Big Data, Data Mining, and Machine Learning: Value Creation for Business

Leaders and Practitioners. Jared Dean.

2014 SAS Institute Inc. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

PA RT
THRE E

Success Stories
of Putting It All
Together
194 BIG DATA, DATA MINING, AND MACHINE LEARNING

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of

uncertain, hazardous, and conicting information.
Winston Churchill

P
arts One and Two explained the proper tools with which to man-
age data and the tools for analyzing it. Part Two
T also discussed the
techniques that give you the best opportunities to uncover new
information and confirm your hypotheses about your business. In this
part, I have compiled a collection of cases that illustrate companies that
have been able to use this information to find business value. In some
cases, this value has amounted to millions of dollars added or millions
of dollars saved, but in each case analytics were successfully applied to
wellstored and well-prepared data that improved the business.
I have worked with each of these companies to varying degrees. In
a few cases, I served in an advisory role or gave details about the soft-
ware they were using to help them efficiently achieve their business
objective. In others, I was more involved and actually performed the
analysis myself to help prove out the business value.
These cases come from companies in different industries and coun-
ties. In most cases, they are large multinational corporations that faced
and overcame major challenges in using their data effectively. My
hope is that you can use these cases as a blueprint for applying process
and experience to your business challenge to make rapid headway and
achieve results. Taking raw data and turning that data into valuable in-
formation is a precious skill that is highly esteemed in the marketplace
and should be trained, cultivated, and acquired whenever possible.

QUALITIES OF SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS

All of the successful projects have a number of items in common. The

commonalities were not similar industries, or organizational struc-
ture, or even language. First among the common elements were an
executive sponsor who valued this information and appreciated that
analytics could be used to gain insight from data being collected.
The business value was easy to explain to people of all levels at the
company.
 SUCCESS STORIES OF PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER 195

A commonality that I did not expect before I complied all of these

cases is that the data was already being collected. I did not encounter a
situation where an executive sponsor wanted the answer to a question
that was not available from analyzing the existing data. This recogni-
tion brought me to appreciate that sometimes advantageous choices in
the past pay dividends into the future.