One CIO’s View of Cloud Computing and ERP Software

On August 30, Shaloo Shalini posted an interview with Dennis Hodges, CIO of Inteva on sramana mitra’s blog. The interview provides some interesting insights with regard to cloud computing and shows that ERP may start catching CRM in terms of cloud... [read more]

The Long Term Value of Community Relations

Most marketers have a careful eye on metrics, such as cost per lead, conversion rates, and the holy grail of “hard” return on investment calculations. Yet with a fair percentage of marketing budgets pegged to quarterly objectives, a myopic focus on... [read more]

The TV revolution: Changing the players

Picture the American industrial economy in about 1960 (before the global and information economies rejiggered things). In the middle was the car. A host of industries, from steel and rubber, to glass, chemicals, oil, fed into it. Putting aside other (and overlapping) industries, such as aviation and armaments, much of the economy... [read more]

Very Simple Segmentation Ideas for Retailers

Segmentation Strategy is a pretty common theme among eMarketers; we’ve covered some simple strategies in other posts on the blog – buyers vs. non-buyers, leveraging preference data etc. We recently got a little insight from a marketing manager of an apparel company and his criteria to target buyers: 1) Recency – Check the time... [read more]

Using predictive analytics for fantasy football

You'd think that a master of predictive analytics would steer clear of emotional entanglements with the lowly Detroit Lions. But hometown sympathies resist the power of reason and statistics. As a Philadelphian, this is something I know. In any case, an IBM analyst named Hetal Thaker reports great success using predictive analytics for... [read more]

Business Intelligence Solutions Aid Financial Services Fraud Prevention

In recent years, financial services have seen the regulations continue to pile on as this industry is riddled with fraud.  According to a recent blog post at InsuranceTech.com by Mukund Raghunath, senior vice president of Mu Sigma Inc., the industry is particularly susceptible to internal fraud.  However, there is good news... [read more]

My Complicated Relationship with Technology

A few months ago, I blogged about Steven Wilson, the frontman for Porcupine Tree–one of my favorite groups. Wilson loves playing with different tools to create different soundscapes, yet hates the iPod. He actually destroys them for the whole world to see. At the same time, though, he utilizes interesting sites like Soundcloud to get... [read more]

Pirates of the Computer: The Curse of the Poor Data Quality

This recent tweet (expanded using TwitLonger) by Ted Friedman of Gartner Research conspired with the swashbuckling movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, leading, really quite inevitably, to the writing of this Data Quality Tale.   Pirates of the Computer: The Curse of the Poor Data Quality Jack Sparrow was... [read more]

A Self-Service and Social Approach To Analytics – BI Webinar

For anyone who missed the Aug 25 webinar “BI in the Cloud” with Forrester Research senior analyst James Kobielus, a recorded copy is available here.  I won’t ruin the surprise by spoiling the ending, just keep in mind that analytics and data visualization are just some of the applications that are shifting from hosted, hostage,... [read more]

Segmentation is About Precision

Precision is a key tactic to creating relevance & engagement. To achieve this precision, you have to focus on your segmentation strategy; here are five points to drive a successful segmentation strategy: 1) Select recipients based on past behavior – including buyer/ non-buyer; RFM Score; previous responder/ non-responder; just... [read more]

Agile AND Industrial Analytics

I wrote a post called “It’s time to industrialize analytics” for Smart Data Collective a little while ago and it prompted Tom to reply with Agile vs Industrialized. To recap, the key point of my post was that we need to move away from analytics as a pure craft to one that has a more systematic focus. We need analytic teams that are... [read more]

Why count on the brain for truth?

Try this. Hold your thumb as far away as you can from your eye. That represents about one percent of your field of vision. When we see things, that's about the extent of our focus. The rest of the picture is supplied by schema that we fill in from our memory. I was discussing this yesterday with Rich Carlson, a psychology professor at... [read more]

Banks, Risk Disclosure and Text Analytics

A UK-based MSc student of Kingston Business School - Christos Gkemitzis- had an idea for his MSc project which immediately caught my attention : Use Text Analytics methods to annual reports given by Banks and extract metrics on how these Banks handle their Credit and Interest rate risk and then test several hypotheses (Do Banks of a... [read more]

The Data-Decision Symphony

As I have explained in previous blog posts, I am almost as obsessive-compulsive about literature and philosophy as I am about data and data quality, because I believe that there is much that the arts and the sciences can learn from each other. Therefore, I really enjoyed recently reading the book Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah... [read more]