Information Age: Cognizant’s UK Head of Enterprise Information Management Says Businesses Taking the Next Step in Big Data in 2016 Should Focus on Insight Brokerage and Machine Learning

“From data lakes and geographical locations to analytics and technology tools, the opportunity for businesses to take advantage of better understanding their customers through the data their actions and behavior produces is the Holy Grail,” writes Ian West. “Many organizations are working to sort and secure their own data in order to start gleaning insights from it but big data as we know it has evolved.” Excerpts:

“There are three specific areas that could offer the biggest opportunity for businesses to start making the most of data.

Gathering the right information: The first area of interest is insight brokerage―the idea of pulling different data sets together from differing sources, outside the remit of one particular or single business. Companies increasingly want to construct a stronger, ongoing dialogue with customers, and therefore need to have a clear picture of who they are and what they like in order to build brand loyalty, what are called 'Code Halos'—the data surrounding people, place and things.

Increasingly, embedded technology and real-time analytics will focus on point of acquisition behavior and influence customers with hyper-personalized offers, to incentivize a certain type of behavior at a particular point in time depending on where the person happens to be, time of day, weather conditions and a plethora of real-time metrics. With big data and machine learning colliding, there is even more of an opportunity for businesses as they can pre-empt the way customers will behave and act accordingly.

Smart data: The second area of interest, particularly as we head into 2016, is digital information. This is the ability to listen to what customers are saying across multiple sources and adapt to what is important to them in real-time using technological advances. This is a big task, but an essential one. The Internet of Things (IoT) means that this information is particularly useful for any organization that can embed sensors into their client interactions such as utilities and energy companies. They can monitor individual customer behaviors and preferences to offer micro-personalization and rewards.

Rise of the machines: Businesses need to access these pools of information to underpin their digital transformations and many organizations are seeing data as the critical foundation for building their transformation strategy. Machine learning is a key piece of a digital information strategy; however, businesses need to go one step further and embrace data economics—securing real monetary value from that data. With data offering so much value, there is a growing demand among businesses to harness it and make the most of the opportunities it offers. This is set to lead to the emergence of Information-as-a-Service.

By harnessing the opportunities presented by machine learning and insight brokerage, and to compete in the market, businesses of the future will need to embrace a fully information-enabled digital strategy.”

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