Why Big Data Analytics?
1. Making Smarter and More Efficient
Organisation
Let me tell you about one such organisation, the New York Police
Department (NYPD). The NYPD brilliantly uses Big Data and
analytics to detect and identify crimes before they occur. They
analyse historical arrest patterns and then maps them with events
such as federal holidays, paydays, traffic flows, rainfall etc. This aids
them in analyzing the information immediately by utilizing these
data patterns. Big Data and analytics strategy helps them identify
crime locations, through which they deploy their officers to these
locations. Thus by reaching these locations before the crimes were
committed, they prevent the occurrence of crime.
2. Optimize Business Operations by Analysing Customer
Behaviour
Most organisations use behavioural analytics of customers in order
to provide customer satisfaction and hence, increase their customer
base. The best example of this is Amazon. Amazon is one of the best
and most widely used e-commerce websites with a customer base
of about 300 million. They use customer click-stream data and
historical purchase data to provide them with customized results on
customized web pages. Analysing the clicks of every visitor on their
website aids them in understanding their site-navigation behaviour,
paths the user took to buy the product, paths that led them to leave
the site and more. All this information helps Amazon to improve
their user experience, thereby improving their sales and marketing.
3. Cost
Reduction
Big data technologies and technological advancements like cloud
computing bring significant cost advantages when it comes to store
and process Big Data. Let me tell you how healthcare utilizes Big
Data Analytics to reduce their costs. Patients nowadays are using
new sensor devices when at home or outside, which send constant
streams of data that can be monitored and analysed in real-time to
help patients avoid hospitalization by self-managing their
conditions. For hospitalized patients, physicians can use predictive
analytics to optimize outcomes and reduce readmissions. Parkland
Hospital uses analytics and predictive modelling to identify high-risk
patients and predict likely outcomes once patients are sent home.
As a result, Parkland reduced 30-day readmissions for patients with
heart failure, by 31%, saving $500,000 annually.
New Generation Products
With the ability to gauge customer needs and satisfaction through
analytics, comes the power to give customers what they want. I have
found three such interesting products to cite
here.
First, Google’s self-driving car which makes millions of calculations on
every trip that help the car decide when and where to turn, whether to
slow down or speed up and when to change lanes — the same decisions a
human driver makes behind the wheel.
The second one is Netflix which committed for two seasons of its
extremely popular show House of Cards, by completely trusting Big Data
Analytics! Last year, Netflix grew its US subscriber base by 10% and
added nearly 20 million subscribers from around the globe.
The third example is one of the really cool new things I have come
across, is a smart yoga mat. The first time you use your Smart Mat, it will
take you through a series of movements to calibrate your body shape,
size and personal limitations. This personal profile information is stored in
your Smart Mat App and will help Smart Mat detect when you’re out of
alignment or balance. Over time, it will automatically evolve with updated
data as you improve your Yoga practice.
What is Big Data Analytics?
Big data analytics examines large and different types of data to uncover
hidden patterns, correlations and other insights. Basically, Big Data
Analytics is largely used by companies to facilitate their growth and
development. This majorly involves applying various data mining
algorithms on the given set of data, which will then aid them in better
decision making.
Stages in Big Data Analytics
These are the following stages involved in the Big Data Analytics process:
Big Data Architect Masters Program
Explore Curriculum
Types of Big Data Analytics
There are four types:
1. Descriptive Analytics: It uses data aggregation and data mining
to provide insight into the past and answer: “What has happened?”
The descriptive analytics does exactly what the name implies they
“describe” or summarize raw data and make it interpretable by
humans.
2. Predictive Analytics: It uses statistical models and forecasts
techniques to understand the future and answer: “What could
happen?” Predictive analytics provides companies with actionable
insights based on data. It provides estimates about the likelihood of
a future
outcome.
3. Prescriptive Analytics: It uses optimization and simulation
algorithms to advice on possible outcomes and answers: “What
should we do?” It allows users to “prescribe” a number of different
possible actions and guide them towards a solution. In a nutshell,
this analytics is all about providing
advice.
4. Diagnostic Analytics: It is used to determine why something
happened in the past. It is characterized by techniques such as drill-
down, data discovery, data mining and correlations. Diagnostic
analytics takes a deeper look at data to understand the root causes
of the events.
Big Data Tools
These are some of the following tools used for Big Data
Analytics: Hadoop, Pig, Apache HBase, Apache
Spark, Talend, Splunk, Apache Hive, Kafka.
Big Data Domains
Healthcare: Healthcare is using big data analytics to reduce costs,
predict epidemics, avoid preventable diseases and improve the
quality of life in general. One of the most widespread applications of
Big Data in healthcare is Electronic Health Record(EHRs).
Telecom: They are one of the most significant contributors to Big
Data. Telecom industry improves the quality of service and routes
traffic more effectively. By analysing call data records in real-time,
these companies can identify fraudulent behaviour and act on them
immediately. The marketing division can modify its campaigns to
better target its customers and use insights gained to develop new
products and services.
Insurance: These companies use big data analytics for risk
assessment, fraud detection, marketing, customer insights,
customer experience and more.
Government: The Indian government used big data analytics to
get an estimate of trade in the country. They used Central sales tax
invoices to analyse the extent to which states trade with each
other.
Finance: Banks and financial services firms use analytics to
differentiate fraudulent interactions from legitimate business
transactions. The analytics systems suggest immediate actions,
such as blocking irregular transactions, which stops fraud before it
occurs and improves profitability.
Automobile: Rolls Royce which has embraced Big Data by fitting
hundreds of sensors into its engines and propulsion systems, which
record every tiny detail about their operation. The changes in data
in real-time are reported to engineers who will decide the best
course of action such as scheduling maintenance or dispatching
engineering teams.
Education: This is one field where Big Data Analytics is being
absorbed slowly and gradually. Opting for big data powered
technology as a learning tool instead of traditional lecture methods,
enhanced the learning of students as well as aided the teachers to
track their performance better.
Retail: Retail including e-commerce and in-stores are widely using
Big Data Analytics to optimize their business. For example, Amazon,
Walmart etc.
