The Guardian | Wednesday 3 July 2013

25

The Guardian roadshow in association with SAS

Make your big data work harder

Companies are collecting ever more information about their customers, but few really use it to their advantage.
Dan Jellinek listens in as experts discuss why analysis of this information is a powerful business tool

he use of big data to

improve an organisations
activities is considered
by some to be the most
powerful business phenomenon of the internet
age. The big refers to
both the volume of data
created and the speed at which ever more
piles up: one multinational technology and
consulting corporation estimates the world
now creates 2.5 quintillion (a million times
a trillion) bytes of data a day its a lot).
For businesses, big data can accumulate from information on customer activity, communications, and even data from
inanimate objects, because the emerging
internet of things means a traffic signal,
packing crate or central-heating system
can all emit information.
At the same time, storage facilities,
processing power and algorithms to analyse the data are improving, opening up
more possibilities to spot potentially valuable anomalies or trends that could bring
competitive advantage. But there are many
important issues to consider, such as how
to capture and store your data; how to sift
out the gems from the dross; and how to
use it to help your business become more
profitable and grow.
These topics formed the focus of a
recent Guardian roadshow event, held in
association with business analytics software specialists SAS and the Institute of
Directors. An expert panel offered insights
into this fast-developing area before fielding a lively set of questions from an audience of senior managers from all sectors.

Instant analysis
Rob McManus, head of visual analytics at
SAS UK & Ireland, said the principles of big
data are not new; what has grown is the
scale and potential.
For major retailers and tax authorities,
this can mean instant analysis of the likelihood that a transaction is fraudulent,
based on a range of data patterns. But it
also has an effect inside organisations: the
process of strategic decision-making can
be greatly quickened.
I was talking to one team in a highstreet bank who said new technology
changes their relationship with decisionmakers. Instead of turning up to a meeting
and someone saying something interesting might be going on here, could you
investigate?, and the team having to go
away and research it for a few weeks, they
can now do it on the spot.
Firms such as insurance companies
are also able to include a high degree of
personalisation into their pricing offers,
taking into account data relating to the
individual applicant, McManus said. It is
really quite extraordinary they can price
not just for someone who looks like you,
but for you.
One important linked development is
the creation of better tools for data visualisation graphical or immersive displays of
data, McManus added.
We all see more in a picture than we see
in a set of data, so the ability to paint that
picture with a tool rather than looking at a
spreadsheet helps you spot a trend much
more quickly. You can walk around that
data and see what it is telling you. It can
be transformative.
Another transformative capability of
big data is the potential it offers to track
an organisations reputation in real time,
said Rachel Griffiths, founding partner of
Reputation Consultancy.
A companys reputation can represent
more than a third of its market value,
she added, and, in the modern world,
peoples views about it can be found online
all of the time. Think about the content
that is being created every minute: the
blogs, the online conversations, the Facebook shares.
Reputation management is often seen
simply as something to use in times of crisis, she said, but it can also help to create
a sustainable business. For example, with
energy companies, it is no surprise that
price is most often talked about online,
said Griffiths, but more sophisticated
reputation-tracker tools can look behind
statements to motivation.
It is possible to interpret not only sentiment behind a conversation, but emotion, and it is emotion that drives behaviour. Take anger or disgust, for example
these are very active emotions and mean
people are likely to withdraw from using
a service.
This and other uses of big data ultimately allow organisations to take more
informed decisions, Griffiths said. You
can understand what is happening here
and now, make comparisons with compet-

A recent roadshow event discussed how analysing big data can help organisations to determine where best to concentrate resources Photographs: Getty/Sam Friedrich

Key discussion points

New technologies to analyse large

volumes of customer, sales or other

relevant data in real time can help
companies to speed up strategic
decision-making, personalise services
and track their reputation.

Tools to present information in

graphic formats known as data
visualisation can help managers to
spot trends intuitively.

Big data is a relative term: many
smaller companies could benefit
from live-data analysis.

When organisations process large
amounts of customer data, there
will inevitably be some concerns
about privacy: transparency and
accountability are the key here,
particularly for large organisations.

itors and see risks, trends and behaviours.

It is brilliant at prioritising to help you
to ask, where shall we put our resources,
where are we performing?
Big data, it seems, can even begin to
predict the future. Rosco Paterson, chief
executive of Verologik and deputy chairman of the Engineering Development
Trust, told the powerful tale of a US trial
with striking results. Analysis of crime
data by the Los Angeles Police Department
had helped to direct officers to areas where
a crime was likely to occur before it happened, with their presence then acting as
a deterrent, he said. The result was a 26%
reduction in burglary in those areas.
From the perspective of a business,
enhanced data analysis creates many
new opportunities, most obviously for

Transactions you make

will be analysed and
repackaged as a sales
proposition to you

On the panel
John
Burn-Murdoch
(Chair)
Data journalist
and news reporter,
the Guardian

Rob McManus
Head of visual
analytics,
SAS UK & Ireland

Rachel Griffiths
Founding partner,
Reputation
Consultancy

Rosco Paterson
Chief executive,
Verologik; deputy
chairman,
Engineering
Development
Trust

the sales department, Paterson added.

Say we run a small mail-order company,
with 100 customers. You could be sitting there with a pile of vouchers and say
thats funny, people who are family members of other customers are responding to
emails more.
But with 100,000 customers, smaller
trends can be difficult to spot without specialised analysis, he said. You might not
notice if that trend actually reverses as the
age gap between family members grows,
because Billy isnt going to buy the same
jeans as his father, or that it re-reverses in
certain culture groups where there is more
respect for older generations.

Wide application
With the floor opened for questions, one
delegate asked whether big data matters
to smaller businesses. I can appreciate it
is useful to an Amazon or Tesco, but how
applicable is it to others?
McManus said big data was a relative
term, with wide application. It is not
necessarily about vastness of data, its
just about if there is more data there than
you can reasonably get at and use, he said.
Some small businesses could take advantage of that.
However, many businesses, of all sizes,
still do not realise how data analysis can be
of benefit to them, he said. As an industry,
we need to educate as to opportunities.
The rise of data to what some have
called the oil of the digital age, also
means small and medium-size businesses
can become part of a new information
chain, not just a supply chain, said Paterson. By becoming specialist aggregators
of information for larger users, they can
find a new niche.
Inevitably, the question of privacy was
raised. If everyones data is a commodity to
be bought and sold, asked more than one
attendee, wont people become sick of it

being used to cross-sell and ask for their

data to be wiped away? Paterson said that
part of the answer to questions like this
is that, whether we like it or not, the concepts and reality of privacy are changing,
and people will simply need to get used
to it.
Every transaction you make, every
hotel you stay at will be recorded, analysed and repackaged as a sales proposition to you, he said. This is neither
good nor bad it will happen. Its like the
Titanic sinking its happened, its gone,
get over it.
On the other hand, big data will have
many positive benefits, such as individualised medical care, with smart sensors
in your house detecting the very millisecond you acquire something unpleasant,
making a GP appointment for you, adjusting your diet.
Griffiths acknowledged that privacy
would be an increasing concern and said,
for large organisations, the key issues
can be stated in two words: transparency
and accountability.
To this mix, McManus added consumer
power: In the future, we will all choose to
work for, interact with and buy from companies who send us the right messages
about our data, and choose not to interact
with companies who dont.

Roadshow report commissioned by

Seven Plus and controlled by the Guardian.
Discussion hosted to a brief agreed with SAS.
Supported by SAS.
Contact Sarah Russell on 020-3353 4866
(sarah.russell@guardian.co.uk).
For information on sponsored content visit:
guardian.co.uk/sponsored-content