Energy Department Announces New SunShot Projects to Harness the Power of Big Data

Editor’s note: The following announcement from the Department of Energy provides context on a potentially very virtuous use of advanced data analysis capabilities to help solve real-world challenges regarding energy costs in the US. Before you get too excited about the potential here, remember to read the details. As you dig deeper into the list of projects you will note some potential for continued government-contractor goofiness and waste,...

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Technology Innovation in 2013: A Business and IT Priority

The proper use of technology enables businesses to be more efficient. Our recent research into technology for business innovation found that 56 percent indicate innovative technology is very important, yet only 9 percent are very satisfied with theirs, showing plenty of room for improvement. As we enter 2013, businesses have more choices than ever for technology to improve business and IT. Our firm has identified six key technologies...

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How can Business Intelligence help cut costs?

A while ago I was discussing the economic slowdown with some fellow business intelligence (BI) experts. I vividly remember that somebody said, “The recession is an opportunity; it is the strongest business driver so far. BI will help companies find their weaknesses, help them find ways to cut costs and help them make smarter choices.” His final conclusion was, “The recession is a blessing in disguise for business intelligence.” “Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York,” Shakespeare wrote...

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RSA adds Big Data analytics to security service suite

In just under a month, security folks are coming to San Francisco for the annual RSA show, and if Wednesday's announcement from the company is to go by, one of the major themes at conference will be Big Data. At a press conference at its Massachusetts headquarters, RSA unveiled its Security Analytics appliance that's designed to plug into large corporate networks and churn through huge chunks of data looking for security problems. RSA has also included real-time malware detection, threat monitoring, and heuristic analysis, so consultants...

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How Algorithms Changed The World

An infographic by the team at College Degree Sea...

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Google News as an Analytic Database

I was browsing the L.A. Times digital newspaper recently and came across an interesting article entitled “Mexico,before and after Calderon’s drug war”. The horrific toll of Mexico’s war on drugs – over 50,000 deaths in the last six years alone – is well documented and much-attributed to then-President Felipe Calderón’s initiative launched in late 2006.  The article cites a report “Drug Violence in Mexico” by The Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego, proposing, however, that the violence probably started several...

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The Cost of Bad Data is the Illusion of Knowledge

Each time I open Salesforce in my browser, I think of Steven Hawking. It's because of an aphorism an entrepreneur shared with me a few weeks ago. He said: > The cost to fix a data error at the time of entry is $1. The cost to fix it an hour after it's been entered is $10. And the cost to fix it several months later is $100+. Take for example a venture capitalist's CRM tool. If I mistype an email address or the details of the last fund raise, it might cost me a minute or two to fix it at that very moment. A minute of time is worth about...

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Twitter Is Buying A Startup, Crashlytics, And Not Killing It Off For A Change

Twitter, the global network for short bursts of information, is buying a startup, Crashlytics, that tracks when bad code causes apps to fail abruptly. Notably, it appears to be leaving Crashlytics alone. TechCrunch reports that Twitter is not relocating the team from Cambridge, Mass. to Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, and allowing it to continue to serve other customers like Yelp and Waze. Twitter uses Crashlytics in its own app, as well as Vine, a recently launched app for sharing short, simply edited videos. Which brings us to an...

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Google Makes Using Analytics Easier With New Solution Gallery For Dashboards, Segments & Custom Reports

Google Analytics is such a powerful tool, its huge feature set can often be intimidating for novice users. Now, however, with today’s launch of the creatively named Google Analytics Solution Gallery, Google is hoping to make many of the service’s advanced features a bit more accessible to new users. The Solution Gallery features pre-made dashboards, advanced segments and custom reports for a wide range of businesses, including e-commerce sites,...

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What’s Missing? Game-Changing! Visualize That! You Get What You Pay For

What’s Missing From Your BI? This week? Two things: First, a real understanding of how people create and use information, according to a Harvard Business Review article entitled Why IT fumbles Analytics Second, Forrester analyst Boris Evelson says you should have BI on BI (SAP BusinessObjects supports the types of analysis cited, and Information Steward is a dedicated product for data governance) Just Don’t Call It A Game Changer As Jaspersoft...

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Actuate Makes Big Play with BIRT Analytics

Actuate Makes Big Play with BIRT Analytics Actuate this week announced BIRT Analytics, and thereby puts itself firmly into supporting a range of business analytics needs from data discovery and visualization to a range of data mining and predictive capabilities that allows itself new avenues of growth. Actuate has long been a staple of large Business Intelligence deployments; in fact the company says that ActuateOne...

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