verge of trimming their product line and reducing discounts. In spite of bringing new polices, the companies are still facing their biggest challenge. For more details please visit http://www.forbes.com/sites/howardgleckman/2012/08/29/whats-killing-the-long-term-care-insurance-industry/

Social media plays an important role in searching information  and decision-making behavior of consumers.  A country like India, where 65% of population is youth, uses laptop, tab, Smartphone etc to be socially connected.  Therefore the Brands have realized the importance of social media to reach today’s young generation. For example, if we go to Nike’s Facebook page the entire focus is on fitness and athleticism rather than their products. Another way to connect with consumers is to know the importance of real time marketing which focuses on real time incident. Social media has also molded the consumers to reviewers. 

To read more- visit the following link:

http://www.mbaskool.com/business-articles/marketing/9150-consumer-behaviour-in-the-age-of-social-media.html

What is Cloud? The cloud computing is a phrase, which is used to describe a variety of computing concepts that involve a large number of systems connected through a communication network such as the Internet. It also means the ability to run an application on many connected computers at the same time.

Entrepreneurship emphasizes on innovation and as we all know, innovation leads to sustainability in this volatile demand & application driven market.

The current technological environment demands these two factors, cloud and entrepreneurship to come together as an explorer combo pack. The idea is like start ups can swipe a credit card, buy a little bit of infrastructure and get the idea off the ground. And it doesn't matter if a company’s idea is related to technology, marketing or consumer products. It is a very fast and efficient means of getting the back office & customer-facing capabilities moving.

To read more- visit the following link:

 http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20140301/NJBIZ/303010002/Cloud-computing-discussed-at-NJ-tech-conference?nclick_check=1

Now Analytics can also predict weather for as long as 40 days before.

EarthRisk Technologies has come up with an analytical model that can predict extreme weather events. This model is designed in such a way that it can identify different patterns of weather which involves intensive calculations. With the help of historically available data, it compares with the present conditions and uses predictive analytics to forecast the weather 40 days in advance.

Knowing advance weather forecasts will certainly help industries in the utility, energy and agricultural sectors as they heavily depend on weather information. With the help of this model, proper timely decisions can be taken.

To gain more insights on how Analytics are helping in predicting weather you can go to http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/10/big-data-can-predict-weather-up-to-40-days-into-the-future/ .