Real time data analytics for enterprise decision making
Dr. Noel Greis is the Director of the Center for Logistics and Digital Strategy at the University of North Carolina. At UNC they have been using Saffron Technology’s real time data analytics capabilities for over ten years. Dr. Greis has seen a real shift during those ten years from data analytics being something very specialist, limited to a few sectors and those with large budgets, like weapons and drugs research, to a much wider range of commercial applications.
The amount of data during that time has also increased exponentially, and therefore companies of all sizes need to have tools to help them manage this. Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google in Think Quarterly noted that ‘between the dawn of civilization and 2003, we only created five exabytes; now we’re creating that amount every two days. By 2020, that figure is predicted to sit at 53 zettabytes (53 trillion gigabytes) – an increase of 50 times.’ Real time data analytics is one of the transformative technologies of the digital age, which is making it possible for companies to make better decisions in real time.
Having and storing the data is no longer key to making commercial and strategic decisions. Most – nearly 80% – of the data companies now need is external to their organization. Customers are making purchasing choices online, being influenced by the opinions on social networks and acting accordingly. For brands to get ahead and understand their customers they need to go where the conversations are happening. This is what is driving the move to real time data analytics applications.
Saffron Technology brings that unstructured text based information into a matrix, along with internal data, and allows for decisions to be made in a way which closely matches the human brain. Only with this kind of real time data analytics technology will military, government, and business leaders be able to make more accurate, fact based choices, in timescales that mirror when changes occur.
Dr. Noel Greis, is the Director of the Center for Logistics and Digital Strategy, University of North Carolina, and is an executive advisor to Saffron.
